Taken from NY Mag
His 2003 short My Josephine is a lovely, impressionistic look at an Arab man and woman who work in a laundromat, washing American flags for free. That may make it sound like a Message Movie, but it’s not. Told from the perspective of the lovelorn male in this relationship, this is a quiet, unassumingly lyrical film, shot with the kind of detail that reveals both the director’s understanding of human nature and his keen eye for evocative imagery.Read More »
Barry’s BFA thesis film.
Barry Jenkins is a filmmaker born and raised in the inner-city of Miami. After completing a bachelor’s degrees in film and creative writing, he relocated to Los Angeles where he worked as a director’s assistant and development associate for Harpo Films. Barry currently resides in San Francisco, working for the rent check by day and writing, writing and writing by night. He is the writer-director of the short films My Josephine and Little Brown Boy. Medicine For Melancholy is his first feature film.Read More »
Plot: Reeling from a brutal break-up, Kira sleeps with Max, a charming but disheveled wreck already committed to long-term girlfriend Sara. Max (no emotional sophisticate) becomes obsessed, mostly with Kira, but vaguely with his curious lack of conscience as well. Kira, fighting to win a job she hates and running aimless romantic loops, faces the precarious double challenge of choosing a next step and charting a course back to sanity. Good luck leading with your heart, when your heart is an utter emotional idiot.Read More »
Hopelessly oblivious, frustratingly tyrannical, and emotionally stunted, a woman suffering from a wide variety of personality flaws does her best to talk through two deeply destructive friendships.Read More »
From the official website:
Mattie and James are in love. But too many mornings and too many miles apart have taken a toll on them. As they struggle with the distance between New York and Chicago, their visits become reminders of the difficulties, not the pleasures, of their relationship. Joe Swanberg and Greta Gerwig follow HANNAH TAKES THE STAIRS with this intimate portrayal of longing and confusion. This time Swanberg co-stars with Gerwig, and Gerwig co-directs with Swanberg, creating a film that resonates deeply and leaves scars that fade but can’t heal.Read More »
In Search of a Midnight Kiss is a rollicking comic ride and tender journey though love, sex, and modern romance in Los Angeles on New Year’s Eve. Wilson (Scoot McNairy), a twenty-nine-year old guy who has just had the worst year of his life, is new to Los Angeles, has no date, no concrete plans and every intention of locking the doors and forgetting the last year ever happened. That is until his best friend, Jacob (Brian McGuire), browbeats him into posting a personal ad on Craig’s List. When Vivian (Sara Simmonds), a strong-willed woman hell bent on being with the right guy at the stroke of midnight responds, a chaotic, sometimes hilarious, sometimes touching journey through the black and white streets of L.A. begins. In the waning hours of the year, emotional vulnerability and bitterly honest humor seem to be waiting around every corner.Read More »
Hannah, a recent college graduate, spends a brutally hot Chicago summer falling in and out of love. As she struggles to find personal and professional fulfillment through various relationships with friends and co-workers, she risks leaving destruction in her wake. Working collaboratively with his cast, which features several prominent independent filmmakers, Joe Swanberg follows up his previous efforts, KISSING ON THE MOUTH and LOL, with this delicate look at friendship, ambition, and the pursuit of happiness.Read More »
Film Threat: When director Joe Swanberg hit the scene with “Kissing on the Mouth,” I was impressed. The film did exactly what it set out to do: take a microscope to inner-personal relationships and show an up close view, warts and all. As much as I liked the film, there’s still a feeling that it’s a cinematic experiment with a loose narrative that soars at times and stumbles through at others. Yet it was undeniably brave and intriguing. With his second feature “LOL,” Swanberg has settled into a solid narrative while still using his “Dogme” type style to look closely at how people relate to one another…or why they can’t.Read More »
AMG: The low-budget, direct-to-video erotic drama Kissing on the Mouth explores the erogenous trials and travails of a clique of college grads. It concerns Ellen, a young woman sleeping with her ex-boyfriend and bucking his attempts to re-instigate a serious romantic commitment. Meanwhile, she does her best to ignore the increasingly possessive and suspect behavior of her flatmate, Patrick. The film (shot by its cast) is marked by graphic sexual content and frank, explicit discussions of coital behavior. For added realism and authenticity, the directors work in a number of documentary-style interviews with college graduates.Read More »