VIDEO: Riz, Lili & the ‘Balthazar’ Boys Star In a Q&A Packed Spring
Spring isn’t just for Award Season recovery. Film Independent Presents has stayed busy with a calendar chocked-full of exciting indie releases. We’re featuring a few you might have missed here, including a Tim Heidecker fever-dream, a indie horror with a scary good self-distribution story, a deft and heroic take on a difficult subject, and some unique voices in TV featuring Riz Ahmed and Lili Reinhart.
Oh, and by the way, if you’re a Letterboxd user, we’ve logged all these films and everything else we’ve been screening over on the Film Independent Letterboxd page. Give us a follow!
PERFUMANIA (FKA Fior Di Latte)
Featuring: Writer/director Charlotte Ercoli, co-producer/actor Marta Pozzan and actor Tim Heidecker
Logline: Mark, a frustrated playwright, becomes addicted to huffing perfume to conjure up memories from his Italian summertime vacation. Mark becomes so consumed with chasing this high from the past, he completely neglects the present.
In The Interview: Moderated by On Cinema co-host Gregg Turkington, the Perfumania team talk about creating a uniquely vile character for Tim Heidecker, the magic of Kevin Kline’s musical number, and writer/director Charlotte Ercoli’s personal connections with the perfume industry.
OUR HERO, BALTHAZAR
Featuring: Co-writer/director Oscar Boyson, co-writer Ricky Camilleri, and actors Jaeden Martell and Asa Butterfield, moderated by Scott Mantz (KTLA).
Where to Watch: Theaters
Logline: A headlong race through a world where success can be measured in engagement and tragedy has become content, Our Hero, Balthazar follows two neglected teens thrown together by a chance online encounter. Privileged yet lonely New Yorker Balthy (Jaeden Martell) Malone dreams of becoming a hero, while struggling Texan Solomon Jackson (Asa Butterfield) seeks recognition by posting violent threats. When Balthy, in an act of misguided heroism, travels to Texas in an attempt to befriend Solomon and avert a possible tragedy, he is drawn into a dangerous and thrilling new world. Despite their differences, both find refuge from their crushing loneliness in each other’s company, but for all Balthy’s good intentions, his decisions are driving them close to the precipice of disaster.
In The Interview: Director Oscar Boyson and co-writer Ricky Camilleri talk about finding their way into making a film about the tragedy of school shootings, and actors Jaeden Martell and Asa Butterfield discuss finding the humanity in such difficult characters.
BAIT
Featuring: Creator/Co-Showrunner/Executive Producer/Actor Riz Ahmed, moderated by Tyler Coates (journalist)
Where to Watch: Amazon Prime
Logline: From Oscar and Emmy winner Riz Ahmed comes Bait, a comedy about Shah Latif, a struggling actor. His last chance to hit it big comes in the form of an audition of a lifetime. We follow him over the course of four wild days as his life spirals out of control and his family, ex-lover and the entire world weigh in on whether he is the right man for the job.
In The Interview: Riz Ahmed talks about being known more for drama, and showing his comedic side to a US audience, and wrestles with authenticity and the vulnerability of writing a (heightened) autobiographical series.
HUNTING MATTHEW NICHOLS
Featuring: Director/actor Markian Tarasiuk, writer/producer Sean Harris Oliver and actor Miranda MacDougall, moderated by Monse (Horror Creator).
Where to Watch: Theaters
Logline: Two decades after her brother’s mysterious disappearance on Vancouver Island, aspiring documentary filmmaker, Tara Nichols, sets out to solve his missing person’s case. When an unsettling piece of evidence is revealed, Tara and her film crew investigate the disturbing circumstances surrounding the case to discover the truth about what happened to her brother.
In The Interview: The creative team break down how they got a Canadian indie in theaters across the US, by reaching out directly to the big theater chains.
HAL & HARPER
Featuring: Writer/director/actor Cooper Raiff and actor Lili Reinhart, moderated by Kevin McCarthy (Entertainment Journalist and Podcast Host, On Film… with Kevin McCarthy).
Where to Watch: MUBI
Logline: From Cooper Raiff (Cha Cha Real Smooth) comes Hal & Harper, a wry and heartfelt eight-episode series about two siblings whose closeness is both their comfort and their curse. Hal (Raiff) and Harper (Lili Reinhart) have built their adult lives side by side in Los Angeles, tethered by a lifetime of inside jokes and shared pain. When their father (Mark Ruffalo) announces he’s having a baby with his girlfriend, Kate (Betty Gilpin), it forces the siblings to reexamine their past and reckon with the versions of themselves they’ve carried into adulthood. As the lines blur between closeness and codependence, memory and reality, the series explores how a bond formed in childhood can shape every relationship that comes after – for better or worse.
In The Interview: Lili Reinhart talks about moving on, from her past TV projects, and from home, both in the series, and in real life.
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