Filmmaker Shane Meadows is not exactly a household name in America. At a Tribeca Film Festival panel, which he attended with screenwriter and collaborator Paul Fraser, Meadows was introduced as “one of the greatest British film directors whose films you haven’t seen.” But across the Atlantic, Meadows, 35, has spent the past decade making critically admired low-budget films which detail, both comically and dramatically, the working-class social landscape in which he was raised. Last year he scored a box office hit with his '80s-set feature about skinheads, This Is England. Meadows’ latest project, Somers Town, which screened at Tribeca, is another gritty tale -- albeit one that is technically an advert for Eurostar, the company which operates the high-speed rail link between London and Paris. Meadows is also a huge fan of short films, of which he has made around a hundred: he mentioned that he was even planning to make a spoof sci-fi movie the next day called The Baconator, inspired by Fraser having returned from a fast food emporium with a sandwich of that name.
After the jump, EW talks to the Meadows about whether or not he was joking about his hammy mini epic, the demented-sounding Hollywood projects he has turned down, and the violent event which made him think twice about pursuing a life of crime.
Seems, random right? But I promise it’s not apropos of nothing. Tom Guiry (a.k.a. The Sandlot's Scotty Smalls) has a film at the Tribeca Film Festival titled Yonkers Joe, in which he plays a young guy with downs syndrome (pictured, right) whose hostility has gotten him kicked out of the institution where he lives. This means dad (Chazz Palminteri, left), a gambling con man, and dad's girlfriend (Christine Lahti) must take him back into their lives—and let’s just say, they have a lot to work out in their historically contentious father-son relationship. "It’s probably one of the hardest roles I’ve had," says Guiry, "just the fear I had of being able to pull it off." (In my humble opinion, he does.)
Aside from Yonkers, it just so happens that April was the 15th anniversary of The Sandlot, so for fun, Guiry and I began our afternoon yesterday at the Chelsea Piers batting cages to, you know, emulate The Babe. Get the full scoop, after the jump!
In the interest of full disclosure, I should probably make a small confession before I begin this post. In 1982, when Michael Jackson released his seminal Thriller, still the bestselling album of all time, I may have been sporting Huggies and sucking on a binky. I know, I know. But lest you think I am ill-equipped to fully enjoy a 25th-anniversary celebration of the epic recording, you'd be mistaken. I'm a huge Thriller fan, and even though neither the King of Pop nor iconic producer Quincy Jones were slated to attend, I was as thrilled (sorry) as a 12-year-old schoolgirl to attend the Tribeca Film Festival event.
I arrived at the venue, a large outdoor plaza overlooking the Hudson River, just in time to see the 12 contestants from Bravo's Step It Up & Dance (the only Bravo reality show I don't watch) take the stage in full zombie mode -- tattered suits and flower-print dresses, nappy bed head, and garish green face makeup -- to do their rendition of "Thriller"'s infamous dance scene. Though they're no crew of Filipino prisoners (I did catch a few out-of-sync moments), they mustered a respectable imitation of the living dead.
Step judge and "Thriller" assistant choreographer Vincent Paterson joined the troupe to teach the audience the signature moves, but as I glanced around the nearly vacant press section (which randomly included actor Oliver Platt), I realized I'd be one of the only ones shaking my money maker. I decided I just couldn't part with my dignity long enough to lurch about like an idiot while the five nearby journalists sat silently judging me. So like a party pooper, I stayed firmly planted in my plastic lawn chair while Paterson and the Step kids demonstrated Zombie Walk #1 (head to shoulder on beats 1, 5, and 7), the Rock (step to side and groove), and Zombie Walk #2 (look left, look right, take three steps to the left). Got it? Now you try!
The Tribeca Film Festival kicks off in New York this week, and Friday will see the premiere of Bart Got a Room, a comedy starring William H. Macy and Cheryl Hines as two parents trying to help their luckless kid get a date to the prom. See if you can recognize them underneath those hairdos in this exclusive clip.
Greg Kirschling: Missy Schwartz, we're almost a week in, so let's talk about the Tribeca Film Festival. Like you, I've done stints covering Sundance, Toronto, and Cannes, but this is my first Tribeca, and in one weird way, this festival seems bigger than all the others put together. Not because the star power is any greater, and God forbid not because the movies are any better — more than a few are Sundance rejects — but because NEW YORK CITY is itself the hugest venue in the world, and the festival is spread throughout half of Manhattan. Pounding the pavement, I'm finding it's harder to get a handle on what's REALLY going on because the festival is all over the place, unlike Sundance, Cannes, and Toronto, where you cover so much of the same geographical terrain over and over again. And there are more must-sees. What do you think?
Missy Schwartz: Greg Kirschling, I do agree. And as Tribeca grows creatively, it's also expanded geographically, spreading all the way to 34th street. (For our non-New Yorker readers, that's about three miles north of the downtown Tribeca 'hood.) Sticklers have taken issue with this, which really ticks off the fest's co-founders, Jane Rosenthal and Robert De Niro. On April 22, I had the pleasure of sitting down with them in (yes!) a Tribeca screening room, where they chatted about how the fest has changed and all that stuff over the past six years. As you know, Greg, the famously press-shy De Niro usually leaves the public speaking to Rosenthal, but since he'll be shooting the Barry Levinson flick What Just Happened throughout the festival and won't be in the city much, he decided to give us reporters a peek into his brain. And yeah, he deferred plenty to Rosenthal during our brief chat. Still, he was pretty friendly and game, telling me that this fest, born out of the ashes of 9/11, continues to strive to be socially relevant and to "reflect what's happening in the world. And that's through the movies, different types of movies, whether they be documentary or feature or whatever."
But the best part came when Rosenthal was talking about what, if any, themes have emerged this year. She mentioned the idea of "artist as activist."
JR: The power of the individual to do something, the individual spirit, does seem to be a theme throughout. [Turns to De Niro] Is that hokey?
RD: No, no, no, I was just...
JR: Want another apple?
RD: What was the question?
JR: Just the theme of the festival.
RD: I think what Jane said was... [Nods]
Love it!
