Michael J. Fox Praises Nicole Holofcener’s New Film, Julia Louis-Dreyfus – The Hollywood Reporter

After the final footage ended and Nicole Holofcener took to the stage inside Park City’s Eccles Theater alongside stars Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies, the veteran filmmaker had a concrete vision. about how to stage what happens next. Like her movies.

She calls herself “old school” by skipping the iPhone roll and instead reading white papers featuring the names of her collaborators who worked on the Sundance Film Festival selection. . You hurt my feelings. After all the appeals had been graciously made – she even quipped, “Have I hurt anyone’s feelings?” in case anyone gets disqualified – Holofcener hopes they’ll all sit on the stage with their legs swinging over the edge like they’ve done before.

While Louis-Dreyfus rejected that direction, she embraced the first question that came her way and explained what drew her to her second collaboration with Holofcener, after the outing Their first good review on enough to sayco-starring James Gandolfini.

After joking that it was “a money-making deal,” Louis-Dreyfus said, “First of all, of course, working with Nicole as a screenwriter and director was irresistible. ” It helped her fall in love with the story. “When Nicole and I had lunch, she told me about this premise, and as soon as she told me the premise, I thought, yeah, I’m making this movie. It’s a very small thing in a very big thing, and that’s what appeals to me.”

The film stars Louis-Dreyfus as Beth, a New York novelist who has worked for years to continue her somewhat successful memoir, sharing countless manuscripts with people. Her husband Don (Tobias Menzies) approves and supports her. Beth’s world quickly unravels when she overhears Don admit to her brother-in-law, Mark, that he really doesn’t like the new book. Michaela Watkins, Owen Teague, Arian Moayed and Jeannie Berlin join the cast, respectively.

Today’s performance marks Holofcener’s acclaimed return to Sundance, returning to the festival for the fourth time. While she just said Limit line that she doesn’t like being called a “stable”, she acts little by little like the comfortable and confident normal home where she belongs. “Can you turn on the light?” Holofcener asked Sundance officials as they were answering questions from the audience during the Q&A session. “I am used to the old Sundance, and this is very different.”

It’s good that they honored her request as they considered some insightful questions from the crowd, including questions about improvisation, the future for Beth and Don’s marriage, the writing process. of Holofcener and how Louis-Dreyfus and Menzies were able to find the chemical “old couple”. (Louis-Dreyfus amused her by letting her know when it’s best to lie and when it’s best to tell the truth by saying: “You should always tell the truth and never tell the truth. “)

Then, when the lights came on and the eyeball scanned the crowd for the next audience to raise their hands in the air, it was revealed that Michael J. Fox wasn’t just sitting during the performance, but had something to say. Fox — here in Park City for the premiere of his documentary Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie details his life story from Hollywood superstar to Parkinson’s disease activist – offering more compliments than questions by saying how much he loved the movie and how he saw life. how his own life is mirrored on screen when he’s been married to his wife Tracy for 35 years.

Such feedback, whether from celebrity audiences, fans or movie enthusiasts, is what Holofcener has garnered throughout his career with films like Friends with money, lovely and wonderful and Walk and Talk. She has long been praised for her ability to focus on one aspect of personal relationships, sometimes broad but often niche, and to touch nerves in a way that many people can easily find themselves in. them or their friends or family members in the characters.

In one of the closing remarks, Holofcener said she is often able to get her work out into the world through skipping typical screening checks and focus groups etc. past with other studios, you get the listings, you get the counts and the comments and I basically just do what I want,” she said to loud applause. “I am so lucky.”