What makes a kid cry on her birthday? The occasional cake-induced stomachache or bouncy-house bruise, sure. For Zoe Kazan, it was a sense of what she was leaving farther behind, and she cried every year. A direct and unselfconscious view of our imagination and its creative expression gets harder and harder to find in the rearview mirror unless you cultivate and protect it. Kazan tries hard to do just that through work that she loves, in a business she often doesn’t. Acting is a joyful challenge (just watch Olive Kitteridge and The Big Sick); writing, especially stage plays, is a painful one. Both expose her voice and ideas – her soul – for all of us to judge. If you believe the only true art is personal, you must decide if you’ll risk your ego to make it. If the answer’s yes, you’re in the right place. It’s a thrilling, terrifying place, and Kazan rather likes the neighborhood.
Struggle is just how Zoe Lister-Jones rolls. She watched her parents struggle to make a living from their art, and tussled with her own decision to pursue acting versus stability. She struggled to break into film, finally deciding that instead of fighting the system, she’d create one, co-writing and acting in her own projects. The biggest yet is Band Aid, which just happened to help women battling for a place on a film crew. It’s a comedy about artistic and personal failure, and our struggle to understand each other as men and women. In exposing her own insecurities – Do other people have it more figured out? A better relationship? – she reminds us that if we’re far from perfect, we’re about as far from it as everyone else. Lister-Jones will continue to struggle for her art, but she’s learned it doesn’t have to be so hard – it’s about your mindset, not your circumstances.
Struggle is just how Zoe Lister-Jones rolls. She watched her parents struggle to make a living from their art, and tussled with her own decision to pursue acting versus stability. She struggled to break into film, finally deciding that instead of fighting the system, she’d create one, co-writing and acting in her own projects. The biggest yet is Band Aid, which just happened to help women battling for a place on a film crew. It’s a comedy about artistic and personal failure, and our struggle to understand each other as men and women. In exposing her own insecurities – Do other people have it more figured out? A better relationship? – she reminds us that if we’re far from perfect, we’re about as far from it as everyone else. Lister-Jones will continue to struggle for her art, but she’s learned it doesn’t have to be so hard – it’s about your mindset, not your circumstances.
Struggle is just how Zoe Lister-Jones rolls. She watched her parents struggle to make a living from their art, and tussled with her own decision to pursue acting versus stability. She struggled to break into film, finally deciding that instead of fighting the system, she’d create one, co-writing and acting in her own projects. The biggest yet is Band Aid, which just happened to help women battling for a place on a film crew. It’s a comedy about artistic and personal failure, and our struggle to understand each other as men and women. In exposing her own insecurities – Do other people have it more figured out? A better relationship? – she reminds us that if we’re far from perfect, we’re about as far from it as everyone else. Lister-Jones will continue to struggle for her art, but she’s learned it doesn’t have to be so hard – it’s about your mindset, not your circumstances.
When you don’t know who you are or what you want to do, and you have no real intention of doing what your family wants you to do, and then you decide you have to do something you have no idea you can do, what should you do? First, avoid thinking about it. Lie to your loved ones a little. Then, write a movie about it. So far, so good. But how do you know if your life is entertaining enough to be a movie? If Judd Apatow tells you it is, that’s a start. Standup-turned-leading man Kumail Nanjiani puts a face on immigration, religion, racism, family and ultimately, growing up in The Big Sick. Coming to the U.S. from Karachi, he found a career and a woman he loved, then nearly lost her to a mysterious illness and his own uncertainty. It’s an uncommon story he’s somehow made completely relatable. In the process, he’s given us one more reason to embrace our differences: They’re funny.
When you don’t know who you are or what you want to do, and you have no real intention of doing what your family wants you to do, and then you decide you have to do something you have no idea you can do, what should you do? First, avoid thinking about it. Lie to your loved ones a little. Then, write a movie about it. So far, so good. But how do you know if your life is entertaining enough to be a movie? If Judd Apatow tells you it is, that’s a start. Standup-turned-leading man Kumail Nanjiani puts a face on immigration, religion, racism, family and ultimately, growing up in The Big Sick. Coming to the U.S. from Karachi, he found a career and a woman he loved, then nearly lost her to a mysterious illness and his own uncertainty. It’s an uncommon story he’s somehow made completely relatable. In the process, he’s given us one more reason to embrace our differences: They’re funny.
When you don’t know who you are or what you want to do, and you have no real intention of doing what your family wants you to do, and then you decide you have to do something you have no idea you can do, what should you do? First, avoid thinking about it. Lie to your loved ones a little. Then, write a movie about it. So far, so good. But how do you know if your life is entertaining enough to be a movie? If Judd Apatow tells you it is, that’s a start. Standup-turned-leading man Kumail Nanjiani puts a face on immigration, religion, racism, family and ultimately, growing up in The Big Sick. Coming to the U.S. from Karachi, he found a career and a woman he loved, then nearly lost her to a mysterious illness and his own uncertainty. It’s an uncommon story he’s somehow made completely relatable. In the process, he’s given us one more reason to embrace our differences: They’re funny.
With a slew of acclaimed films and several TV series in the last two years alone, it seems Hollywood’s come gunning for Sam Elliott. Fair enough; four decades ago, Elliott came gunning for Hollywood. But not for stardom or money. “It wasn’t about anything but making film, and I knew the kind I wanted to make.” He admired Gary Cooper, Jimmy Stewart, John Wayne – and the dudes who wrangled their horses. Guys who stood for simple, honest acting; guys we didn’t want to watch being anyone but themselves. That less-is-more approach linked Elliott indelibly with Westerns and inscrutable tough guys for most of his career, but is now proving just as mesmerizing in a surprising range of new roles. When Elliott talks about his (very) storied career, he mentions luck more than talent, but adds that good luck is usually the residual of hard work. We’ll raise a Coors to that.
