Editor’s Note: Matthew Porterfield is an independent filmmaker who has made four feature films, including “Hamilton,” “Putty Hill,” and “I Used To Be Darker,” which have screened at Sundance, the Berlinale, SXSW, and the Whitney Biennial. His films are all set in his hometown of Baltimore, where now teaches at the Film and Media Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University.
Porterfield’s new film “Sollers Point” – which is being distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories and opening in New York this Friday – tells the story of Keith (McCaul Lombardi), a twenty-four-year-old newly released from prison and living with his father (Jim Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. IndieWire recently ask Porterfield to share with our readers what he learned making his fourth feature.
When I began making movies, I imagined I’d work best when I had it all figured out. I thought it required unwavering vision to carry a project through from beginning to end.
Porterfield’s new film “Sollers Point” – which is being distributed by Oscilloscope Laboratories and opening in New York this Friday – tells the story of Keith (McCaul Lombardi), a twenty-four-year-old newly released from prison and living with his father (Jim Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. IndieWire recently ask Porterfield to share with our readers what he learned making his fourth feature.
When I began making movies, I imagined I’d work best when I had it all figured out. I thought it required unwavering vision to carry a project through from beginning to end.
- 5/17/2018
- by Matthew Porterfield
- Indiewire
Matthew Porterfield’s career is a testament to the artistic merits of keeping close to your roots. Born and bred in Baltimore, Porterfield’s films illuminate national currents like deindustrialization, drug culture, and masculinity in crisis without ever leaving the people and places Porterfield grew up among, giving his work an unassailable authenticity that shines brightly in an era of CGI and substituting Toronto for NYC. In fact, his films are so intimately intertwined with their setting that it represented a major shift when he started exploring different neighborhoods of Baltimore after “Putty Hill.”
Read More: Summer Movie Preview: 36 Films Worth The Watch
Porterfield’s latest, “Sollers Point,” takes place in Dundalk, where Keith is finishing up a stint of house arrest after prison and trying to get back on his feet.
Read More: Summer Movie Preview: 36 Films Worth The Watch
Porterfield’s latest, “Sollers Point,” takes place in Dundalk, where Keith is finishing up a stint of house arrest after prison and trying to get back on his feet.
- 5/17/2018
- by Joe Blessing
- The Playlist
The summer movie season is upon us, which means a seemingly endless pile-up of superheroes, reboots, and sequels will crowd the multiplexes. While a very select few show some promise, we’ve set out to highlight a vast range of titles–40 in total–that will arrive over the next four months, many of which we’ve already given our stamp of approval.
There’s bound to be more late-summer announcements in the coming months, and a number of titles will arrive on VOD day-and-date, so follow us on Twitter for the latest updates. In the meantime, see our top 40 picks for what to watch this summer below, in chronological order, and let us know what you’re looking forward to most in the comments.
Manhunt (John Woo; May 4)
John Woo’s return to the genre that made his career isn’t so much of a comeback as it is watching...
There’s bound to be more late-summer announcements in the coming months, and a number of titles will arrive on VOD day-and-date, so follow us on Twitter for the latest updates. In the meantime, see our top 40 picks for what to watch this summer below, in chronological order, and let us know what you’re looking forward to most in the comments.
Manhunt (John Woo; May 4)
John Woo’s return to the genre that made his career isn’t so much of a comeback as it is watching...
- 4/19/2018
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
With his small-scale, deeply felt, and wonderfully-realized dramas, Matthew Porterfield has carved out an impressive eye for a Baltimore we don’t often see on screen. After earning acclaim on the festival circuit and elsewhere with Putty Hill and I Used to Be Darker, the director returns this summer with Sollers Point.
Premiering at San Sebastián International Film Festival last fall and touring around, Oscilloscope Laboratories will release it in a few weeks and now the first trailer has arrived. The drama follows a man under house arrest who must reacquaint himself with both his family and the community at large.
Starring Jim Belushi, McCaul Lombardi, and Zazie Beetz, see the trailer below.
Sollers Point tells the story of Keith (McCaul Lombardi), a twenty-four- year-old newly released from prison and living with his father (Jim Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. Keith is struggling to re-establish himself, and break free...
Premiering at San Sebastián International Film Festival last fall and touring around, Oscilloscope Laboratories will release it in a few weeks and now the first trailer has arrived. The drama follows a man under house arrest who must reacquaint himself with both his family and the community at large.
Starring Jim Belushi, McCaul Lombardi, and Zazie Beetz, see the trailer below.
Sollers Point tells the story of Keith (McCaul Lombardi), a twenty-four- year-old newly released from prison and living with his father (Jim Belushi) under house arrest in Baltimore. Keith is struggling to re-establish himself, and break free...
- 4/19/2018
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
A filmmaker we’ve been keeping tabs on since the late naughts when his Slamdance/SXSW preemed 2007’s Murder Party dropped, Jeremy Saulnier played a significant creative role with dp contributions to Baltimore originals in Matthew Porterfield’s Hamilton and Putty Hill and Michael Tully’s Septien (2011).
Continue reading...
Continue reading...
- 11/15/2017
- by Eric Lavallée
- IONCINEMA.com
Now in its eighth year, the American Film Festival offers a unique perspective on recent developments in U.S. indie filmmaking. That’s because it happens in Poland, staged at the stylish Kino Nowe Horyzonty film center in Wroclaw, also home to the summer New Horizons festival, which has more of a European tilt.
Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.
That spirit is...
Although the festival, which recently concluded, surveys many favorites from Sundance and South by Southwest, the curation doesn’t merely transpose selections to a new setting. It imports a lively assortment of filmmakers, as well, and creates a cozy, engaged atmosphere more akin to the communal vibe of the Maryland Film Festival. Indeed, to rub shoulders in a crowd that included Jody Lee Lipes, Noel Wells, Dustin Guy Defa, Nathan Silver, producer Mike Ryan, Jessica Oreck and Mike Ott is to experience a deep dive into the creative bustle of current indie ferment.
That spirit is...
- 11/14/2017
- by Steve Dollar
- Indiewire
“Restoring our belief in this world—this is the power of modern cinema.”—Gilles Deleuze, Cinema 2The names of two genres of images have migrated from painting to photography and into our digital age: “portrait” and “landscape.” While these terms have become shorthand for whether an image is oriented vertically or horizontally, they are rarely used to describe contemporary commercial cinema, in which portraiture is all too often reduced to costume and cartoon, and landscape is a computer-generated backdrop. But there is a rich vein of filmmaking that privileges both portrait and landscape, in which they are no longer separate genres but two modes of cinema that can enrich and complicate each other. It is at the intersection of portrait and landscape that the films of Joaquim Pinto, Matthew Porterfield and Agnès Varda reside. From the Mediterranean fishing community of Varda’s Le Pointe Courte to the Portuguese countryside in...
- 11/9/2015
- by Cinema Dialogues: Harvard at the Gulbenkian
- MUBI
Read More: How Jeremy Saulnier Went From Corporate Videos to Premiering 'Blue Ruin' at Cannes When Jeremy Saulnier arrived at the Cannes Film Festival's Directors Fortnight in 2013 to premiere his tense revenge thriller "Blue Ruin," he was at the end of a long road. Having worked for years producing corporate videos while developing his career as a cinematographer on sleeper hits like "Putty Hill" and "Septien," Saulnier had completed just one feature as a director — 2007's Slamdance-winning "Murder Party" — and struggled for years to get another one off the ground. It was worth the wait: "Blue Ruin" scored a lucrative distribution deal with Radius-twc, struck a chord with genre fans around the world, and suddenly turned Saulnier into a in demand director. However, despite the many offers that came his way, Saulnier once again paved his own path. This month, he was back at Cannes with his follow-up,...
- 5/29/2015
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Jeremy Saulnier's second trip to the Quinzaine after "Blue Ruin" will be "Green Room," a crime thriller that reunites the director with star Macon Blair. The rest of the cast includes Patrick Stewart, Anton Yelchin, Imogen Poots, Alia Shawkat, Mark Webber, Joe Cole, Eric Edelstein, Callum Turner and Kai Lennox. "Green Room" pits a young punk rock band against a gang of white power skinheads who've trapped them in a secluded venue after the rockers witness a horrific act of violence, and all witnesses must go. First a gifted cinematographer whose credits include "Septien" and "Putty Hill," Saulnier won the Fipresci prize in 2013 for "Blue Ruin," an inventive, backwater-noir revenge movie. RADiUS-twc snapped it up out of Cannes, delivering an indie sleeper on VOD and in theaters. All eyes will be on Saulnier this year as he unveils his third feature film after "Ruin" and 2007 horror-comedy "Murder...
- 4/21/2015
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Thompson on Hollywood
Sky Ferreira has landed a role in Kevin Spacey's upcoming film Elvis and Nixon.
Spacey will star as President Richard Nixon opposite Michael Shannon as Elvis Presley, in a film recreating a meeting between the pair at the White House in December 1970.
The real-life meeting occurred after Nixon received a six-page letter from Presley, asking to be made a 'Federal Agent-at-Large'. The singer brought family photos and a Colt 45 pistol to the meeting as a gift.
Ferreira is thought to be playing a love interest of Jerry Schilling, a friend of Presley's who joined him at the meeting.
!...Feeling #Blessed to be apart of this.
Sky Ferreiraさん(@skyferreira)が投稿した写真 - 1月 16, 2015 at 1:26午後 Pst
It will be the singer's first major role in a Hollywood film, having previously appeared briefly in Across the Universe, Putty Hill, The Wrong Ferarri and The Green Inferno.
Colin Hanks, Alex Pettyfer,...
Spacey will star as President Richard Nixon opposite Michael Shannon as Elvis Presley, in a film recreating a meeting between the pair at the White House in December 1970.
The real-life meeting occurred after Nixon received a six-page letter from Presley, asking to be made a 'Federal Agent-at-Large'. The singer brought family photos and a Colt 45 pistol to the meeting as a gift.
Ferreira is thought to be playing a love interest of Jerry Schilling, a friend of Presley's who joined him at the meeting.
!...Feeling #Blessed to be apart of this.
Sky Ferreiraさん(@skyferreira)が投稿した写真 - 1月 16, 2015 at 1:26午後 Pst
It will be the singer's first major role in a Hollywood film, having previously appeared briefly in Across the Universe, Putty Hill, The Wrong Ferarri and The Green Inferno.
Colin Hanks, Alex Pettyfer,...
- 1/19/2015
- Digital Spy
This year, Richard Linklater’s "Boyhood" played in the closing night slot of the True/False Film Fest, a festival dedicated to documentaries. The organizers explained the that, because of its documentary-like production schedule, the film represented something that only non-fiction is capable of. "For most casual filmgoers, the role of the producer may be mysterious, in part because their efforts are designed to be invisible onscreen. But a film like 'Boyhood,' seamless as a viewing experience, also demands that we acknowledge the epic care and attention to detail than went into its creation. What's more, Linklater's artistic process, by necessity, took into account the natural meanderings of his actor's lives, lending a verisimilitude to the action missing from many other fiction films." The folks behind the Cinema Eye awards clearly agree with True/False’s assessment and in the possibility that fiction can transcend its own narrative...
- 12/8/2014
- by Matt Patches
- Hitfix
Blue Ruin is a barebones thriller that takes the motivations of revenge to the psyche of non-killers. Echoing the lawless nature of a western, the film from writer/director Jeremy Saulnier follows a broken man named by Dwight (Macon Blair) as he learns firsthand about the capacity for violence, by ways of self-defense and in offense aggression. His act of revenge against someone who hurt his family 17 years ago begins a cycle of violence that threatens to destroy two entire families.
Saulnier had directed one movie previously, 2007′s Murder Party. In between that feature, he was the director of photography for acclaimed indies like Putty Hill, In Our Nature, and I Used To Be Darker.
I sat down with Saulnier in an exclusive interview where we discuss the film’s rules of violence, his new understanding about race in the film market, the strong women that surround him, and more.
Saulnier had directed one movie previously, 2007′s Murder Party. In between that feature, he was the director of photography for acclaimed indies like Putty Hill, In Our Nature, and I Used To Be Darker.
I sat down with Saulnier in an exclusive interview where we discuss the film’s rules of violence, his new understanding about race in the film market, the strong women that surround him, and more.
- 5/6/2014
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Compared with other first time filmmaker peers, Travis Gutiérrez Senger’s feature debut appears to have benefited from an abundance of post prod time, when admittedly, the helmer unearthed more info on his subject which meant he added another creative coat of paint. Senger who got his start in the docu format and retains the true story aspect in his 2014 offering, got a taste for the film fest circuit with White Lines and the Fever – a documentary short that won big with the Special Jury Prize at SXSW and the Grand Jury Prize at Tribeca in 2010. Shot in Seattle, Washington in late 2011, Desert Cathedral was a featured project in the Us in Progress Paris edition 2012 (which included Hannah Fidell’s A Teacher) and will surely benefit from tech folk presence of the excellent composer team of Saunder Juriaans and Daniel Bensi (Martha Marcy May Marlene) and film editor Marc Vives...
- 11/18/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Building to moments that are "true and satisfying," Matt Porterfield's "I Used To Be Darker" is the kind of the character-driven film that rewards the patient viewer. Following the success of his sophomore effort "Putty Hill," the director hit Kickstarter and ran a successful campaign to fund his third feature. And after a debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, "I Used To Be Darker" is now headed to theaters. Starring Deragh Campbell, Kim Taylor, Hannah Gross and Ned Oldham, the Baltimore-set film tells the story of a pregnant Northern Irish runaway who shacks up with American relatives who are in the beginnings of a potential divorce themselves. And in this exclusive clip we see Oldham, who plays one half of the married couple, singing his band The Anomoanon's “One That Got Away” before finishing it off with a gesture that reveals the coiled emotions the character has been keeping inside.
- 10/3/2013
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
I Used to be Darker offers a window onto a family in crisis, whose turmoil is dramatized by director Matthew Porterfield (Putty Hill) and screenwriter Amy Belk with the same sort of detachment felt by the clan's visiting Irish niece, Taryn (Deragh Campbell). Having run away from home and, later, Ocean City, Maryland, the secretly pregnant Taryn arrives in Baltimore to find uncle Bill (Ned Oldham) and aunt Kim (Kim Taylor) in the middle of a tense separation, which is wreaking havoc on their aspiring actress daughter, Abby (Hannah Gross). Porterfield's camera is inquisitive even as it operates at a remove, with shots of characters framed in doorways to visualize their isolation, and long takes of musical numbers by Bill (who's abandoned his artistic career ambitions) and K...
- 10/2/2013
- Village Voice
Matt Porterfield is back following his critically acclaimed sophomore feature "Putty Hill," with the affecting drama "I Used to Be Darker," which premiered at Sundance this year before playing at Berlin and winning Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival. The Baltimore-set film stars Kim Taylor and Ned Oldham as two musicians struggling to end their marriage on graceful terms for the sake of their college freshman daughter Abby (Hannah Gross). The film is now playing in Baltimore, and opens across the country on October 4th. Below, Porterfield shares an exclusive scene from the film, one that features French actress Adèle Exarchopoulos, who would later go on to win the Palme d'Or for her devastating performance in "Blue is the Warmest Color." The Scene: The first three minutes of "I Used To Be Darker" take place in Ocean City, MD. Taryn (Deragh Campbell) and Camille (Adèle Exarchopoulos, Palme d...
- 10/1/2013
- by Matthew Porterfield
- Indiewire
Indiewire has the exclusive trailer for Matt Porterfield's "I Used to Be Darker," which premiered at Sundance this year before playing at Berlin and winning Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival. The follow up to Porterfield's critically acclaimed sophomore feature "Putty Hill," "I Used to Be Darker" is another Baltimore-set film, with Kim Taylor and Ned Oldham portraying two musicians struggling to end their marriage on graceful terms for the sake of their college freshman daughter Abby (Hannah Gross). The film opens in Baltimore September 27, and across the country the following week on October 4th. Watch below:...
- 9/13/2013
- by Indiewire
- Indiewire
Indiewire has an exclusive first look at the poster for Matt Porterfield's "I Used to Be Darker," which premiered at Sundance this year before playing at Berlin and winning Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival. The follow up to Porterfield's critically acclaimed sophomore feature "Putty Hill," "I Used to Be Darker" is another Baltimore-set film, with Kim Taylor and Ned Oldham portraying two musicians struggling to end their marriage on graceful terms for the sake of their college freshman daughter Abby (Hannah Gross). The film opens in Baltimore September 27, and across the country the following week on October 4th. ...
- 8/26/2013
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
Blue Ruin – Jeremy Saulnier
Section: Directors’ Fortnight
Buzz: Jeremy Saulnier, cinematographer for Matthew Porterfield’s Putty Hill and I Used to Be Darker, unveils his sophomore directorial effort in the Directors’ Fortnight. A thriller that headlines, intriguingly, Eve Plumb, Saulnier is one several highly anticipated Us independent films in this section. However, Saulnier’s project could have an edge over his Us competitors, whose films premiered in Sundance last January. Saulnier raised funds via a kickstarter campaign, and this supposedly subversive take on the American revenge flick was picked up recently by reputable international sales outfitter Memento Films.
The Gist: Blue Ruin revolves around a mysterious beach bum whose life is upended after he receives some dreadful news. He returns to his childhood home to commit an act of revenge. He is an inept killer, however, and finds himself instead caught up in a battle to protect his estranged family.
Section: Directors’ Fortnight
Buzz: Jeremy Saulnier, cinematographer for Matthew Porterfield’s Putty Hill and I Used to Be Darker, unveils his sophomore directorial effort in the Directors’ Fortnight. A thriller that headlines, intriguingly, Eve Plumb, Saulnier is one several highly anticipated Us independent films in this section. However, Saulnier’s project could have an edge over his Us competitors, whose films premiered in Sundance last January. Saulnier raised funds via a kickstarter campaign, and this supposedly subversive take on the American revenge flick was picked up recently by reputable international sales outfitter Memento Films.
The Gist: Blue Ruin revolves around a mysterious beach bum whose life is upended after he receives some dreadful news. He returns to his childhood home to commit an act of revenge. He is an inept killer, however, and finds himself instead caught up in a battle to protect his estranged family.
- 5/15/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
BAMcinématek has announced the full lineup for the 2013 BAMcinemaFest, which will feature 22 New York premieres and one world premiere. David Lowery's acclaimed Sundance drama "Ain't Them Bodies Saints" will kick off the festival and Destin Cretton's SXSW Grand Jury Prize winner "Short Term 12" will close it. The fifth annual festival, which is sponsored by The Wall Street Journal, runs from June 19 - June 28. BAMcinemaFest will also feature two spotlight screenings at the new Steinberg Screen at the Bam Harvey Theater, of Sebastian Silva's comedy "Crystal Fairy" starring Michael Cera and James Ponsoldt's coming-of-age drama "The Spectacular Now." The festival will also welcome back veteran filmmakers including Andrew Bujalski ("Beeswax") with new film "Computer Chess," and Matthew Porterfield ("Putty Hill") with "I Used to Be Darker." Florence Almozini BAMcinématek program director commented, "We’re thrilled that BAMcinemaFest has remained a hometown festival, with nearly half of.
- 5/8/2013
- by Erin Whitney
- Indiewire
Heavy on the French film items and with a side dish of Chilean influence, this year’s Directors’ Fortnight also known as the Quinzaine des Réalisateurs is offering “double” Alejandro Jodorowosky, and the highly anticipated titles we predicted from the likes of Clio Barnard (The Selfish Giant) and Serge Bozon (Tip Top). Repping Chile, we have Sebastián Silva’s Magic Magic (review) which is joined by another Sundance preemed title in Jim Mickle’s We Are What We Are (fittingly this is the remake of Somos lo que hay (which was featured in the section in 2010). Upping the sci-fi quotient by joining the already announced The Congress, we find Ruairi Robinson highly anticipated feature debut with Last Days On Mars. Anurag Kashyap makes it two for two years, after unloading the almost six hour Gangs of Wasseypur, he returns with Ugly, while Tehilim (Main Comp in 2007) helmer Raphaël Nadjari returns...
- 4/23/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Strand Releasing has picked up all Us rights to Matt Porterfield's Boston-set drama "I Used to Be Darker," which screened at both this year's Sundance and Berlin International film festivals. The film will be an upcoming selection at the Sarasota and Maryland film festivals. Here's the official synopsis:When Taryn (Deragh Campbell), a Northern Irish runaway, finds herself in trouble in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. But musicians Kim (Kim Taylor) and Bill (Ned Oldham) have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby (Hannah Gross), just home from her first year of college. A story of family revelations, people finding each other and letting each other go, looking for love where they’ve found it before and, when that doesn’t work, figuring out where they might find it next.
- 4/11/2013
- by Beth Hanna
- Thompson on Hollywood
Strand Releasing has acquired all U.S. distribution rights to Matt Porterfield's "I Used to Be Darker," which premiered at Sundance this year before playing at Berlin and winning Best Narrative Feature at the Atlanta Film Festival. The deal was negotiated between Strand Releasing's Jon Gerrans and the film’s rep, George Rush. The follow up to Porterfield's critically acclaimed sophomore feature "Putty Hill," the film is another Baltimore set feature, with Kim Taylor and Ned Oldham portraying two musicians struggling to end their marriage on graceful terms for the sake of their college freshman daughter Abby (Hannah Gross). Strand will give the film a theatrical release in the U.S. in the fall.
- 4/11/2013
- by Mark Lukenbill
- Indiewire
Matthew Porterfield’s I Used To Be Darker contemplates the disintegration of modern family relationships, as everyone seems to be trying to break free of their familiar bonds. Taryn has flown across the Atlantic Ocean to escape from her parents; Kim, Bill and Abby struggle to break free of each other while remaining in very close proximity. We sat down with Porterfield at the Sundance Filmmaker's Lounge, shortly after the world premiere of I Used To Be Darker, essentially picking up right where we left off almost three years ago with our SXSW 2010 interview about his sophomore film, Putty Hill...
- 2/8/2013
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
by Steve Dollar
[Editor's note: due to budget cuts and internal restructuring, Steve's review will likely be my final post for GreenCine Daily. Thank you all for reading during my four-year tenure, and be sure to follow me, Steve, Vadim and Nick on Twitter for more cine-obsessed discourse.]
Notions of "the real," and the million micro-shadings of subjectivity (the perspective of the filmmakers, the characters) that are attenuated in any contemporary film with aspirations towards naturalism, consumed my thoughts this year at the Sundance Film Festival. That, and often a certain puzzlement over directorial intent: Third acts often felt like a let-down, in films that had otherwise been exemplary displays of jaw-dropping talent. Too much plot. Not enough. Phantom motivations. Underbaked cookies. Did I miss something? Why was I, on a gut level, so disappointed?
I probably should have stuck around for the Q&A. But strangely enough, my reaction when I was troubled by a film was to let the mystery be, in hopes of circling back to it later on a second viewing, away from the festival crazy. With that experience in mind, I feel even stronger about the accomplishment of Matt Porterfield's I Used To Be Darker.
[Editor's note: due to budget cuts and internal restructuring, Steve's review will likely be my final post for GreenCine Daily. Thank you all for reading during my four-year tenure, and be sure to follow me, Steve, Vadim and Nick on Twitter for more cine-obsessed discourse.]
Notions of "the real," and the million micro-shadings of subjectivity (the perspective of the filmmakers, the characters) that are attenuated in any contemporary film with aspirations towards naturalism, consumed my thoughts this year at the Sundance Film Festival. That, and often a certain puzzlement over directorial intent: Third acts often felt like a let-down, in films that had otherwise been exemplary displays of jaw-dropping talent. Too much plot. Not enough. Phantom motivations. Underbaked cookies. Did I miss something? Why was I, on a gut level, so disappointed?
I probably should have stuck around for the Q&A. But strangely enough, my reaction when I was troubled by a film was to let the mystery be, in hopes of circling back to it later on a second viewing, away from the festival crazy. With that experience in mind, I feel even stronger about the accomplishment of Matt Porterfield's I Used To Be Darker.
- 2/3/2013
- GreenCine Daily
Monterey Media has acquired North American rights to Matthew Porterfield’s “I Used To Be Darker,” which had its world premiere in the Next <=> section of the Sundance Film Festival on Jan. 19. The company plans a summer theatrical release. “Darker” follows a runaway from Northern Ireland who takes refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore just as their marriage is coming to an end. Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace and Nick Petr star. Amy Belk wrote the screenplay with Porterfield. Monterey’s Scott Mansfield negotiated the deal with Nick LoPiccolo and Ben Weiss of Paradigm on behalf of the filmmakers. Porterfield previously directed “Hamilton” and “Putty Hill.” Monterey Media recently released “Bringing Up Bobby” and “Take Me Home.”...
- 1/28/2013
- by Jay A. Fernandez
- Indiewire
Monterey Media has purchased rising director Matthew Porterfield's I Used to Be Darker. The distribution company acquired the drama following the movie's debut at the Sundance Film Festival. I Used To Be Darker was written by Putty Hill director Porterfield and newcomer Amy Belk. The film chronicles an Irish runaway by the name of Taryn (Deragh Campbell) who leaves life in Ocean City behind, only to escape to (more)...
- 1/28/2013
- by By Sarah Luoma
- Digital Spy
Exclusive: The Sundance Film Festival ended yesterday, but there will be a flood of deals that continue for the next few weeks, leading into Berlin. Monterey Media has acquired I Used To Be Darker, the third film by rising writer/director Matthew Porterfield. The deal comes as the filmmaker prepares for the film to be featured in the Forum section of the Berlin festival next month. Porterfield previously directed Hamilton and Putty Hill. (Full press release follows below.) Related: Sundance Awards 2013: ‘Fruitvale’ & ‘Blood Brother’ Win Grand Jury Porterfield wrote the script with Amy Belk and the film stars Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace and Nick Petr. It premiered Saturday at the Yarrow Hotel Theatre, and focused on a runaway who seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore. There she finds their marriage is ending and her cousin is in crisis. In the days that follow,...
- 1/27/2013
- by MIKE FLEMING JR
- Deadline
Matthew Porterfield's sleeper hit "Putty Hill" was heralded for its keen melding of documentary and narrative traditions into a poetic exploration of a small Baltimore community impacted by a young man's sudden death. The movie drifted effortlessly from one environment to another, constructing a sense of place through a collage of emotions, offhand exchanges and occasionally breaking the fourth wall. Porterfield's follow-up "I Used to Be Darker" similarly weaves realism and a rigid storytelling structure together with affecting results, even though it adheres more closely to familiar patterns in its perceptive examination of a deteriorating American family. Not your typical divorce drama, "I Used to Be Darker" stings harder than most. Porterfield's third feature, co-written by Amy Belk, takes place in the aftermath of a decision by middle-aged couple Kim (Kim Taylor) and Bill (Ned Oldham) to end their marriage, much to the frustration...
- 1/19/2013
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Though it only arrived three years ago, Matt Porterfield’s Putty Hill, with its unique blend of fiction and documentary and its crisp, patient filmmaking, has already become quite an influential and well-loved piece of the micro-budget cannon. Now Porterfield has returned with I Used to Be Darker, a more formally scripted work that follows a troubled young woman (Deragh Campbell) who moves in with her aunt (Kim Taylor), uncle (Ned Oldham), and cousin (Hannah Gross) in Maryland. The film premieres today in Us Dramatic Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. Filmmaker: Tell me a bit about the development process for …...
- 1/19/2013
- by Dan Schoenbrun
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
#5. Concussion
Who: Having begun her ascension via her work as a commercials director/producer, 2012/2013 has turned out to be fairly kick ass in terms of receiving support. From the guidance of producer Rose Troche (helmer of Go Fish), being chosen by Independent Feature Project’s narrative lab to grabbing grants in the shape of the Adrienne Shelly Director’s Grant and Gothams Award’s Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers Live the Dream Grant.
What: Sight unseen, with a high libido, this might be compared to Steve McQueen’s Shame as it also centers on a Manhattanite whose midlife crisis includes a character with a double life of sorts.
Where: You can find more info on the facebook page and the official website should start getting into gear shortly.
When: The Rose Troche produced drama was shot in New York City in March of last year.
Why: Premise alone for...
Who: Having begun her ascension via her work as a commercials director/producer, 2012/2013 has turned out to be fairly kick ass in terms of receiving support. From the guidance of producer Rose Troche (helmer of Go Fish), being chosen by Independent Feature Project’s narrative lab to grabbing grants in the shape of the Adrienne Shelly Director’s Grant and Gothams Award’s Calvin Klein Spotlight on Women Filmmakers Live the Dream Grant.
What: Sight unseen, with a high libido, this might be compared to Steve McQueen’s Shame as it also centers on a Manhattanite whose midlife crisis includes a character with a double life of sorts.
Where: You can find more info on the facebook page and the official website should start getting into gear shortly.
When: The Rose Troche produced drama was shot in New York City in March of last year.
Why: Premise alone for...
- 1/18/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
I Used to be Darker
Director: Matthew Porterfield
Writer(s): Amy Belk, Matthew Porterfield
Producer(s): Eric Bannat, Steve Holmgren, Ryan Zacarias
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace, Nick Petr
The reason why I accurately predicted that Matthew Porterfield would receive a Sundance Film Festival invite for I Used to be Darker, his third feature film, is primarily due to the genius behind his sophomore pic, Putty Hill. Featuring the photography by regular contributor Jeremy Saulnier, this offers fresh faces in front of the camera in a backdrop that Porterfield appears to know like the back of his hand.
Gist: Scripted by Amy Belk and Porterfield, this is about a young woman named Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, who finds herself pregnant in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with American relatives in Baltimore. But Aunt Kim and her husband,...
Director: Matthew Porterfield
Writer(s): Amy Belk, Matthew Porterfield
Producer(s): Eric Bannat, Steve Holmgren, Ryan Zacarias
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Deragh Campbell, Hannah Gross, Kim Taylor, Ned Oldham, Geoff Grace, Nick Petr
The reason why I accurately predicted that Matthew Porterfield would receive a Sundance Film Festival invite for I Used to be Darker, his third feature film, is primarily due to the genius behind his sophomore pic, Putty Hill. Featuring the photography by regular contributor Jeremy Saulnier, this offers fresh faces in front of the camera in a backdrop that Porterfield appears to know like the back of his hand.
Gist: Scripted by Amy Belk and Porterfield, this is about a young woman named Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, who finds herself pregnant in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with American relatives in Baltimore. But Aunt Kim and her husband,...
- 1/13/2013
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Sprung from a five-page treatment and fashioned into a striking blend of drama and documentary, writer/director Matt Porterfield's “Putty Hill” took a community's reaction to a young death and explored it from a number of different angles. Now, with that film leading into a successful Kickstarter campaign for his third feature, “I Used to Be Darker,” a trailer for the Sundance-bound result has finally hit the web. With 'Darker' taking place in the same Baltimore area (where the helmer was raised) as his two previous films, Porterfield is certainly keeping things as intimate as ever, this time telling the story of a pregnant Northern Irish runaway (Deragh Campbell) who shacks up with American relatives, who are in the beginnings of a potential divorce themselves. The trailer -- while letting the muted visuals take precedence over dialogue -- features quite a large musical emphasis instead, both plot-wise and in the acoustic framing device.
- 1/10/2013
- by Charlie Schmidlin
- The Playlist
Premiering in the Next section at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival, "I Used to Be Darker" marks Matt Porterfield's anticipated follow-up to his beguiling amalgamation of documentary and fictional narratives "Putty Hill," which Indiewire's Eric Kohn gave a glowing A- grade to. Indiewire has an exclusive first look at Porterfield's third feature. The film, which takes its title from a lyric in a Bill Callahan song, centers on the working life of two domestic musicians (Kim Taylor and Ned Oldham, who perform original songs in the drama). "This is a story about relationships," screenwriter Amy Belk said. "People taking care of each other and letting each other go, looking for love and connection where they’ve found it before or where they might find it next. It’s about family: what pushes us away from our own, what draws us back, how we negotiate new terms of engagement as we carve...
- 12/22/2012
- by Nigel M Smith
- Indiewire
201o “25 New Faces” pick Matt Porterfield, the writer/director of Putty Hill, will premiere his third feature, I Used to Be Darker, at Sundance in about six weeks, and the trailer for the movie just dropped. The synopsis from the Sff press release describes it as follows: “A runaway seeks refuge with her aunt and uncle in Baltimore, only to find their marriage ending and her cousin in crisis. In the days that follow, the family struggles to let go while searching for things to sustain them.”...
- 12/3/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Putty Hill, his critically acclaimed Berlin and SXSW selected sophomore feature officially put Matthew Porterfield on the future of indie film map. He began lensing in the summer of 2011 – so this is definitely readied for a big festival showing and we won’t be surprised if Sundance wants to be affiliated with this filmmaker. Most recently included in the half dozen items for Poland’s American Film Fest’s Us in Progress Wrocław, I Used to be Darker features the photography from Porterfield’s dp Jeremy Saulnier (he contributed on Porterfield’s debut film as well (2000′s Hamilton) and the pic will be toplined by newbie actresses Deragh Campbell (pictured above) and Hannah Gross.
Gist: Scripted by Amy Belk and Porterfield, this is about a young woman named Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, who finds herself pregnant in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with American relatives in Baltimore. But Aunt Kim and her husband,...
Gist: Scripted by Amy Belk and Porterfield, this is about a young woman named Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, who finds herself pregnant in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with American relatives in Baltimore. But Aunt Kim and her husband,...
- 11/20/2012
- by Eric Lavallee
- IONCINEMA.com
Just released is the line-up for this year’s Independent Film Week, which will take place next month in New York, from September 16 to 20 at Lincoln Center. Announced today for Ifp’s centerpiece event of the year are both the industry events and the 165 projects which have been invited to participate in 2012′s Project Forum. A complete list of the projects can be found here, while on the industry side there are such new initiatives as the Ifp Producer of Marketing & Distribution Labs and a joint event of Ifp and Filmmaker magazine, “Reinvent: Media Arts for the 21st Century.”
Ifp’s Executive Director Joana Vicente said, “Ifp is proud to present this year’s Independent Film Week, which includes a truly original, exciting, and diverse slate of U.S. and international projects that are sure to pique the interest of our attending industry friends. Not only does Film Week remain...
Ifp’s Executive Director Joana Vicente said, “Ifp is proud to present this year’s Independent Film Week, which includes a truly original, exciting, and diverse slate of U.S. and international projects that are sure to pique the interest of our attending industry friends. Not only does Film Week remain...
- 8/10/2012
- by Nick Dawson
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Steve Collins’ You Hurt My Feelings is the story of emotionally remote and unavailable people, a trio of wounded individuals who fail to connect with one another. Though Collins’ film deals with familiar subject matter, its tale is told with such clever minimalism and discernible sweetness that it goes down rather smoothly. While the characters may not be able to express themselves emotionally, Collins and his director of photography, Jeremy Saulnier (Septien, Putty Hill), find real poetry in the changing of the New England seasons, the passage of time providing an even greater window in the the failed lives on display.
John (John Merriman), a bearded Zach Galifianakis lookalike, has to be paid to spend time caring for his two young children by his eternally angry ex-girlfriend, Courtney (Courtney Davis) while he maintains an often strange kinship with Courtney’s current beau, Macon (Macon Blair), a surly and awkward man...
John (John Merriman), a bearded Zach Galifianakis lookalike, has to be paid to spend time caring for his two young children by his eternally angry ex-girlfriend, Courtney (Courtney Davis) while he maintains an often strange kinship with Courtney’s current beau, Macon (Macon Blair), a surly and awkward man...
- 5/2/2012
- by Brandon Harris
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Quite the rave from Roberta Smith in the New York Times:
One of the best Whitney Biennials in recent memory may or may not contain a lot more outstanding art than its predecessors, but that's not the point. The 2012 incarnation is a new and exhilarating species of exhibition, an emerging curatorial life form, at least for New York.
Possessed of a remarkable clarity of vision, a striking spatial intelligence and a generous stylistic inclusiveness, it places on an equal footing art objects and time-based art — not just video and performance art but music, dance, theater, film — and does so on a scale and with a degree of aplomb we have not seen before in this town. In a way that is at once superbly ordered and open-ended, densely structured and, upon first encounter, deceptively unassuming, the exhibition manages both to reinvent the signature show of the Whitney Museum of American...
One of the best Whitney Biennials in recent memory may or may not contain a lot more outstanding art than its predecessors, but that's not the point. The 2012 incarnation is a new and exhilarating species of exhibition, an emerging curatorial life form, at least for New York.
Possessed of a remarkable clarity of vision, a striking spatial intelligence and a generous stylistic inclusiveness, it places on an equal footing art objects and time-based art — not just video and performance art but music, dance, theater, film — and does so on a scale and with a degree of aplomb we have not seen before in this town. In a way that is at once superbly ordered and open-ended, densely structured and, upon first encounter, deceptively unassuming, the exhibition manages both to reinvent the signature show of the Whitney Museum of American...
- 3/3/2012
- MUBI
The second edition of the N1FR, n+1's film review, "is very late," begins editor As Hamrah, but there's no need to apologize. The timing is perfect, arriving just many of us will be desperate for distraction from what promises to be a very noisy weekend. As Hamrah notes, there's not one piece in the entire issue on "even one film nominated for an Oscar this year."
Instead, we have Chris Fujiwara setting Vincent Gallo and George Clooney next to each other and riffing on the juxtaposition, Christine Smallwood on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jeanette Samyn and Jonathan Kyle Sturgeon on Pedro Costa, Dmitry Martov on Serge Bozon and his circle, Emily Gould on Badmaash Company, a Bollywood movie that screams out to be compared and contrasted with The Social Network, Jennifer Krasinski on the rise of the polymath, Ben Maraniss on Mel Gibson,...
Instead, we have Chris Fujiwara setting Vincent Gallo and George Clooney next to each other and riffing on the juxtaposition, Christine Smallwood on Apichatpong Weerasethakul and on Werner Herzog's Cave of Forgotten Dreams, Jeanette Samyn and Jonathan Kyle Sturgeon on Pedro Costa, Dmitry Martov on Serge Bozon and his circle, Emily Gould on Badmaash Company, a Bollywood movie that screams out to be compared and contrasted with The Social Network, Jennifer Krasinski on the rise of the polymath, Ben Maraniss on Mel Gibson,...
- 2/25/2012
- MUBI
#27. I Used to Be Darker Director: Matthew PorterfieldWriters: Porterfield and Amy BelkProducers: Steve Holmgren and Eric Bannat, (Putty Hill), Amy Dotson and Nomadic Independence Pictures' Ryan Zacarias (#99 on our list When the World's on Fire)Distributor: Rights Available The Gist: This is about a young woman named Taryn, a Northern Irish runaway, who finds herself pregnant in Ocean City, MD, she seeks refuge with American relatives in Baltimore. But Aunt Kim and her husband, Bill, have problems of their own: they’re trying to handle the end of their marriage gracefully for the sake of their daughter Abby, just home from her first year of college...(more) Cast: Ned Oldham, Kim Taylor, Hannah Gross and Deragh Campbell List Worthy Reasons...: Talk about having this project tattooed to his heart (and arm - see pic above) - one of our U.S indie filmmaker revelations to watch out for is helmer Matthew Porterfield.
- 1/8/2012
- IONCINEMA.com
The world doesn’t need another list of the best films of the year, but after considering my own recent lists, I realized there were a handful of movies‹excellent independent work that has largely flown under the radar‹that even I initially overlooked. Here are seven bold American
low-budget movies from 2011 that may have been forgotten in theatrical release, but should make for essential home viewing (if you haven’t seen them yet) in 2012. And I’ll be among the first in line to see where these young directors go next.
1. Silver Bullets. All I can say is that I hope Joe Swanberg doesn’t burn himself out. Fourteen movies in six years is enough to kill most directors, but Swanberg not only perseveres, but he’s far smarter and skilled than most critics give him credit for, and with Silver Bullets, I think he’s proven them wrong.
low-budget movies from 2011 that may have been forgotten in theatrical release, but should make for essential home viewing (if you haven’t seen them yet) in 2012. And I’ll be among the first in line to see where these young directors go next.
1. Silver Bullets. All I can say is that I hope Joe Swanberg doesn’t burn himself out. Fourteen movies in six years is enough to kill most directors, but Swanberg not only perseveres, but he’s far smarter and skilled than most critics give him credit for, and with Silver Bullets, I think he’s proven them wrong.
- 1/2/2012
- by Anthony Kaufman
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
The La Weekly's Karina Longworth has turned a lunch with Elvis Mitchell, a lot of research and several phone calls into today's must-read. "One of the best known, and definitely most controversial, living film critics in America, Mitchell is both irresistibly charming and legendarily incapable of playing by the rules, or perhaps simply oblivious to them." And now: "He's been brought to Lacma as the embodiment of a major break from business as usual at the museum's film department." In one of the best pieces of film-related reporting I've seen in a long while, Karina outlines two histories, first, that of Lacma's evolution from "one of the city's premier destinations for cinephiles" to an institution with a "strategy to plumb the film industry for patrons," and second, that of the "former New York Times film critic who lunches at swank restaurants with movie stars and drives off in a cherry-red convertible.
- 11/17/2011
- MUBI
Updated through 6/26.
"The golden age of New York moviegoing is now," argues Ao Scott in the New York Times. "Two events in the coming days offer confirmation of this hunch." Tonight "in Brooklyn the BAMcinemaFest opens with Weekend, Andrew Haigh's bracing, present-tense exploration of sex, intimacy and love, the first of 26 features that will play, along with 24 short films, over the next 10 days. And Friday is the official opening night of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, a charming two-screen jewel box carved (by the architect David Rockwell) out of garage and office space at Lincoln Center." He touches on the Museum of the Moving Image and the reRun Gastropub Theater as well, before returning to BAMcinemaFEST: "Not everything in the lineup is quite so perfectly realized as Weekend, but the range and generosity of the sampling make it hard to go wrong. Even the misfires and train wrecks are interesting,...
"The golden age of New York moviegoing is now," argues Ao Scott in the New York Times. "Two events in the coming days offer confirmation of this hunch." Tonight "in Brooklyn the BAMcinemaFest opens with Weekend, Andrew Haigh's bracing, present-tense exploration of sex, intimacy and love, the first of 26 features that will play, along with 24 short films, over the next 10 days. And Friday is the official opening night of the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, a charming two-screen jewel box carved (by the architect David Rockwell) out of garage and office space at Lincoln Center." He touches on the Museum of the Moving Image and the reRun Gastropub Theater as well, before returning to BAMcinemaFEST: "Not everything in the lineup is quite so perfectly realized as Weekend, but the range and generosity of the sampling make it hard to go wrong. Even the misfires and train wrecks are interesting,...
- 6/26/2011
- MUBI
Of all the movies that have opened this weekend, the one that's generated the most interesting press by far is Page One: Inside The New York Times. The usual round of promotional interviews, for example, turns out to have been not so usual. Talking with writer-director-cinematographer Andrew Rossi and co-writer Kate Novack, a husband-and-wife team of a documentary filmmaker and a former media reporter, Eric Hynes acknowledges that his piece for the Voice can't help but lay on another layer of meta. Right off, he has Novack commenting on Page One's focus on the Nyt media desk: "It was journalists reporting on journalism, and we were working as journalists covering that."
So it goes in other interviews: Drew Taylor's with Rossi for the Playlist; Stephen Saito's with Rossi and Nyt media reporter David Carr, indisputably the star of Page One, for IFC; Sarah Ellison's with Gay Talese, author of the 1969 classic,...
So it goes in other interviews: Drew Taylor's with Rossi for the Playlist; Stephen Saito's with Rossi and Nyt media reporter David Carr, indisputably the star of Page One, for IFC; Sarah Ellison's with Gay Talese, author of the 1969 classic,...
- 6/18/2011
- MUBI
Life In A Day (12A)
(Kevin Macdonald, 2011, Us)
Compiled from amateur submissions of what people all over the world did on 24 July 2010, this documentary sets itself an almighty challenge. It's fashioned into some sort of narrative order, with recurring themes and music, and moments of emotion and illumination, which saves it from becoming a random global channel-surf. But you could say the subjective "direction" and homogenising technical treatment are at odds with the democratic intentions.
The Beaver (12A)
(Jodie Foster, 2011, Us) Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin. 91 mins
Having crucified Jesus, Gibson now nails himself to the cross in a bizarre talk-to-the-hand family drama that feels more like the actor's own public therapy session.
Green Lantern (12A)
(Martin Campbell, 2011, Us) Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard. 114 mins
Like banks, summer superhero movies are now too big to fail. But will Reynolds's charm, a virtual costume and some interplanetary effects be...
(Kevin Macdonald, 2011, Us)
Compiled from amateur submissions of what people all over the world did on 24 July 2010, this documentary sets itself an almighty challenge. It's fashioned into some sort of narrative order, with recurring themes and music, and moments of emotion and illumination, which saves it from becoming a random global channel-surf. But you could say the subjective "direction" and homogenising technical treatment are at odds with the democratic intentions.
The Beaver (12A)
(Jodie Foster, 2011, Us) Mel Gibson, Jodie Foster, Anton Yelchin. 91 mins
Having crucified Jesus, Gibson now nails himself to the cross in a bizarre talk-to-the-hand family drama that feels more like the actor's own public therapy session.
Green Lantern (12A)
(Martin Campbell, 2011, Us) Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard. 114 mins
Like banks, summer superhero movies are now too big to fail. But will Reynolds's charm, a virtual costume and some interplanetary effects be...
- 6/17/2011
- by Steve Rose
- The Guardian - Film News
This week’s Must Browse link is the new Cinemad Presents website for Mike Plante’s distribution arm of his legendary zine and blog. He’s currently representing some amazing films, including perennial Bad Lit hits Heavy Metal Picnic and Gravity Was Everywhere Back Then.Not sure when this happened, but the Video Data Bank completely revamped their website and it looks amazing! They’ve also made it easier to watch lots of clips of videos in their collection, so go browse around.Migrating Forms is happening right now this week in NYC and the fest got a ton of press. First up, for the Brooklyn Rail, Aily Nash interviewed organizers Nellie Killian and Kevin McGarry.For the Village Voice, Nick Pinkerton wrote a nice Migrating Forms fest overview.For The L Magazine, David Phelps considers the notion of what’s “experimental” in the context of Migrating Forms’ offerings.Art...
- 5/22/2011
- by Mike Everleth
- Underground Film Journal
"Not much happened in Matthew Porterfield's first film, Hamilton, which was sort of the point," writes Paul Schrodt in Slant. "The characters, lower-middle-class Baltimore suburbanites, moved in static compositions, going about their chores, and neither they nor the audience seemed to have much idea where it was going or what it meant. What set Hamilton apart, if anything, was its acuity of observation — the way small moments, like someone waiting for his laundry, took on the rhythms of everyday life. Porterfield's latest, Putty Hill, follows the same basic template, but narratively and formally, it's a subtle but confident step forward."...
- 2/18/2011
- MUBI
A beguiling amalgamation of documentary and fictional narratives, Matthew Porterfield's second feature "Putty Hill" has been making waves on the film festival circuit since debuting at the Berlin International Film Festival last year. Porterfield, who divides his time between making films and teaching screenwriting and production at Johns Hopkins University, earned rave reviews with his first feature, the delicate, meditative drama "Hamilton." His second feature script, "Metal Gods," a coming-of-age ...
- 2/18/2011
- Indiewire
A beguiling amalgamation of documentary and fictional narratives, Matthew Porterfield's second feature "Putty Hill" has been making waves on the film festival circuit since debuting at the Berlin International Film Festival last year. Porterfield, who divides his time between making films and teaching screenwriting and production at Johns Hopkins University, earned rave reviews with his first feature, the delicate, meditative drama "Hamilton." His second feature script, "Metal Gods," a coming-of-age ...
- 2/18/2011
- indieWIRE - People
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