Results tagged “rogerdodger”

Jesse Eisenberg was still in high school when he struck indie-film gold with his performance alongside Campbell Scott in Roger Dodger, one of 2003’s funniest and most affecting films. He’s since gone on to pull his weight in Noah Baumbach’s Park Slope rhapsody The Squid and the Whale, M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village and, currently in theaters, The Hunting Party – to name a few. (He’ll soon enjoy an even higher profile thanks to his starring role in Adventureland, the next movie by Superbad director Greg Mottola.) You can currently catch Eisenberg onstage at The Atlantic Theater Company’s production of Scarcity, a gritty black comedy about low-class domestic strife in moneyed Western Massachusetts. After repeated attempts to interview Eisenberg were stymied by his malfunctioning cell phone, we said the hell with it and e-mailed him our questions. (Happy ending: after telling Verizon they were jeopardizing his Gothamist interview, Eisenberg got a new phone for free.)

You've already heard us wax poetic in our NYFF coverage about Noah Baumbach's latest cinematic foray, The Squid and the Whale, but how can we not? Based on events in Baumbach's life, the film looks at a family going through a messy, joint-custody divorce in Brooklyn in 1986. Each family member internalizes the bitter reality in their own way and Baumbach artfully brings the psychological unravelling to life in his bleeding dramedy. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney give outstanding performances as the parents, Jesse Eisenberg (Roger Dodger) and Owen Kline play the kids. And if you're impressed by young Owen's performance and were wondering what rock he came out from under, well, he's the spawn of Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline, so it seems he got that acting gene.

Craig Wedren, Musician

This movie was much better when it was Roger Dodger.

This Saturday and Sunday, the IFP is holding its annual "From Script to Screen Conference" with panels of film, television, and stage professionals giving their insights and thoughts about breaking in, getting the work made, and the business involved. Paul Schrader, writer of Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Last Temptation of Christ, will be speaking about his career (his most recent work was directing AutoFocus). Gothamist is looking forward to Tom Fontana, the creator behind the best cop show ever (Law & Order is the best cop-and-lawyer show ever), Homicide: Life on the Streets. Fontana will be speaking about his career as writer-producer of St. Elsewhere, Homicide, and Oz. Other panelists include Dylan Kidd (writer-director of Roger Dodger), Austin Chick (whose film XX/XY opens today), Marshall Brickman (co-writer of Annie Hall), Erin Cressida Wilson (writer of Secretary) and United Artists head Bingham Ray (UA released Bowling for Columbine).