In Character: Ann Dowd

Ann Dowd is having a moment. In the past two years alone she’s been featured in critically revered indies as well as some of the most popular shows on television. But diving into her filmography, it’s clear that Dowd has been killing it for quite some time (yeah, that’s her as Ton Hanks’ supportive sis in Philadelphia), she only just broke through recently. Here I take a look back at her career, from humble and humorous beginnings, to current career-best work.

My Favorite Scene: Begin Again

Warning: Critical plot details are revealed in this post.

My first experience with Begin Again was under some of the worst viewing circumstances possible. It was on my birthday last year. I was flying back to L.A. after 30 consecutive hours of delayed planes, mile-long lines for flight exchanges, layovers that never ended, and airport workers “trying their best.” I was tired and pissed off and figured that Begin Again looked as good a film as any to help pass the time. I thought the film would be easy, silly, dumb – not worth the $15 to catch it theaters, but fine for free on a plane.

Top 10 Directors Who Edit Their Own Films

Editing is where the magic happens. It’s where you shape, explore, experiment – it’s literally where you find and make your film. But it’s also a damn tedious process. Because there are so many choices in editing, filmmakers often hire professional editors to help them craft their films. On rare occasions, directors will assume sole responsibility as the chief editor, thereby fully seeing their film to the bitter end. Below are 10 directors who took on the laborious task of editing their own films themselves. Ranking them seemed fruitless, so they’re presented here alphabetically.

Top 10 Vilmos Zsigmond Films

Vilmos Zsigmond has been one of film’s most influential cinematographers for decades. In more than 60 years as a working director of photography, he’s amassed 100 credits and been a go-to cinematographer for Brian De Palma, Robert Altman, Steven Spielberg, Michael Cimino and many more. By pure coincidence, I wrote the majority of this post yesterday, which was Zsigmond’s 85^th birthday. Here’s wishing him well by exploring some of his best work.

In Character: Benicio Del Toro

One of my favorite things about writing these In Character posts is that I occasionally discover a new reason why I love an actor I already admired. I’ve loved Benicio Del Toro’s work since he strutted away from the police in his opening scene in The Usual Suspects, but in writing this post, I realized what I like most about him are his silences. While widely regarded for the inspired voices he often gives his characters, Del Toro’s real skill is his stare. Here’s an actor I’ve always appreciated, but like even more now, just from stacking all of his best work together.

Top 10 Entourage Cameos

I know the popular thing to do right now is shit all over the new Entourage movie, but I was always a fan of the original HBO show. Excessive, juvenile, silly – it was consistently all of those things, but I enjoyed much of the bubblegum L.A. fantasy it maintained. One thing the show was always rich with was celebrity cameos, and in the wake of the film sequel, here are my favorite celeb cameos featured in the show’s eight-season run. (Note: I only included cameos in which the celebrity played themselves.)

Music Video: Mint Green

Sometimes it feels like a song finds you. Like it was made specifically for you and it reached out when you needed it most. Hearing Andrew Shapiro’s “Mint Green” for the first time was one such rare and beautiful occasion. I came across the track by chance on Pandora and immediately stopped what I was doing and devoted my full attention to it. I was so touched by the song’s collection of layered pianos, delivering notes of love and hope and melancholy. When the track finished, I sat inspired and deeply moved.