It's the final few screenings on the last night of The Alamo Cinema. Despite its soon-to-be demise, the manager still stresses about smoking breaks that go on too long, and the buddies that run the concessions stand still rank and compare movies. Although there are moments of reflection and questioning if it was all a waste, there is nothing to do but greet customers, serve popcorn, and put on the show. Eccentric characters appear throughout the film, such as a camera-addressing film critic and a cowboy-like stunt double – but it is the down-to-earth leads that make the piece feel like a return to the "Slacker" genre.
When films are normally made about cinema, they're more like the sexy side – like stars or production. What caused you to make a film about running a cinema?
You know it's funny you started off with that because when people write about this movie, they're kind of like, "You know, it's a love letter to cinema," and it is in a way, but it's also more specifically a love letter to movie-going – which is a different thing. It's not a Babylon or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood thing.
I've been working at various movie theatres since I was, like, 15 or 16. I don't anymore, but I was while making the movie. And that was a good five or six years of my life. And all of those experiences all kind of funnelled their way into the movie.
And the soundtrack seemed very important as well. What was the kind of song selection process like?
Sure, I mean, you're not really supposed to do this, but in the actual script there were like all the music cues and everything. This movie is kind of me throwing my hat into the hangout movie genre. You know Clerks, you know American Graffiti. Dazed and Confused and all those kinds of movies... Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And one of the staples of those films is they have a great soundtrack. It's the jukebox thing. Really the first hour of the movie is kind of a wall-to-wall selection of songs.
It kind of gives us this kind of like pulse to it that keeps it going. It's this momentum until the quieter part of the movie kind of slows down and shows out a little bit. It's a bit more reflective.
And it also has kind of fantastical elements as well, like someone climbing into a projector and direct address of the camera. What made you want to include those?
That character in particular, the theatre philosopher – I mean, clearly he is real because his actions have real-world consequences. I like filmmakers who break the fourth wall or have a bit of a whimsical flair to them. And I just kind of wanted a bit of this magical realism in the film. It's a taste thing, know what I mean? I never really thought twice about it, about having him talking to the audience or climbing into the projector. There's also a kind of Buster Keaton sound film element to it as well, where those movies are always really in conversation with the audience as well.
And that's almost one of the sections of the film. The film has different sections. Was that put in right from the script also?
Yeah, the title cards were all in there, but the design really changed – I mean, the person to talk about the title cards is Erica Dorn. She does all of the titles for Wes Anderson's films and was really cool to do this and great to work with. I wanted to do this segmented, novelistic kind of thing.
A lot of influence from one of them is from Hannah and Her Sisters by Woody Allen. The first line of the film is Michael Caine saying, "Man, isn't she beautiful?" and the title card says, "Man, isn't she beautiful?" I like that kind of playfulness – what does it mean? Why? Who cares? It adds a little bit of playfulness to the movie, I think.
And it has that nostalgia element. You were talking about previous films that influenced it. Do you think that a part of enjoying going to the cinema is a kind of nostalgic thing?
I think that people are kind of finding whatever way they can to incentivise people to go back to the movies. It's the same way with shooting on film. A big boom of that has been now in nostalgia. And that's fine. Personally, I don't shoot on film for some sort of fetishistic quality to it. I think it looks better, but it's also what I signed up for: making movies and shooting on film, presenting on film. You read books about movies, and you watch movies growing up. That's what I signed up for, not to go press record and watch TV.
No shame on that, it's whatever, but I think that one of the ways that people have gotten folks to come out to the movies is by making a print and projecting it that way – because you can't get that at home. People have done road shows and get little booklets and stuff like that, and you feel like you're paying for something that you cannot get at home.
I think it's that simple. And if there's a nostalgia quality to it, that's fine, that's great, because people feel like they're stepping back in time and getting an experience that they just can't get today.
And it was a really great cast as well. What was it like working with you?
It's a dream, man. I mean, it's my first movie. I was 22 when I made it, so working with 40 actors was kind of crazy. 15 of them being principal characters with lots of dialogue. It was a lot of craziness, but a lot of beautiful craziness – juggling different acting styles. It was kind of like making a different little short film every week because we'd have one guy come in for five days, one guy come in for three days, and really our two guys at the stands and Lana at the box office are kind of just constants throughout.
And a lot of them are also kind of archetypes.
Totally, I mean, just the way they talk and everything as well and the way they all have little costumes – like uniforms. I mean, the guys literally have uniforms, and they have different colours, but then there's, like, the manager and his green suit and pink shirt, and then you have Rex and his yellow western shirt and the beige cowboy hat, and then there are the theatre philosophers, like in a David Hockney Bumblebee outfit with a corduroy jacket. Everyone's very styled, and they're dressed like they're in a movie because they are.