Millimeter and Digital Content Producer magazines have provided me with the opportunity to interview prominent directors and profile 10 short films that are appearing this week at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. Just in case you missed it, here are all five podcast interviews from the BlogLive@Sundance Film Festival ‘09 that I conducted:

My first interview was with “Superbad” director Greg Mottola. Hear about his new movie “Adventureland” (starring Jesse Eisenberg, Kristen Stewart, Bill Hader, and Kristen Wiig) and get an exclusive preview of the challenge of creating a CGI character on the new Simon Pegg/Nick Frost movie he’s currently working on called “Paul.” Click here to hear my interview with Greg Mottola.

Robert Siegel (who was recently nominated for a Writer’s Guild Award and used to be the editor-in-chief of The Onion) arrives at this year’s Sundance Film Festival with his directorial debut, “Big Fan,” starring Patton Oswalt, and the movie is in the dramatic film competition. Listen to my interview with Siegel in this exclusive audio podcast and find out why casting was so important on both movies and what he learned about directing from Aronofsky!

If you’ve seen “Northfork” or “Twin Falls Idaho,” then you are familiar with the kind of “heightend reality” that the writing/directing/producing team of Mark and Michael Polish can produce. “Manure” is the third trip to Sundance for the twin brothers, and it stars Billy Bob Thornton, Tea Leoni, Kyle MacLachlan, and Ed Helms. The film was shot completely on soundstages and the production design did their best to keep the entire film in different shades of brown. Listen to my audio interview with “Manure” director Michael Polish.

Former standup comedian John Hindman is heavily influenced by Woody Allen, James L. Brooks, and Sydney Pollack. When it came time to direct his own script for “Arlen Faber,” he turned to a Hollywood veteran who is well-known for tackling tricky roles in independent films. Jeff Daniels joined on as the title character in Hindman’s film early on and that helped the filmmaker gett funding to make the movie, which is competing in the dramatic competetion at Sundance this year. It also co-stars Lauren Graham, Olivia Thirlby, and Kat Dennings. Find out what happens when you quit feeding the crew in my audio podcast with John Hindman.

“Peter and Vandy” was adapted from a 2002 play written by and starring the film’s director, Jay DiPietro. For the movie, DiPietro cast Jason Ritter and Jess Weixler as the title couple and had to expand way beyond the production limitations of a two-character play that took place in one living room. Learn about the challenges of adapting your own play into a feature film in my interview with writer/director Jay DiPietro.

Tags: 2009, adventureland, arlen faber, big fan, director, greg mottola interview, jay di pietro interview, john hindman interview, manure, michael polish interview, peter and vandy, robert siegel interview, Sundance, superbad, the wrestler

Eric and J.D. discuss why Jason Segel is the new Seth Rogen (”Superbad”) and what makes “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” better than most romantic comedies of its ilk. It may have something to do with producer Judd Apatow (”Knocked Up, “The 40 Year-old Virgin”), but they’re pretty sure it has more to do with an unflinching sense of honesty, lots of male nudity, and a keen eye on satirizing Hollywood types. Plus, UK comedian Russell Brand is hilarious.

Tags: Eric and J.D., Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Jason Segel, Judd Apatow, male nudity, movie review, on-camera review, Russell Brand, Seth Rogen, superbad

It’s common knowledge that Judd Apatow and his merry band of improv comedians have helped to make movies like “Knocked Up” and “Superbad” way better than your average batch of raunchy comedies while simultaneously seeming more authentic. When Seth Rogen and his friends get in a room together to do improvise the hell out of a well-scripted scene, the funny gets funnier and it all feels more real.

“Drillbit Taylor,” which was produced by Apatow and co-written by Rogen, makes you realize how good the scripts to those movies had to have been because no amount of improvisation could have saved a screenplay as lame as this one from itself. Even with heavyweights like ultra-sincere jokester Owen Wilson, Leslie Mann (Apatow’s wife, who was so bitingly terrific in “Knocked Up”), and Stephen Root (Milton from “Office Space” and Jimmy James from the overlooked sitcom “NewsRadio”), the movie falls flat left and right.

Apparently, the story was conceived by ‘80s teen movie guru and current recluse John Hughes (under the pen name Edmond Dantes—a strange reference to “The Count of Monte Cristo”), and then penned by Rogen and Kristfor Brown. It’s been almost 18 years since a picked-on teen hired a bodyguard to protect him from the high school bully, so most people have probably forgotten “My Bodyguard.” (The filmmakers didn’t: that movie’s bodyguard, Adam Baldwin—better known now as Jayne from “Firefly/Serenity”—cameos as an unsuccessful applicant for the job.)

“Drillbit Taylor” expands on that premise by making the bodyguard a homeless Army defector and expanding one nerd to three. Why Rogen decided to model these three nerds so closely after his “Superbad” characters is beyond me. Like Seth, Evan, and McLovin, the three young losers of “Drillbit” have inflated, defensive egos that go hand-in-hand with their lack of self-confidence; and they even bicker amongst themselves about who of them is the geekiest, as if one nerd is nerdier, and hence slightly less cool, than the other.

But what was fresh, articulate, and downright shocking sometimes in “Superbad” is now PG-13, and just plain neutered.

Directed by Steven Brill (“Without a Paddle,” “Mr. Deeds”), this film is one almost-funny situation after another that is completely undercut by lazy timing and editing. Wilson isn’t awful as the title character—he’s just coasting. The Jonah Hill kid (Troy Gentile) is hard to understand sometimes and curiously keeps slipping in and out of a Brooklyn accent. Drillbit’s buddies look like actors wearing “homeless clothes” and their scenes together have no chemistry whatsoever. Brill doesn’t seem to know when to end a scene, letting the fizzled joke grow stale right before our eyes.

It’s hard to get excited about writing about a movie that’s so averagely unfunny most of the time. “Drillbit Taylor” is not offensively bad; it’s just offensively bland, especially for Rogen, who has been on a roll lately.

If I may quote “Mr. Show with Bob and David”—the best sketch comedy show since “Monty Python’s Flying Circus”—“Drillbit Taylor” was just good enough to bring us to “the edge of laughter.”

Tags: drillbit taylor, John Hughes, Judd Apatow, leslie mann, movie review, Seth Rogen, superbad