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Old 10-04-2011, 05:24 PM
  #46
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Also posting this interview with 'Answers To Nothing' writer and director Matthew Leutwyler here:

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Matthew Leutwyler talks about Answers to Nothing, writing, movie making, redemption and hope

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a movieholic with very definite favorites. When I saw that brilliant producer/writer/director Matthew Leutwyler had a new film out, called Answers to Nothing (Great title, isn’t it? Plus, I had loved his This Space Between Us), I tracked him down, wanted to interview him, and he generously sent me a screener—and gave me a phone number.

Answers to Nothing is one of the most mesmerizing, moving, brilliantly done films I’ve seen. These adjectives are not hyperbole.The performances are knockout (the film features Dane Cook, Barbara Hershey, Julie Benz, Kali Hawk and more), and the film, which swirls around the main story of a missing young girl, is so haunting, that there were moments I was watching while weeping—yet, it’s very much a story that is also filled with redemption and hope. I’m still thinking about the story. It’s officially opening December 2 and already is creating a sensation (at the Woodstock Film Festival, people were unabashedly crying.) So I’m honored and thrilled to reproduce the conversation I had with Matthew here. Thanks, Matthew!

Your upcoming film, swirls around a missing girl, but the film is really about all the things missing inside of us that we try to fill. How did the idea for this film spark?

It was a really interesting process. Six years ago, I was going through a divorce and looking at all the mistakes I had made in my life. I started jotting down lists of all the personality traits of myself. Then I began developing characters based on those traits and all those conflicts I have internally. So I came out with all these characters, but I thought, well, I have to have one thread that binds all these characters together, don’t I? And I came up with the missing girl. I always wanted to do a film that was an unflinching look at modern relationships and the mistakes that we make—and how we go about making them right.

My previous work was comedies, or horror, amusing things. It wasn’t really the road I wanted to go down creatively. In fact, I hated the stuff I was doing before and I wanted to get back to dealing with the real issues. It’s uncomfortable to expose your inner workings, but it just felt more authentic.

Although a haunting and dark film, Answers to Nothing also has this seed of hope—lives are disrupted but they are not ruined, and people do find their own kinds of redemption. Can you talk about this?

The film was always about this, people all trying to do the right thing. They take a half step forward and attempt to correct their mistakes. When I first started writing, I wrote sixty pages and then sat on it for four years. I thought I knew where I wanted to go, but I brought in another writer, Gillian Vigman, both to force me to write (I had terrible writer’s block) and to bring in a woman’s touch to it. She helped to lighten the tone. I also got into a relationship and those positive feelings found their way into the writing.

In my novels, I always try to create what I call the never-ending story—a sense that nothing is neatly tied up but these lives keep going on and you wonder about them past the last page. I felt that same sense in your film.

I think about that sense, too. I still wonder, what the characters are doing.

I also wanted to talk about the moments in the film that are so striking. In novels, as well as films, there are always these moments that really resonate—images more than plot pushers. In your film, there is this incredible marathon race. There is a moment when Barbara Hershey opens a box and finds a scarf and we see the pleasure on her face. There is the weird school teacher playing the dangerous video games, and there is the African American woman who is never very nice to people, finally buying coffee for two security guards –I can’t get these moments out of my mind. Did these come organically or were they conscious decisions?

Every single thing was written except for the coffee. The actress, Kali Hawk started fiddling around. She liked to add on these small moments and when she was doing something with the coffee, I thought, “this is really interesting,” We kind of moved the camera around to it and made it a bigger deal.

Can you talk about the title, Answers to Nothing?

This was a title that I had in my head that I thought was going to change. It felt to me like a novel title. The movie is really about all these small moments of decision that we make in our life that we usually feel are small nothing moments, but when we look back on them, they turn out to be the most significant things in our lives.

What's obsessing you now?

Gillian and I are writing a wacky comedy about two women with dead end jobs that open up a brothel. Sort of in the vein of NIGHT SHIFT meets BRIDESMAIDS called ACCIDENTAL MADAMS, a couple of dramas, particular one about the border towns, based on true stories. I used to go down to Tijuana, Rosarito, and Ensenada a lot, but now, no one goes there anymore. It’s pretty much a ghost town. I found a lot of interesting true stories, especially about the locals that have stood up to the forces around them.

My company, Ambush is also producing a whole lot of stuff, the comedy IMOGENE with Annette Bening, a documentary, SPINNING PLATES, about three restaurants, and producing a film version of Martha O’Connor’s THE BITCH POSSE.

CarolineLeavittville: Matthew Leutwyler talks about Answers to Nothing, writing, movie making, redemption and hope
I would say we got out first very positive review with this article/interview piece and I also think it's great to hear that the audience reaction at Woodstock Film Festival was so positive.

ETA:

We finally have an official trailer for this movie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsdreS1KHNU

I know it's only a little over 2 minutes long, but from what I've seen, the movie looks really good. I can't wait to watch it.

Last edited by Hamburgo1001; 10-04-2011 at 05:55 PM
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Old 10-05-2011, 06:41 AM
  #47
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2 'Answers To Nothing' movie clips have been released onto the internet:

Answers to Nothing. Opening sequence. on Vimeo

Answers to Nothing. Kitchen. on Vimeo

According to the trailer, this movie has been rated 'R'. That's not really surprising going by the first scene.

Last edited by Hamburgo1001; 10-05-2011 at 12:44 PM
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Old 10-06-2011, 12:08 AM
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Thanks for the review and the videos!

Wow, the first scene The R rating doesn't surprise me either!

Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiz/Kaaaaaaaate She's crying already in the trailer, I wanna hug her, lol. Her husband

The trailer looks pretty good, it reminds me of the movie "Crash", which I loved.
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Old 10-06-2011, 04:34 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ~ayumi~ (View Post)
Thanks for the review and the videos!
You're welcome.

Quote:
Wow, the first scene The R rating doesn't surprise me either!
I'm curious what other things might still be in the movie. I don't think 1 sex scene like that would be enough to warrant an R rating.

Quote:
Liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiz/Kaaaaaaaate She's crying already in the trailer, I wanna hug her, lol. Her husband
Me too. Her husband Ryan seems to be quite an assy character, but I don't know, maybe he will redeem himself by the end of it. Just trying to be optimistic for a second.

Quote:
The trailer looks pretty good, it reminds me of the movie "Crash", which I loved.
I don't think I've ever watched 'Crash', but it does seem to have a similar premise.

I just found this:



Source

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Old 10-06-2011, 04:46 AM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Hamburgo1001 (View Post)
I'm curious what other things might still be in the movie. I don't think 1 sex scene like that would be enough to warrant an R rating.
Yeah, I guess there will be more scenes like that one.

Quote:
Me too. Her husband Ryan seems to be quite an assy character, but I don't know, maybe he will redeem himself by the end of it. Just trying to be optimistic for a second.
I too hope he redeems himself by the end of the movie

Quote:
I don't think I've ever watched 'Crash', but it does seem to have a similar premise.
It's a really good movie, it won the Oscar for best movie in 2006. You should watch it if you can It's kinda sad though

Quote:
I just found this:
Liiiiiiiiiz Thanks for the picspam
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Old 10-06-2011, 01:21 PM
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I too hope he redeems himself by the end of the movie
What do you think? What would he have to do to redeem himself? Crawl beg to Kate, admit that he was an ass and beg for forgiveness?

Quote:
It's a really good movie, it won the Oscar for best movie in 2006. You should watch it if you can It's kinda sad though
Wow, I didn't know that. I'll have to check it out the next time it's going to air on TV.

Quote:
Liiiiiiiiiz Thanks for the picspam
You're welcome.

Lots of new 'Answers To Nothing' movie stills have been uploaded to the internet today. I'm just going to post the Liz ones here:





















Source 1 Source 2 Source 3

She looks so pretty.

Last edited by Hamburgo1001; 10-16-2011 at 07:18 AM Reason: Replaced 3 of the photos with bigger versions
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Old 10-07-2011, 04:57 PM
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I just watched the clips and the trailer, and the movie look much better than what I was expecting! For some reason, I was also expecting it be... "lighter"/less dark, somehow, although reading about the R rating last week gave me a clue that my impression might be wrong.

Liz look very good in the stills and the brief moments of video we got. I wish we got a Kate-centric clip, though.

Ryan is off to a bad start. Not only he's being a cheating jerk to Kate, but he seems to be treating his lover poorly, too.
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Old 10-08-2011, 08:25 AM
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Originally Posted by Hawthorn (View Post)
Liz look very good in the stills and the brief moments of video we got. I wish we got a Kate-centric clip, though.
I agree. That would have been nice. Maybe we'll be lucky enough to get another clip that features her before the movie premieres. We can hope.

Also posting the list of cities where the movie opens on December 2 here on this thread:

Quote:
Boston,
Chicago,
Cleveland,
Columbus, OH,
Dallas,
Los Angeles,
Miami,
New York,
Portland,
San Francisco and
Washington D.C.

Source
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Old 10-10-2011, 12:18 AM
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Thanks for the stills, she looks so beautiful
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Old 10-10-2011, 06:07 AM
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You're welcome.

Yahoo has posted a more detailed description of the plot:

Quote:
Against the backdrop of a missing girl case, lost souls throughout Los Angeles search for meaning and redemption and affect each other in ways they don’t always see.

Ryan and Kate are in a strained marriage. They are trying to have a baby, but instead of bringing them closer together the difficulties are tearing them apart. Two strangers, sharing a home, they each lead private lives unbeknownst to each other. Ryan, grew up listening to the impossible romantic story of his grandparents’ courtship, but isn’t even sure he believes in love. He hates his mother for believing that his father is coming back, even though he left her 10 years ago, and he hates himself for following in his father’s steps of infidelity.

Tara is a young singer at the center of Ryan’s infidelity who despite all her ferocious self-confidence on stage can’t seem to stand up for herself when it comes to Ryan.

Despite his inability to take care of his own personal life, Ryan is a therapist who tries to help others find their way. Allegra is his patient who is trying to understand her own type of self hatred — the resentment of her own race. Uncomfortable in her own skin, she’s the only black staff writer on the first-season TV show “Labor Pains.” She sees Ryan to try to come to terms with her inner struggles but ultimately finds what she’s looking for when she meets Evan, the manager at the club where Tara regularly performs. Evan is a distracted daydreamer and a hopeless romantic who has seemingly been “preparing” for years to be the ideal boyfriend for the girl he finally meets. He meets Allegra while posting signs about a lost dog he found.

Meanwhile Kate carries the burden of desperately wanting a child in ways she can’t express to Ryan or her best friend Frankie. She secretly buys baby clothes and hides them away. As a lawyer, she tries to throw herself into a particularly hard case involving Drew, a recovering alcoholic battling her parents for custody of her severely disabled brother, a former marathon runner. As the court date approaches Drew is determined to run the only major race her brother never ran, the LA Marathon, and push him in his wheelchair across the finish line.

Meanwhile the case of a missing 11 year-old girl continues to play out on television and Frankie, the lead detective, is taking this one personally. A single, divorced mom of a girl the same age, she has a hard time separating the personal and the professional. And she isn’t the only one. Carter is a teacher at Frankie’s daughter’s school. Carter feels like a doormat in much of his life and the missing girl case makes him feel even more helpless. Soon the heroic deeds he engages in at night in the virtual world of his online video game begin to inspire him to do the same in the real world. Fantasy and reality begin to blur leading him to confront his neighbor living down the hallway of his apartment building. Jerry is a beat cop and recent widower who spends much of his day visiting random wakes of others who have lost someone just to listen to the eulogies.

Carter wants to know why the man who appears to be a prime suspect has not been taken into custody. Jerry tries to explain that there are legal procedures that need to be considered but all this does is lead Carter to attempt to take the law into his own hands.

Production Status: In Production/Awaiting Release
Genres: Drama and Thriller
Release Date: December 2nd, 2011 (limited)
MPAA Rating: R for some strong sexual content, nudity, violence and language.
Distributors: Roadside Attractions
Production Co.: Ambush Entertainment
Filming Locations: Los Angeles, California, USA
Produced in: United States

Answers to Nothing (2011) - Movie Details - Yahoo! Movies
I figured Ryan is cheating on Kate with the singer and I think it's good to know that he isn't proud of himself and his cheating ways at least.
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Old 10-10-2011, 10:28 AM
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If this movie ends with Kate finally getting pregnant and finding hope for her marriage, I may throw something at the screen.

There are a lot of complex stories the movie wants to tackle, I hope they do a good job with them and the variety of storylines won't make for a superficial approach of them.
So far the material release still has me optimistic, though.

Thanks for all the updates, Alex!
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Old 10-10-2011, 10:31 AM
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If this movie ends with Kate finally getting pregnant and finding hope for her marriage, I may throw something at the screen.
Why? I think it's very likely that it will end this way. Or she might die on the operation table. That wouldn't surprise me either because it would make for quite a tragic ending.

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Thanks for all the updates, Alex!
You're welcome.
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Old 10-10-2011, 10:45 AM
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Why? I think it's very likely that it will end this way. Or she might die on the operation table. That wouldn't surprise me either because it would make for quite a tragic ending.
Because that's the standard ending for this type of storyline more times than not, done a thousand times already. I wouldn't even mind it, but the plot summary above describes their marriage as "two strangers, sharing a home" and the baby becoming the... glue that fixes something that's too broken, doesn't give me the best vibes.
Of course, I can't really judge until I see it. Besides, movie summaries are always a bit exagerating.

I didn't think about the possibility Kate could die, but now that you mention it - the clips do suggest that scenario is possible.
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Old 10-10-2011, 10:59 AM
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Because that's the standard ending for this type of storyline more times than not, done a thousand times already. I wouldn't even mind it, but the plot summary above describes their marriage as "two strangers, sharing a home" and the baby becoming the... glue that fixes something that's too broken, doesn't give me the best vibes.
Of course, I can't really judge until I see it. Besides, movie summaries are always a bit exagerating.

I didn't think about the possibility Kate could die, but now that you mention it - the clips do suggest that scenario is possible.
Now that we're discussing possible movie endings, didn't Liz describe Kate as a "tragic, little character" in her After Ellen interview? I'm not sure that a sappy, happy ending would fit that description. Death would probably fit a little bit better, but who knows.
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Old 10-11-2011, 11:41 AM
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Hmm, right now I can't recall the comment - but I trust your memory.
Maybe the ending is a middle ground, between death-tragic and happy-reunion sappy. She could end up not pregnant, but having gathered enough strenght to break free from her empty marriage. Still a sort of bleak ending (because she is alone), but with a possible spark of hope.
That said, you could be right with your speculation - "tragic" is a pretty strong description, although Liz exagerates with words, from time to time.
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