MovieMaker

James Gunn is the director of the highly anticipated, very well-reviewed The Suicide Squad, starring Margot Robbie, Idris Elba, Joel Kinnaman and many more. It will almost certainly be one of the biggest films of the weird summer of 2021.

But he can remember working on scrappy New York productions where he had to choose between yelling and being yelled at. And a childhood outside St. Louis, Missouri that he would change if he could.

We talk about Gunn's being fired and rehired from Guardians of the Galaxy, whether it's harder to shoot low-budget movies or blockbusters, and how briefly meeting Joe Strummer of The Clash had a huge impact on the way he relates to passionate fans.

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Calgary is sleek and modern enough to double for any city in the world, but surrounded by pristine plains and mountain ranges that drew productions like The Revenant and Brokeback Mountain. It has a film-friendly local government, bustling production schedule, and it's one of MovieMaker Magazine's Top 10 Cities to Live and Work as a Moviemaker.

It may also be the most livable city in the Western Hemisphere — it was in the Economist Intelligence Unit's top 5 cities in the world for a decade, and was the top Western Hemisphere city for two.

All that, and it wants people to move there. So: Should you? We get into it this episode with a man who says yes: Luke Azevedo, Calgary's film commissioner and Vice President of Creative Industries for Calgary Economic Development.

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Manjari Makijany's film Skater Girl is about an Indian girl named Prerna (the excellent newcomer Rachel Sanchita Gupta, pictured), who crosses paths with a woman named Jessica (Amrit Maghera) visiting from the UK. Prerna's life path soon changes from housework to practicing ollies at a new skatepark.

Before she could make the film, Makijany first had to build a real skatepark. It remains today in the Rajasthan village where the film takes place.

To make the film — and build the skatepark — Makijany had to convince some powerful men that she was the one calling the shots. Not her husband, or father, or any other male authority figure.

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Michael Waldron, creator of the Disney+ series Loki, got his big break as an intern for Dan Harmon — when he started a softball team that would get him more face time with the creator of Community and Rick & Morty.

Things have gone well since — besides running Loki, he's writing Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and a secret Star Wars project led by Marvel chief Kevin Feige. He also created the upcoming Starz wrestling drama Heels.

His influences range from Nora Ephron to Quentin Tarantino, and he traces Loki's mix of love and nihilism, in part, to a comic strip: Bill Watterson's Calvin and Hobbes.

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If you're a fan of Iliza Shlesinger from her standup specials — including Elder Millennial and Unveiled — you'll love her new Netflix film Good on Paper, which she wrote, executive produces, and stars in.

You might also like Good on Paper if you've ever dated a compulsive liar.

Shlesinger talks about the journey from dating a very dishonest person to making a movie about it, the moment when the whole thing almost fell apart, and how she finally got one of those rare fuck yeah moments in Hollywood.

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Sabrina Doyle, who grew up working class in London, was determined to create a blue-collar fable with her debut Lorelei —a film that avoids both idealization and tragedy.

Pablo Schreiber plays a biker who gets out of prison and reunites with his ex, played by Jena Malone. She has three kids now, none of them his. The couple wonder what became of their youthful dreams of getting out of their small Oregon town and heading to Los Angeles.

Doyle elicits excellent performances from Schreiber and Malone, and also stellar work the three young actors who play her children: Parker Pascoe-Sheppard, Amelia Borgerding and Chancellor Perry.

Lorelei is finally appearing before an audience at Tribeca after in-person screenings were delayed last year, and is expected in theaters and on VOD soon.

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In Coast, directed by Jessica Hester and Derek Schweickart, a teenage girl (Fatima Ptacek) sees a way out of her small Central Coast town when the singer in a band invites her out on the road. The film, inspired by screenwriter Cindy Kitagawa's teenage years in Santa Maria, Calif., explores all she would leave behind.

With a great cast that includes Cristela Alonso, Melissa Leo and Ciara Bravo, Coast may give you hope about the future of live music. We also talk with Hester and Schweickart about how to get Joy Division songs in your movie, get the rights to a Kurt Vonnegut story for $5, and direct a film with someone you love. And they tell us how Bruce Dern helped get their movie rolling.

You can learn more about Coast here.

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Mare of Easttown has gotten an almost uniformly positive response, which is a new experience for director Craig Zobel — his films sometimes make people lose it.

His film Compliance sparked anger at Sundance, other film festivals, and screenings nationwide. And last year's The Hunt was denounced by none other than Donald Trump.

But he really wants people to see each other as people, and hopes his stories — including Easttown — help them do that.

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Darren Lynn Bousman had been fired from a string of assistant jobs and even told he would never work in Hollywood again when he came up with a Jigsaw-level plan to break into movies. By age 25, he had made Saw II — which opened at No. 1 at the box office. Then he repeated the feat with Saw III, and again with Saw IV.

The Kansas native decided he'd done all he could with the franchise. And then he got a call that Chris Rock wanted to meet him.

The result is the new Spiral: From the Book of Saw, a film that delivers all the nasty machinations that Saw fans love while also delivering a crackerjack detective story full of mystery and twists. It's a story almost as wild as the way Bousman broke in.

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Actor David Oyelowo is acclaimed for his roles in projects like Selma and Les Miserables, but his directorial debut, The Water Man, is a kid-focused fantasy drama that draws from influences like Stand by Me and The Goonies.

The much-praised film tells the story of a boy named Gunner (Lonnie Chavis) who sets off in search of a possibly mythical being who may be able to heal his leukemia-stricken mother (Rosario Dawson). Alfred Molina and Maria Bello also play key roles, and Oyelowo plays Gunner’s father.

Our special guest interviewer this episode is Will Gluck, who recently directed Oyelowo in Peter Rabbit 2: The Runaway, and asks incredibly incisive questions about the role of a director, when to listen to notes and ignore them, and trusting the audience.

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