A Kiss so sweet
In Search of a Midnight Kiss is, without doubt, the best film we've seen this year. It's probably the best film we've seen in the history of Screenjabber. It's the sort of film that makes you want to cheer and shout from the rooftops. Happily, we're not alone: every newspaper, magazine and radio pundit seems to adore it. Even more happily, we got the chance to tell the director and cast how we felt. Neil Davey comes over all warm and fuzzy with the people behind this charming, very modern romance.
Scoot McNairy is in a chatty mood. It's a glorious day, the sun is shining across the rooftops of North London and Scoot, the wiry star of In Search of a Midnight Kiss, is happy to be here. "It's amazing," he confirms. "It's such a wild ride for us. We never expected it to go this far." He looks around happily. "We're in London! Who'd have thought?"
Who indeed. In Search of a Midnight Kiss is not the sort of film people usually get flown several thousand miles to discuss. Made back in 2006 by young writer / director Alex Holdridge, it features a cast of relative unknowns, is in black and white and was made on a shoestring. The result though is funny, touching and honest, and does for downtown LA what Woody did for Manhattan. The current buzz then is no accident. This is a gorgeous low-key film that deserves every word of praise, and the comparisons to Woody don't end with the choice of film stock either.
"Once we'd seen the footage we knew this was going to be Alex Holdridge's Woody Allen / Linklater / Clerks moment," says Scoot, a veteran of Holdridge's previous films, who likens their working relationship to Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. "We know Alex is going to pop out something good, so it's definitely worth our time. It would be like Woody Allen after his first two or three films saying, 'Hey, would you like to be a part of this?' You just knew he'd have something. We dropped everything to do it."
The film is a frank look at modern relationships and, as such, appears to be grounded in reality. As Scoot explains, that's because it is: his character Wilson — the young man desperately searching for someone to kiss on New Year's Eve — is based on Alex. However, as he's quick to point out, that doesn't mean Alex the filmmaker isn't flexible.
"At night we'd get together and read the pages we were shooting the following day. If a line didn't work, Alex would cross it out. Then he'd say, 'put down the page, just do the scene,' and if we said something he liked 'organically', Alex would put that in. He's not locked in or precious about 'his' words. He'd ask what we would say in those situations. He wanted it to be real. There are no egos involved."
That's also suggested by the fact Scoot produced the film. He also admits that one day he'll follow his friend into directing, but not just yet. "Five years" is Scoot's estimate when pushed — and even then, he won't do it until he's found the right project. "I would be very particular about it," he explains with a grin, "because I'm a story whore. It has to have a good story. Look, I've read 800 scripts over the last year for my production company and I've found three. And even those three need a little bit of work.
"I'd have to wait till I find a story that resonates, for something I understand, that I'm really passionate about ... it's like when I was a kid, and saw Rocky. For two weeks after, I wanted to be a boxer. I was eight! Or the way I felt after leaving Saving Private Ryan, and then seeing WWII veterans in a completely different light. Those films changed me through story telling. I need to make sure I can accomplish that as a director."
It rapidly becomes clear that what links Scoot and Alex — on the evidence of this particular film, anyway — is passion. Scoot cheerfully admits to being fascinated by every aspect of the process. "I'm like a kid on set. I don't retreat to my trailer, I'll be there talking to the cinematographer, asking what he's shooting on, what lenses he's using, what filters ... I'm always picking at people's brains. I'll go to the gaffer and watch what he's doing.
"On Midnight Kiss, I learned how to bounce a shot off the mirror and make a room look bigger. I was already lighting scenes, moving things around, I knew how to use a jib ... all because I'd been talking to these people on-set. I love it all. I love the process: the lights, wrangling cables, cranes, how they work, everything's fascinating. To watch all of that and see it turn into this one 90 minute, two hour thing? It's fascinating."
"Can I eat that?"
The question comes from Sara Simmonds, who's just arrived and is eyeing Scoot's remaining toast. She happily accepts the plate from Scoot, and nestles in alongside Alex Holdridge for the next part of the interview. As befits such a clearly close-knit team, Scoot decides to hang around as well and, in the manner of Hugh Grant in Notting Hill, "introduces" himself to Sara and Alex as "Variety's London correspondent".
"Hey," says Alex. "Good to meet you. I love all those shortened words you make up. It makes it easier for me to read ..."
Settling down to the business of the day though — toast permitting — Sara and Alex are clearly as buzzed as Scoot about the UK reaction to the film.
"We had a great screening last night," reveals Sara. "Lots of people showed up and they really liked our movie..."
"It's a blast," adds Alex, before explaining the film's unlikely journey to this point.
"We began about two and a half years ago. I'd been ruminating on it for about a year before that while I'd been working in the Hollywood system trying to a get a project off the ground. That fell through, and a friend said to me he'd got an HD camera, did I want to try it? And I thought: yes!
"I was hungry to shoot something, so I called everyone and wrote the script quickly. I felt like it was borne out of so much frustration and heartbreak and so much hunger to make a movie again. Here we were in LA, no longer having to play a waiting game, we could do it our way, on the streets for no money."
"And with no permits," adds Sara. "People would stop and ask us what we were shooting so we'd always say 'a wedding video', because we didn't want to have to deal with legal issues or people bothering us."
An unconventional approach, perhaps, but one that works. And one that worked for Sara from the end of day one. "That night we sat down and watched some dailies," she explains, "and it was incredible. That was my first feeling it might turn into something." She smiles. "Of course, every day is a new excitement. I can't believe the travel, I can't believe the reaction, I can't believe the reviews ..." She shakes her head, grinning.
It's certainly a long way away from Alex's first filmmaking experiences. "Our first movie took four years," he says. "That's how I met this man" — he pats Scoot on the knee — "and we were just friends doing this together, working whatever you needed to get it done, living in an apartment crammed with computer equipment, downloading hack software and figuring out how to get it to run fast enough to edit stuff, and your girlfriend going fucking mad because she's surrounded by computers and cameras..."
The experience clearly stood them in good stead though, and possibly helped build the bond and loyalty they all clearly have. Sara joined the "team" for Alex's next film, Sexless, an experience she clearly found very positive — "it's like family" — and the reason for signing up again this time around: "It was so much fun shooting in Austin, so it was cool to do that again in LA." She also echoes Scoot's earlier sentiments that he'd work with Alex again any time — and reveals that Scoot's earlier comment about "dropping everything" to make this film was not just an expression.
"We all fired our managers and agents because they didn't want us to do this film," she says. "There was no money, there was nothing, they couldn't understand why we wanted to do it."
"And it was right at the beginning of [TV] pilot season, too," says Scoot. "My agent was saying 'hold out, I'll get you $45,000 for a show,' and I thought there's no guarantee of that, but this film is guaranteed." He shrugs. "So we all left our representation." Meaning, of course, they have the sort of bond the film's characters are actively seeking. It's surely that search for a connection that's resonating with audiences worldwide. "Finding that connection is difficult," says Sara, "particularly in Hollywood where everyone is so self involved."
"Yeah, I know I am ..." adds Alex.
"And when I get back I don't want one single phone call," replies Sara, not missing a beat. "But yeah, that's why people relate." That and the sense of honesty, of course. As Scoot said earlier, his character is based on Alex and, as Alex explains, was written with Scoot in mind. You can't help wondering then what inspired Sara's character, Vivian, the forthright, opinionated, slightly neurotic wannabe actress ...
"Well," says Alex, dadpan, "Sara's a lunatic bitch ..."
"Say it louder, I like that phrase," says Sara, and Alex cheefully complies. "Sara's a lunatic bitch," he continues — louder — "and I shagged her one night and I wanted to write about that night ..."
He laughs. "I've acted with Sara, so I knew she had this amazing poppy, 'ping-pongy' sense, and have this back and forth dialogue. And because of her theatre background I knew she had this really intense range, so I knew I could throw her something hard to pull off. She's actually very sweet, and soft, so I had to give her a harsh part that she could play."
"And I have to say that it's difficult for females," says Sara. "You're cast so often on your appearance. It's hard to find great leading female roles that actually have some depth to them. I was just so grateful to be able to dive into something a little different than what's usually available for an actor like me."
"And I needed to know that I can trust the actors," adds Alex. "Partciularly when you're shooting on the subway, you're about to get kicked out and you've written a line that 'Wilson cries'. I need to know that I'll zoom in and boom, Scoot is crying. That blows my mind. There are people passing, we're about to get kicked out, and they're accessing this emotional space ..."
Hence, the three will be working together again — possibly sooner rather than later. "Me and Alex are putting together a film to be shot in Paris," reveals Scoot. "We're going to go and scout locations. It's a thriller, a running gun on the streets, action, suspense thriller, similar to Go in terms of speed ..."
"... And I want it to have a noirish undercurrent in the mood of The Third Man," adds Alex. "It's kind of a meandering romance on the streets of Paris while Scoot gets into a little trouble."
"It's called Hate In Paris," says Sara. "We're going over there this weekend. "To do 'research'. I'm going to do 'shopping'..."