Filmmaker Josephine Decker has been working as a director since her first short film, “Naked Princeton,” in 2005, but she’s become more recognizable and lauded in the last few years. With “Madeline’s Madeline” and “Shirley,” she has cemented herself as an individualistic and inventive filmmaker who can put her spin on each new genre she tackles, and in her latest, “The Sky is Everywhere,” she imbues a YA story with her distinct touch for the avant-garde.

Continue reading Josephine Decker Talks ‘The Sky Is Everywhere,’ Visualizing Emotions & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

In John Cassavetes’s 1977 psychological drama “Opening Night,” star Gena Rowlands laments, “When I was 17, I…I could do anything. It was so easy. My emotions were so close to the surface.” It’s in this soil of raw, intense teenage emotional honesty that director Josephine Decker firmly plants her adaption of Jandy Nelson’s YA novel “The Sky Is Everywhere.” In both films, artists lose touch with their craft while reeling from a sudden, expected death that shakes them to their core, though one tackles this trauma with a much lighter, rosier touch. 

READ MORE: 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2022

Everything in the world of musical prodigy, Lennie Walker (Grace Kaufman), is heightened.

Continue reading ‘The Sky Is Everywhere’ Review: Avant-Garde Flourishes Elevate Josephine Decker’s YA Romance at The Playlist.

Will Josephine Decker ever stop surprising us? While her style isn’t for everyone, there are a lot of devotees of Decker’s free-form, immersive, and deeply personal experimental dramas (including this writer). Her last film, 2020’s “Shirley,” a seethingly interior take on the biopic formula, won over critics at the Sundance Film Festival that year, who praised it as her most ambitious to date.

READ MORE: The 100 Most Anticipated Films Of 2022

So, what’s next on Decker’s docket?

Continue reading ‘The Sky Is Everywhere’ Trailer: Josephine Decker Tries Earnest, Romantic, Grief-Stricken YA For Apple In February at The Playlist.

As we end a truly extraordinary year of movie-going (or movie-staying, maybe), and to add to our comprehensive array of Best of 2020 coverage, Be Reel assesses which directors broke through their indie roots to become household names, distinct voices, and burgeoning auteurs in 2020. 

READ MORE: The 25 Best Films Of 2020

In order, we look back on these breakout directors, some of whom have arguably already broken out before (Sean Durkin being the most obvious), but are also re-emerging after a long time in the wilderness.

Continue reading The Breakthrough Directors Of 2020 [Be Reel Podcast] at The Playlist.

Every Tuesday, discriminating viewers are confronted with a flurry of choices: new releases on disc and on-demand, vintage and original movies on any number of streaming platforms, catalog titles making a splash on Blu-ray or 4K. This weekly column sifts through all of those choices to pluck out the movies most worth your time, no matter how you’re watching. 

As the last of the spring theatrical releases finish the cycle to home video, we now get the Should’ve Beens – films that were all set to knock your socks off at the art houses after dazzling audiences at Sundance et.

Continue reading The 5 Best Movies To Buy Or Stream This Week: ‘Shirley,’ ‘Lady Bird’ & More at The Playlist.

Focusing on anything besides what’s going on in America’s streets is difficult at the moment. In another reality the entertainment industry is debating what can only be described as questionable standards for resuming production in an era of COVID-19, fans are celebrating Lady Gaga’s “Chromatica” and getting excited about the potential resumption of the major sports leagues. More pressing issues are at stake and how long the people have to take to the streets for change to be seen remains to be seen.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss On The “Role Of A Lifetime” In ‘Shirley’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

Filmmaker Josephine Decker is arguably the heir apparent of Miranda July, in that she’s sort of today’s premiere female indie filmmaker now pushing the boundaries of narrative and trying to make her dramas as experimental as possible. So far, it’s worked like gangbusters, especially in her expressive, live-wire drama, “Madeline’s Madeline” (which not so coincidentally starred July).

READ MORE: ‘Shirley’: Josephine Decker Returns To The Rich Landscape Of The Fragile Mind [Sundance Review]

Decker’s latest film, “Shirley, which debuted at Sundance earlier this year (read our review) is about a real-life literary figure—famed horror and mystery writer Shirley Jackson (played by Elisabeth Moss).

Continue reading ‘Shirley’ Trailer: Elisabeth Moss Plays A Horror Author Going Mad For Director Josephine Decker at The Playlist.

Did you know that Logan Lerman starred in two of the bigger hits of 2014? Do you even remember? The two films were Darren Aronofsky’s “Noah” and David Ayer’s “Fury.” And don’t be discouraged if you don’t recall, in the six years since Lerman took a chance on a couple of indies that simply didn’t leave an impression. Bluntly put, it’s been a while since he’s popped on a screen.

Continue reading Logan Lerman’s Unexpected Comeback Begins With ‘Hunters’ & ‘Shirley’ [Interview] at The Playlist.

“I feel like the movies this year are better than they’ve ever been,” says “Madeline’s Madeline” writer-director Josephine Decker about this year’s Sundance fare, before settling into a conversation about her latest film, “Shirley,” which played as part of the festival’s 2020 US Dramatic Competition. “I like to think that having a fascist for a president is at least helping our art succeed….meaning, everyone is taking their art way more seriously.

Continue reading Josephine Decker Discusses ‘Shirley’ & Its Real-Life Literary Inspiration [Sundance Interview] at The Playlist.

Their first meeting does not go well. Shirley Jackson (Elisabeth Moss) writes with force and intensity, but when Rose (Odessa Young) approaches her at the summer house party to introduce herself and compliment her work, the writer is brittle, bitter, and distant. She is, we discover, both depressive and agoraphobic; she hasn’t left the house in longer than anyone can remember, and most days, she can barely get out of her bed. 

READ MORE: Here Are Our 25 Most Anticipated Sundance Premieres

She can’t keep up the home she shares with her husband, Stanley Hyman (Michael Stuhlbarg), much less write anything new.

Continue reading ‘Shirley’: Josephine Decker Returns To The Rich Landscape Of The Fragile Mind [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

Academy snubs be damned, 2019 was a spectacular end to a decade of outstanding films directed by women. Joanna Hogg reinvented visual memoir with “The Souvenir,” Lulu Wang challenged American conceptions of family and death in “The Farewell,” and Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women” adaptation upended one of the most iconic American novels by and about a woman.

Continue reading 52 Films Directed By Women To Watch In 2020 at The Playlist.

The 2019 Sundance Film Festival is upon us and we’re feeling good about most of our Most Anticipated 2020 Film feature predictions; many of the films with early February release dates are indeed making Sundance premieres (“Wendy,” “Downhill,” etc.). This year feels rich already, with new films by Dee Rees, Josephine Decker, Miranda July and many, many more.

READ MORE: Sundance 2020 Lineup Revealed: Films By Josephine Decker, Miranda July, Viggo Mortensen & More

But let’s get to some quick first looks, shall we?

Continue reading Sundance First Look: Anne Hathaway in Dee Rees’ Latest, Miranda July’s ‘Kajillionaire,’ Riley Keough In ‘Zola’ & More at The Playlist.

Last year, it was announced that Apple and A24 had agreed on a deal that would allow the two companies to work together on a select number of films that would be produced by the indie company and distributed through the tech giant’s upcoming streaming service, Apple TV+. The first film from this deal is the already-announced “On the Rocks,” from director Sofia Coppola.

Continue reading Apple & A24 Reteam On A New Film From ‘Madeline’s Madeline’ Director Josephine Decker at The Playlist.

Josephine Decker’s “Madeline’s Madeline” is one of the most exciting movies of the year, immersing the audience in a exhilarating cauldron of daring theatrical roleplaying, teenage rebellion, and swirling, innovative film grammar. It’s an experiential arty indie film about the blurring of the boundaries between art and life and it pushes its experimentation and pretentious right to the edge of exasperation. But there’s also a thrilling passion in this kind of whimsical radicalism that teeters on going off the rails, but anxiously, and electrically stays on course.

Continue reading ‘Madeline’s Madeline’: Josephine Decker Talks The Spiritual Process Of Acting Troupes & More [Interview] at The Playlist.

If you don’t know Josephine Decker, you soon will. Actor/writer/director extraordinaire, Decker has been weaving in and out of the independent film-scape for years, with films like “Flames” and “Thou Wast Mild And Lovely.” Her projects are vibrant, full of imagination and color. And as seen in the trailer for her latest project, there’s a child-like wonder evident that the director has curated her whole career.

Continue reading ‘Madeline’s Madeline’ Trailer: Helena Howard Dazzles In This Sundance Standout From Josephine Decker at The Playlist.

In 2014, Josephine Decker made quite a splash at the Berlin Film Festival “Double Decker” premiere of “Butter On The Latch” and “Thou Wast Mild & Lovely.” Since then, she’s been making quite the name for herself in the indie film world, with projects such as “Madeline’s Madeline” which made its debut at Sundance 2018.

Continue reading Elisabeth Moss Set To Star In Josephine Decker’s Biopic About Author Shirley Jackson at The Playlist.

PARK CITY – The first few minutes of Josephine Decker‘s “Madeline’s Madeline” immediately inform you that this is not going to be a conventional narrative in the slightest. A teenage girl, the Madeline in question, sashays her way into her family’s dining room where her mother patiently watches as she lays down on a credenza pretending to be a cat. Her mother indulges this behavior by going over and rubbing her head and stomach as she purrs.

Continue reading Helena Howard Is A Fury To Behold In Josephine Decker’s ‘Madeline’s Madeline’ [Sundance Review] at The Playlist.

“Flames” co-directors Josephine Decker and Zefrey Throwell have created something truly unique with their new docudrama, a word and genre that typically should be weighed heavily before being written as a descriptor. For good or for ill, depending on how gratuitously self-indulgent you find their filmed voyage of their passionate first months of uninterrupted love and inevitable disintegration, “Flames” is without a doubt unlike any other film released in recent memory.

Continue reading Josephine Decker & Zefrey Throwell’s ‘Flames’ Captures The Burning Lights & Charred Embers Of Love [Tribeca Review] at The Playlist.

When you have an artist like Miranda July co-signing and excited for an up-and-coming filmmaker’s next effort, perhaps that’s ample reason to sit up and take notice if you haven’t already. And you absolutely should. Performance artist, actor, and filmmaker Josephine Decker took the indie world by storm in 2014 with her startling one-two punch of “Thou Wast Mild And Lovely” and “Butter On The Latch.” Even before they premiered, the movies were the talk of the indie space after both pictures were accepted into the Berlin Film Festival that year, which raised Decker’s profile exponentially.

Continue reading Passion Turns To Heartbreak In the First NSFW Trailer For Josephine Decker’s ‘Flames’ [Watch] at The Playlist.

Review: Josephine Decker's 'Thou Wast Mild And Lovely' & 'Butter On The Latch'

Continue reading Review: Josephine Decker’s ‘Thou Wast Mild And Lovely’ & ‘Butter On The Latch’ at The Playlist.

The 10 Movies That Changed My Life: 'Thou Wast Mild & Lovely' Filmmaker Josephine Decker

Continue reading The 10 Movies That Changed My Life: ‘Thou Wast Mild & Lovely’ Filmmaker Josephine Decker at The Playlist.

On The Rise 2014: 12 Directors To Watch

Continue reading On The Rise 2014: 12 Directors To Watch at The Playlist.

Berlin Reviews: 'Butter On The Latch,' ‘The Third Side Of The River,’ ’El Somni’ & ‘The Midnight After’

Continue reading Berlin Reviews: ‘Butter On The Latch,’ ‘The Third Side Of The River,’ ’El Somni’ & ‘The Midnight After’ at The Playlist.

Berlin Review: Josephine Decker’s ‘Thou Wast Mild And Lovely’ Both Fascinating And Frustrating

Continue reading Berlin Review: Josephine Decker’s ‘Thou Wast Mild And Lovely’ Both Fascinating And Frustrating at The Playlist.

Exclusive: Posters & Photos Of Director Josephine Decker's Berlin Double Bill Including Film Starring Joe Swanberg

Continue reading Exclusive: Posters & Photos Of Director Josephine Decker’s Berlin Double Bill Including Film Starring Joe Swanberg at The Playlist.