Newsletter: Indie Focus: Time for fall films and fall festivals

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Hello! I’m Mark Olsen, and welcome to your weekly field guide to a world of Only Good Movies.

A few weeks back we had one of our Indie Focus Screening Series events with “Digging for Fire,” the new film by Joe Swanberg, a prolific filmmaker who is maturing into a nuanced chronicler of modern life. After the movie we had a Q&A with actor and co-writer Jake Johnson, actress Rosemarie DeWitt and producer Alicia Van Couvering. It was a great conversation, first of all just a lot of fun but also deeply informative on how to pull together a movie with limited means that nevertheless doesn’t feel small or creatively wanting. The film is still playing in theaters and also available via VOD platforms.

You can listen to our podcast of the Q&A here.

Check here for more info on future events: events.latimes.com/indiefocus/

Fall Sneaks

Going back quite awhile, my first encounters simply as a reader with the film coverage in the L.A. Times was via copies of the seasonal Sneaks packages. I remember being knocked out by the breadth of movies covered and the depth of access in the reporting. Once I started writing for the paper, first as a freelancer and then on staff, it has always been impressive to see those packages of articles come together.

Obvious biases aside, this time the staff of editors, writers and photographers really put together something special. The next few months will go a long way toward defining the year in movies, and if you're looking to get a jump on what's ahead, look no further.

Glenn Whipp talked to actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt about his role in Robert Zemeckis’ “The Walk,” in which Gordon-Levitt plays Philippe Petit, the man who walked on a high wire between the two towers of the World Trade Center in 1974.

Joseph Gordon Levitt in the Los Angeles Times studio on Aug. 12, 2015.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Joseph Gordon Levitt in the Los Angeles Times studio on Aug. 12, 2015. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

For anyone who remembers the Oscar-winning documentary “Man on Wire” that also told Petit’s story, as Whipp writes, “The difference between the movies is, as Gordon-Levitt puts it, as distinct as the gulf between Jimi Hendrix's howling version of ‘All Along the Watchtower’ and Bob Dylan's relaxed original.”

Rebecca Keegan spoke to Nancy Meyers and Anne Hathaway about Meyers’ new film “The Intern.” Hathaway plays a young CEO of an expanding Internet retailer who finds an unlikely friend in Robert De Niro, as a retiree who joins a senior intern program.

Of the film’s unusual inter-generational mentoring friendship, Meyers said, “Most movies are about the flaws, the problems, the difficulties we have in life. But I think it's OK and also necessary to be an optimistic voice. I'm saying, older people have wisdom. Older people have value.”

Josh Rottenberg caught up with the very busy Jessica Chastain to talk about her roles in two of the season’s most anticipated films, Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” and Guillermo del Toro’s “Crimson Peak.”

As a multiple Oscar nominee and in-demand actress -- she shot “Crimson Peak” simultaneously with last year’s “A Most Violent Year” -- Chastain is well-aware of her unusual position

"I never had high expectations. I just really wanted to support myself acting," Chastain said. "I'm still shocked by the opportunities that are being given to me. I know how kind of impossible it is to have the career that I have."

Steve Zeitchik wrote about Denis Villeneuve’s “Sicario,” set against the drug trade and turf wars along the border of Mexico with Arizona and Texas. Starring Emily Blunt, Benicio del Toro and Josh Brolin, the film has startling action set pieces along with an air of meditation upon just what the war on drugs is yielding.

"When the chaos is never-ending, at some point we have to ask, 'Are we insane?'" Villeneuve said.

Amy Kaufman wrote about the movie “Everest,” which details a true-life 1996 expedition to climb Mt. Everest that turned into a disaster due to a sudden blizzard. Directed by Baltasar Kormakur and adapted from Jon Krakauer’s account of the climb, the film stars Jake Gyllenhaal, Josh Brolin, John Hawkes and Jason Clarke

Baltasar Karmakur directs Jason Clarke in the epic adventure movie “Everest.”

(Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures)

Baltasar Karmakur directs Jason Clarke in the epic adventure movie "Everest." (Jasin Boland / Universal Pictures)

"I made it very clear from the beginning that I was gonna push this as far as I possibly could,” Kormakur said of trying to capture the outdoor conditions. “I wasn't going to put anyone in life-threatening danger.”

And I wrote about upcoming films that each find a way to engage with social issues, including “99 Homes,” “Suffragette,” “Brooklyn” and “Time Out of Mind.” Grappling with the foreclosure crisis, women’s rights, the immigrant experience and homelessness, the films are all compelling human dramas driven by issues with very real-world components.

As Ramin Bahrani, director and co-writer of “99 Homes,” put it, "I like as an audience member going into worlds I have not seen. I feel life is so interesting, it inspires me."

Fall fests

This time of year also means the fall film festival season has begun. Rebecca Keegan went to Telluride, Colorado, to cover the festival there, which has become an increasingly key part of launching campaigns for the Oscars.

“We only reflect what’s out there,” Telluride Film Festival director Julie Huntsinger said recently. “There’s never an agenda. It’s just about the very best movies.”

One movie playing at multiple festivals is “Anomalisa,” an animated film co-directed by Charlie Kaufman. Steve Zeitchik has a preview piece on the film that makes it sound like a one-of-a-kind work from the idiosyncratic writer-director.

Charlie Kaufman, right, with co-director, animation guru Duke Johnson.

(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

Charlie Kaufman, right, with co-director, animation guru Duke Johnson. (Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)

“Life is a struggle, and you have deal with that," Kaufman said. "There are constant interactions with people in your life you don’t understand. I don’t think any of that changes as you get older. At least it hasn’t for me.”

Steve, Glenn Whipp and I will be heading up to the Toronto International Film Festival this week and will be filing dispatches along the way. We’ll also have photographer Jay Clendenin up north shooting portraits. I’ve already seen a handful of TIFF titles I’m very excited about and can’t wait to share them with all of you.

Used Cars’ at the New Beverly

Robert Zemeckis’ new film “The Walk” hits theaters Sept. 30. On Sept. 11-12 the New Beverly in L.A. will show Zemeckis’ second movie as director, 1980’s “Used Cars.” The film is just the right amount of mean, sort of crazy and has a fantastic out-of-control feeling in its story of dueling used car salesman in Phoenix. Kurt Russell is magnificently sleazy, while also disarmingly charming, in his role as a car salesman doing anything he can to keep the lot he works at open. The film also features Jack Warden in dual roles as brothers who own competing car lots and supporting turns by Frank McRae, Joe Flaherty, Michael McKean and others.

The movie is playing on a double bill with another 1980 comedy, the unmatchable “Airplane!” "Used Cars," as the trailer puts it, is “a movie that asks the question: Would you buy a used car from this man?"

Email me if you have questions, comments or suggestions, and follow me on Twitter @IndieFocus.