Diary of an aspiring filmmaker

When the credits roll: A first-time director deals with the aftermath of hismovie's premiere

The crowd right before the premiere of Art Car: The Movie
Photo by Ford Gunter
Ford Gunter, from left, Harrod Blank and Carlton Ahrens
And what better way to be visible in America than on the ultimate public canvas:The Car.
Photo via Art Car/Facebook

Editor's note: Ford Gunter quit his full-time journalism job in Houston to make a movie with his childhood buddy/co-director/business partner Carlton Ahrens. In the latest installment of his CultureMap account of chasing the dream with Art Car: The Movie, he deals with the aftermath of the movie's premiere.

The art car artists have a term to describe the ennui they all experience every year after the parade: "Post-artum blues."

We felt it too. After weeks of 14-hour editing sessions and, before that, months of 10- to 12-hour days, we suddenly had nothing to do. Months of brutal hours, followed by a few days of awkward attention (at the Cinema Arts Festival), and then . . . nothing. For me, the silence wasn't deafening, it was unnerving.

The day after our premiere, on Monday, Nov. 14, as we filled out the first of what is now nine (and counting) film festival applications, it dawned on us how much our movie had changed.

The first thing we do when we fill out one of these things — film festival application, grant application, media synopsis, etc. — is go to our website or Facebook and copy and paste the synopsis from there. We did, and realized it didn't fit at all. Since we wrote that synopsis half a year ago or so, we'd gone from two lead characters to one, gone from five supporting charters to three completely different supporting characters, added substantially from the last interview we shot in Baltimore on a last-minute if-we-don't-do-this-now-we'll-never-do-it trip, and cut almost completely footage we made special trips to shoot in places as far as, oh, you know, France.

The nuts of it is, we set out to make a movie about why people decorated their cars and we ended up making a movie about why you should care.

We also expanded from the "Hands on a Hard Body" goal-oriented-in-an-oh-so-quirky-event/competition story to (we hope) a much more broad and socially applicable story that at points addresses public education, generational apathy (young and old), public art, consumerism, the car as a reflection of self, the car's value in American society, and — to be sappy for a moment — chasing your dream so relentlessly that the drive could only result from the pursuer knowing deep down inside that there is very little chance of any public or financial return on investment but also acknowledging, still deep down in side, that it doesn't matter because he or she is not doing it for that reason.

He or she is doing it because, whether they fully understand it or not, they have to challenge you. On a daily basis.

And what better way to be visible in America than on the ultimate public canvas: The Car.

What we think we have is an existential mediation on the society we've become. That's the heart of the thing. The characters are just the, ahem, vehicles that get us there, to help us, the viewer (because we were viewers too), get to the meaning of the Damn Thing, as it applies to them. To us.

But it couldn't have been just anyone. Art cars and the people who make them were almost too perfect. And what better way to investigate the values of American society than through the lens of a handful of people who dare to (fill in your adjective here: decorate, modify, beautify, funkify, defile, disgrace, ruin) the Great American Icon.

Heady, right? Don't worry — we're not taking ourselves to seriously. The nuts of it is, we set out to make a movie about why people decorated their cars and we ended up making a movie about why you should care. We made the movie we wanted to make.

I wrote this weeks after the premiere. I still don't have a firm grasp on the entire experience, but I'm a lot closer. It took a week of sleep and another week of solitude to start to piece things together. The next week I started my reemergence into society, but I'm still too tired to try very hard.

Now begins a weird sit-and-wait period where the only real tasks are submitting to film festivals we won't hear anything back from until February at the earliest and starting to put together DVD extras. Oh, and cut a trailer. There's that too.

Anyone who thought filmmakers were lazy will probably find positive reinforcement in the scenario I've painted of the last few weeks, and that's fair. For the rest of you, the close readers, I hope it's an adequate explanation of how I could have arrived at this period of quiet, isolated, self-indulgent sloth.

See you on the other side.

unspecified

Movie Review

New Superman movie forges into the future while honoring the past

Photo by Jessica Miglio

David Corenswet in Superman.

When the character of Superman was invented in 1938, it was perhaps easier to see the world in good and bad terms. Fascism was already on the rise in Germany under Adolf Hitler, and the idea of an all-powerful superhero who stood up for people in need was a welcome one. In the nearly 90 years since, though, the world and the character have undergone multiple evolutions, and the thought of someone who is purely good is often met with cynicism or worse.

The new Superman, written and directed by James Gunn, puts the superhero (or metahuman, as the film calls him and similar creatures) squarely in the midst of the modern world, with geopolitical conflicts, mega-corporations, and social media all combining to make the altruism of Superman/Clark Kent (David Corenswet) questionable. That skepticism even extends to his coworker/girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan), whose knowledge of his exploits puts her in a tricky position personally and professionally.

Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) is out to dominate the world and take down Superman, with his eponymous corporation and vast group of underlings dedicated to doing both. Superman is generally a one-man fighting crew, but he’s occasionally aided by a group calling themselves the Justice Gang, comprised of heroes many have never heard of like Guy Gardner (Nathan Fillion), a version of Green Lantern; Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced), a flying metahuman; and Mr. Terrific (Edi Gathegi), who knows all kinds of technology.

One of the best things about this new version of Superman is that it mostly dispenses with introductions, putting the audience in a world where Superman is already a well-known quantity who’s adored by many and hated by some. Gunn has used his new position as co-CEO of DC Studios to honor the past of the hero and take him into the future. With the 1978 John Williams theme song echoing throughout and Corenswet giving off Christopher Reeve vibes, it’s clear Gunn wants audiences to feel nostalgia while still getting something new.

He also appears to want viewers to fight against the negativity that the modern world can bring. The plot involves manipulation of the public, usually at the hands of Luthor, through bombastic talk shows, political theater, and social media, the latter of which — in a great joke — comes to involve hundreds of typing monkeys. The film could be read as a rebuttal of many real-world ills as, despite Luthor’s machinations, many choose to continue to believe in the goodness of Superman.

There is a lot going on in the film, but somehow it never comes off as overly complicated. Superman’s relationship with Lois Lane and Luthor’s attempts at taking him down are given the most prominence, with everything else supporting those two main things. The Justice Gang is a fun addition, with Mr. Terrific becoming the breakout hero of the group. The addition of the (CGI) dog Krypto provides levity, poignant moments, and unexpectedly great action scenes. The only part that gets somewhat short shrift is the crew of The Daily Planet, with everyone besides Lois and Jimmy Olsen (Skyler Gisondo) getting little more than face time.

Being the new Superman is a lot to live up to, but Corenswet is completely up to the job. He, like Reeve, plays the character as someone who is earnest but not naive, a quality that comes through even when he’s in the middle of fight scenes. Brosnahan is also fantastic, providing a nice balance to the relationship while also proving the character’s own worth. Hoult makes for a great new version of Luthor, and Gathegi nearly makes the case that Mr. Terrific should get a starring film of his own.

Just as he did with the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy, Gunn has shown that success can be found through making characters people want to see. Not everyone in this Superman will be familiar to viewers, but in the end a group of people working together toward a goal that serves the common good is one worth watching and cheering for.

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Superman is now playing in theaters.

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