This is a man who had defused himself, who had tamped down his desires. And when he came out, it was the beginning of him becoming more vivid and hot and present, which was often messy but always wonderful.

— Filmmaker Mike Mills talks about his father, who came out when he was 75.

Tomorrow: Filmmaker Mike Mills

David Edelstein reviews Mike Mills’ Beginners: With Beginners, Mike Mills puts himself in a league with Allen & Charlie Kaufman; his movie is marvelously inventive, and all those inventions — flashbacks, slide shows, even a telepathic Jack Russell terrier with subtitled dialogue — pull you deep into the mind of its tortured hero.

His coming out was actually this gesture, of him saying ‘I want life. I want more life. I want something.’ And this was a man who was so self-denying for so long — this very polite, quiet man. And he [wanted] sex. … It’s just weird, to think of your parent that way … This is a man who had defused himself, who had tamped down his desires. And when he came out, it was the beginning of him becoming more vivid and hot and present, which was often messy but always wonderful.

— Filmmaker Mike Mills on his father coming out at the age of 75, after his wife died. [complete interview here]

The day before, he said, ‘Michael, I’m going to throw you a ball and I hope you catch it.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, no, he wants to move in with me.’ … The next day, we’re sitting on the couch and he said ‘I’m gay.’

— Filmmaker Mike Mills talks about his father Paul, who came out when he was 75. Mills’ new film Beginners is based on his relationship with his dad.

There are two famous people named Mike Mills. One is a filmmaker. He is on our show today. The other one is a member of the band REM. He was on our show a while ago with Michael Stipe and Peter Buck. Enjoy!

(Source: NPR)

Today: Mike Mills

On today’s Fresh Air: Mike Mills

tra-la-la:

Humans Manifesto 03
1. Be more positive. 2. Try to stop
anthropomorphizing the animals I know,
or at least do it less. 3. Play games
that require abandon. 4. Get better at
maintaining relationships with friends.
5. Look at how I’m not fully conscious of
my real life, admit that I’m groping in the
dark, overwhelmed y the consequences
of my acts and that at every moment I’m
faced with outcomes I did not intend.

(click-through) 

Selections from Humans 03 (2006) by Mike Mills

Tomorrow: Mike Mills

Tomorrow: Filmmaker, Designer, Director Mike Mills [His website]

Mills will talk about his movie Beginners, starring Ewan McGregor as a graphic artist whose 75-year-old father, played by Christopher Plummer, has just come out. The film is based on the story of Mills’ father, who came out when he was 75.

Ann Marie Baldonado: An Update on Distribution at the Toronto Film Festival

The Toronto Film Festival ended this weekend with the top award,The People’s Choice Award, going to The King’s Speech, the film about King George VI (father of Queen Elisabeth) and the speech therapist who helped him get rid of his stutter.

The awards at Toronto don’t mean as much as say the awards at Cannes or Sundance, but the winners of the audience award usually end up doing well at Oscar time.  

Two years ago, Slumdog Millionaire was a clear crowd pleaser and audience award winner, and last year it was Precious.  Coming out of the festival, The King’s Speech is a talked about favorite for a best film nomination, as well as acting awards for Colin Firth as the King and Geoffrey Rush as his trusted friend and advisor.

In other updates, a number of films I wrote about here have gotten distribution deals.  In fact, industry insiders are calling this the most-active Toronto market in years.  This weekend, Beginners, Mike Mills’ second feature film, was picked up by Focus Films.  No official word yet on when they will release the film in the US, but some speculate it will come out the middle of 2011.  

Lionsgate and Roadside Attractions purchased the Will Ferrell film, Everything Must Go, as well as the Robert Redford directed historical drama, The Conspirator, and Lionsgate alone will be distributing Rabbit Hole, starring Nicole
Kidman and Aaron Eckhart.  

Other films that were purchased include the new Kelly Reichart film, Meek’s Cutoff, starring Michelle Williams, Passion Play starring Mickey Rourke and Megan Fox, the films Peepworld, Beautiful Boy, and Dirty Girl, as well as 3 films that have gotten positive reviews that I unfortunately didn’t catch at the festival — Werner Herzog’s new 3D documentary Caves of Forgotten Dreams, Submarine, and Incendies, which won The City of Toronto Award for Best Canadian Feature, and got a distribution deal from Sony Picture Classics.

Ann Marie Baldonado on Mike Mills: Beginners

With the Toronto International Film Festival drawing to a close, I wanted to catch up and fill you in on a few films that I caught during the festival that as of yet, don’t have a US distributor:

What would you do if your father came out of the closet at the age of 75?

Well, director/artist Mike Mills decided to use this question as the starting off point for his lovely 2nd feature film, Beginners, which premiered here in Toronto earlier this week.  It’s the follow up to his debut Thumbsucker, which premiered in Toronto in 2005.

What makes the film so lovely, what makes it feel so authentic and dear, is the fact that it’s based on Mills’ own experience.  His father came out in his 70s after the death of his wife, Mills’ mother. His dad ran an art museum; his mother worked on houses.  Mills is an artist whose whimsical artwork have graced album covers and art gallery walls, just like the main character, Oliver, played beautifully by Ewan McGregor.  And just like Mills, Oliver is dealing with the semi-recent death of both his parents, and how to grieve for them and continue on.

Although the splashier element of the plot is the bit about the old man (and his son) coming to terms with his sexuality, the film is really about the grieving process after a father’s death.  We see Oliver cleaning out his family house and going through his parents books and clothes. And we see flashbacks of Oliver’s youth, where we see his parents interact (with the sense of a growing distance between them.)

While we mostly see Christopher Plummer’s character after he has come out — happily learning the ropes of his new gay life — our encounters with Oliver’s mother are seen through the eyes of little boy Oliver; we see mother and son poking fun at high-faluting museum goers, or taking long car rides to nowhere.  

It is clear that the whimsy and the sadness found in Oliver’s art and Mill’s art, by extension, can be traced back to his artistic, funny and odd mother (In a Q&A after a screening of Beginners, Mills revealed that the drawings from the film were done by both him and McGregor but anyone familiar with Mills’ work will notice his particular style.)

So the film ends up being a love story, about a departed father, a departed mother, and a new love, Anna, played by French actress, Mélanie Laurent (Inglourious Basterds).  As a viewer you will fall in love with Anna, just as Oliver has.  

But will these crazy kids, both of them unsure of what a real, true love and marriage are supposed to look like, be able to work it out?  Hopefully, someone will pick up this film and you can see for yourself.

[Update: Focus Features purchased Beginners.]