journey to east movie

JOURNEY TO THE EAST

• Adventure , Arthouse , Drama , Experimental , Fantasy , History , International , Romance , Student , Women
• English , Mandarin Chinese
• West Coast premiere

Filmmakers in attendance. Film program will be followed by Q&A

On the verge of death, a Woman with No Name falls into a mystical land between the East and West. There, she encounters a gang of mythical Chinese cowboys known as “The Chinamen,” gatekeepers for the bones of all Chinese Americans who have died in the West.

CREDITS Director: Eve Liu Writer: Eve Liu Producer: Alex Bendo, Grant Hyun Executive Producer: Sean Park Director of Photography: Mingjue Hu Editor: Eve Liu Production Designer: Eve Liu Composer: Bryan Patrick Sound Designer: Paul Hsu Cast: Karen Zheng, Jonathan Ohye, Craig Ng, Mao Sun

It’s past your bedtime, and you can’t fall asleep. Sneak out and stay up late with these films that will intrude your comfort. Settle in, it’s gonna get ridiculous. — Kirby Peñafiel

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Journey to the East (2021)

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The Sweet East is an odyssey through America's extreme right, left and everything in-between

There's misdirection, and then there are The Sweet East's opening scenes: grainy, intimate, near-vérité home footage of a group of South Carolinian high schoolers running amok on a trip to Washington DC.

A big bad world awaits (emphasis on bad) of Pizzagate conspiracists, white supremacists, Antifa-esque "artivists", asinine New York filmmakers and militant Muslims with a love of trance music in this twisted, provocatively off-colour road movie.

But first, blank-faced teen Lillian (Talia Ryder, of Never Rarely Sometimes Always ) is bored and desperate to stand out. While everyone else on the trip wears matching yellow T-shirts, she's in oversized Aerosmith merch and barely glances up from her phone when people talk to her, let alone to take in landmarks. At a karaoke-pizza bar, her disdain reaches a peak: She hides in the bathroom to vape before singing a twee song about a cat, while staring at the audience through the mirror.

This familiar indie flick, the gentle coming-of-age about the misanthropic teenager, is cut short as an armed conspiracist raids the pizza place, demanding to see the basement where elites abuse children.

Lillian escapes quickly with help from Caleb (Earl Cave), a trust-fund revolutionary in a studded jacket who leads her through the secret basement, a labyrinth of dark halls littered with tricycles, dolls and other kids' toys. "Huh, it seems so much bigger than when I was a kid," he says with absent-minded curiosity, rather than a voice weighed down by trauma. And The Sweet East's "odd-yssey" has begun.

The film is written by critic Nick Pinkerton and marks the directorial debut of Sean Price Williams, a celebrated cinematographer who has helped shape the look of American independent film since the mid-00s, working with the Safdie brothers, Alex Ross Perry and more left-of-field filmmakers.

The Sweet East could be considered the indie counterpoint to Alex Garland's recent blockbuster Civil War  — also a road movie through a United States torn apart (albeit far more literally). It's a dream-like, occasionally magical carnival ride through the country's conspiratorial right and left, as Lillian follows whoever expresses interest in her.

Much like Garland's controversial film, Williams's debut defies immediate political interpretation. Like its protagonist, The Sweet East is wryly mocking but attracted to the figures Lillian meets, each sinister and deranged in their own way.

The film could be seen as sympathetic to some of the repulsive views it portrays — particularly those of Lawrence (Simon Rex; Red Rocket ), a clean-cut, charming American romantics professor she encounters at a white supremacist meet-up. He hides his beliefs of white "racial consciousness" at work, noting it'd be a different story if he was attending transgender communist meet-ups.

Lawrence uses much more offensive language to make his point, of course, as do many characters. Lillian often drops a slur for intellectually disabled people to describe anything she doesn't like — a quirk beholden to New York's Dimes Square, the micro-neighbourhood where Williams runs in a loosely defined, much-analysed grouping of contrarian artists and creatives.

The Sweet East is eager to provoke. Lawrence's racism hides its inherent violence in his intellectual airs and timid presence, best represented by the twee quilt cover in his spare room, adorned with cottagecore baby blue swastikas. As Lillian moves in with him, claiming she's escaping an abusive ex, he keeps his distance and dresses her in coquette dresses and bows while he pontificates endlessly about Edgar Allan Poe and America's "degraded culture", which includes reality TV and To Kill a Mockingbird.

Despite his reprehensible views, he is perhaps Lillian's sweetest encounter, with Rex's charisma rendering Lawrence's loneliness as something to be pitied.

It's an intentionally messy film, both ideologically and visually. Williams's trademark graininess is combined, in scenes of chaos, with juddering unsteady shots, out of focus as if narrative and meaning are struggling to keep up with Lillian's through-the-looking-glass adventure.

Settings, like Caleb's commune, are filled with an overwhelming amount of detail — artworks, fascinating mohawked figures — that Williams's camera barely captures, suggesting we're only scratching the surface. That's not to suggest it's visually ugly: The Sweet East is bright and rich, shot on 16mm film and boldly mixing film references from the 1910s and 70s, despite Lillian's distinctly 2024 encounters.

The soundtrack recalls the foreboding dark, despondent synths of porn composer Patrick Cowley or Greek composer Vangelis. Meanwhile, the film is split up by interstitials echoing those seen in D.W. Griffith's The Birth of a Nation, the influential 1915 silent film that portrays the Ku Klux Klan as the heroes of America's nationhood.

The Sweet East appears to be creating its own patchwork quilt of modern America — one that is quietly empathetic for the economic and cultural circumstances that lead people to bizarre, hateful lives.

Of the film's many sections, its midway point is the most electric, where Lillian meets two frenetic filmmakers on the streets of New York, played with great relish by Ayo Edebiri ( The Bear ; Bottoms) and Zola screenwriter Jeremy O. Harris.

The two cast her in their Ivory Merchant-inspired period drama, opposite a heart-throb of the moment (Jacob Elordi, in a small but memorable role). Here, Lillian thrives, becoming an overnight "it girl", quickly adapting to a world of tabloid attention, free designer clothing and acid-tongued flirtations.

These are some of The Sweet East's funniest scenes, a pastiche of drug-fuelled pretension that points out art isn't as revolutionary or important as those creating it believe. By effectively undercutting their own life's work, Pinkerton and Williams establish that The Sweet East isn't above the America it mocks, but merely another attempt to make sense of chaos.

At the film's end, text pops up offering the final message: "Everything will happen." The Sweet East offers no thesis on what everything means but, when put like that, how could it?

Instead, this movie is exhilaratingly bizarre and daring, avoiding moral messaging to instead try to capture our increasingly incomprehensible world.

The Sweet East is in cinemas now.

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The 45 Best Sci-Fi Movies of All Time, Ranked

From classics like Metropolis and Alien to Everything Everywhere All At Once, this is Collider's ranking of the best science fiction movies ever.

The science fiction genre has been one of the most consistently thrilling to explore throughout the history of cinema. The way a visual medium like film can depict futuristic worlds or alternate realities means that almost anything that can be imagined can be depicted on-screen. Since the silent era, filmmakers have been using the medium to their advantage, commenting on humanity's present and hypothesizing about its future through the science-fiction genre.

There are countless great sci-fi movies that have been released since the birth of cinema as an art form, and it's ultimately futile to try and name every single amazing one. There are simply too many top sci-fi movies, and it's a genre that's still thriving, with new potential classics released seemingly every year. The following are among the best of the best from the sci-fi genre, being classics for their entertainment value, excellent technical qualities, and historical significance , and are ranked below in order from great to greatest.

45 'Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes' (2020)

Directed by junta yamaguchi.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is one of the best Japanese movies of the last few years , and also stands as one of the most entertaining and rewatchable sci-fi films in recent memory. It deals with an initially limited form of time travel that involves a screen that shows footage from two minutes in the future, which leads to wonder, fortunes, and eventual chaos for the people who discover this strange phenomenon.

Made on a limited budget and filmed in a way that makes it appear like a single take , Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes is quite dazzling for such a small-scale movie, and endlessly inventive/clever. It’s got an infectious spirit and is overall the kind of movie that will provide significant entertainment value for just about anyone who seeks it out.

Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes

Watch on Amazon Prime

44 'Voyage of the Rock Aliens' (1984)

Directed by james fargo.

Calling Voyage of the Rock Aliens ridiculous would be underselling it to a considerable extent, but that’s obvious, given it’s literally called Voyage of the Rock Aliens . It functions as a surprisingly good (and wonderfully cheesy) musical, a comedy that feels like a throwback to teen movies of the 1950s and ‘60s, and a sci-fi movie about aliens coming to Earth and trying/failing to fit into life on the planet.

Voyage of the Rock Aliens is a cult movie through and through, and one of the most 1980s-feeling movies to come out of the decade. It’s sloppy, the music probably isn’t for everyone, and watching it is an undeniably chaotic experience, but there’s so much energy and vibrancy to the whole thing that it’s hard to resist , particularly for any sci-fi fans who have a particular fondness for science fiction of the B-movie variety.

Watch on Tubi

43 'August in the Water' (1995)

Directed by gakuryu ishii.

Blending some fantasy/supernatural elements with an odd yet compelling science fiction story, August in the Water is both a unique and underrated film. It focuses on several teenagers living in the Japanese city of Fukuoka, and explores what happens when one of them – a young girl – begins to develop mysterious powers, all the while strange occurrences continue to happen to the city’s population.

August in the Water isn’t exactly clear about the story it’s telling, nor is it particularly narrative-centered in the first place, but it is undeniably atmospheric and provides a distinct look/feel. It’s broad and open-ended enough to leave many things up to interpretation , and even those who get a bit lost in August in the Water will still be able to appreciate its visual style and singular tone.

Buy on Amazon

42 'Poor Things' (2023)

Directed by yorgos lanthimos.

Poor Things was surprisingly successful for such an odd and offbeat movie, but those willing to get immersed in something a little different will likely find the film to be a rewarding one. It’s a surprisingly funny and always visually dazzling sci-fi movie about a woman who’s brought back to life, and then goes on a strange and sometimes alarming journey, rediscovering life and effectively coming of age for a second time.

Yorgos Lanthimos is perfectly suited to this kind of story and this sort of style, with the cast also shining while digging into the strange material they’ve been given, especially Emma Stone in the lead role, who won a second Oscar for her performance. Poor Things is a movie that’s a highlight of the 2020s so far, and feels like the sort of sci-fi movie that will one day be held up as a classic .

Poor Things

*Availability in US

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41 'Godzilla Minus One' (2023)

Directed by takashi yamazaki.

Speaking of relatively recent science fiction movies that already feel like modern classics, Godzilla Minus One was one of the biggest surprises of 2023, and one of the best Godzilla movies of the past couple of decades. It takes things back further in time than any other movie in the long-running series, taking place right after World War II, following people who are already struggling with surviving the war’s aftermath when the titular monster emerges and makes life even more difficult.

All the monster action in Godzilla Minus One is exciting and satisfying, but it’s the human characters – and their story – that give it the edge overall, and make it function as a genuinely good drama on top of being a kaiju movie . It’s very approachable and a perfect entry point into the series, particularly for anyone who’s more familiar with the American Godzilla movies and has yet to watch any from Japan.

Godzilla Minus One

Godzilla Minus One is currently not available to stream, rent, or purchase in the U.S.

40 'Woman in the Moon' (1929)

Directed by fritz lang.

The most famous sci-fi movie directed by Fritz Lang came out before Woman in the Moon (more on it a little down the line), but this 1929 shouldn’t be overlooked just because it’s his second-best science fiction film. It’s a remarkable cinematic achievement, considering it’s close to a century old, and remains an engaging film about an expedition to the moon – led by a scientist – in search of gold.

Now, given its age and premise, there are aspects here that feel more fictional than ever in a post-moon landing world , but considering Woman in the Moon predated humanity actually reaching the moon by 40 years, the sci-fi movie's predictions were still impressive . It’s also got inventive special effects and a surprisingly well-told and dramatic story, making it one of the best – and most underrated – films of the silent era, sci-fi or otherwise.

Watch on Kanopy

39 'Electric Dreams' (1984)

Directed by steve barron.

Perhaps feeling more like a quirky and heartfelt romantic comedy than a full-on science fiction movie, Electric Dreams does still center around an advanced computer that begins to fall for a young woman. The computer, in a sense, enters into a love triangle of sorts with the young man who purchased it, given the man also has feelings for the same woman, yet is too shy to approach her.

Electric Dreams then becomes like a sci-fi take on Cyrano de Bergerac , with the computer being Cyrano, helping a more conventional romantic partner while also having his own intense feelings of love toward a romance that can’t be. It might sound ridiculous, and Electric Dreams is kind of silly, but it’s also got a sincerity to it that makes it hard to resist . The cynical need not apply, but those open to the film’s odd charms might be it to be one of the more underrated sci-fi flicks of the ‘80s .

38 'Godzilla vs. Destoroyah' (1995)

Directed by takao okawara.

Throughout the remarkably long history of the Godzilla series , the titular monster has fought many other powerful and intimidating titans. For as mighty as foes like King Kong and King Ghidorah have been, there’s an argument to be made that his most powerful enemy wasn’t even a “King,” and that it was actually Destoroyah, a monster who’s only been featured in one Godzilla film to date: 1995’s Godzilla vs. Destoroyah .

Notable for being one of the most intense, frightening, and moving films in the entire series, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah serves as a grand finale for Godzilla ’s Heisei era, which comprised seven movies released between 1984 and 1995 that told a surprisingly continuity-heavy narrative spanning just over a decade. It might not be as powerful outside the context of the series/era, but it’s nevertheless one of the finest of all Godzilla films, and stands as a great work of science fiction as a result.

Godzilla vs. Destoroyah

Rent on Amazon

37 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' (2017)

Directed by rian johnson.

There are certainly things to criticize when it comes to the most recent Star Wars movies, largely owing to the messily constructed and planned-out sequel trilogy. Yet buried within this flawed trio of films is a genuinely great sci-fi movie that itself is divisive: Star Wars: The Last Jedi . This eighth entry in the Skywalker Saga has passionate fans and vocal detractors, but that seemed inevitable, given it was directed by the guy who was behind what some people call the worst Breaking Bad episode (“Fly”) and what many call the best Breaking Bad episode (“Ozymandias”).

Star Wars: The Last Jedi brings Luke Skywalker back into the fold, taking his character in interesting directions while ultimately having him live up to his legacy by the film’s end. Other aspects of the film seem odd or disappointing at first, but all of it comes together in an interesting way by the end . It reckons with the history of Star Wars , celebrates it, and critiques it all at once, and does so while also being tremendously moving, emotionally speaking, and spectacular, from a visual standpoint.

Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi

36 'forbidden planet' (1956), directed by fred m. wilcox.

Of all the science fiction movies made during the 1950s, Forbidden Planet is undeniably up there with the most iconic. It follows a crew of space travelers who go in search of another exploration party that's been missing for years, only to make some unusual and startling discoveries during their attempted rescue/recovery mission.

It has an undeniably distinct aesthetic that's inextricably tied to the look and feel of classic '50s sci-fi. It's also notable for having what's perhaps Leslie Nielsen 's best-known non-comedic role, given his career was rejuvenated in the 1980s thanks to starring in a range of iconic parody/spoof movies . Some may find Forbidden Planet to be a little old-fashioned and maybe even slightly cheesy by today's standards , but it's the aesthetics on offer here that might also prove charming to others.

Forbidden Planet

35 'inception' (2010), directed by christopher nolan.

Inception certainly was a cinematic highlight of 2010 , and it had some pretty tough competition that year, too. It's Christopher Nolan blending his affinity for action and science fiction in one , and making this blend go down smoothly with an engaging premise that's about performing a reverse heist within a target's subconscious, making it function well as an action/thriller movie as well as a piece of science fiction.

It's a movie that throws tons of fairly complex ideas at the viewer in rapid succession, and so if there's one criticism that can be thrown Inception's way, it's that it's a little heavy on the exposition at times. But the action-packed scenes serve well as payoffs, and the narrative does find interesting and sometimes unexpected places to go beyond the explanatory dialogue-heavy opening act.

34 'Under the Skin' (2013)

Directed by jonathan glazer.

Those who prefer their sci-fi conventional may want to steer clear of Under the Skin , or approach it very cautiously, given it's another strange, haunting, and unapologetic film directed by Jonathan Glazer . It's essentially an arthouse take on a story about an alien coming to Earth, perhaps being for the 2010s what the equally bizarre and captivating The Man Who Fell to Earth was for the 1970s.

Scarlett Johansson plays the alien at the center of Under the Skin , and much of the movie is about this life form - after taking on a human appearance - stalking and capturing various men who become prey. It offers little by way of easy answers, and much of the film is up to the interpretation of the individual viewer , for better or worse (probably more better, so long as you know roughly what you're in for).

Under the Skin

Watch on Max

33 'Avatar' (2009)

Directed by james cameron.

James Cameron might've referred to himself as the king of the world after his 1997 film Titanic swept the Oscars, but it's perhaps more accurate to call him the king of the sci-fi genre. He's made some of the biggest and most popular works of science fiction in cinematic history, with none being as successful (at least financially) as his 2009 film Avatar . Indeed, Avatar joins Titanic and its own sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water , as a movie that can claim to be the highest-grossing of its decade of release .

It recycles familiar tropes and story beats, but does so in a fantastical world and with breathtaking visual effects. Typical of Cameron, Avatar is also successful in blending genres to ensure it has mass appeal , with this movie being a sci-fi film, an action/adventure movie, and a romance all at once.

32 'Planet of the Apes' (1968)

Directed by franklin j. schaffner.

For as good as the reboot/prequel trilogy released throughout the 2010s was, it's hard to top the original Planet of the Apes film from 1968, at least when judging each movie in the series on its own merits. It's an eerie and oftentimes mysterious film, building to a fantastic conclusion that might still surprise those lucky enough to avoid knowing about it without having seen the movie.

It flips things around by having human beings be the subservient species, and forced to contend with an advanced race of apes who do indeed rule the planet they're on. It's not nearly as cheesy as you'd think (the sequels don't fare quite so well), and holds up as a compelling and entertaining sci-fi/action movie with some interesting things to say about humanity and its possible future.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Watch on Starz

31 'District 9' (2009)

Directed by neill blomkamp.

Though some are clamoring for a sequel that will probably never arrive (never say never, unless you can cowardly include a "probably" in there), District 9 still stands on its own as a great film regardless. It's part mockumentary, part action movie, and part body horror, detailing what happens to an alien ship that becomes stranded over the city of Johannesburg.

It's also packed with social commentary regarding race and how refugees are mistreated in real life, considering in this movie, it's the aliens who find themselves in the middle of a large-scale refugee crisis. It's thought-provoking, unique, exciting, and one of the best science-fiction movies of the 21st century so far, as well as one movie that demonstrated how 2009 was an unusually good year for the sci-fi genre as a whole .

30 'Stalker' (1979)

Directed by andrei tarkovsky.

One of the most acclaimed films of 1979 , Stalker is also among the best-known titles in Andrei Tarkovsky 's filmography. It follows three men who are trying to find a mysterious location known only as the Zone, as it's rumored to grant great power to anyone who can locate it. Stalker feels less focused on the narrative necessarily, as its status as an arthouse science fiction movie means it's more concerned with exploring abstract themes and providing a unique (in this case, also eerie) mood.

It unfolds in a way that's very slow, but also surprisingly absorbing . It's an intensely psychological sort of science fiction, exploring the minds of its characters more so than putting them in a series of exciting set pieces or action scenes. It's the kind of approach to sci-fi that might not be for everyone, but it is undoubtedly interesting.

29 'Moon' (2009)

Directed by duncan jones.

One of many great science-fiction movies released in 2009, Moon is about one man dealing with isolation while being the sole person at a manufacturing facility on the Moon. Things take a turn into the unexpected as he's about to return to Earth, though, throwing the film's events into an entirely new direction.

The less said about the rest of Moon , the better, but it's fair to say that it's certainly engaging and surprising in all the best ways. It's also a showcase for the talents of Sam Rockwell , given he maintains a compelling presence on-screen, even though he doesn't really have any other actual actors to appear alongside, and act with, and Moon undoubtedly solidifies Rockwell as one of the best and most underrated actors working today.

28 'Ex Machina' (2014)

Directed by alex garland.

Before taking a turn into horror by directing movies like Annihilation and Men , Alex Garland had his directorial debut with the sci-fi film Ex Machina . It's a unique look at artificial intelligence, revolving around a series of experiments in a remote location with a new, unnervingly smart robot, the creator of said technology, and a young coder who's won a competition to visit said location.

It's an eerie and engaging look at familiar science-fiction tropes and ideas , presenting things that viewers might have seen before in ways that are confined, realistic, and eye-opening. It's small-scale, personal science-fiction done right, and though it's not particularly old, it feels like the kind of movie where it's safe to say it will age well, and continue to hold up in years to come.

27 'Minority Report' (2002)

Directed by steven spielberg.

Minority Report is set in a future where surveillance has become so widespread and powerful that the crime/justice landscape has completely changed. Violent crimes can now be predicted before they even happen, leading to people being arrested and charged for crimes they didn't actually commit, but were ultimately going to commit, or so those in the business of "Precrime" say.

It's an uneasy and thought-provoking premise, and was explored in a way that ensured Minority Report ranked among the best movies of 2002 . It's getting on in years, but what it has to say still feels relevant and unnerving, and time will ultimately tell how relevant it'll continue to feel, and how unsettling its premise will feel for viewers even further in the future. Undoubtedly, it's one of the very best sci-fi/thriller movies Steven Spielberg has ever directed.

Minority Report

26 'interstellar' (2014).

While Interstellar isn't Christopher Nolan's only great science-fiction movie, it might be his most pure sci-fi effort, given Inception ' s action-heavy nature and Tenet feeling like an espionage thriller with sci-fi elements. Interstellar 's also one of his longest movies, making it a true sci-fi epic in every sense of the word.

It centers on a group of astronauts who explore space through a wormhole, as humanity is in danger on Earth and may need to find a new planet to live on. On the technical side of things, Interstellar is spectacular, with amazing visual effects and a phenomenal Hans Zimmer score . It's a long but rewarding film, and in contrast to some science-fiction, also contains a surprising amount of heartfelt - maybe even sentimental - emotion.

Interstellar

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Live updates, what the peck wild turkey spotted strutting around manhattan after epic journey.

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She’s gobbling up city life.

A rare wild turkey was spotted strutting her stuff around Manhattan Wednesday — dodging traffic and roosting in a tree after an epic journey across the East River from Queens, sources said.

The brassy bird spent a full day foraging for food in the urban jungle, near 49th Street and Madison Avenue, beginning Tuesday — causing onlookers to squawk with confusion and delight, according to footage and local birders.

“It’s so extremely uncommon for a turkey to be in a place like Manhattan,” said David Barrett, who runs a popular birding account on X .

“This is a healthy bird that can fly 40 or 50 miles an hour. She won’t be easy to catch,” said Barrett, who filmed footage of the feathered critter . “She’s a survivor.”

The gutsy gobbler was first reported hightailing it around Long Island City on May 2 via the bird tracking database ebird.org , Barrett said.

Despite only being able to fly short distances , she miraculously made it three miles across the East River before strolling into Midtown — where she was caught on camera weaving around traffic in a busy crosswalk next to a construction site.

“There’s a traffic risk, but so far she’s doing well, she’s staying on sidewalks and off of streets,” Barrett said.  “A rescue may be needed if she can’t make it to Central Park for food.”

He said the turkey may have walked across the Queensboro Bridge or used Roosevelt Island as a flyover “stopping off point” from Queens.

Once in the Big Apple, she perched on several planters, drank water and munched blueberries provided by bird buffs at Fasano Restaurant on 49th Street.

“If we rolled the blueberries towards her, she would gobble them up quite delightedly,” said Barrett, adding that food sources were scarce for the bird.

At sunset, she flew over 49th Street into a tree, where she spent the night roosting without sparking fowl play.

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“Turkeys have a reputation for being irritable but this turkey is mellow, and seems to be relaxed,” Barrett said. “It’s a special treat for Manhattanites to have a turkey. It’s a connection with the wild.”

Turkeys can survive in Manhattan greenspaces such as Central or Battery parks, where they are able to forage for insects and acorns.

Between 2003 and 2014, a wild turkey named Zelda famously lived in Battery Park .

A turkey hasn’t been spotted in Central Park since 2017.

A rep from Animal Care Centers of NYC said the agency had no plans Wednesday to bag the bird.

Animal control generally prioritizes rescuing animals in New York City that pose a threat to people or themselves.

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‘The People’s Joker’ Review: A Trans Journey Through Gotham City

Shot over five days, this very indie movie stars writer-director vera drew as joker the harlequin and borrows liberally from the batman universe to tell a story of personal discovery..

The People’s Joker might be the most unexpected indie darling to hit art houses in recent memory. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2022 before being pulled from the schedule , The People’s Joker is a crowdfunded comedy in which transgender writer-director Vera Drew stars as Joker the Harlequin, an aspiring comedian living in a dystopian metropolis where performing comedy without a license is punishable by death. When she arrives in town, she hasn’t yet embraced her gender or sexual identity, and instead smothers her misery with prescription laughing gas that’s been pushed on her since childhood. Through her community of anti-comedians and a whirlwind romance with a fellow queer clown, Joker comes into her own and leads a siege against the comedic establishment.

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I’ve buried the lede here: The film takes place in a bastardized version of Gotham City, and most of the characters are styled and/or named after figures from Batman stories. The People’s Joker riffs on just about every Batman movie ever made as well as a fair share of comics, cartoons, and games, but it’s not so much a parody as it is a personal reflection and power fantasy. The film pitches itself as autobiographical and uses familiar superhero iconography to dress up the characters in the author’s life, telling a sensationalized version of her own story and piling on layers of subtext from the pirated source material.

Vera Drew’s allusions rank from the obvious to the remarkably obscure. Some are pointed out directly to the audience by the lead character, who breaks the fourth wall for occasional narration and asides. Her relationship with her boyfriend, for instance, is based on the romance between Joker and Harley Quinn, which has been fetishized by some fans despite being textually abusive, and Joker the Harlequin chastises her past self for not recognizing the signs of her emotional captivity. Others require the audience to match the author’s level of obsession. One of the film’s several animated sequences (each created in a different style by different animators) is a climactic battle between Vera’s Joker and Batman, who is depicted as an abusive closeted gay man. This scene appears to have been traced over a dream sequence from Batman: The Animated Series in which Bruce Wayne is fighting himself, subtly evoking the idea of Joker triumphing over the self-loathing version of herself that she’s left behind.

Fans have always reappropriated corporately-owned comics characters to express themselves and tell their own stories, particularly in a queer context. (Gay Romance is the predominant genre in fanfiction the way Superhero is the predominant genre in American comics.) What’s audacious is to do so at the scale of a feature film and to dare the rights holders to stop you. The People’s Joker is anti-authoritarian in a way that even, say, the animated Harley Quinn series that features a bisexual antiheroine who explicitly voted for Bernie, can never be. No authorities were involved in the making of this motion picture and, if its initial but ambiguous removal from TIFF is any indication, said authorities would prefer you didn’t see it. Between its transgressive nature and its chaotic structure, that makes it the most Joker-like of any film to star the character. (Grant Morrison, a comics writer who wrote some of the best Joker stories and who loves weird metatextual experiments, would be proud.)

The fact that The People’s Joker’s very existence is transgressive accounts for a lot of its appeal, but even if you strip away the Batman of it all, you’d be left with a charming and weird mixed-media super-indie. The People’s Joker is shot primarily and very obviously on a green screen with a production quality just a hair above a Neil Breen movie. Some characters are lo-res 3D models, some scenes are performed with action figures, and everything feels cheap and handmade in a playful sort of way. This, the film seems to assert, is what it takes to create undiluted queer art. You can’t count on the support of people with money, i.e. the straights. Just call your friend who knows AfterEffects and work something out.

The aggressive DIY spirit of The People’s Joker makes it difficult to appraise critically. Most of the performances are stilted and amateurish, but that makes sense, given that many of the performers are either non-actors or members of the Tim & Eric anti-comedy oeuvre, where awkward unreality is the aim. There are no interesting photography choices except those borrowed from existing Batman movies, but what should you expect from something shot against a green screen over a span of five days? The narrative is undeniably self-indulgent, and though that’s certainly a criticism you can make of a film made using millions of studio dollars, I’m not sure it really applies to a crowdfunded movie made by a comedian and her friends. 

It’s also clear to me that, even if that’s how it looks from where I’m sitting, Vera Drew is not the only person being indulged by The People’s Joker . I can sympathetically and intellectually appreciate just how rare it is to see a wacky comic-book movie about growing up trans and finding yourself and your people, about coping with a repressive parent who takes your gender dysphoria as a personal affront, of struggling to build a healthy relationship when so many of your peers are similarly traumatized by a society that is hostile to their very existence. As a straight guy who travels in queer circles, I know how common these stories are, but they are not my stories, and seeing them projected on the big screen will never mean the same thing to me as to the people they happen to.

When I shared my initial response to watching my home screener of The People’s Joker , my (trans) colleague Claire Mulkerin said, “Trust me, the film gains a full star if you watched it in a packed theater of screaming trans people.” This is certainly the way it was intended to be seen, but if that experience is unavailable to you, there are still other avenues by which to appreciate it. For you, maybe it’ll be a laugh, maybe it’ll be an anthropological exercise, or maybe it’ll be a life-affirming moment of recognition. 

• SEE ALSO : ‘Under the Bridge’ Review: A Miniseries That Interrogates the True Crime Genre

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They made it women traveling 500 miles down florida’s east coast in toy cars arrive in key west, the women lost the guinness world record, but not for the reason you may think.

Carianne Luter , Digital Media & Engagement Manager

KEW WEST, Fla. – By golly, they’ve done it.

Two women, Cassie Aran and Lauren, completed their 500-mile drive down the coast of Florida in an attempt to claim the Guinness World Record for “Longest Distance by Toy Cars.” The woman chronicled the extraordinary adventure — that took over three months — on social media to support their fundraising campaign aimed at helping and rescuing animals.

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Cassie and Lauren started their journey at Friendship Fountain in Jacksonville and finished at the Southernmost Point Buoy in Key West. They drove a total of 596 miles in total. News4JAX interviewed the two at the beginning of their trip in Jacksonville Beach on March 8. After the story ran, multiple other news agencies worldwide decided to follow their journey.

The two had to overcome many trials and tribulations, one of which included the unfortunate news that they would have to forfeit their chance at winning the title unless they paid Guinness World Records. According to Cassie , Guinness emailed the women during their attempt saying they “were no longer allowed to raise money towards saving animals unless they paid them $16,000.”

Cassie and Lauren decided to make the hard decision to forfeit their chances of snatching the title in order to donate more money to help different organizations that raise money for animals.

Related: 500 miles in a toy car: A Guinness World Record attempt from Jacksonville to Key West for a worthy cause

“We are so incredibly sad that we had to make the decision to choose between the record title and saving animals...but I know we made the right move,” Cassie said in a post on her YouTube Channel . “I hope so many animals get saved from kill shelters and get the life they deserve because of this very sad decision. I hope you guys will still stay here for our 600-mile journey to the finish line in Key West. I love you guys and I’m going to go cry now..but I still stand by my decision 1000%.” ( Watch the heartbreaking announcement here )

News4JAX reached out to Guinness World Records on May 3 and did not receive a reply.

The good news? Cassie said after they finished the journey, they were going to do it again!

“We’re going to be doing this again in a few months but better and longer with a completely different route,” Cassie said. “I won’t announce what the route is yet, but it is nuts! But that will give us a few months to come up with the money that we have to pay Guinness so that our third attempt and final attempt will be able to still be a fundraiser to save animals. So don’t worry, we still plan on getting the record for the Longest Journey by Toy Car...”

During their journey, Cassie also said her YouTube page was taken down after someone hacked into it. After many tears and a battle with YouTube, her YouTube page was reinstated.

Despite it all, they made it! It took the pair over three months to complete the drive as millions watched and cheered them on along the way. When they arrived in Key West, the city welcomed the two with a proclamation and a key to the City from Commissioner Clayton Lopez and City Manager Childress!

Way to go, Cassie and Lauren!

Cassie and Lauren’s Story

Cassie and Lauren have been close friends since their kindergarten days in New Jersey, where they rode battery-powered toy cars in the neighborhood.

“This just kind of came as this wild idea because we had these cars as kids,” Lauren said. “We used to ride around with toy cars as kids and have always wanted a Guinness World Record attempt. So we’re like, this would be a fun way to kind of honor our childhood.”

The two have a great relationship and love pushing the boundaries to add excitement and spontaneity into their lives. They aim to inspire others to do the same throughout this process and to remind everyone not to take life so seriously.

“We just love to do crazy adventures and push the limits of what is possible and try to inspire other people in the process,” Lauren said.

Click here to read more of Cassie and Lauren’s story.

Copyright 2024 by WJXT News4JAX - All rights reserved.

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Carianne luter.

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Ricki Lake reveals how she lost over 30 pounds, poses in dress from 2007 premiere

Ricki Lake is celebrating her weight loss by partying like it's 2007.

The former talk show host, 55, posed in the same dress she wore 17 years ago to the premiere of the movie "The Business of Being Born" in a picture she shared Wednesday on Instagram. "Oh, this old thing??" she wrote in the caption. "Just had it hanging around."

Lake added, "Originally wore this dress to the 'Business of Being Born' world premiere in 2007 and now here I am wearing it again in 2024!"

In the comments, fans applauded Lake for her weight loss, which she also opened up about in an interview with "Good Morning America" that aired Thursday. The "Hairspray" star revealed she has lost 35 pounds since October through exercise, the keto diet and intermittent fasting .

Ricki Lake says she's getting 'healthier' after 30-lb weight loss: 'I feel amazing'

Need a break? Play the USA TODAY Daily Crossword Puzzle.

But Lake denied using medication to help her lose weight, even though she says a doctor suggested she do so. "He was saying (I wasn't) going to be successful without it, is what he said to me," the actress said on "GMA." "And I like a challenge. I like proving people wrong. It pissed me off.

"I think it's safe to say I'm in the best shape of my life," she went on to say, adding, "This is what happy looks like. I could cry. I'm so happy."

Lake previously revealed in February that she had lost weight after making a "commitment to myself to get healthier." At the time, she also shared that she was initially worried her "body would not drop the lbs like it had in the past" at age 55. "This is the healthiest way I've lost weight in all of my years," she wrote.

Ricki Lake debuts buzz cut after years of 'painful' hair loss

Lake's husband, Ross Burningham, also joined her in the weight loss effort. "I have this new marriage, and I'm so blissfully happy with this amazing man, my perfect man," she said on "GMA." "If I pinpoint one thing that was not working in our lives, (it's) that we were carrying this extra weight."

In recent months, Lake has shared similar photos showing herself posing in old outfits, including one in February where she slipped into a swimsuit she wore on the cover of Us Weekly in 2007. "I held onto this #NormaKamali one-piece for all these years wondering if I would ever be able to wear it again," she wrote.

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The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time. The life and music of Amy Winehouse, through the journey of adolescence to adulthood and the creation of one of the best-selling albums of our time.

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• Trivia Marisa Abela had done most of the singing in this film herself. She trained extensively to mimic Amy Winehouse 's vocals.

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The Interview

Anne Hathaway Is Done Trying to Please

Credit... Devin Oktar Yalkin for The New York Times

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By David Marchese

• April 27, 2024

This is the debut of The Interview, The New York Times’s new weekly series, featuring in-depth conversations with fascinating people. Each week, David Marchese or Lulu Garcia-Navarro will speak with notable figures in the worlds of culture, politics, business, sports, wellness and beyond. Like the Magazine’s former Talk column, the conversations will appear online and in print, but now you can also listen to them in our new weekly podcast, “The Interview,” which is available wherever you get your podcasts. Below, you’ll find David’s first interview with the actress Anne Hathaway; Lulu’s first interview, with the Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, is here .

Listen to the Conversation With Anne Hathaway

On one level, Anne Hathaway’s new movie, “The Idea of You,” which arrives on Prime Video on May 2 and is directed by Michael Showalter, couldn’t be more straightforward. It’s an adaptation of Robinne Lee’s hit romance novel about Solène, a divorced 40-year-old mom played by Hathaway, who winds up in a relationship with a much younger man — a singer in a boy band, played by Nicholas Galitzine. Warmhearted and with unabashed mainstream appeal, the film is a return for the New Jersey-raised actress, who has fruitfully spent much of her time lately playing thornier characters in indie films, to the kinds of charming fish-out-of-water tales that first helped bring her to stardom, like “The Princess Diaries” and “The Devil Wears Prada.” This time, though, instead of being the plucky ingénue thrust into a glamorous, high-pressure situation, Hathaway is playing a character who’s coming into a new world a little less starry-eyed, and with a firmer sense of self.

But “The Idea of You” also works on another, more complicated, even self-referential level. It’s a movie about a woman pushing against societal expectations and getting a lot of grief for it, which is something Hathaway, 41, knows about. More than a decade ago, around the time she won an Academy Award for her work in “Les Misérables,” the online commentariat turned on Hathaway for … who knows, exactly? Some strange groupthink kicked in that caused people to pile on her for seeming like an inauthentic striver — or something. Other than as a case study in the inexplicable and random cruelty of the internet, the whole phenomenon, described at the time as Hathahate, makes even less sense now than it did then.

Since that time, Hathaway told me when we talked twice last month, she has been learning to let go of other people’s opinions and expectations of her as an actress, a celebrity and a human being. This has made her work even more compelling to watch and made her more guarded as a public figure. “I really like expressing myself through my work,” says Hathaway, who after so many years and so many great performances is still figuring out the best way to play the puzzling real-life part of a famous actress.

There are a bunch of things that are intriguing to me about the new movie. One of them is that there are a few of what I took to be Anne Hathaway psychological Easter eggs sprinkled throughout the film. I’ll get to those, but first: You haven’t done a romance in a while. Can you talk to me about why you wanted to do “The Idea of You”? It’s such a softball question, and I can feel my brain complicating it.

Go as complicated as you can. I still find it so much more natural to express my thoughts and feelings through characters and through the story. So a part of me wants to be like: Just see the movie. That’s why I wanted to make it. But I should probably be able to describe it. So, this is a movie about a woman healing her heart after a massive trust trauma, and it says that a bloom can happen in a person’s life at any stage. I found myself almost possessed with the need to explore what those two things meant and looked like.

I’m curious about the nature of that possession. Was it abstract, or did it connect to you in a direct way? Oh, it was completely direct. My character, Solène, might not seem like the most complicated character I’ve ever played. There’s no accent, there’s no particular gait — I love a character’s gait. But she felt familiar. I recognized aspects of myself in her. I recognized aspects of friends or women I admire. She had a richness to her, combined with this idea that early in her life she had been a people pleaser. I was excited by that idea of somebody at a place in their life where they’ve grown out of that phase.

I’m glad you brought up that people-pleaser line. That was one of the Easter eggs: “A people pleaser from New Jersey.” Yes.

But before I get into that, my vote for best Anne Hathaway character gait in a movie: “The Dark Knight Rises.” So much swagger! I worked with a choreographer for three weeks to find that swagger.

Really? Yes, I did. Because — oh, this is going to sound like a weird sentence — I wasn’t connected enough to my hips. I kept imagining a cat’s movement and the way it’s fluid and swishy but also strong and purposeful, and they helped me find my hips.

You need to introduce me to that choreographer, because not being connected enough to my hips describes most of my life problems. We are going to follow up, because I have so many thoughts! I didn’t feel connected to my body early in my life. It was this weird thing.

Why weren’t you connected to your body? That’s a great question. I mean, it would take me 41 years to answer that. It’s so many things, but I think it’s just assumed that we have a relationship with our body. Like you: Something you know about yourself is that you do not have a relationship with your hips.

Not a good one. But if somebody said, Here’s a path for you to have one, what would you do?

Oh, boy. I don’t know how to answer that. Let’s move on. Sure. Where are we going? We’re going to the knees or the torso?

I want to go back to the people-pleaser line. I interpreted the inclusion of the line “a people pleaser from New Jersey” as pretty intentional. Can you talk to me about why that line is in there? Well, she had to be from somewhere, and yeah, it might have been me who suggested that line. Maybe. Possibly.

Am I wrong in interpreting that line as self-referential? You are a people pleaser from New Jersey, right? I think I’m a former people pleaser from New Jersey. So much of the reason I was drawn to acting is that it was an outlet for expression that I could not find on my own. And in the space between feeling so connected when I was acting and so lost when I wasn’t, you try to make your way, and one of the ways that you make your way is, “Oh, if I do this, that will make someone else happy, and maybe that’s what I’m supposed to be doing.” It takes a long time to go, “That doesn’t really matter if you don’t know who you are.” Unless you just want an identity that’s all about pleasing people. Which I suppose is perfectly valid. But I’m not that nice.

It was interesting for me to revisit your work and see what I took to be — and I don’t mean this in a condescending way — an eager-beaver quality. I’m thinking of “The Devil Wears Prada” or “The Princess Diaries.” I think your character in “Valentine’s Day” had that, and in a slightly spikier way maybe “The Intern.” Was that quality something you consciously tried to change? I was not aware of it until this conversation. But I think there’s a thread that runs through those characters: someone trying to do something that they might not be comfortable with but think is the right thing to do. The thing I was interested in about Solène was this idea that, turning 40 and knowing who she was in a professional sense, knowing who she is as a mother, she had not necessarily given herself full freight to explore aspects of herself as a person.

Forty years old is a real milestone for people. But there’s also something weird about our cultural fixation on the arbitrary age of 40. I’m curious how you think about middle age. I don’t take it that seriously. There are so many other things I identify as milestones. I don’t normally talk about it, but I am over five years sober. That feels like a milestone to me. Forty feels like a gift. The fact of the matter is I hesitate at calling things “middle age” simply because I can be a semantic stickler and I could get hit by a car later today. We don’t know if this is middle age. We don’t know anything.

This makes me sound like a New Age-y ding-dong, but — Go there. Come on. Let’s bring it out. Where are your crystals? I’ve got incense burning. Let’s do this.

What you said is exactly right: We can’t take for granted how much life we have left. But internalizing that, so that we can treat each day like it could be the last, is the hardest thing to do. As a formerly chronically stressed young woman, I just remember thinking one day: You are taking this for granted. You are taking your life for granted. You have no idea. Something could fall through the sky, and that would be lights out. So when I find the old instincts rising, I just tell myself, You are not going to die stressed.

This is a small question but maybe invites a big answer: What were you so stressed about? I didn’t know how to breathe yet. That was really complicated. I mean, it’s too — you’re right. It’s actually too big an answer and the simple answer is literally everything. I was very in my head about a lot of things.

Your answer to that question was about breathing. Earlier you alluded to not feeling comfortable in your body. Those are somatic things. You must have felt very alienated from your body. I love that you identified it as somatic. It feels a little too exposed to discuss the alienation I felt from my body, but there was a lot of somatic stress there.

Was drinking a way of dealing with that? Probably.

Fair enough. Let me ask you a goofier question now. OK. [Laughs.]

Then I’m going to circle back around to heavier stuff. The plot of the film turns on a trip to Coachella. Have you ever been to the festival? I have been to Coachella. Paul McCartney was the headliner, so it was magical.

Can I tell you a quick Coachella story? It can even be long.

I used to work for music magazines, and we had to cover the festival. So one year, it was too hot; I didn’t have enough water; I was drinking beer all day, taking other stuff, and by the end of the day I was fried and physically uncomfortable — You were so tweaked out.

I was like, I got to get out of here. And we had a plan that we would meet in the press area and someone would drive us back to our hotel. But I thought: I can’t wait. I’ll walk back to our hotel — it was 15 miles or whatever in the desert at night. I left the festival and within about 10 minutes realized I’m lost in the desert. No cars are coming by. My mind is totally foggy. I’m going to die on the highway trying to walk back to my hotel. Then a car pulls up and it’s my co-worker come to save me. They rescued you!

I got in the car and was like, “Thank god, I’ve been here forever, I didn’t know what I was going to do.” Then he looks at the clock: Like 22 minutes had passed. No. [Laughs.]

I was not at risk of dying. But to you, those 22 minutes —

Longest 22 minutes of my life. Well, I’m so happy everything went OK. Coachella is very dehydrating.

Very dehydrating. You know, I feel like I’ve danced around this: I’m wondering if you can tell me more about the change in you from a stressed-out person who’s, in your words, in her own head, to the person you are now. I don’t want to go into specifics too much, because I like to keep my personal things personal, but there was a moment in my life where — I don’t know. Do you ever have this feeling where you feel like you have yourself in the future, your best possible choice, turn around and guide you? Now I’m sounding very New Age.

Explain more about what you mean. I was just stuck in this feeling. It’s that thing about, I want to achieve things, I want to grow, and you think, mistakenly, that the way you do that is to be really hard on yourself. You drive yourself by self-criticism. I won’t go into the specifics, but there was a moment in which I realized that in order to keep that narrative alive, I was going to have to deny so much. I just said: You’re just going to have to accept that if nothing else happens to you, you’ve had a really great life. You have been given gifts and opportunities. And for you to continue to walk on this path, not being grateful, I don’t think that’s really who you are. It felt like a light went on.

What are the things that you want to achieve? What are the ambitions? Honestly, I don’t want to say, because they feel great to me, and I worry if I shared them and they got shredded — I don’t want to feel bad about them.

This is another one of the potential Easter eggs or self-referential lines that I picked up on in the film: There are a couple of references to Solène’s being picked apart on the internet. Did your experience going through that inform the character? Yes.

Can you tell me in what ways? Not really. It’s in the film.

Oh, phooey. Sorry. Look, what I can tell you is that, from personal experience, I knew that everything we were saying was true.

I can’t believe I just said “phooey.” Phooey.

Phooey! Oh, bluggernston!

In this conversation I’ve tried to create a throughline or arc to your career. Do you see a throughline or arc? I like to look toward the horizon rather than back at what I’ve done. I don’t watch my films. I love that so many of my movies are the films that you cuddle up with; I’m aware of that aspect of it, but the concept of having a name is weird. The idea of having a name that signifies something that could qualify as an Easter egg, it’s not a concept that I think about a lot.

Is anything cooking with a “Princess Diaries 3”? Yep.

Can you tell me more about that? I don’t think it would be nice.

There you go. I don’t want you to think you’re trapped here. I’m not trapped.

If you’re OK to go a little longer — I can leave this dinner party at any time. Have you read the book “Acts of Service”?

No. What is it? It’s a spicy book, but that’s a great line in it. A character finds herself exploring a situation that is uncomfortable but tantalizing to her, and she keeps thinking that I can leave this dinner party at any time I want.

Wait, does that mean you find this conversation uncomfortable but tantalizing? I’m finding this conversation really lovely.

Oh, good. I’m uncomfortable sometimes because I think you want me to reveal personal things, and I’m allergic to that. But I think that we’re having a wonderful time anyway.

In an ideal world, I always want people to be as personal as possible, but I also understand that that’s something that someone might not want to do, and that’s OK. I just find it hard to imagine that people are interested. I have a hard time making that leap.

You’ve also had the experience of people not being nice to you online. So I understand that it’s not as straightforward as I’m making it out. You’re right, and again, I find it hard to imagine that people would be interested in me. That’s one reason that I don’t know that I’m a very good celebrity. I don’t really know where the walls are between being intimate and narcissism and self-regard. And because of what I went through, I’m sensitive to the way it can come across. So I’d rather be cautious. The odd thing is that as soon as you stop recording this? All the details you want. But I’m probably not the best interview.

A few weeks later, I called Hathaway back to talk more about that caution.

I have a hunch that maybe you’re a ruminator. Is there anything about our conversation to this point that you’ve been thinking about? I had a slight word-choice remorse moment. You asked me what my goals are and I decided not to share them and the reason I gave was because I’d rather not have them “shredded.” That seemed a little harsh. I regretted that.

How would you rephrase it? I think I would rephrase it by saying it’s too tender. It’s a little less self-important.

Do you think it’s telling that your mind initially went to “shredded”? Oh, yeah. I think that’s some scar tissue. I understand why I said it, but it’s not actually reflective of how I feel. It’s what I fear, but not what I feel.

Something that I wanted to return to was: What are the things that used to stress you out so much? I’m just trying to make it more tangible. My goal is to heal it and not relive it. I’m not trying to be evasive. I don’t spend a great deal of time thinking about it because I feel that I found a window and I climbed through it. I work hard to just be present. Like I said, I’m more grateful. I’m more settled in myself. I’m less afraid of things not happening. You know, the time in which I was an emerging adult was a different time. We weren’t having the types of conversations that we were having now.

Can I tell you a blindingly obvious realization about my own hypocrisy? Tell me everything.

When I’m asking you to make things more tangible or to go deeper, I’m thinking about that in light of the exchange that we had about hips. You asked me a question and I got the heebie-jeebies. I thought, I’m not talking about that. No!

Is the feeling that I had the feeling that you have doing these things? You know what it does? It puts me in a defensive position. Not defensive in the sense that I feel attacked but defensive in the sense that it’s hard to say something revealing with a tape recorder there. So I feel like I become a more self-conscious, more neutral version of myself. I watch other actresses, and they’re so free, they’re so off the cuff. Not that they’re more revealing, they’re just — I don’t know. I don’t have a word for it. We don’t usually ask people such direct questions. That’s not the way conversations are usually built. Normally trust is established by sharing something about ourselves and you build up a mutual understanding. So a part of me just resists the form of this.

It’s totally weird! And also just slightly rude. [laughs] But that’s just me. I need to work on accepting that this is just the way this is built.

As someone who’s interested in the life that animates the work, I’m curious about what it’s like to be you . That interest is obviously rooted in an assumption that having some understanding of you outside your work matters in some way. Do you think it matters? I think I understand the question. That my life is somehow as interesting as my work?

Or that for people to have an understanding of who you are outside the work is meaningful. I don’t want to distract from it. Also, going back to the thing about direct questions and whether I get the heebie-jeebies, I’m just very protective. The press can be opportunistic. I have this awesome story about Nick [Galitzine] that I want to tell. It’s on the tip of my tongue, but I don’t want to tell it, because I haven’t asked him if it’s cool and I’m aware that he’d have to answer questions about it for the next three months to 30 years.

Like the way that, I’m sure somewhat annoyingly, you’re still being asked questions, including by me, about bad experiences you had on the internet a lifetime ago? No, no. I don’t find you annoying. I value what you do. Just because I’m not the most innately forthcoming person doesn’t mean I don’t think that this isn’t a wonderful forum. I’m just amazed by people who can just express themselves.

You express yourself in different ways. I love expressing myself through my characters. You know, also I think — no, nevermind.

“I think — nevermind.” Bingo! Give me another 25 years. Maybe I’ll relax a little more.

I’ll get back in touch. I want to end on something fun though.

Tell me a funny story. You know what? When I was making “The Idea of You,” I was so spoiled, staying in a beautiful house in Atlanta, Georgia, that was much larger than my needs. I would get home from work, and I’d be in this house by myself, and that was giving me the heebie-jeebies. I was trying to figure out, like, why was I feeling this so intensely? And I realized there was no laughter in the house. You have a big house like that, you need laughter. So I started to listen to stand-up specials. I would come home and put them on. I got really into Adam Sandler’s “100% Fresh.” As extraordinary, beloved and iconic as Adam Sandler is, I think he’s underappreciated. I can quote you every line from “Billy Madison” and “Happy Gilmore” and “The Wedding Singer.”

Let’s trade lines from his movies: “I eat pieces of [expletive] like you for breakfast!” “You eat pieces of [expletive] for breakfast?”

You got it! “If peeing pants is cool, then call me Miles Davis.” I think that’s the line. [Laughs.] “Shampoo is better. I go on first and leave the hair clean. No, conditioner is better. I leave the hair silky and smooth. Oh, really fool? Blech, blech, blech. ” Wait for it. “Stop looking at me, Swan!” [Hathaway’s Sandler quote here wasn’t exact, but it was close enough.]

Very good! I’m taking up your time now jabbering about Adam Sandler. But this is the part that I’m talking about: I feel much more comfortable talking about Adam Sandler, whom I’ve never met, than I do talking about what makes me tick. I just need to figure out how to practice.

I hope this has been part of that practice. Thank you very, very much. Be well. Stretch your hips out!

This interview has been edited and condensed from two conversations. Listen to and follow The Interview on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , YouTube , Amazon Music or The New York Times Audio app .

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