Three viewings in, and I still believe The Hurt Locker is the best film of the year, and maybe last year too. Kathryn Bigelow has crafted a film that is perfectly paced, acted, directed, and features the action scene to beat this year. It’s the first film of the year that makes a strong case for being a Best Picture nominee and it’ll likely be there once it’s all said and done. Plus, how cool would it be to have the director of Near Dark and Point Break accept an Oscar for Best Director?

I’m getting ahead of myself but I love this film (as evidenced by my review here) and was fortunate enough to get a chance to chat with Brian Geraghty who plays Specialist Owen Eldridge in the film. Brian does an excellent job conveying a guy who really shouldn’t be in war to begin with and is an all around great guy to talk to. It really felt like a conversation rather than one being the interviewer and the other the actor. After praising and gushing over Brian and the film several times, we finally talked about the best film of the year, working with Kathryn, and a possible Point Break sequel.

How did you get involved with the movie?

Basically, about two years ago in June ’07 I went up to Kathryn and basically read with Jeremy. I didn’t think anything of it and I knew they were targeting another actor at the point. I just went over there and read a couple of scenes with Jeremy and I guess whoever they had in mind got a TV series or something so I guess I was next in line and it ended up taking month, then they offered me the job.

That’s awesome man.

Yeah.

So what was it like to work with Kathryn?

Y’know she’s a very kind person, really collaborative. The great thing about working with her as an actor is that she really hires actors and trusts them. She kinda lets them go and if you fall off course she’ll get you back on. She’s really involved, particularly in this film, with the suspense and the action and that was kinda nice.

Oh yeah. What she did with this movie, I mean the sniper scene alone was better than anything in Transformers 2.

Yeah, I know. I love that scene. Thank you man.

No problem. Was that a fun scene to shoot?

I loved the location. It was hard, it was dirty, and it was sandy. It was fun to, to me it was fun to make the decision of killing someone. Ralph Fiennes was there, y’know he’s fun to work with. To see that film set, it just kinda captures the Middle East and that was really wonderful.

Definitely. I wanted to ask, because I know you were in Jarhead with Sam Mendes. Was there any difference working on The Hurt Locker as opposed to Jarhead?

Oh of course. The Hurt Locker is basically three guys and Jarhead was eight of us, a platoon. It was shot in El Centro which is in Mexico, about two and a half hours east of San Diego. We had weekends off and there were a lot bigger movie stars. I was with two others, who were obviously two of the best actors of our generation I’m sure everyone would say the same thing [Jamie Foxx and Jake Gyllenhaal.] So to be in that company was an extraordinary thing. The first part of it where we’re pulled into the Middle East, I’m there. And obviously Anthony and I did We Are Marshall together and we played best friends in that movie so it was kinda strange to be playing best friends again. That was certainly part of it. We made a movie about the Army, not the Marines, about a very specific unit, not so much the infantry work as we do in the film we do clear some buildings out of the necessity of our Sergeant who makes us. But it’s totally different jobs, completely different war. That was the first Gulf War, this is Afghanistan/Iraq and now we’re fighting the IED. Any my character is different as well.

Yeah, and The Hurt Locker is more action oriented and Jarhead is more drama oriented. To me though, what I got out of The Hurt Locker was that your character represents the face of war in that you really shouldn’t be there. Anthony Mackie represents the level-headed guy, y’know it’ll get to him but he still hangin’ in there. Then Jeremy Renner’s basically the most balls-out, weird, renegade cop. I wanted to ask you did you get the same kind of sense or what did Eldridge represent to you?

I approached it as a regular guy who is obviously a volunteer, volunteered for E.O.D.. To me he represented the people, like you and I, you put us in war. Let’s say you were good at interviewing and I was good at camera operating. When you’re in a special unit we get to use our mind more. But y’know we’re just everyday people, put us under gunfire and stuff. I think I was trying to make him more relatable to people. Y’know he’s put in situation where he’s not anti-war or pro war, he’s just fucked up. He’s lost people that were close to him because of him not first in the first scene with Guy Pearce, when Guy Pearce dies. I tried to make him relatable because Sanborn is real by the books soldier and James is a renegade. This is how I approached it, this is very subjective of course. Very subjective point of view is how I approached it. I didn’t approach it with any political agenda.

Oh no, and that’s what I appreciated about the movie is that it doesn’t have a political agenda and that’s why I think it’s so much better than all these Iraq war movies because you could basically take the Iraq war and replace it with World War II and get the same story.

Well that’s good man. I think we have real three-dimensional people here and not just some cliche war fronting like I’ve played before. And she really kept the integrity of the political message ambiguous which is ultimately more like a piece of art than it does like a anti-war or pro-war film. There’s a place for it in Kathryn’s mind which is one of the criticisms, which there hasn’t been any.

Well she’s earned it. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is when you’re playing Gears of War and the Colonel comes up to you and you guys have that conversation. I just liked how your character looked so great at war simulation but when you put him in war he doesn’t know what he’s doing.

Well that’s great man. That’s a great little moment you picked up on. I mean I never really thought of it that way, but I’m glad you did.

Well thank you. So, what can we expect from you in the future? I know you’ve got this which I think is probably going to win Best Picture.

Well thank you. I did a movie just a year ago, and it’s based on this author Davy Rothbart. You know Found Magazine?

I think I’ve heard of it.

We shot it entirely in Albuquerque and we just went to Vegas and we won Best International Feature at Edinburgh. So we have a lot more of the festival circuit. We’ll see how we did Galway, in London and Montreal, Canada. So we’ll see about that. Right now I’m doing this movie called Open House. It’s a thriller, like psychological thriller. I play a sociopath. Gotta good cast and crew and it’s a lot of fun.

You said you play a sociopath. That’s totally different than what you played in Hurt Locker.

That’s right dude. Gotta change it up man y’know?

Well I look forward to it. I’ll get ya out of here with this. I know you’re into surfing so I want to know if Kathryn Bigelow asked you about collaborating on a Point Break 2?

Y’know what? No. They did talk to me about Point Break 2: Indo Nights and I said as much I’d like to go to Indonesia and surf for the movie, you can’t try to replace Point Break 1. We did talk about Point Break when I was drunk and I would bother her about Point Break.

That’s awesome.

I would ask her like stupid questions y’know. She knows that I surf.

She know how to surf too?

I’m sure she knows how to surf too. You ever seen her before? She’s like six feet tall.

I know. I was looking at a picture of her and I was like ‘dang, that’s one tall babe.’

She’s beautiful dude. I can’t believe the kind of movies she directs. She’s just great man and I’m so happy to be a part of her project. I’m so excited for everything that’s happening right now. And Jeremy’s one of my great friends and Anthony and I. It’s been a really exciting thing.

Well you should be man because to tell you the truth I raved to every single critic in San Diego and all of them came out for the screening. One of them walked up to me afterward and said ‘I’m sorry for every negative thing I ever said about you.’

Thank God man. Thank you man. Keep the word out there.

Again, I’d like to thank Brian for this and would also mention I’m enjoying a Capri Sun right now. The movie Brian mentions that went to CineVegas and Edinburgh is called Easier With Practice which can be found here.

The Hurt Locker is in select cities right now and is due for expansion on July 24th. You can get a list of theaters it’s playing by clicking here. Go see it. Just go see it.

If one were to never hear of Sam Mendes’ prior to seeing Away We Go, they would assume it was his first film. In some respects it is as it’s tonally different than what he’s accomplished in the past with Road to Perdition, Jarhead and the overrated American Beauty. Where Mendes’ usually invigorates a dark tone in his pictures, Away We Go feels like a giant step back from what his normal arsenal. Tonally it’s lighter and feels smaller than what he usually gives which is why it feels like a first timer is behind the camera and not a skilled veteran.

One of Away We Go’s biggest flaws happens to be it’s script written by the husband and wife duo of Dave Eggers and Vendela Vida. Characters overstay their welcome, notably Maggie Gyllenhal and Josh Hamilton as a “spiritual” couple who like to keep their kids close. The scene goes on for ten minutes too long and, much like the entire film, is too pretentious for it’s own good. As the dinner scene with these characters progresses, one hopes and wonders if Verona put in a call for The Joker to make another appearance. So does an overlong scene with Burt’s (John Krasinski) parents played by Catherine “Mrs. McAllister” O’Hara and Jeff “Harry Dunne” Daniels. I get that the film is trying to play off of this motif of showing what kinds of parents Bert and Verona (Maya Rudolph) could end upbeing but the script gets too wrapped up in it’s own pretentiousness and lets these scenes run on far longer than they need to. The audience this film is targeted for isn’t going to miss the point so there’s no need for it. Also bland during this time is how Mendes simply shoots the scenes, seemingly taking his cues from the Brett Ratner School of Film making. No, this film probably wasn’t striving for a cinematography award but I can’t help but think Mendes and director of photography Ellen Kuras couldn’t come up with something less lazy. He’s above this, and we do deserve better from a man who beautifully handled the shootouts in Road to Perdition.

Indie queen Allison Janney portrays Verona’s old boss Lily, a mother who wishes she had a better life and doesn’t give a flip about her children. Janney is perfect at making herself unlikable and makes herself someone who you’d want to stay far away from. While it’s more tolerable than the previous scenes, it again runs on for too long and makes one wish someone would strangle her. It’s nice how Mendes finally chooses to show rather than tell how Lily doesn’t care about her kids, but it’s all too little too late by the time Lily’s arc comes to a close.

There are moments though when the film works and it creates some pure movie magic, for instance when Burt and Verona take off to Montreal is where the film hits it’s peak and introduces us to two of their college friends played by Chris Messina and Megan Lynskey. Just when you think they’re going to be the ones who teach our mains a lesson, the movie turns to break our heart by telling us these characters aren’t as peachy as they seem. They cap this off by visiting Burt’s brother (Paul Schneider) and discover the fate of his daughter and how will he tell her. The film works best when it’s painting characters to be quirky or gloomy and not doing those things just because it can.

Of course we wouldn’t have a coherent film without the leads, both of whom are dull. Krasinski and Rudolph are not bad, they actually do what they can to make the characters have some form of life. The best moments between them though stem when Burt has to argue with his wife to accelerate their baby’s lagging heart. It’s also where Krasinski is the most comfortable, as he slightly fumbles the ball in the dramatic elements. Maya Rudolph impresses as Verona who’s believable as a confused mother-to-be. The supporters are all over the place with Schneider, Lynskey, and Messina being the best of the bunch. It should come as no surprise that their segments aren’t handled with the smugness that plagues the rest of the film.

That smugness has been independent film’s biggest flaw and is unquestionably what hurts this movie the most. There’s s good film buried beneath all of it but the film is too busy sniffing it’s own behind to care. If this were Sam Mendes’ first feature then it would be acceptable as he would learn to weed out the smug (unlike Wes Anderson) but he’s on his fifth and again, he seems to have regressed rather than moved forward. The man is a good visual filmmaker as proven by his previous efforts but here he’s just bland. I mentioned it before, but I repeat it again because this could be a lesson to young filmmakers on how not to make an independent film. It plays on all the independent cliches we’ve come to know, some established by the terribly overrated Juno. Had the movie lifted some of it’s pompousness it still wouldn’t be perfect, but the end result would be a better film.

Away We Go is a mixed bag, as it’s sometimes great and other times a complete mess. It’s too conceited for it’s own good and is way below what Sam Mendes is capable of as a visual storyteller. The film does feature a lesson for it’s characters, but it feels like it’s overstayed it’s welcome by that point. If anything Away We Go is like LeBron James; tons of talent and at times great but overall a giant butthole that only thinks about him/itself.

Rating: ★★☆☆☆ 

Many of you remember the 2000 Oscar winner for Best Picture, American Beauty. That film was one of few creations from the talented director Sam Mendes, and his latest film is what were here to talk about. Away We Go is a film very few of you have heard about (unless your trailer junkies) which stars The Office’s John Krasinski and Saturday Night Live alum Maya Rudolph. The Focus Features film centers around a couple who is expecting their first child travel around the U.S. in order to find a perfect place to start their family. Along the way, they have misadventures and find fresh connections with an assortment of relatives and old friends who just might help them discover “home” on their own terms for the first time.

The rest of the colorful cast includes the likes of Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Dark Knight), Jeff Daniels (State of Play), Catherine O’Hara (For Your Consideration) & Melanie Lynskey (Two and a Half Men). The film is set for a limited release on June 5th, and for those of you who are curious to see what this film actually looks like, take a gander down below at the official trailer.