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The last few weeks have been great for historical graphic novels. Idw’s Calamity Jane: The Calamitous Life Of Martha Jane Cannary, 1852-1903 is a lushly illustrated account of Calamity Jane’s life by Christian Perrissin and Mathieu Blanchin, and Fantagraphics’ Johnny Appleseed contrasts the story of John Chapman’s…

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"We stay away from politics."

You wouldn't want to say that Robert Redford – screen legend, long-time environmentalist and activist, independent-film patron saint, possible contender for handsomest octogenarian alive – was being disingenuous, exactly. But when the founder of the Sundance Film Festival uttered that phrase at this year's opening press conference, some 24 hours before a ... let's call him a "divisive figure" was to be sworn in as president, it felt a little off-brand. He clarified the statement by saying his main concern was staying "focused on the stories being told by...

In a thousand years or so, nobody is going to be able to say with any certainty whether or not Matthew McConaughey really existed. Everything about him is simply too uniquely weird for him to be anything but a folklore hero like Johnny Appleseed or Paul Bunyan. David Bowie’s whole thing was being weird, but we know he was real because that’s what made his weirdness so impactful, but McConaughey? He’s a space man philosopher who wins awards for acting, appears as the spokesperson for a famous bourbon brand, and then just floats around in the meantime studying the world and learnings its secrets like some totally chill immortal with an infinite amount of time to just do whatever. Who benefits from that being the description of a real person?

Anyway, the latest place to which the winds of fate have carried McConaughey is the Rio Olympics...

Footprints Volume 1: Iced

Written by Joey Esposito

Art by Jonathan Moore

Mr. Foot is a sasquatch who lives among humans as a private investigator. His friends The Jersey Devil, The Lock Ness Monster, Le Chupacabra, and Megalodon all form a team of investigators meant to track down other oddities like themselves until a falling out between Mr. Foot and his brother Yeti caused the group to go their separate ways. But then one day in present time, Mr. Foot receives a cryptic letter from his brother, followed by Yeti’s decapitated corpse in the Arctic Wasteland. it’s up to Mr. Foot to bring the team together to solve a mystery that spans several decades and unlocking secrets that could potentially destroy humanity.

Having read Footprints: Bad Luck Charm before reading the subject of this article, (the review of which can be found here), I was intrigued by the...

Between the twilight of the legacy networks, and the dawn of Twitter, there was a ray of light that seemed poised for a moment to bring back the promise of the American dream. That dream had never shined brighter than it did on Hollywood, where “any bar maid can be a star made.” But in the 1990’s, when in the pre-internet days where the three (going on four) TV networks and seven studios held an iron grip on the entertainment experience, which spat out to viewers and moviegoers a highly controlled and regulated product, the idea that anyone could get off the bus from Kansas and find themselves a few months later planting their feet in the forecourt of Graumann’s Chinese seemed a lost myth. American Idol gave us that story back, and actually made it come true. Each season started on such a simple note, it’s hard...

Last year Jessica Simpson and Ashlee Simpson Ross both had their weddings, and now it's their mama's turn to get married! That's right, Tina Simpson is engaged to boyfriend Jon Goldstein, E! News can confirm. Per Us Weekly, who was first to report Tina's happy news, the couple have been dating for two years and a rep says they "are thrilled and completely in love!" Jon is the owner of Johnny Appleseed Landscaping, a high-end company whose clientele includes both Simpson sisters, Tom Hanks, Mark Wahlberg and the Bel-Air hotel. "He's a really nice guy," one of his friends said. "He's always cared about Tina…He's known them for 15 years and has been a part of their...

Dave Chappelle was the victim of a drunken racist attack during a New Mexico show -- a guy in the crowd threw a banana peel at him ... then got thrown in jail for it. Santa Fe cops busted Christian Englander after he hit Chappelle in the leg with the banana Monday night. Not shockingly ... police say he appeared to be wasted, and confessed to doing it. Englander told cops he was angry because Chappelle had...

You need not be a student or scholar of dance to be completely enthralled by Greg Vander Veer's documentary Miss Hill. Described by one interview subject as "the trunk of the modern dance tree," Martha Hill is one of the seminal figures in the history of her art, but her story is largely unknown outside the fields of dance or performance studies. Vander Veer rectifies that in a celebration of the life and life's work of the woman who almost singlehandedly created the field of modern dance studies in American colleges — she was sort of a Johnny Appleseed of the field. The film sketches her brief time as a struggling professional dancer before her discovery that her true passion was teaching dance and being an advocate for it, a calling that took her from Bennington (where s...

Months after Tom Berninger's documentary “Mistaken for Strangers” opened the Tribeca Film Festival, I became aware of The National’s plan to premier the film in L.A. with a concert event at The Shrine. At this point, and despite having read several glowing reviews of the film, I must admit that my interest was sparked mostly by the fact that The National is one of my favorite bands. Their incredibly nuance sound and their quietly vibrant lyrics have an intoxicating quality loved by hordes of fans around the world. Yet, when I finally had the chance to see the film, I instantly realized that I was witnessing something real, perhaps too honest to be on screen. There was of course great behind the scenes footage of The National and striking images of lead singer Matt Berninger losing himself to the tunes. But above all that there was Tom Berninger’s profound quest to find purpose in his own life and reconnect with his rock-star brother.

For years they had in fact, unintentionally, mistaken each other for strangers because their lives had taken different roads. Tom wanted to make movies and Matt’s band had earned a great following and critical praise. But through the making of this documentary, which changed courses during editing, they both rediscovered each other beyond the glossy stage lights and the endless tour bus trips. Tom joined Matt on the High Violet tour for several months to work as a crewmember and to make a fun film about The National and his perception of them. Still, as things usually go, this plan did not turn out as clear-cut as either of them had expected. What was meant to be a humorous depiction of a heavily poetic indie rock band turned out to be a story about two brothers and how one of them struggles to overcome self-doubt in order to make an utterly enjoyable, but deeply touching film.

This week I met with Tom and Matt Berninger in Los Angeles to chat about this personal and uproarious movie that will forever be a testimony to their fraternal reconnection. There were some margaritas involved, there was maddening rain in L.A, and there were fan-boy questions on my part that were difficult to avoid. Yet, what was most present during this interview was truth. Their brotherly love and all the intricacies it involves was always there, in the flesh, real. One can only be thankful to have talked to a pair of very different, but unquestionably talented people. Here is what they had to say.

Carlos Aguilar: Tell me about this insane and touching journey you both went through while spending time on tour and making the film. What were you expecting to be the outcome in terms of the film and what it would represent for each one of you? The film certainly is much introspective than just simply a film about a band.

Tom: It’s been so long ago now. I was working in few movies as a Pa, but mostly I was working at a TV station in Cincinnati as a tech person. I always wanted to make movies. I went to film school. Matt knew that this is what I wanted to do. We would talk movies all the time when we saw each other over the holidays. I hardly ever got to see him, but when I did we would talk about movies. I was stuck in a rot and feeling like I could live in Cincinnati, Ohio for the rest of my life or I could do something fun and kind of experience what he experiences, such as traveling around the world with a band.

I also knew that the band was getting bigger and I wanted to see that. I wanted to taste a little bit of his fame [Laughs]. He brought up this idea that I should come on tour and bring a camera, film some fun goofy stuff, and see what could come out of it. I hoped it would be something that I could use to further my career as videographer or to get a job maybe in NYC with some multimedia firm thanks to the fact that I had this little thing I made with The National. I didn’t know what it was going to be, but that was the idea, to get on my feet using their name or their kind of cloud as this cool indie rock band to get my foot in the door into some sort of job opportunity in NYC. At least that was my angle.

Matt: Mostly it was to give him a job and to get him out of Cincinnati for a while, but also because I missed him. A third of it was a charity thing, another third was that I missed him, and the last third was me thinking “Hey, maybe he could make something cool.” What I had thought he would make was not what he made in the end, but it wasn’t a fake job. I actually did believe he could make something cool and that together we could have fun trying to make, and we did. You don’t actually see much of us goofing around and having fun in the final product because it wasn’t that interesting to the real story.

What became the film was Tom struggling with his other job of being a roadie and struggling with the making of this project. Focusing on Tom’s struggle made for a much better film and not what we had originally set out to do. Originally we though of making a goofy film, almost like a Monkey’s movie or “A Hard Day’s Night,” a tour film that’s all wacky and silly, but all that stuff is just stupid.

My wife Carin Besser, who edited the film alongside Tom, thought that stuff was kind of boring. She was looking at all the footage of when Tom started to go off the rails and said, “You don’t have a movie with that stuff.” But when she saw him drunk on the bus and the other humiliating things Tom went through, she was like, “That’s what I’m interested in!” I think we were already half way into that direction anyway and I thought, “Yes, let’s just throw everything out and let’s just focus the movie on what happened to you, not the band”

Tom: The National, the band members are super cool. I’ve known these guys long before they were in a band. I’ve known them throughout their careers and through many years of struggling. I knew whatever I would be filming wouldn’t be a real documentary about the band, because I don’t really listen to them. I’m a fan of them and I’m a fan of their success and I know they make music that’s very special to some people, but the music was never really important to me simply because it’s not my taste in music or my scene.

I didn’t really have any idea of what to make. I certainly didn’t want to dive into something like, “Matt, what’s your creative process?” I wouldn’t even know where to go from there, but what I was interested in was getting to know these guys behind the scenes and seeing them start get famous. I was very interesting in things like, “What’s it like to have all these people staring at you? And all these girls!” To me that’s awesome, and that’s what I think most people want to know, “What does it feel to be super famous to your group of fans?”

That was the most interesting part to me and that’s what I wanted to figure out. I wanted to try to make them feel embarrassed and get some real funny stuff. I kind of got that, there are some elements of that in the movie, but it became something else. Also I felt like I had to somewhat document myself like on the tour bus when I was getting drunk by myself.

Matt: [To Tom] You thought that would be funny

Tom: Yes, I thought that would be funny and I thought, “I’m the only one on this tour bus and I’m going to get wasted because that’s what people do on tour buses. The band is in their nice hotel sleeping and I’m the only one taking advantage of this tour bus”

Matt: [To Tom] And it was funny but not quiet in the way you thought it would be

Tom: No, it wasn’t funny at all

Matt: It was kind of depressing. That’s some of the most uncomfortable stuff to watch, which are the things that he thought would be kind of funny or cool.

Tom: When I filmed them I thought, “Let’s see how it plays” [Laughs]. “We’ll see if this is as fun as I think it is.”

Matt: [To Tom] There was a point where you were filming stuff and you were like “Oh, this is so awkward and terrible.” You would tell the other guys in the band to do something because you were trying to get “cool” stuff, but then you thought, “This is all going to be garbage.” Then early in the editing process you realized “Actually this stuff is funny! The stuff about me trying to make this other movie is actually what’s funny.” You recognized the comedy quickly. It didn’t take anybody else to show you what worked. Like when you made Bryce pick up the sunglasses, that’s funny.

Tom: There were a bunch of moments, that one included, where I thought” What kind of footage do I have of this band, The National. I don’t know if it’s any good or not but it’s weird and I kind of like it.” Early on I had shot my brother casually looking at the camera and though “He looks good there, he looks cool.” I looked at the footage and it was great. I thought” Wow, if I could get a moment like with every single guy in the band that’d be great. I don’t know where I’d used it but it’d be great”

Matt: [To Tom] Which one is the one of me?

Tom: It’s a shot I used in the “Terrible Love” music video. In that video there is a shot of Matt, which is very casual and it’s like four seconds long, but he looks like a rock star. I wanted to get everyone of them in a cool rock star pose. I wanted something like a moving portrait or a video portrait.

Aguilar: Tom, at what point did you look at all this footage and decided what you were going to do with it to make a meaningful film out of this experience?

Tom: We saw the footage where I shot these guys in “cool” poses and we realized they were awful and awkward [Laughs]. That’s when I started to think that I had failed to get what I wanted, I failed at making a cool movie. Instead I felt like I kind of took advantage of them, but I was also getting them in a real moment. They are trying to be rock stars but then you see how awkward they are. There is something underneath. They are these normal guys who happen to have an awesome job. That’s when we started trying to figure out how to piece together all this footage of me trying to make an awesome movie and failing at that, but at the same time capturing this journey to try to find myself and finish my project.

Aguilar: Making such a personal film, were there moments where it became to intimate to show? How difficult was it to look at this footage, which sometimes shows both of you in an unflattering way?

Matt: There were many times during the process when he was shooting stuff on tour and asking questions to which I would say, “Don’t use any of this.” At some point Bryan literally says, “Don’t use any of this interview,” and Tom laughs. It didn’t make into the film because it was too personal. There were also a lot of times that I just didn’t want him filming, but when the story started to come together and I saw some of he unflattering stuff, I was fine with it because I knew he was already putting so much unflattering stuff about himself in the film.

By the time they were actually creating something that was coming together, they had changed the focus and turned it inward towards Tom’s relationship with me. At that point all of these unflattering elements became relevant and interesting in the context of this new movie. I was Ok with it. The other guys in the band, well, I didn’t tell them what was happening for a long time. I kept them in the dark about it. They were pretty much in the dark until they saw part of a rough cut at a screening that went badly. It’s the screening you see in the film where the screen goes blank. That was the first time anybody in the band had seen anything.

All they saw was about 10 minutes of awkward, weird, uncomfortable stuff and then the screen went blank, but they were laughing at that. They got it. They thought that stuff was cool. It was actually kind of a lucky thing that when Tom tried to screen it the band didn’t get to see very much because what they saw was the funny stuff. At that point they backed away and let Tom go ahead and finish it. If they had seen the whole thing I bet they would have jumped in and gotten more involved. Tom would have lost some control.

The finishing of it was like a cat-and-mouse game between what the movie really was and what the band thought it was. Even with me, Corine and Tom were not totally letting me understand that it was going to be about until they started getting close to something good.

Tom: It took a long time to make it what it is. In the first 6 months of working on it, when Matt didn’t know anything and it was only me trying to figure out what I had shot, that was when I noticed the awkwardness of some of the things that I did with the guys. Then I saw myself crying and getting drunk on the bus and I thought,“ I don’t know how this goes into a movie. “ I was still thinking it was going to be about the band.

For a long time that was the driving force, it had to be about the band with an undercurrent about the brother making this documentary and screwing up. Mainly it was all about he band, but slowly we showed it to a few friends and, with me being the room, Matt would ask them, “ How much of Tom do you want to see? Are you annoyed at Tom? Are you guys tired of seeing Tom or do you like seeing Tom?” And they would all say “We like seeing Tom.”

I thought, “Alright, they like seeing me. “ We thought that stuff with me was funny and somewhat dramatic and sad, and I didn’t know how to react to that. I also thought it was sad, but it was also my life. Still, I’m all about making a good movie and if people like that and people think that makes it a better movie then I’m all for it. I thought, “Ok, let’s take more of The National out and put more of the shit that I was going through in the movie.” It just became a better movie that way.

Aguilar: What have you learned about each other after looking at one another through this filter, the film? Tom as the one behind the camera and Matt as sort of the original subject for the documentary.

Matt: It’s been funny. Through the process of him being of tour making the film I learned a certain type of thing: I learned that I missed my brother and I learned that I liked having him around. Putting it in perspective, I also realized that when he was around while we where on tour I was much happier, even if you don’t see much of that in the film [Laughs]. I don’t like to tour. I like doing shows, but I don’t like being away from home. I don’t like to travel that much, and I get really lost. I get pretty weird in the head after 5 or 6 weeks traveling around on a bus, doing shows, and the anxiety of it all. Having Tom around kept me grounded and more connected to the things that are important. Having him around put this whole rock and roll thing in perspective, which is good for me.

Tom: [To Matt] Also, when the shows are not going on the two pairs of brothers in the band pair up and go out to do some shopping, or whatever brotherly things they do. But you don’t really have anybody to go with. It was fun for me because I had never been to Europe and I was able to go out with him, eat dinner, and see all these places I had never been to. It was also a great chance for him to get out of the hotel room occasionally.

Matt: The band is a crucible of creative tensions, and it was nice to be able to go out to dinner with Tom, just Tom and I, and let out all my frustrations with the tour or the shows, or even share my enthusiasm and happiness. It’s hard to do it sometimes with the band because we are in this thing together and it’s loaded with all kinds of other tensions. Therefore, having Tom around was a huge tension release, a relief valve that released a lot of the pressure.

Tom: I was so unaware of the band’s small talk, subtle innuendos, and the subtle ways a band rips each other apart.

Matt: [To Tom] They went totally over your head. You didn’t even know.

Tom : I didn’t know that things weren’t going well certain days. I’m kind of everybody’s friend because everyone knows that I have no idea what’s going on.

Matt: If there were some sort of tension going on in the bad for whatever reason Tom wouldn’t have any idea of what was going on. So he and I would go out to dinner and I’d be bitching about the show and he would say, “I though the show was awesome!” It would put it in perspective for me. “Why am I complaining?” [To Tom] You did that for everyone else, having you around just relieved all kinds of tension within the band, mostly because you were making everybody laugh.

Tom: I’m at 0 for 80 as far as The National shows I’ve seen and how always I get their reaction to the show wrong. Sometimes I’d say, “That was a good show,” and they’ll say, “No, that was a terrible show.” Then another time I’d say, “That was really bad show,” and they’ll be like “We all thought that was a great show.” My read of every show was different from the band’s reaction. I couldn’t understand it. When I felt the energy apparently nobody else did.

Matt: He always got it wrong. Or maybe you always got it right [Laughs]. Another thing that happened in the process of this whole thing is that I saw Tom’s talents that I didn’t actually know of. There are a lot of things that I would not do the way Tom does. He is a very different person from me. I saw how different he is from me….

Tom: Like how I drink my Margarita? [Laughs]

Matt: I saw how different he is from me, and how brilliant he is in some things. I think through the process of him being on tour and him living with us, I think Tom and I are starting to understand what we are good at and what the other person is good at. We are starting to respect each other in a different way. Our old dynamic of older successful brother and younger less successful brother, that cliché, has changed.

I was always trying to help him and give him guidance, and all that. At a certain point I was giving him guidance that was meant for me not for him. I started recognizing that he is on a different road than I am. I started to understand his road and I think he understood where I’m coming from. What has happened is that a lot of the animosity between us has dissolved. He still drives me crazy and I drive him crazy, but underneath all that he knows that what I do is good even if it’s not his type of thing. I know that the things that he does are good, we just do different types of things

Aguilar: Was making the film a cathartic experience? Do you guys now see each other more like different creative people, besides being brothers, thanks to this shared experience?

Tom : Making this film has helped me discover things that I’m good at. As far as how the movie works, how it plays, how funny it is, I have my own take on that. Making it I did find some fun, comfort, and success. It was fun to see people liked the movie. That’s what I always wanted to do. With me being in my own movie so much, I didn’t know that it was going to be such a fun thing for people to watch me.

Matt: We know the movie is funny, and we knew what was funny about it when we were editing it, but there is a lot of therapy in there too. The movie is a lot about us working out problems. The editing of the movie was an extension of us trying to, not only look for what’s interesting about each other, but also finding what’s interesting about our relationship. Ultimately we wanted people to not be bored, and we wanted to tell a story that was meaningful and we kept coming back to our relationship and the complicated thorns that are in a real relationship between brothers or between anybody. This just happens to be about two brothers that are far apart in age.

Even if we had to show unflattering sides of each other that was what we were most interested in. My wife was definitely interested in the weird details of any relationship. Two human beings trying to understand each other, who love each other, but who also hate each other. How does that play out? All the most important things that happen in a human being’s life are usually the things that have to do with communicating with another human being. Everything revolves around that.

A person’s success - in terms of critical success or financial success - is pretty insignificant to a person’s happiness, but their relationships with themselves and people that are close to them that’s all that matters. The movie became about Tom’s search to understand his relationship with himself and with me. The process of making the film made me think about Tom differently than just being my little brother. He is another man in the world who has struggles. He is going to have to solve his struggles in a different way than I did mine.

Tom: My struggle is that this is not spicy tequila, it’s regular tequila [Laughs]

Aguilar: What was your parents' reaction to the film? It's clearly a film that revolves around your family more than the band.

Tom: Our parents love it. My mom loved being in a movie.

Matt: When they both saw the whole thing for the first time we were at our house in Cincinnati, my dad had to get up and leave the room. I think both of them when into the next room and cried for about 20 minutes. My dad didn’t want to openly cry in front of us. He couldn’t talk on the way out.

Tom: We didn’t realize that we had such a family oriented movie on our hand until it was almost finished and our sister Rachel was a little bit bummed out because she was not in it.

Matt: She lives in Seattle and we had footage of her, and when the movie ended being so much about our family and my sister was not in it, she was bummed. There is a really funny piece of bonus material out there, which is an interview with her.

Tom: Our sister loves the movie, but she was little upset. She was like “I had some things to say too.” [Laughs]

Aguilar: The title "Mistaken for Strangers" is of course from one The National’s songs, but how did you guys come to an agreement to name the film after this particular phrase? It's definitely very fitting.

Matt: We didn’t know what to call this thing and it had many, many names.

Tom: The firs title was a lyric from one of The National’s song, “Summer lovin’ torture party,” which I wasn’t so sure about.

Matt: I still like that title

Tom: I thought it was a mouthful. Our second idea was going to play the themes of me being a heavy metal fan trying to make a movie about an indie rock band, and it was going to be taken from the Acdc album “For Those About to Rock.” Our title was going to be “For Those About to Weep,” because The National is such a sadsack kind of band [Laughs]. I really liked that title.

Matt: Then, when the film was about to open the Tribeca Film Festival, the head of Tribeca said, “I love your movie, but the title ‘For Those About to Weep,’ I don’t know what that meas.” She didn’t know about the Acdc album. For Tom and I it made sense, that’s a household phrase “For Those About to Rock.” She didn’t understand our title, and she didn’t really know much about The National. It wasn’t funny to her because she wasn’t aware that we are known as a sad, depressing band.

That’s when we thought, “We don’t want only The National fans to like this movie.” So we were stuck, and this is the night before Tribeca’s press release was going to go out. They were asking, “What are you guys calling your movie? Because we are telling the world that we are opening our festival with it.” We were walking in circles thinking of what to call it. I said, “Let’s just call it ‘Lemonworld,’ that’s another thing that means nothing but is kind of mysterious”

Tom: It was going to be called “Lemonworld,” that night I was fine with that. The next morning - and this is the only time I went over anybody’s head - I called the band’s manager who was in talks with Tribeca. I said, “Wait, I don’t want my life to be called ‘Lemonworld,’ my life is not a lemmondworld!”

Matt: I had sent out an email to a bunch of trusted friends asking for suggestions since many of them had seen pieces of the film. Then my wife’s old work colleague in New York, his name is Willing Davidson who works as an editor at The New Yorker, wrote back saying, “I’ve always wonder why you guys aren’t calling this film ‘Mistaken for Strangers,’ it just seems like a perfect title for your movie.”

Tom: I thought, “That’s it ‘Mistaken for Strangers,’ done.”

Matt: That was a leap of faith. We didn’t know if it would work, but I think it’s a good title. Willing Davidson than you!

Tom: You know how we were talking about The National being known as a sadsack, depressing band. I wanted to say that, though I’m not a big fan of their music, but the one thing I know is that they are not a sadsack, depressing band. They just write songs that may be deeper than those from a lot of other bands. The one think I knew going on tour was that Matt wanted a fun movie that played with their image, taking the piss out them, making fun of the fact that people think they are sad and depressing, and showing that they are not.

I didn’t want super serious The National film showing Matt writing lyrics in a serious pose because I know that’s not how he writes lyrics, he does it in the back getting drunk. [Laughs]. The last thing I wanted was a black and white, deep and serious indie rock movie. No, I thought, “Let’s make a fun movie.” Yes they write god songs and they play music that’s very meaningful to a lot of people, but they are also good guys. They are just normal dudes that are not always trying to be the super serious artist.

Aguilar: [To Tom] I know you are not a big fan of their music, but do you a have a favorite song by The National?

Tom: I think “Friend of Mine” was always kind of my favorite song from them. There are other good ones out there but I’ve always liked “Friend of mine.”

Aguilar: [To Matt] What’s your favorite film by Tom?

Matt: Definitely “Mistaken for Strangers,” his other films are less good. [To Tom] I’m not saying they are bad…

Tom: [To Matt] I’m not saying they are good either, but I think they are interesting [Laughs]. The one I’m very proud is “Insane Animal Trapper.” I know they are very weird.

Matt: He’s also got a movie about Johnny Appleseed. In “Mistaken for Strangers” there is clip from Tom’s movie “Wages of Sin,” in that scene there is a guy who is tied to a rock and is hanging there dead. That guy is the star of Tom’s Johnny Appleseed film.

Tom: I think that all the movies I’ve made have always been weird ideas, granted I haven’t made many and most are shorts. Still, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve never made a movie just to hop of a trend. I’ve never made a rip-off of “The Matrix” and I haven’t tried to make another “Usual Suspects,” like a lot of film students do. I want to make a Johnny Appleseed movie!

Aguilar: [To Tom] Would you ever direct one The National's music videos?

Tom: Before I did this movie I directed the “Terrible Love” music video, the alternate version, and it’s all made up of tour footage.

Aguilar: How about a music video with more a narrative story?

Matt: There have been talks about Tom making a feature film based on a whole album by The National, sort of like Pink Floyd’s “The Wall,” but that’s not going to happen because the band and I would have to have most of the creative control.

Tom: And I don’t want to have my brother breathing down my neck. [Laughs]

Aguilar: [To Tom] After this very particular filmmaking experience, what are you working on next? Another documentary?

Tom: I’m taking it slow. I’ve got a few things going with some friends that might involve some Internet content. I’m taking acting lessons while being a dishwasher. I’m trying to do my best to work in this industry. I’m definitely going more on the acting route, but I still would like to direct my own stuff. I’m not a documentarian, and I feel like that’s how people see me right now - if they see me as anything that's probably what they see me as. People might think, “What other band is Tom going to follow now?” But I think that boat has sailed. I’m trying to figure out what's next.

Aguilar: [To Matt] I know you just finished touring with The National last week, are you taking a break now or working on a followup to Trouble Will Find Me?

Matt: I think we are all recalibrating. We hadn’t been actively on tour, but the last show of the tour just happened last week in London. I think everybody is trying to fix the rest of their lives, but everybody is really happy. We are getting along better than we ever have. I think this is because it’s gone well for us and because almost everybody has a family now. Family puts everything into perspective so that we realize how great we have it and how lucky we are to be where we are. Any petty resentments, anxieties, problems or tensions within the band pale in comparison to the big picture. This is the first time in along time we’ve been in that spot. We are going to start working on a new record, we sort of already are.

Aguilar: Certainly, with both with film and music, after you make something successful people have high expectations for the followup .

Mat: It’s a great problem to have. We’ve done stuff that people really think is good and now we have to do more! [Laughs]. People anticipating and having high expectations is a great problem to have, and we do have that problem. The National is not going to make another record like the ones we’ve made before, so it might take longer. [To Tom] You don’t want to make another documentary, but you also want to do something different.

Tom: It will definitely be something different, and not necessarily what people expect.

"Mistaken for Strangers" will have a one-week run at the Laemmle's Music Hall starting today December 5th. Tom and Matt Berninger will be there for a Q&A following the film tonight Friday Dec. 5 and tomorrow Saturday Dec 6 after the after the 7:10 and 9:30 shows.

[As you probably already know, starting on Thursday, August 21, Fxx is running the Every Simpsons Ever Marathon, running through all 552 episodes of "The Simpsons," plus "The Simpsons Movie." To aid in your viewing process, Team HitFix is selecting our favorite episodes from each day, plus an episode or two that you can skip and use as a bathroom or nap break.] Day 7 of Fxx's Every Simpsons Ever Marathon goes from "Simpsons Tall Tales" (the end of Season 12) through to "The President Wore Pearls" (the beginning of Season 15). I must admit: The "Simpsons" fans on Team HitFix are beginning to drop like flies. Josh Lasser's fandom carried through the Tomacco episode, but no further. David Lewis wrote a blurb here for "Simpsons Tall Tales," the episode he says ended his active support of the show.  Fortunately, Sepinwall and I had a pair of favorites apiece and Katie Hasty also had a preferred episode, so we've got some recommendations for you, plus a couple episodes you can avoid.  [And while I only wrote up two episodes I love, there are at least 10 more that I'll be happy to rewatch if I'm around and another 10 more that I'd enjoy having on in the background. Possibly more. This may be the worst period for "The Simpsons" thus far, but I'll always maintain that middling-to-poor "Simpsons" is still more rewatchable than nearly anything else on TV.] Check out our recommendations for Day 7 and chime in with your own favorites... Katie Hasty Recommends: "She Of Little Faith" (3 a.m.) Episode #275 Why...

Eastbound and Down Season 4, Episode 8 “Chapter 29″

Written by John Carcieri, Jody Hill & Danny McBride

Directed by Jody Hill

Aired 11/17/2013 on HBO

There’s nothing easy about endings – Kenny knows it, the writers of every comedy or drama in the history of television knows it, and as an audience, we know it. Knowing that, it’s not a complete surprise that “Chapter 29″ takes a fairly conventional route for its finale – unfortunately, it’s not only a predictable, but utterly painless, as Kenny’s various outbursts during the holidays (and season four as a whole) don’t quite hold the repercussions we may have once thought they would. If anything, “Chapter 29″ feels rushed, moving from the middle of the second act to the conclusion in light, nearly forgettable fashion.

As a whole, it’s hard to find fault for how “Chapter 29″ concludes: Kenny finally learning to grow up a little is really...

Fantasia has ended and it was one hell of a ride. When Fantasia rolls around town, the festival is a unique opportunity to sit down with filmmakers and cinephiles and have candid conversations about the love of reel. I had the pleasure of sitting down with Tom Berninger, whose film Mistaken for Strangers was one of the most under-hyped gems to screen this season.

In fact, I would have missed seeing the film entirely were it not for Berninger stopping by to greet fellow filmmaker Matt Johnson (The Dirties) during an interview. Johnson praised Mistaken for Strangers and urged me, who’d just presented herself as mainly a music journalist, to see the documentary.

If Berninger’s name rings a bell, that’s because he is the younger sibling of Matt Berninger, also known as the lead singer of indie rock sensation The National. Mistaken for Strangers takes a candid...

Way back in January, on this very website, we covered the scariest movies according to their Wikipedia page plot summaries. To say the least, the article sparked a lively discussion. Hordes of anonymous Internet denizens were shocked, horrified, appalled and most of all confused, steadfastly incapable of understanding why an adult human would judge a film on its Wikipedia page plot summary instead of just, you know, watching it.

And I get it. I get it, guys. I'm with you.

In fact, in the name of solidarity, I'd like to publicly acknowledge that there are Wikipedia page plot summaries of horror movies that (gasp) aren't even scary! I know! I feel like we're getting somewhere, everybody. I feel like we just had a breakthrough in group.

Here are ten that could maybe use a 3 a.m. edit or two by a bored computer nerd in Wyoming.

10. 'The Haunting'...

Stony Brook, N.Y. -- Among the procedures Army surgeon Hawkeye Pierce performed on "M.A.S.H." was an end-to-end anastomosis.

Most of the viewers, actor Alan Alda concedes, had no idea he was talking about removing a damaged piece of intestine and reconnecting the healthy pieces.

Today, the award-winning film and television star is on a mission to teach physicians, physicists and scientists of all types to ditch the jargon and get their points across in clear, simple language.

The former host of the long-running PBS series "Scientific American Frontiers" is a founder and visiting professor of journalism at the Stony Brook University Center for Communicating Science, which has just been named in his honor.

"There's no reason for the jargon when you're trying to communicate the essence of the science to the public because you're talking what amounts to gibberish to them," Alda said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

Before "So You Think You Can Dance," "Dancing With the Stars" and other shows attracted large audiences to dance, there was Robert Joffrey.

He brought dance to everyone, using his company, the Joffrey Ballet, as ambassadors of dance, traveling the country, putting on shows.

The dramatic tale of the dance company is beautifully told in "Joffrey: Mavericks of American Dance" on PBS' "American Masters" Friday, Dec. 28 (check local listings).

It's not an overstatement to say that Robert Joffrey revolutionized dance in America.

"I always thought it was important to represent the country, to use American music," Joffrey says in the film.

He went beyond traditional ballet, which many found effete and difficult to embrace. He set dance to contemporary music, but used basic ballet moves, melded with modern dance. His choreography was modern, but not so abstract that it shut out audiences for being too avant-garde.

Dancers quoted Joffrey as saying,...

Members of Arcade Fire brought the house -- or at least the garden party tent -- down with both their music and their message at the Artists For Peace and Justice luncheon at the University of Toronto president's estate over the weekend.

As the headliners for Saturday's 3rd annual fundraiser in support of the Artists for Peace and Justice charity - which is currently focused on aid and education for the children of Hait -- Win Butler, Regine Chassagne and Sarah Neufeld from Arcade Fire started their short acoustic set by playing right in the middle of the A-list crowd before taking the stage.

"The last time we played in a tent was in Port-Au-Prince," Butler told the enthralled audience who paid $1,250 per ticket and included the likes of Jude Law, Ian Somerhalder, Alexander Skarsgard and Alison Mosshart of The Kills and Apj founder, Oscar-winning Canadian director Paul Haggis.

"This is a lot fancier tent,...

Funny or Die’s Vice President of Branded Entertainment, Chris Bruss made a handful of announcements at this week’s Digital Content NewFronts Showcase hosted by Iab. One of them was the online comedy destination and new media studio is developing an original web series with actor, producer, and objection of Steven Soderbergh’s direction Don Cheadle. Don Cheadle Is... is slated to be a three-part series featuring the Academy Award nominee in which he re-invisions a popular character from our collective memories in each installment. That character could be Johnny Appleseed, Scrooge McDuck, Alf, John Henry, or any other individual, anthropomorphic animal, or superhero prominent in American folklore or pop culture. “We’re great at getting celebrities to play in our playground,” Bruss told the packed house of advertisers and brands at Iab’s Ad Lab. Don Cheadle Is... (as well as good chunk of Funny or Die’s...

More than three decades after it's release, "Caddyshack" is still the movie most people think about whenever there's anything to do with gophers going on. Tom Selleck told Craig Ferguson on "The Late Late Show" (Weeknights, 12:30 a.m. Est on CBS) about his passion for planting native oak trees. It's his own personal Johnny Appleseed crusade, and it usually goes along just fine.

"I went up to where the oak tree was and there was a hole, and this gopher had pulled the whole little baby native oak tree into the ground," he said, It was at this point, that Ferguson saw a darker side to Selleck. "Poison's worse for 'em," Selleck explained. "I became like Bill Murray in 'Caddyshack.' I killed a lot of gophers!"

"I just wanted him to take the poison back to the house way down underground and share it," he said calmly, to...

More than three decades after its release, "Caddyshack" is still the movie most people think about gophers come up in conversation. Tom Selleck told Craig Ferguson on "The Late Late Show" (Weeknights, 12:30 a.m. Est on CBS) about his passion for planting native oak trees. It's his own personal Johnny Appleseed crusade, and it usually goes along just fine.

"I went up to where the oak tree was and there was a hole, and this gopher had pulled the whole little baby native oak tree into the ground," he said. Then, Ferguson saw a darker side to Selleck. "Poison's worse for 'em," the actor explained. "I became like Bill Murray in 'Caddyshack.' I killed a lot of gophers!

"I just wanted him to take the poison back to the house, way down underground and share it," he said calmly, to which Ferguson called him a "gopher Stalin.

Bearing the titles of a series of children’s books by husband-and-wife team Kate and Jim Mcmullan, this double DVD pack features 12 stories by a variety of authors: “I’m Dirty!”, “Burt Dow: Deep-Water Man”, “The Paperboy”, “Stars! Stars! Stars!”, “Fletcher and the Falling Leaves”, “Johnny Appleseed”, “I Stink!”, “Trashy Town”, “Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel”, “The Remarkable Riderless Runaway Tricycle”, “The Beast of Monsieur Racine”, and “Arnie the Doughnut” (a personal favorite). The pack consists of two DVDs with a read-along feature, which functions something like a karaoke track, allowing children to follow the narration by reading the subtitles that light up in time with it.

Read more...

Mike Rowe is my hero and moral compass. The 49-year-old host of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs surely descended from Johnny Appleseed, Paul Bunyan, the Marlboro Man or some other mythological figure meant to embody the ideal red-blooded American male. Rowe is charming, seemingly always agreeable, with a face for television and a voice for radio. He obviously isn’t afraid to experience the kind of work environments that would make lesser men wretch and is an ardent supporter and champion of American manufacturing and our country’s blue collar workforce. If you watch Dirty Jobs you know the best part about the show (aside from seeing what some honest people do to make a buck) are Rowe’s pithy asides. Little pearls of wisdom about life and hard work inside the entertaining oyster farm of a well-produced 22-minute television program. And if you would like to see more of...

With the unveiling only hours away by Steve Jobs, the Johnny Appleseed of the digital age, Apple's new iCloud service has arrived.  Apple is late again to another dawning realm of digital distribution, chasing after the launch of music clouds behind Amazon and Google. But as with MP3 players, smartphones and notepads, that may not matter. Also read: iCloud Unveiled: Steve Jobs Presents Cloud-Based Technology The iPod, iPhone and iPad came to dominate their earlier competitors. So will Apple's iCloud turn go the same way and be the game-changer of digital leisure? Among the details that have...

The United States of America may rule the world in many things -- international basketball, childhood obesity, Kate Hudson movies -- but as a relatively youthful nation, we lack in one key resource that more venerable countries take for granted: A rich tradition of folklore and legend.   Yes, we have our John Henrys and Paul Bunyans, but if you're a writer, try walking into a pitch meeting and leading with, "Pitch this: Chad Michael Murray *is* Johnny Appleseed."   That's why it seems like scarcely a year passes without a big or small screen interpretation or reinterpretation of the same...

Cash Crop

Directed by: Adam Ross

Cast: Sefton

Running Time: 1 hr 25 mins

Rating: Unrated

Release Date: October 15, 2010 (limited)

Plot: Documents cannabis growers up and down the Emerald Triangle, an area in California famous for marijuana production.

Who’S It For? Teenagers and adults interested in the topic of marijuana legalization. While they’re sober.

Expectations: Most of what I know about the pot growers comes from the news and blog posts. I kind of expected it to be along the lines of Food, Inc or The Cove. I also thought it would be pro-marijuana legalization.

Scorecard (0-10)

Actors:

Sefton as himself: Most of the people who appear in the film are only identified by a title, such as “Business Owner” or “Cannabis Farmer.” Sefton is one of the only people identified by name, and it’s only his first name at that. But I also list him because he’s...

Since Zachary Levi’s show Chuck kicked off its fourth season Monday, I thought I would give you the interview I had with him for Tangled first. If you haven’t checked out my first two set visit reports, you can catch up right here: part 1 | part 2. During the interview, I only had time to cover a few topics because Levi’s astounding appreciation for Disney kept bubbling up. You will just have to read the interview to really get the full effect, so join me after the break for the highlights and the full transcript.

First, I have to say that Zach was a pleasure to talk with. He has an enthusiastic appreciation for Disney and is exactly the kind of person you want to voice one of these iconic characters. Now, onto the highlights.

How he got involved with Tangled:

He was sold as soon as he...

I recently met up with the talented young director, Sam Macon, just after an unfortunate roadside fiasco in Brooklyn that sent at least one person to the hospital. Shaken, but still men, we dusted ourselves off and retired to a cafe with our laptops to drink copious amounts of espresso while checking out this video he'd just shot for San Diego's noise pop punks, Crocodiles.

Macon is well spoken, well dressed, gentlemanly, and intelligent. Men adore him and women follow him. But I'm convinced he is a Pied Piper of mayhem, a devilish Johnny Appleseed, sprinkling little seeds of chaos wherever he goes. "I wanted to paint a postcard of California," he said of the video which he shot in La and San Diego with the band, "One that stretched from surf and sun to the Manson murders."

I like violence in videos when it's well done, when it surprises or serves the song.

Susan Sarandon told People she’s in the early filming stages of a reality show set at her NYC ping pong club, Spin. “It won’t be the Jersey Shore,” said the Johnny Appleseed of ping pong, much to our relief. Meanwhile, Animal Planet is supposedly developing a series about Mike Tyson racing pigeons. That project’s tentative title is Taking on Tyson, which seems a little self-centered. I mean he probably just sits there while they work out.

Read more: Yesterday’s Lunchtime Poll: Does Victoria Beckham have a social responsibility to set better hair trends than this?

Annie...

Susan Sarandon is "the Johnny Appleseed of ping-pong," and she is making a reality show about it. People reports:

"It won't be the Jersey Shore," the actress tells People at a World Champions Event at her ping-pong nightclub, SPiN, about her latest project. "It's more of an episodic documentary. We're trying to invent something you haven't seen before that follows a bunch of people in this crazy little subculture." Sarandon, 63, an investor in SPiN, plans to use the show to record the club's growing business--and the community that's formed there, especially the young players who are trying to make it to the Olympics. ("One of them probably will," she says.)

First of all: Ok, sure. Susan Sarandon really likes ping-pong, and she's invested some of her millions of dollars into supporting that interest, and in doing so has created a haven for and become a dignified spokesperson for "a bunch...

This week! We explore whether Disney lets little boys become Disney princesses – and if that's okay! We answer whether a guy should tell his 13-year-old brother to stop saying "That's so gay." And we ask: "Does de-gaying a movie ever work?"

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Contact me here (and be sure and include your city and state and/or country!)

Q: One of my cousins has a five-year-old grandson who is totally obsessed with Disney princesses and all things of a feminine nature. His parents are working on being accepting of him, but his grandmother, who has a gay son and a gay cousin (me), is totally accepting of him. Disney World has something called The Bibbidi Bobbidi Boutique (gotta love that name), which is a salon that transforms little girls into the Disney princess of their choice. They also have something called The Pirates League, where...

When I first read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles in high school, it blew my mind. This time I read it, and I was only mildly interested. The ideas weren't enriched by years of life experience so much as became overwrought. The book consists of several short stories (some were previously published in magazines, etc.) that give different perspectives of life on Mars, from Martians to Earth men. Men first come to Mars to explore, and then to flee the violence on Earth, and then leave because a great war has broken out on Earth (solidarity, I guess).

Although some of my lackluster second reading has to do with how dated I found the book this time. Obviously the story ("Way in the Middle of the Air") involving all the black people in the South fleeing oppressive white bosses is dated in the 40s-era it was originally written. But...

Jordan Reeves just wanted some credits to add to his résumé when he auditioned at the Southeastern Theatre Conference. He was a junior in college, majoring in theater performance. He'd never heard of Fort Harrod Drama and its yearly outdoor production, "Daniel Boone: The Man and the Legend." But his audition impressed the show's producers enough for them to offer him the role of James Harrod."What excited me at first was the chance to be in an epic play, playing a historical figure," says Reeves. "The show took place in Harrodsburg, Ky., and I would be portraying the character that founded that town. It was my first professional job. I was young, and someone wanted to pay me to act, so that was terrific. They also provided housing."Outdoor dramas also provide a good deal of employment. According to the Institute of Outdoor Drama in Chapel Hill, N.C.

Whether you are landed gentry, a common farmer, or a young lady with no parents or prospects, Miss Emma Woodhouse of Highbury will be sure to put you in your place-matrimonially or otherwise. Jane Austen's Emma plays on Book-It Repertory Theatre's stage at the Center House Theatre October 20- November 22.

Jane Austen's fourth novel is a sparkling comedy of 19th-century manners centering on the well-intentioned Emma and her sometimes indiscreet, often misapplied, and always entertaining efforts as matchmaker. Clever, intelligent, and spoiled, Emma takes it upon herself to arrange a suitable marriage for her poor friend Harriet. But despite her advantages, she is oblivious to the true nature of almost everyone around her-including herself-until at last she happily loses her own heart. Austen's deliciously droll descriptions, ironic observations, and generous happy endings are Book-It fan favorites.

Jane Austen was born December 16, 1775 at Steventon near Basingstoke in England,...

The sixth and final volume of the Disney Classic Short Films collection finally found a way to load a disc with cartoons of genuinely similar moral themes. While Mickey and the Beanstalk did well in that regard as far as plots are concerned, the cartoons accompanying The Reluctant Dragon all take a different stance on identity and what it means to measure expectations of who people think you should be against who you actually are. Each of the cartoons does this in its own way – some more deftly than others. While more consistently thematically, it’s also worth noting that the average age of the four cartoons in this set is noticeably lower than those in other volumes; where volumes 1-5 each had about 2-4 cartoons from the mid 1930s, this volume has but one – and its 1938 creation date gives it a stylistic leg up over its 1933/1934 brethren of past volumes.