Interview articles from April 2007

Interview archives from April 2007

Her place in the sun.(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... Dear Interview, What a bold step to dedicate an entire issue of Interview to an icon such as Elizabeth Taylor [February, 2007]. Even if Taylor isn't a spring chicken anymore, she is as relevant and powerful today as she was when she topped...

Blast off!(Letter to the editor)
April 1, 2007... Dear Interview, Congratulations on getting the Interview website up and running--it really looks great! It will be great for your readers who can't always wait for the next issue to reach the newsstands. Keep up the good work and welcome...

Bat for lashes: by flirting with darkness, this pop singer winks at convention.(MUSIC DISCOVERY)(Natasha Khan)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... "I had a dream where a black horse came to my window," says Natasha Khan--the spellbinding singer known as Bat for Lashes. "I got on the horse's back, and we rode to a forest where there were ghosts of children singing. When I woke up, I...

Natasha: in R&B's new bumper crop of schoolgirls-gone-gold, this singer's gunning for head of the class with a debut that's all thump, soul, and sizzle.(MUSIC NEWS)(Natasha Bradley)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Still a senior in high school and with talent to burn, 18-year-old Natasha Bradley is proof positive that doing it yourself is still the quickest way to the top. Virtually overnight the young chanteuse was snapped up from her part-time job at a...

Andrew Bird: some rockers bust up hotel rooms--this one busts up genres.(THIS MONTH'S CULT MUSICIANS)(Interview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... "I never really know what my record's going to sound like before I start working on it," Andrew Bird explains. "When I fully reproduce what's in my head, there's no mystery--and I want to be surprised." A violin prodigy since the age of 4 who...

Noisettes: who says all the showmanship has gone out of rock?(MUSIC BUZZ)(Shingai Shoniwa)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... "When you've got good stuff happening and a lot of love, it would be a bit silly to keep it all to yourself and not share it, really," says Shingai Shoniwa, the rambunctious lead singer of British rock band Noisettes, as she signs copies of one...

Strike up the beauty band: talk about stolen glances!(LOOK OF THE MONTH)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... When visionary makeup artist Pat McGrath sent an army of young women with pink-swept eyes down the Calvin Klein Collection catwalk this spring, was she merely tipping her cap to fauvist brushwork, or was there something more-were women perhaps...

Sarah Roemer: she was discovered (twice) while waiting in line for coffee--and she's giving audiences the jitters.(MOVIE TIP)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... If there's an actress who has made more of a career out of buying coffee than Sarah Roemer, you'd be hard-pressed to find her. First, at 15, Roemer was approached on her way to school at a 7-Eleven by the owner of a modeling agency. "He was...

Jack Smith: a new documentary takes a wide-screen look at the turbulent life and influential work of avant-garde cinema's original wild spirit.(MOVIE REBEL)(Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... Director Mary Jordan's tragicomic new documentary, Jack Smith and the Destruction of Atlantis, is a happy paradox, an inspiring movie full of a sense of loss. Smith, who died in 1989, was a New York filmmaker and performer whose name is known...

Chris Rock: behind the grin, out of the comfort zone, and into uncharted territory with the funnyman who is becoming a serious force on both sides of the camera.(MOVIE PROFILE)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... ELVIS MITCHELL: I Think I Love My Wife is the second movie you've directed. Were there any lessons from directing your first film, Head of State [2003], that you applied to this one? CHRIS ROCK: When I directed Head of State, I was in a...

Emma Booth: her pale complexion once earned her the nickname reflector board. Now she's ready to shine.(MOVIE SCOOP)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Keen observers of Australian talent may have noticed something special about the country's far-flung western coast--actors Hugh Jackman and Frances O'Connor studied in Perth, and the city also produced model Gemma Ward. Now another western...

Evan Ross: this young actor's mom sang "do you know where you're going to?" he does.(MOVIE SPOTLIGHT)(Interview)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... Perhaps the only thing in life that's come hard for Evan Ross--the youngest son of Motown legend Diana Ross--is his stutter. Not getting rid of one, but acquiring one. "I had to learn how," he says. "Mykelti Williamson"--Bubba in Forrest Gump...

Human giant: the stunt-pulling, hair-raising, viral-video-making troupe of journeymen comics whose 21st-century pranks landed them on MTV.(COMEDY BUZZ)
April 1, 2007... "It all started in the cafeteria of a crappy New Jersey tech school over sloppy joes," says Paul Scheer of the four-man sketch-comedy troupe Human Giant, whose new self-titled series is set to debut this spring on MTV. Human Giant, which...

Jenna Fischer: in a town where success tends to be measured by things like the breadth of one's walk-in closet, here's a comedic talent for whom a single pair of shoes is plenty.(COMEDY BREAKTHROUGH)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... In the figure-skating farce Blades of Glory, Jenna Fischer, otherwise known as easygoing receptionist Pam Beesly on the Emmy award-winning comedy The Office, plays one-third of a love triangle opposite Will Ferrell and Jon Heder. The latter are...

Molly Shannon: the former Saturday night live-wire has always been willing to fling herself into a pile of boxes for a laugh, but she certainly won't be put in one. Now, in a film that's part dramatic, part funny, and quite literally for the dogs, she's about to have audiences singing "good golly, miss molly" all over again.(COMEDY CHAMELEON)(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Molly Shannon's ability to twist, contort, and transform herself into a wide variety of hilariously human characters--some real, like Courtney Love and Monica Lewinsky, and many Imagined, like Catholic schoolgirl Mary Katherine Gallagher and...

The sprites of spring: how to be the heroine of your own fairy tale.(FASHION PLAY)(Brief article)
April 1, 2007... There must be some extra pixie dust in the air this season, as spring's offerings are decidedly enchanting. Francisco Costa at Calvin Klein and John Galliano at Dior both championed diaphanous layers in soft pastels along with fabrics that...

All the dish.(FOOD COLUMN)(STAND 24, BRGR 287, BLT BURGER 470)(Restaurant review)
April 1, 2007... MANHATTAN [heart][heart][heart] BURGERS As enduringly popular as the hamburger may be, it's unlikely anyone could have predicted the tidal wave of burger establishments to come crashing down on New York City's shores in the past year....

Elephant dancing: the who, the what, the wow, and the why.(MUSIC PICKS)
April 1, 2007... 1 PINK NASTY Mold the Gold (pinknasty.net) A singer and guitarist from Wichita, Kansas, she doesn't even try to live up to her name. "We could go to Starbucks/And talk a lot of shit about people/We don't know, now/Who probably live in New...

Cocorosie: The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (Touch and Go).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... COCOROSIE The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn (Touch and Go) Musically, the Brooklyn-based sister act of Sierra and Bianca Casady are almost indefinable: They're singers, they're storytellers, they're rappers. Every song they write...

Various artists: Ed Rec Volumes 1 & 2 (Ed Banger/Vice).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... VARIOUS ARTISTS Ed Rec Volumes 1 & 2 (Ed Banger/Vice) Dance music is now officially back from the dead, thanks to the utterly cool French label Ed Banger. The brainchild of Daft Punk manager Pedro Winter, Banger showcases club-music...

EL-P: I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... EL-P I'll Sleep When You're Dead (Definitive Jux) El-P, a.k.a. Jaime Meline, is a renaissance man devoted to keeping hip-hop's freak flag hoisted way high. This combination rapper, producer, film scorer, label head, and remixer for the...

The Stooges: The Weirdness (Virgin).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... THE STOOGES The Weirdness (Virgin) When they released three seminal--and vastly unpopular--albums between 1969 and 1973, the Stooges sounded like (and pretty much were) four meatheads bashing out 4/4 beats and screaming into mice in their...

Mika: Life in Cartoon Motion (Universal Republic/Casablanca).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... MIKA Life in Cartoon Motion (Universal Republic/Casablanca) With flashes of early Elton John and mid-period Beatles, newcomer Mika has that kind of oddly nostalgic throwback sound that's hard to place and equally hard to get out of your...

Bebel Gilberto: Momento (Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... BEBEL GILBERTO Momento (Ziriguiboom/Six Degrees) On Momento, Brazilian singer Bebel Gilberto does something we've been waiting for ever since her promising and club-friendly debut Tanto Tempo (2000): She hits her stride--and wonderfully....

The Twilight Sad: Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (FatCat).(DAPPER RAPPERS, SPOOKY SISTERS, AND GENRE TWISTERS)(Sound recording review)
April 1, 2007... THE TWILIGHT SAD Fourteen Autumns & Fifteen Winters (FatCat) Scottish quartet the Twilight Sad traffic in psychedelic workouts riddled with eclectic, rough-hewn explorations that career from folky balladry into electronic experimentation...

Shots in the dark: who's watching who's watching who's watching who?(MOVIE COLUMN)(spy movies)
April 1, 2007... It's night in Glasgow, the dirty, shimmering locale of Red Road, where CCTV operator Jackie (Kate Dickie) gazes at the 35 screens before her--she has even more viewing choices than James Stewart's back-window peeper in Rear Window (1954). Her...

The Nanny Diaries.(Preview)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (The Weinstein Company) Directed by Shari Springer Berman and Robert Pulcini The story of superbly styled young heroines trying to negotiate love and life in New York City while staving off the infection of ennui that's beset the...

Blades of Glory.(Preview)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (DreamWorks/Paramount) Directed by Josh Gordon and Will Speck Beginning with 2004's Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy and continuing with last year's Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, Will Ferrell has done for willfully...

Penelope.(Preview)(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (IFC) Directed by Mark Palansky Produced by Reese Witherspoon, who appears in a small role, this feature debut from director Mark Palansky is a fable about a young woman named Penelope Wilhern (Christina Ricci) who, born into an affluent...

Offside.(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (Sony Classics) Directed by Jafar Panahi Easily the first must-see film of 2007, Jafar Panahi's Offside continues the Iranian director's sensitive, hyperrealist investigation into his country's political and social climate. This time...

The TV Set.(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (ThinkFilm) Directed by Jake Kasdan Director Jake Kasdan (Zero Effect, 1998) exploits David Duchovny's marvelous deadpan by casting him as an uberneurotic TV writer who unfortunately finds himself up against the manipulative, dumbed-down...

Poison Friends.(Movie review)
April 1, 2007... (Strand) Directed by Emmanuel Bourdieu Emmanuel Bourdieu's terrific, incisive take on the competitiveness and hypocrisy of higher learning plays like a diabolical cover version of Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends & Influence People....

Letter from the editor.(view)(Editorial)
April 1, 2007... "You can get mad at the way things are," says Chris Rock to Elvis Mitchell in this issue [page 72]. We've all had that feeling of frustration, for sure. "Or," as Rock continues, "you can write your own movie." He didn't just do that with I...

Rose McGowan: the out-there, indie pinup queen is roaring back, thorny as ever.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... This month, after a five-year run on the WB's Charmed, Rose McGowan makes her return to the big screen in Grindhouse, an homage to exploitation films from the '70s. The film, which includes a double bill by two cult filmmakers (Death Proof, a...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt: with one of the smoothest segues from child actor to leading in recent history, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is proof of what can happen when you break free of the stereotypes and convince others to think out of the box.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Joseph Gordon-Levitt may have played the young writer Norman Maclean in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It (1992), a baseball fan whose prayers are answered in Angels in the Outfield (1994), and a pubescent "IV ET in 3rd Rock From the...

Wangechi Mutu: when this artist says her goal is to keep moving, keep changing, and keep making work that's a little more frightening every time, she really means it. here she talks to another artist who doesn't mess around.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... BARBARA KRUGER: In the writing about your work, biography is a prominent element, used as both backstory and explanatory device. How important is that Information to the viewing and reception of the work?. WANGECHI MUTU: I think it's...

Off the charts: a portfolio of rockin' and rollin' images.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Rock 'n' roll--no other genre of music has inspired such a wealth of iconic photographs in such a short span of time. Just the words, so full of motion and syncopation, conjure up a stream of archetypal images: mop-topped lads swaying in front...

Liv: with her upside-down childhood its little wonder that Liv Tyler's idea of rebellion would be a search for stability. Now she's found it and the sky's the limit.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... Short of the occasional paparazzi shot taken of her as she strolled through her lower Manhattan neighborhood, Liv Tyler has essentially been off the radar for the last few years--a decision that was largely her own, made in order to regroup and...

My Chemical Romance: so how did five pale, aimless, and introverted guys become one of the biggest, most theatrical acts in music today? Liza with A Z talks to singer Gerard way about how a little bit of makeup--and a whole lot of gumption--can go a long way.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... LIZA MINNELLI: Hi, baby, how are ya? GERARD WAY: Hi! LM: I met your mama, did you know that? GW: I know. Thank you so much for being so nice to her. LM: She was wonderful. She's a real lovely, lovely lady, and you are my new...

1000 points of light.
April 1, 2007... IT'S SHIMMER TIME, AND THE FASHION ON THESE PAGES USES METALLIC FABRICS AND SEQUINS TO BEND LIGHT, REFLECT IT, AND REFRACT IT INTO EVERY COLOR OF THE NIGHT. SO WHEN YOU ASK YOUR DRESS, "WHO IS THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL?" THERE'S ONLY ONE POSSIBLE...

Kal Penn: when it comes to comedy, he's faster than a speeding bullet--and now he's gunning to make the leap from teen-flick ruckus-maker to serious stereotype-breaker in a single bound. So who to do the interview? Sounds like a job for Superman.(Interview)
April 1, 2007... In Mira Nair's new film, The Namesake, Kal Penn plays Gogol, the son of Indian immigrants living in New York, whose desire to fit in with his American friends clashes with his family's traditional ways. Based on the best-selling novel by...

Mad hatters and bedazzlers.(PAGE 5)
April 1, 2007... 1 Helena Christensen and Jack Huston at NYC nightspot The Inn LW12 for a dinner celebrating Rodarte's fall 2007 collection, co-hosted by MAC and Interview. Drinks courtesy of Moot & Chandon. 2 Estee Lauder's John Demsey and Sarah Brown at the...