Filmmaker Statement

The Last Time You Had Fun is my second feature and like my first it deals with marriage. I wouldn’t call marriage an obsession, but it is definitely a fascination of mine. I think as a culture there is a lot of discussion about what marriage is or isn’t or should be, and part of me is responding to that. Here is this commitment made by two people, ideally grown-ups, and with it comes all of these nebulous expectations, happiness, fidelity, morality, social acceptability, children, no children, fulfilled sexuality. When those expectations fall short in reality they can be painful, but they can also be cathartically very funny. Because of those stakes and that potential for humor, marriage for me is the perfect lens with which to examine human relationships in general.

I’m not a director who likes to sit behind a monitor or really sit much at all while on set. I love the collaborative engine of filmmaking, all the pieces coming together in a single moment with a collective push towards one story. It is the ultimate barn raising. Nowhere is this more fun than with the actors. One of this film’s challenges and thrills for me was that it is an ensemble, so I got to work with group performances as well as one on one. It’s different when you have four or five actors in almost every scene then when you have two – it’s harder in some ways, but it brings a heightened energy. I love rehearsing; I love problem solving and discovering with the actors. I think it comes from what I like as a viewer: I can forgive a less than beautiful esthetic, I can overlook a focus slip, I can handle clicks and pops in the soundtrack, but if the performances don’t ring true, I’m out. Because of this, working with the cast to build grounded performances is the most important thing I do as a filmmaker. Stylistically with this film, I wanted to stay very true to the script, but have the performances feel almost improvisational. I got lucky with an amazing talented cast and I’m very proud of what they were able to accomplish.

When my husband Hal and I decided to collaborate, with him writing and me directing, the first thing we talked about was what kind of film we wanted to make. Hal has written for other people and is a director in his own right, with several award-winning films. The one he’s most known for, Special, with Michael Rapaport, really rode the line between darkness and a giddy transcendent humor.    We both like a lot of different kinds of stories and watch a lot of films together. But in talking it became quickly apparent that what we really wanted to make together was something we weren’t seeing as much of in recent independent American films. A grounded, scripted, comedy for grown-ups, which dealt honestly with character. I think there is a move in smaller budget indie films to explore character through these very pensive cinematic styles and it’s beautiful, but for me I felt that I had done that several times already and therefore it was less interesting. I wanted to make a film in which you come to meet the characters as you do in real life, by listening to what they have to say.

With The Last Time You Had Fun I was searching for grounded humor, the kind that makes you wince, tear up and laugh despite yourself. For me this is a movie about how unsuccessful most of us are at being grown ups, and what happens one night to these four people when they stop trying so hard.    I try consciously to set up challenges for myself with every new project. A Quiet Little Marriage, my first feature, was a marriage in a pressure cooker; for the most part everything took place in the same four rooms. The two main characters were in love with each other - looking right at each other and not really seeing each other at the same time. That special interiority was part of the last film’s constraints, it was the shape of the film and I enjoyed experimenting with it. With this one, I wanted to be on the move, literally, and to have that be part of what makes this night special and gives the characters permission to reexamine themselves.    The movie is about marriage, but none of the main characters are married to each other. They are exploring what’s missing with strangers. Instead of a spatial constraint, The Last Time You Had Fun has a time constraint; the characters have wandered out of their situations for the night, but they all know when the sun comes up, they will have to go back and face their lives.

Making a film is the most fun I know how to have, no contest. It’s a chance to think about what it is that makes us human: our flaws, our terrible decisions, our great leaps of hope, and our capacity for tenderness with each other. Filmmaking is where I go to laugh, cry, create and collaborate. And when it's over, hopefully to tell a story that inspires people to share some of the joy I get from making it.