Bring 'Sex' to the Hub

It seems to me that one of the reasons so many people ask the question "What is Sex and Justice?" has to do with the business model. The question is basically the first thing the website poses. This has really been alleviated by the trailer, but before you seemed to be going to lengths to say, "This is not a movie." No, that's not exactly a question, but do you think it's fair to say that you've sometimes elevated the process at the expense of the actual film?

Well, hurting the film, or the potential film, is definitely a danger, when you start playing with different ideas in terms of format and distribution, so really it was up to us to be careful. Maybe we'll be proven wrong or slightly wrong, but basically we're operating this whole thing under the assumption that, even if its not all the way possible yet, the entertainment environment is ready, or at least willing, to allow some rules to be broken, as long as they are broken responsibly, and by that I mean we're trying to discover if we can release a "film project" that puts the core emphasis on the story that the script and the footage itself is trying to tell regardless of running time, format, etc. So whether you watch it as a featurette, a series of episodes, etc.—which is up to you—you still get the same basic experience. What Joss Whedon did with "Dr. Horrible" is a point of comparison in a lot of ways... of course there are differences, the largest of which is that he is Joss Whedon.

How did you come up with "Sex and Justice?" Did you start with an idea, a character, a 'message' of some sort? Tell me about the moment of inspiration—if there is such a thing.

I was riding home on the NYC subway one day, and during my usual post-day-job zone out I for some reason started wondering about what it would be like to start a stereotypical, noirish interrogation room scene with the femme fatale basically saying: "Yeah, I killed him." After that it was just a matter of perusing the idea, with the general goal of playing with that and other generic conventions, towards the fulfillment of a compelling story. In later drafts, though, a social message seemed to emerge. Kind of a depressing one too, which ironically returned a lot of what I was trying to do to those same old generic roots of hopelessness and inescapability that you'll find in some of the best classic noirs out there.

I was recently reading an interview with Charlie Kaufman, the writer of such films as Being John Malkovitch and Adaptation, and now the writer/director of Synecdoche, New York, and the interviewer asked him how directing was different from writing. Stupid question? Or, to put it another way, how do you approach both roles?

This question is answered pretty well in the Extras section of the Sex and Justice DVD. I'm being lazy and opportunistic with that answer but filmmaking does things to a man (or woman) that makes you more comfortable taking on both those qualities. It's not a stupid question because how a writer/director answers it, in my opinion, probably reflects in some way upon the end quality of the film. The short answer is that Michael The Writer and Michael The Director are two different people. They don't always get along.

What attracts you to genre filmmaking? Do you find the structure limiting or liberating?

This is another question that is answered at length on the DVD! But I'll try to answer as best I can without going on forever. I am not so much attracted to genre filmmaking as I am a firm believer in the ability of the crime drama to turn a mirror on society. Again, that's sort of a blanket answer, and you could say that this is the goal of all "artistic" endeavors, but I'm not sure how many of those, in their essential form, are left anymore. Maybe I'm wrong. Throw your art at me! In all seriousness, though, I do believe that working within certain generic parameters actually can free you to better zoom in on certain things that you're looking to accomplish with a film and its story. Too much of what we consider crime drama, today, is actually just a bunch of modern themes and situations diluted and poured into the shell of a genre that once took advantage of an actual relationship between... bone and blood. This is why The Wire is the single best example of the modern crime drama that I have ever seen (or read). That's not to say "Sex and Justice" was made to be like The Wire, because it wasn't, I hadn't even seen the show yet when I wrote the script, but it's simply an example of a pure relationship between genre and art. We're trying to do something a little different... which is to keep only the very shell of the shell, because everything has already been well-established by previous works...and simply tell our story within that framework. Then we fiddle with the framework a little - when such fiddling makes sense.

You're from Cranston, RI. Your film premiered in Providence. Your family lives in Rhode Island and the Massachusetts Bay. What's a guy like you doing in New York?

I came to New York for college, because at the time I wanted to be a writer and/or a journalist, and writers live in New York. Or so I thought. I love New England and we actually moved back to Rhode Island to produce this film. "Sex and Justice" wouldn't have happened without our families and friends, or without the help of the local community in Cranston. Rebecca also shot a short film in Beantown while we were in post-production, which was fun for her. Also, I am an undercover agent for the Red Sox. I spy on Cashman and give the Sox front office a call whenever I learn of the Yankees latest plans to overpay a free agent in the midst of an economic recession.

I ask because your movies are so connected to their place, or maybe just unconnected to certain places. "Over Easy" is certainly a minimalist production, yet we also know that we aren't in New York. The scene in the parking lot could never take place in New York. It sort of questions the urbanness of Noir, if you want to take it that far, or just suggests a different experience.

Rebecca was constantly harping on me about this, because apparently a lot of actors like to know where a story is located before they start working on their character, but I rarely write with a specific emphasis on "place." Mostly it's because I don't pay a whole lot of attention to it all anymore... I focus on people, and relationships, and, to be honest, on what's going on in my own head and the heads of my characters. I don't know. Maybe I'll feel differently about it, or realize my mistake, later on, but for now I can't be convinced that it's important. "Sex and Justice" contains even less of an idea of locale than that in "Over Easy." Nearly everything takes place indoor, in close up, and is dependent on dialogue. Partially that's an artistic decision dictated by budgetary concessions. Blah blah...

Do you think you'll ever try to make a movie about Cranston or Providence?

I have some ideas, but don't know when or if I will pursue them. Hard to say yes considering my answer the the last question.

I'm really struck by your complete disconnect from place when creating a story. I can't imagine Marlowe outside of Los Angeles, or McNulty outside of Baltimore. The visuals and dynamics of the place really add much to our understanding and appreciation.

Well here's the thing about that... what makes, say, Marlowe, and I mean mostly the Marlowe from the novels... what makes him so compelling as a narrator or storyteller, at least for me, is his juxtaposed feelings of isolation and connectedness. Obviously there's no story for him without LA, but I don't necessarily think you need the entire backdrop if you place a heavy emphasis on those relationships between the characters (as outliers) and society (which provides a systematic backdrop). It may be something that I'm still working out, but i think there's something there with the homogenization of so much of our culture...what the point, for the most part, of paying too much attention to something that really is only a manifestation of this increasingly powerful system of bureaucracies.

Not to belabor my point, but I think you are making an argument that noir is disconnected from the urban, which is a pretty unique interpretation. You are saying that the necessary conditions have either moved into all corners of society, or they were always there and unexplored before.

There may be some truth in that, although I do think that, historically, noir is certainly more connected to our big cities. In a way, though, the culture of our big cities is guiding culture of our society, at least on the coasts, where most classic noirs originated. It's a more elusive genre than I think most people think. Some people call Hud a western noir, and there are other similar examples that I can't think of at the moment...But, yes, to an extent I think the foundation of the genre and its major themes might come more from the relationship of a set of socially impermanent people with that society that they are alternatingly trying to reject and join up with. And we haven't really touched upon the role of "the personal" really but that obviously shares a lot of weight too, but most people you meet in a noir are messed up from frame one.

How much do you think about these types of theoretical questions when you're creating?

I have actually spent years thinking about a lot of these things, and the biggest reason for that is that I wanted to know why I felt so personally connected, as a contemporary person and artist, to films and novels from the 40s and 50s. The early and easy answer was that deep down I'm just a grumpy old man that likes beautiful women and straight whiskey. But honestly I have done a lot of thinking, a lot of pondering, a lot of reading and old movie reviewing... and I think that some of the conclusions that I came to informed the decisions I made while developing the idea for "Sex and Justice." It was more of a background influence though... too much intention would have ruined the film.

What directors do you most admire? Do you find yourself drawn to any particular era?

Funny story. Rebecca and I actually had to sell much of our DVD collection to pay our bills when we were in the middle of producing Sex and Justice. We were lacking somewhat in the way of money and/or employment. Funnier story—the entire box of DVDs that we mailed to DVDPawn.com (in a moment of desperate stupidity) were stolen by the company. That's DVDPawn.com. I encourage you to spam their system with fake orders twice a day, every day, which is what I plan on doing as soon as I have the time, because they won't answer my phone calls or emails. I'm also planning on camping outside of the PO Box that we mailed the discs to if I ever find myself in Austin, where this guy is apparently located.