Will McCormack – Spinning Platters

Smart, funny SF-set dramedy skewers long-term relationships

Joe (Seth Rogen, l.) and his wife Angela (Olivia Wilde, l.) invite their neighbors Piña (Penélope Cruz) and Hawk (Edward Norton) over for dinner.

That actress/director Olivia Wilde’s new film The Invite feels like a stage play is not a coincidence. With the help of comedy screenwriters Will McCormack and Rashida Jones (2012’s Celeste and Jesse Forever), Wilde has remade a 2020 Spanish film called The People Upstairs, which itself is based on a play of the same name. Even if you don’t know that source material, Wilde’s picture might remind you of a more classic American play: Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. Equally as uncomfortable, but infinitely more funny, The Invite is a terrific showcase for its four leads. Continue reading “Film Review: “The Invite””

sc-mov-0808-jesse-celeste-interview-20120809-001 — Rashida Jones and Will McCormack, co-stars and co-writers of CELESTE AND JESSE FOREVER

As if her skyrocketing acting career, Harvard education, impeccable comic timing, exquisite beauty, and legendary lineage weren’t threatening enough, Rashida Jones comes one step closer to total world domination with the release of Celeste and Jesse Forever. In addition to being her largest film role to date, Celeste and Jesse marks Jones’ screenwriting debut; she co-wrote the film with actor Will McCormack, who also appears in the film, and whom Jones briefly dated in the late ’90s before jointly realizing they were better as friends. Sadly, that kind of relationship decision-making wisdom eludes the title characters in their film, Celeste (Jones) and Jesse (Andy Samberg), an LA couple attempting to navigate a divorce while remaining best friends. Needless to say, these good intentions merely end up paving the freeway to heartache hell in this disarmingly intelligent, emotionally honest alternative to the usual rom-com fluff.

Continue reading “Spinning Platters Interview: Rashida Jones and Will McCormack on “Celeste and Jesse Forever””