As the fan boy hit, Kick Ass, is about to hit screens tomorrow, and with the upcoming American remake of Let The Right One coming in the Fall, meet the film world’s most desired 13 yr old, Chloe Moretz.

Chloe is also featured in WONDERLAND MAGAZINE’s April/May issue, currently on stands.

Meet Zoe, an actress catching my eye this year due to her furious need to create, act, produce, write, and foster real art every second of the day. You can feel her presence on screen the moment she arrives. She is also pleasantly comfortable in her own skin, exhibits a compelling emotional range, and a true smart-ass timing when it comes to comedic delivery. Her IMDB page houses a plump filmography of 30 film and TV shows that she’s appeared in to satiate her appetite while sharpening her acting chops. Although her name is still unassuming and under-the-radar, pay attention to her diversity in a slew of upcoming films where she shares screentime with Angelina Jolie (Salt), Ryan Gosling and Kirsten Dunst (All Good Things directed by Andrew Jarecki), and James Franco (In Praise of Shadows).

(Zoe Lister Jones)

My favorite films to experience however are the ones that are pure labors of love… the ones created by an actors’ personal fever, and usually personal circle of friends. On April 2nd, we will be seeing Zoe do her own thing in Breaking Upwards, a film she co-wrote with her boyfriend actor/director Daryl Wein, and friend Peter Duchan. Zoe also wrote alot of the songs in the film too.

The premise of the story is based on an emotionally connected couple who orchestrate a breakup, and all the peripheral scenarios that abound in this futile task of leaving a “soul-mate-ish” existence. The conversations are frank, humorous and resemble the kookiness of a modern Woody Allen relationship, deeply rooted in intellectualizing something as simple (and complicated) as love. I stopped to ask Zoe a few questions about her craft, her music, taking risks, and the little film that could.

(Zoe Lister Jones. Actress, Co-Writer, Co-Producer for Breaking Upwards)

Jauretsi: First off, thank you for making a great film on the trials and tribulations of breaking up with your best friend. The film seems so real at moments — sincere suffering, blunt sex moments, piercing jealousies, and sometimes downright funny awkward dialogue between lovers who are “over it”. How much of the film is culled from real life experiences? Were there any scenes that were directly plucked out of real life?

Zoe Lister: Thanks Jauretsi! Well, the film is loosely based on an open relationship that Daryl and I were in about two years into our now nearly 6 year long (holy ish!) relationship. We wrote it with a friend of ours named Peter Duchan so there’s quite a bit of his reality in there too. But you know the foundational aspects of the script, days on days off, polyamory, hyper communication, are all factual.

(Zoe Lister Jones with Daryl Wein, real life and onscreen boyfriend, and Director of Breaking Upwards)

J: You seem to be a true New Yorker with an intense knowledge in theater. Can you tell us a bit about your background, your childhood, and the influences that brought you where you are today as an actress?

I was raised in Brooklyn, my parents are both visual artists. Went to public school (except for 7th and 8th grade which at that time were a sort of educational void in the BK public school system). I was always interested in performing, and became part of an avant garde dance troupe when I was 12…sort of went that route for a while. And then in high school I slowly started inching my way into plays and realized how much I loved acting. But I was really apprehensive about committing to what I saw (and still in many ways do see) as a totally superficial profession. I got a scholarship to NYU Tisch and my mom said I’d be crazy to pass it up.

When I graduated from Tisch, I wrote a one woman show called Codependence is a Four Letter Word, in which I played 11 different characters coping with various forms of heartbreak. I raised 1,500 bucks and rented a theater at PS 122 in the East Village and put it up for 5 days. It got chosen as a New York Times Hot Pick and I landed an agent and manager from it. So early on in my professional life I began learning that there was big reward in making my own work.

In terms of theater, about a year later I was cast in the world premiere of a play called The Little Dog Laughed, which went on to Broadway and won a TONY for Best Actress for Julie White (who incidentally stars in Breaking Upwards!) She taught me a lot, and continues to, about acting. She’s a badass bitch and she slays every time and always slays on her own terms. My mom’s a huge influence too, not only because she’s smart and rad but because she’s always made video art that was fairly autobiographical and thought provoking. She was never afraid to take risks in her work, and really lay it all out there, which is a risk in itself.

(Zoe Lister Jones with Andrea Martin)

J: I noticed in the film Breaking Upwards, one of my favorite women of comedy appears, Andrea Martin of SCTV days. How did she get involved? Also, it seems some cameos were very familiar old-school respected thespians from New York acting circles. Can you enlighten us on any faces to expect in the film?

ZL: With Andrea Martin we just made a straight offer to her agent. Daryl and I were acting as casting directors in that respect, but our casting process was all direct offers, no auditions. Before I signed on to write, Daryl and our co-writer Peter wrote the role of Daryl’s Mom for Julie White (who’s probably most recognizable as Shia leBeouf’s zany Mom in Transformers and Transformers 2), who, as I mentioned, I had been on and off Broadway with in The Little Dog Laughed. She’s such an esteemed stage actor, so having her attached from the start really helped legitimize the project to the actors we didn’t know. I think for a film with such a miniscule budget, in other circumstances it would have been hard for agents to take our cold calls seriously. But we’re so proud of our cast, they’re the most amazing actors and criminally underused in Hollywood: Peter Friedman (Savages), Pablo Schreiber (The Wire), LaChanze (TONY winner, The Color Purple), Heather Burns (Bored to Death), Ebon Moss Bachrach (Damages), and Olivia Thirlby (Juno).

(Julie White)

(Peter Friedman)

J: It seems there’s some improvisation in the film? Is this a comfort zone to you, playing with raw spontaneity? Or are you glued to the letter of the script? What pulls out the best performance in you?

ZL: While there is definitely some improv in the film, it’s about 95 percent scripted. Julie White and Andrea Martin are such geniuses that once they start ad libbing it’s comedy gold. But we worked really intensely on the script, each character’s arc, strong dialogue, structure, etc. Because we were frustrated at the number of DIY films that were missing those elements. I do love improv and feel quite comfortable doing it, but only when there’s great material to riff off of.

(Ebon Moss-Bachrach)

J: I see you are responsible for creating some of the music in the film. On a whole separate note, what was the process for creating this body of work? Did you write these songs years ago, or was it created in sync with the development of the story?

ZL: The soundtrack for the film is all original (with the exception of one song by my friend Jack Lewis which is rad). I wrote the lyrics and my friend, the brilliant Kyle Forester, composed the music. He also composed the entire score. The songs were written specifically for the film, in part because I love making music, but also because we couldn’t afford to license any of the bands we love. It was a shit ton of work, but writing lyrics is so much fun for me, and so is producing songs, figuring out the vibe and tone of each… it’s the best. Kyle and I had collaborated on a covers album of piano ballad versions of pop and rap songs in 2004 called Skip the Kiss. So we have a great working relationship. We recorded them all in the basement of a house in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn with Gary Olson of The Ladybug Transistor. We all sing on it, (Daryl too!) as well as the lead singer of Guster, Ryan Miller, who’s a good friend.

J: What projects are coming up next for you? You seem like a self-starter and constantly surrounded by creative collective of multi-talented friends.

ZL: Yes! I’m lucky to have such a great community of creative friends! We couldn’t have made Breaking Upwards without them. In terms of what’s next, Daryl and I have 3 feature length screenplays we’re trying to get off the ground. We got signed with writing agents in LA so they’re circulating them, seeing what sticks. But we’re indie to the core, so anyone out there looking to invest, we’re ready to go.

In theaters April 2 in New York, and April 9 in Los Angeles. The film will expand to more cities thereafter. Also available via VOD, check your local listings.

Just saw the press screening for the Sundance hit, Cyrus. I’m kinda blown away. The character of Cyrus is played by the force of nature named Jonah Hill of Superbad fame. Jonah is maturing into one of the solid actors of our generation. His comedic timing has the intelligence, depth, and brilliance of a young Belushi… capable of mastering roles with dark underbellies.

What can I say about John Reilly except he’s so so damn lovable in this film… raw, embarrassing, courageous, and honest… the type of “awkward” you fall in love with. John plays his character with such a perfect balance of depression, humor, and neurosis, that you’re reminded why he has such a solid foothold in this industry. He’s always a treat to take a ride with. Unique in so many ways, Cyrus exceeds the obvious cookie-cutter attempts of making an indie hit, and instead brings with it some individual soul.

Prepare to see some professional improvising as well. The video below is an example of the comfort zone between John and Jonah during a casual interview.

Watching these two bounce of eachother is like watching comedy ballet. It’s an exercise in watching the “new guard” bouncing off the “old guard”, fueling and feeding each other’s performances. Add Marisa Tomei into the mix and now you have a grand symphony of human expressions between 3 characters longing for love — possessive stares, mistrustful movements, and apprehensive behavior.

Marisa is enchanting as she falls for John’s character… she is the pillar in this film. It’s hard for me to say this is her best performance because Marisa basically ACES every role handed to her. She plays Molly as sensual, warm, weak, conflicted, loving, captivating, and nurturing — a bag of mixed emotions that gives her the complexity of a lonely spirit ready to face her demons. Marisa is the textbook example of why American actresses should not Botox their faces and instead grace us with their beauty, strength, and vulnerabilities, exhibiting every painful detail and emotional range of a real woman. We thank Marisa for being herself, and embracing the craft in her own way. I believe she will have her day in the sun, similar to how Jeff Bridges has only recently been recognized for such a large body of work compiled over a long career. Add this performance under her belt as another gem in her film history.

The script itself is smart, weaving various characters into the mix, including ex-lovers and current partners. The character development is realistic, and not too overstated… just simple hints of their past which colors all their baggage and informs us of their present day reactions to falling inlove — passion, fear, attachment, and all the anxiety that comes with it.

Above all, let’s not forget the directors, the brothers Duplass who pulled the performances out of all these actors and stirred the pot of emotions in each. It’s a big leap from their first Sundance hit Puffy Chair. Pay attention to the Duplass brothers.

As you can tell, I’m betting on this little film. In select theaters July 9, 2010.

Meet Alex Mar, a New York based Director/Producer who spent the last few years searching out America for people experimenting in alternative faiths. The result? An intimate portrait of 3 characters delving into their unique mysticisms. American Mystic was recently announced in the World Doc Features category in the upcoming Tribeca Film Festival. We caught up with the films Director to ask a few questions about her journey.

(Director Alex Mar on the set of her documentary, American Mystic)

Jauretsi: Major congratulations. First, can you tell us a bit about your background in Directing/Filmmaking?

Alex Mar: I took a really untraditional route into filmmaking.  I have a background in TV and journalism, but I actually started out in video and performance art. Inspired by some of the renegades like Joan Jonas and Mike Kelly, I moved to Amsterdam out of college to make work. While I was there, I hoodwinked some of the top Dutch actors into making strange little art films with me. I remember shooting a musical number in the gear room of an 18th-century windmill in the middle of the night — we had to dodge the blades while lighting the scene. And then there was the dream sequence we shot in the dungeon room of a bordello on the edge of town — when I first approached them about using the space, the madame thought I was looking for a job.

(American Mystic)

J: Describe your 3 characters, a quickie breakdown — and the “why” and the “how” you chose these people to tell this bigger story?

AM: Kublai, a farm hand in upstate New York, is training to communicate with the dead; Chuck, a Lakota Sioux in the South Dakota badlands, is returning to the scarring ritual of sundancing; Morpheus, a pagan priestess, is building a witches’ sanctuary off the grid in northern California.

Finding the right balance for the film was a huge challenge.  I spent six relentless months traveling the country casting, from rural Tennessee to the mountains of California.  I visited with snake handlers, witches’ covens, and a whole range of underground religious groups in different regions, at one point assimilating into a community that required that I live as a covered woman, waking up to milk goats at 5am.  It’s hard enough to try to capture people’s spiritual beliefs in images, but it’s another thing to try to find subjects sympathetic and accessible enough to make some of these exotic practices relatable to a broader audience.

(American Mystic)

J: As a fellow documentarian, I can imagine your individual war stories making this — funding challenges, the joy of completing a vision, resource limitations, deadlines, emotional epiphanies. Can you explain the struggle yet the beautiful ride, and if you learned anything about “the process” to share with other filmmakers?

AM: There were definitely physical challenges — sweating through 104-degree days, or sleeping in abandoned boats buried in the dirt on tarantula-infested land.  And since this was my first feature, I certainly had moments when I doubted whether or not what I was shooting would even become a movie.  But the biggest revelation for me was learning that you simply cannot shove people out in the world into some idea you have — you miss great things that way.  After a certain point, no matter how stylistic your approach is, the subjects shape the film, and the project takes on a life of its own. For a control freak, this was a pretty major breakthrough.

J: What were you doing the day you got the phonecall for the Tribeca Film Festival? What went through your mind when it got accepted?

AM: I was actually getting out of a matinee of Audillard’s “A Prophet” at an Upper West Side arthouse theater, surrounded by old ladies.  I had a slew of texts and voicemail messages.  When I rang one of the programmers back, I did my best to play it cool: “Well, I’m very pleased, thank you, isn’t that nice.”  I actually think it was brave of them to support a film that refuses to pass judgment on people’s spiritual beliefs.

J: Can you explain what you intend your audience to feel when they walk away from watching this film?

AM: You may have almost nothing in common with another person, but we’re all connected by the need to believe our lives have meaning.

J: What’s next for you?

AM: A strange, beautiful horror film I’ve written.  We’ll be shooting later this year.

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To purchase tickets for American Mystic at the Tribeca Film Festival, go to:
Tribeca Film Festival / World Documentary Features