Hue's Blog

Interview with "The Online Guys"

Last year Rob Holmes, a Texas-based film critic, tweeted as he headed into Saint John of Las Vegas.  I tweeted back, telling him to enjoy the film.  He followed me, I followed him, etc. etc. and recently he asked me to be guest on his show "The Online Guys".  I joined Rob and his co-hosts Nils Montan and Samantha Collier for a great talk on indie films, social media, the Hero's Journey and Steve McQueen.

Here is the link.

The Las Vegas Economy

When we were making "Saint John of Las Vegas" we talked about America's Las Vegas economy.  That the American Dream had morphed into the American Jackpot.  If success was 90% showing up than we wanted to leverage showing up to borrow the other 10%.  This review in the Las Cruces Sun is the first to really touch on this theme.

"We can all sympathize with someone like John, who at least has a big, stucco palace with no foreclosure sign in front of it, has a car that's not being eyed by repo, has a job where the cubicles are disappearing as positions and salaries are "downsized," and can — in those few seconds scratching a quarter across a gleam of bronze wax, or leaning on green felt, strategizing like James Bond, can still dream."

You can read the full review here.

A nice mention on Inc.com

I got a nice mention in Inc. Magazine's Blog Loyalty – How to Get Repeat Traffic.  You can read the full article here.

Film Critic Roger Moore on "Saint John of Las Vegas"

Roger Moore, one of the country's top nationally-syndicated critics, says Steve Buscemi was "born to play" the lead in Saint John of Las Vegas.  Read the full review here.

Interview with James Wallace

"I am hardly an authority. But I think the discussion of “new distribution” actually harkens back to film’s roots. Back in the silent two-reeler days, people shot films, paid for the prints, went on the road and showed them directly to the public. Now we have festivals, and markets, and lots of people in-between, which means lots of entities that have to make their profit margins. I can’t say what the future of film will be, but my guess is that it won’t be able to support so many intermediaries, financially."

I did an interview with James Wallace, for Gordon and the Whale.  James and I discussed Saint John of Las Vegas, the pitfalls of cookbook screenplay writing, and the disintermediation of indie film.  You can read full interview here.

The San Francisco Bay Guardian

Saint John of Las Vegas got a great write-up in the San Francisco Bay Guardian.

"When their journey ends, you can't help but be disappointed because you really don't want this sweet-natured first film by director-writer and onetime Silicon Valley hotshot Hue Rhodes to end. It's such a treat to watch Buscemi work, pulling the spooky-tooth tics and rattled nerves out of his bag of mannerisms. And it's fitting that he has arrived here, because from its star to its bit players, Saint John offers a gentle Hail Mary to the usually less-than-visible guys and gals in the cameos."

Read the full review here.

Conversation with Brendon Connelly of /Film

"The film is pricked with references to Dante’s Inferno, though certainly has it’s own narrative which requires no knowledge of the Divine Comedy to understand - think how the Coen Bros. and Homer blended into O Brother Where Art Thou. And whereas the Coens’ film stood on the shoulders of Preston Sturgess, the equivalent influence on St. John would appear likely to be Ozu or Milos Forman."

I had a series of conversations with Brendon Connelly, about Saint John of Las Vegas.  We discussed career paths, film grammar, movie financing and the Bellagio Hotel.  Read the full interview on /Film here.

Romany Malco profile in the LA Times

"It's weird; you do this indie and it's like, the hardest job of your life," he says, fondly. "That whole job felt like turning a new leaf. And I don't mean in just business; I mean a whole new perspective."

Romany talks about family, loss, and Saint John of Las Vegas.  He made incredible sacrifices for this movie.  I'm not sure what I would have done in his shoes.  Read the full interview here.

NY Post profile of Steve Buscemi

About Saint John of Las Vegas:

“The lead character was charming and funny and smart, and I understood his need to gamble and being in denial about it,” Buscemi says. “To me, that’s the fun of acting: to play characters that have problems and are complicated.”

Read the full article here.

Hue Rhodes Eats, Cooks and Talks to The Retrospective

"...For social media, I think most of the discussion and its effect on indie film, etcetera, is kind of putting the cart before the horse. Social media for me reflects a new kind of need: it's not a channel to reach people - it's a reflection of the desire to express and contribute."

via theretrospective.com

The Retrospective is a great music|art|fashion|culture|technology site. Read the full interview here.