James Gray Articles
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Notable Festivals: New York (Closing Night), Berlinale Looking over director James Gray’s filmography to date — a series of hard-hitting dramas set in New York — one could be forgiven for not seeing a David Lean-style epic about exploration and adventure in the Amazon jungle in his immediate future. Even Gray himself initially didn’t see…
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Due to his ferocious commitment to his own artistic integrity, director James Gray has weathered a difficult career trajectory partly of his own making. His 2013 feature, THE IMMIGRANT, was a stunning work of uncompromising cinematic art, but its botched rollout and limited audience appeal doomed it to failure from the start. As such, it…
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Notable Festivals: Cannes, New York For the countless numbers of immigrants that braved the cold Atlantic waters in hopes of a brighter future in America at the dawn of the twentieth century, the Statue of Liberty must’ve appeared as quite the welcoming sign. Lady Liberty stood tall and defiant against the elements, offering a safe…
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Notable Festivals: Cannes (In Competition), London, AFI Fest Shortly after the release of his third feature, WE OWN THE NIGHT (2007), director James Gray was surprised to see his latest project gain funding in only four months—a timespan exponentially faster than he was used to. Most of this was off the strength of his previous…
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Notable Festivals: Cannes (In Competition), San Sebastian In 2007, director James Gray released his third feature film, WE OWN THE NIGHT. It was the first film of his that I had ever seen, and I distinctly remember the vintage-inspired theatrical poster. At the time, I thought it was one of the coolest posters I had…
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Notable Festivals: Cannes (In Competition), Toronto, London As an independent filmmaker, the hardest part about making a film is raising the money. Studios have the luxury of hundreds of millions of dollars to funnel into their development slate, while most independents have to beg, borrow, and steal for meager budgets. In the days before digital…
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Notable Festivals: Venice (Silver Lion: Best Supporting Actress), Toronto, Sundance Outside of independent film circles, director James Gray isn’t well-known. His filmography mostly flies under the radar of the larger moviegoing public, but what little output he does have is almost always well-received by critics. As a storyteller, Gray specializes in stark chamber dramas with…