A puny indie filmmaker comes up against the might of a comic-book franchise movie, but ends up being transfixed by the film's sublime quieter moments.

Onur Tukel (Summer of Blood) Talks Joss Whedon’s The Avengers: Age of Ultron

core/classic-editor

Jay Baruchel is currently starring in the 1970s-set biopic <a href="https://www.independentfilmco.com/films/the-stunt-driver" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Stunt Driver</a>, now in theaters through IFC, and recently starred in the award-winning film BlackBerry, portraying co-founder Mike Lazaridis. He has starred in numerous studio feature films including This Is The End, Knocked Up, She’s Out of My League, Tropic Thunder, The Trotsky, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, and the Academy Award-winning Best Picture Million Dollar Baby. He is also the voice of “Hiccup” in DreamWorks Animation’s How to Train Your Dragon franchise and TV credits including the critically acclaimed comedy Man Seeking Woman and Judd Apatow’s cult hit Undeclared. Baruchel co-wrote the cult hockey film Goon with Evan Goldberg, starring alongside Seann William Scott, Alison Pill and Liev Schreiber, and reprised his role in Goon: Last of the Enforcers, which he also co-wrote and directed, marking his directorial debut. In 2019, Baruchel co-wrote, directed, and starred in the horror thriller Random Acts of Violence, alongside Jesse Williams and Jordana Brewster.

Jay Baruchel

Film

Three Great Things: Jay Baruchel

Louis Paxton is a writer and director from Edinburgh, Scotland. After studying at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, he completed an MA in Directing at the National Film and Television School in London. His feature debut, <a href="https://sumerianpictures.com/movies/the-incomer/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Incomer</a>, an offbeat comedy starring Domhnall Gleeson, Gayle Rankin and Grant O&#8217;Rourke, premiered at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival and is out now in theaters through Sumerian Pictures. Learn more at his <a href="https://www.louispaxton.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">official website</a>.

Louis Paxton

Fast Forward

Paula González-Nasser (she/her) is a Colombian filmmaker currently residing in Brooklyn, New York. In 2016, she and Ryan Martin Brown co-founded 5th Floor as a film collective after graduating together from the film program at Florida State University. Paula&#8217;s feature directorial debut, <a href="https://greenwichentertainment.com/film/the-scout/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Scout</a>, had its world premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival and is in theaters from September 25 through Greenwich Entertainment. In 2025, Paula was named one of 25 new faces in independent film by Filmmaker Magazine. She has also produced films like Melina Valdez’s Weapons And Their Names, which premiered at Sundance 2023, and Ryan Martin Brown’s Free Time, which received three nominations at the inaugural Slamdance Indie Awards. She is a two-time Gotham Film Week participant and a 2023 Sundance Producers Intensive Fellow. Previously, Paula worked as a location scout on many New York films and TV shows such as High Maintenance, Russian Doll, Search Party, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, and more. (Photo by Jamie Rice.)

Paula González-Nasser

How I Became The Scout

Julia Marchese is a filmmaker, writer, actor, podcaster, film programmer, VHS Vixen &amp; film critic. She’s known for directing the award-winning feature documentary Out of Print, an acclaimed exploration of repertory cinema culture and film preservation. She also adapted Stephen King’s short story I Know What You Need into an award-winning short film. Julia co-hosts the podcasts Horror Movie Survival Guide, The Loser’s Club and JodoWOWsky, reviews a VHS from her rainbow wall every day on her social media channels and writes about cinema for Talkhouse. Her work frequently explores nostalgia, genre cinema, physical media culture, and the communal power of moviegoing. She is @juliacmarchese on all platforms.

Julia Marchese

What I’ve Learned From Reading All of Stephen King

Adam Rifkin is a writer-director whose eclectic career ranges from family comedies to thought-provoking indies to cult classics. Notable titles include The Dark Backward, Detroit Rock City, Look, Giuseppe Makes a Movie, Mousehunt, Small Soldiers and The Last Movie Star. His latest film, the Western <a href="https://lasttraintofortune.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Last Train to Fortune</a>, starring Malcolm McDowell, James Paxton, Mary Steenburgen and Bernadette Peters, is out now in theaters.

Adam Rifkin

The Little Train That Finally Came Home

Avalon Fast’s new film <a href="https://darkskyfilms.com/film/camp/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CAMP</a> hits theaters on June 26. They hail from Vancouver Island, BC, and their first film, Honeycomb, which was selected for the 2022 Slamdance Film Festival and went on to screen at Boston Underground, Calgary Underground, Etheria LA, Fantasia, and many more. In 2026, they premiered Drinking and Driving &#8211; co-directed, co-starring, and co-written with Jillian Frank &#8211; at the Los Angeles Festival of Movies. In addition to writing and directing, Fast recently starred in Louise Weard’s cultural breakout trans DIY epic Castration Movie Anthology, co-starred in prolific young filmmaker Alice Maio Mackay’s sapphic horror The Serpent’s Skin, and appeared in Jane Schoenbrun’s recent Cannes sensation Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma.

Avalon Fast

Chemical Come-down and August in the Water

Creative

Footer Legal

Main

NavBar

Sections

Topics

Become a subscriber today to get unlimited access

Thanks for reading!

Register to continue

Talkhouse

Podcast

After Hours  with Alison Sivitz

Emma Ruth Rundle is a multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, poet, and multi-disciplinary artist based in Portland, OR. Her latest record, These Killing Times, is out now on Errant Child. 
(Photo Credit: Mason Rose)

Emma Ruth Rundle

Music

Mood Board: Emma Ruth Rundle’s These Killing Times

Josefin Öhrn is a London-based Swedish singer-songwriter. Her debut solo album Cherry is out now.
(Photo Credit: Colette Slater Barrass)

Josefin Öhrn

Anton Newcombe and Josefin Öhrn Are Inspired By Everything

843: Kwame Onwuachi on Pitching Investors, Cooking All Hours, and Golf Taking Over His Life

Onur Tukel is a writer, director and illustrator. Some of his films include Catfight, The Misogynists, Scenes From An Empty Church and Summer of Blood. He co-wrote the children&#8217;s books Let&#8217;s Make a Movie! and The Legend of Halloween with David Gordon Green, and his latest book, the illustrated novel <a href="https://www.pitchstonebooks.com/catalog/run-werewolf-run" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Run Werewolf Run</a>, is out now.

Onur Tukel

post

Thomasin McKenzie is currently starring in the medieval drama<a href="https://www.focusfeatures.com/the-uprising" target="_blank" rel="noopener"> The Uprising</a>, opposite Andrew Garfield, Jamie Bell and Cosmo Jarvis. The New Zealand-born McKenzie was universally praised for her breakthrough performance in Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace, opposite Ben Foster, for which she won rave reviews and a slew of awards and nominations. She will soon be seen in Victorian Psycho, alongside Maika Monroe and Jason Isaacs and her recent notable credits include The Testament of Ann Lee, directed by Mona Fastvold, the Netflix feature film Joy, opposite Bill Nighy and James Norton, and her performance acclaimed performance as the titular role in the psychological thriller Eileen, opposite Anne Hathaway. She also starred in Edgar Wright’s psychological horror film Last Night in Soho, and portrayed Elsa, a young Jewish girl in hiding in Taika Waititi’s Academy Award®-winning film Jojo Rabbit and also appeared in M. Night Shyamalan’s Old, Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog and David Michôd’s The King. (Photo via <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/drlovell/53885201978/in/dateposted/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Flickr</a>.)