Our pals over at Sony Pictures Classics just sent Cinematical a new poster for Interview, directed by Steve Buscemi and starring himself and Sienna Miller. The film is a remake of Dutch director Theo van Gogh's 2003 film of the same title, and is about a political journalist (Buscemi) who is forced by his boss to interview a popular but vapid soap star, played by Miller, even though there's a big White House scandal going on at the time that he'd rather be covering. Thus begins a sort of psychological duel between the two, but since I haven't seen the film yet, there's no more I can tell you. Those interested in learning more can check out Erik's Berlinale review of the film; Interview is opening in theaters on July 13.

Next week, Cinematical contributor Nick Schager will be bringing you a review of Waitress, a romantic comedy starring Keri Russell that's arriving in theaters on May 2 with a lot of unfortunate baggage. Waitress is of course the final film of indie actress and filmmaker Adrienne Shelly, who was murdered in her office apartment last November, reportedly before hearing that Sundance had accepted Waitress into its 2007 schedule. You may have seen her most recently as a player in Matt Dillon's much-liked barfly film Factotum, or you may remember her as the star of those Hal Hartley movies from way back at the dawn of indie wave, The Unbelievable Truth and Trust. If you want to read more about Shelly and her final film, you can pick up a copy of the spring issue of Filmmaker Magazine, which is featuring an article on that very subject.

The piece, which was penned by media blogfly and former Cinematical editor-in-chief Karina Longworth, is encapsulated thusly on the magazine's cover: "Premiering at Sundance following the sudden death of its writer-director, Adrienne Shelly's Waitress is a bittersweet success." I haven't read the article yet, since that would involve all kinds of complicated actions like leaving the house and catching a bus to the city, but if you're fortunate enough to live closer to a well-stocked newsstand than me, and you're looking for something interesting to read, you might want to go out and pick up a copy. Sarah Polley is the dressed-down cover girl, and the issue also contains articles on, among other things, Hostel: Part II and the Sundance films Once and Zoo.

After his breakout film, Hustle & Flow, snagged the coveted Audience Award at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, writer/director Craig Brewer probably saw more doors swing open for him than most filmmakers will see in a lifetime, but walking through them hasn't meant leaving his beloved state of Tennessee behind. Like Hustle & Flow, the director's follow-up project, Black Snake Moan, is a Tennessee tale about poverty, neglect and a longing for connection that goes beyond geography, age, or race. The film stars Samuel L. Jackson as Lazarus, a poor, aging man who has no solid relationships in his life but does have some life experience and blues-based wisdom to impart, to anyone who will listen. When fate dumps Rae (Christina Ricci), the town hussy, outside of his run-down home on the outskirts of town one night, Lazarus takes it as a sign that he's been tapped on the shoulder to make a difference in someone else's life, and he decides to do just that -- one way or the other.

Cinematical recently spoke with Brewer, in Manhattan to promote the film. We talked about casting and guiding the actors through these difficult roles, about the racial divide that the characters must bridge in order to find common ground with each other, and about avoiding the pressures of a sophomore project that so many are anticipating. There are a few big spoilers lurking somewhere in this interview, so if you'd prefer to go into the film tabula rasa, you've been warned.

How did you direct Ricci through the scenes where she's sort of having a fit, going through 'heat,' writhing around on the ground and oblivious to the world?

CB: The interesting thing about the way Ricci works -- and this is a challenge, but it was a challenge that I ultimately benefited from -- is that we did some rehearsal, but she didn't really want to go full-tilt because she really gives you one-hundred percent of herself between action and cut. She doesn't like any of that to leak away. She gets into a zone that is....honest. She's not 'faking' tears. She gets in pain and she cries. So I said to her, I go 'listen, I don't know what this 'fit' is going to be, but I know it needs to be something. So we talked about my anxiety attacks that I've experienced, and we basically decided that we would break it down into three Def-Cons. There was a Def-Con 1, Def-Con 2 and Def-Con 3.

The first one I knew would be just kind of like a tick that she came up with, which is just kind of like, rubbing her leg with her palm, like the top of her thigh, hard, as if she's really nervous about something. After that, she would just show me. So I said 'let's not even do a rehearsal, let's just roll' and we rolled it and I was like 'let's stay in the zone and let's do it again,' and we would do another set-up. Really, I was just as surprised as the audience to see what she was doing. Boy, was it incredible. It wasn't just sighing and moaning in sexual ecstasy, she really looked like she was in the grip of something that had her, and that she was even experiencing some pain and anguish with it.