Lily Tomlin, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Neil LaBute, Matthew Broderick and More Slated for FSLC's 2015 Summer Talks

The Film Society of Lincoln Center has announced the remaining guests for this summer's popular FREE Film Society Talks series (sponsored by HBO), and they're loaded with Broadway talent!

The events will include a combination of clips, trailers, and extended conversations, with questions from the audience. Talks will take place in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center.

Free tickets will be distributed at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center box office (144 West 65th Street, between Broadway and Amsterdam) on a first-come, first-served basis starting one hour prior to the talks. Limit one ticket per person, subject to availability. For those unable to attend, video from the event will be available online at filmlinc.org. Check back on the website as well, for updates and additions for Free Fall Talks.

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Lily Tomlin and Paul Weitz (Grandma)
For decades, Lily Tomlin has been a trailblazer in American comedy with a career that has spanned the big screen, television, Broadway, and comedy recordings. Her latest film project is Grandma, a comedy-drama written, produced, and directed by Paul Weitz.

In Grandma, Tomlin plays Ellie, a lesbian poet coping with the recent death of her longtime life partner. After she discovers that her 18-year-old granddaughter is pregnant, the two embark on a road trip to overcome their troubles. Grandma is Tomlin's first leading role in two decades, following the 1988 comedy Big Business (opposite Bette Midler), and it is her second collaboration with Weitz, who previously directed her in the 2013 film Admission. Writing in Variety, Scott Foundas called Grandma "an initially breezy family comedy about mothers, daughters and abortions that slowly sneaks up on you and packs a major wallop." Grandma opens theatrically on August 21.

Join Tomlin and Weitz at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center's Amphitheater for a discussion about Grandma and their celebrated careers.
Monday, August 17, 6:30pm

Chiwetel Ejiofor and Craig Zobel (Z for Zachariah)
Following his Oscar-nominated performance in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, Chiwetel Ejiofor continues to tackle an exciting range of projects, including the miniseries Dancing on the Edge, which earned him an Emmy nomination for his performance as Louis Lester, and, most recently, Craig Zobel's Z for Zachariah, a post-apocalyptic science-fiction film based on Robert C. O'Brien's posthumously published novel. In Zobel's follow-up to his riveting and disturbing Compliance, Z for Zachariah centers on a trio who come together following a mysterious global disaster that spares only a small lush valley. There, a young woman who believes she is the last human on Earth (Margot Robbie), meets John (Chiwetel), a dying scientist searching for survivors. Their relationship becomes tenuous when another survivor (Chris Pine) appears, and as the two men compete for her affections, their primal urges begin to reveal their true nature. Rich with themes of envy, hatred, and desire, Zobel's latest film has been described as a twist on the Garden of Eden. Z for Zachariah opens theatrically August 28.

Join Ejiofor and Zobel in the Amphitheater at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center as they discuss Z for Zachariah, as well as their careers and future projects.
Wednesday, August 19, 6:30pm

Josh Lucas, John Magary, Stephen Plunkett, Lucy Owen, and Austin Pendleton (The Mend)
Actor Josh Lucas is familiar to audiences for his work in American Psycho (2000), A Beautiful Mind (2001), Hulk (2003), Poseidon (2006), among others. And now he stars in The Mend, a wonderfully strange and acidic debut comedy from writer-director John Magary.

The Mend is for anyone who's ever loathed and loved a sibling in equal measure. It follows a yin-yang pair of brothers in New York City, loose-cannon Mat (Lucas) and put-upon Alan (Stephen Plunkett) as they stagger dimly toward some understanding of love, women, masculinity, and what it truly means to be blood-related. Featuring a gorgeous, minimalist score by Michi Wiancko and Judd Greenstein and beautiful, fluid cinematography by Chris Teague (Obvious Child), The Mend unfolds as three stylistically distinct but interwoven acts, each with its own mesmerizing rhythm. The film also stars Mickey Sumner (Frances Ha) and Lucy Owen as the brothers' sharp-tongued girlfriends and Austin Pendleton as their uncle. John DeFore praised The Mend in The Hollywood Reporter, noting: "Josh Lucas offers one of his strongest performances to date ... A convincing and refreshingly indirect examination of handed down emotional flaws," and Scott Macaulay said in Filmmaker magazine: "The Mend is a deliciously bitter minuet, gloriously unstable in its scene construction, shifting points of view and tone."

Lucas and Magary, as well as co-stars Plunkett, Owen, and Pendleton, will appear at the Amphitheater in the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center one day before the film's theatrical release to answer questions about the movie and more.
Thursday, August 20, 6:30pm

Neil LaBute, Matthew Broderick, and Alice Eve (Dirty Weekend)
Matthew Broderick has been a mainstay of the stage and screen since the early '80s, appearing as the title character in John Hughes's iconic comedy Ferris Bueller's Day Off in addition to memorable roles in Ladyhawke, The Torch Song Trilogy, and Glory. On Broadway, he has received Tony Awards for his performances in Brighton Beach Memoirs and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying. He also received a Tony nomination for The Producers. Now he returns to big-screen comedy with Dirty Weekend, directed by Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men) and co-starring Alice Eve (Star Trek Into Darkness).

During a layover in Albuquerque, colleagues Les (Matthew Broderick) and Natalie (Alice Eve) discover more about each other than they ever thought possible. Anxious and irritable, Les is drawn back into the city by past experiences he can't forget (even if he doesn't really remember the particulars of his previous drunken adventure). Natalie, refusing to leave his side, follows along as her own secrets are slowly revealed, leaving her feeling both vulnerable and unbound. Dirty Weekend opens theatrically on September 4.

Join Matthew Broderick, Alice Eve, and Neil LaBute for the final Summer Talk of the year at the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center Amphitheater.
Tuesday, August 25, 6:30pm

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Founded in 1969 to celebrate American and international cinema, the Film Society of Lincoln Center works to recognize established and emerging filmmakers, support important new work, and to enhance the awareness, accessibility, and understanding of the moving image. The Film Society produces the renowned New York Film Festival, a curated selection of the year's most significant new film work, and presents or collaborates on other annual New York City festivals including Dance on Camera, Film Comment Selects, Human Rights Watch Film Festival, New Directors/New Films, New York African Film Festival, New York Asian Film Festival, New York Jewish Film Festival, Open Roads: New Italian Cinema and Rendez-Vous with French Cinema. In addition to publishing the award-winning Film Comment magazine, the Film Society recognizes an artist's unique achievement in film with the prestigious Chaplin Award, whose 2015 recipient was Robert Redford. The Film Society's state-of-the-art Walter Reade Theater and the Elinor Bunin Munroe Film Center, located at Lincoln Center, provide a home for year-round programs and the New York City film community.

The Film Society receives generous, year-round support from American Airlines, The New York Times, HBO, Stella Artois, The Kobal Collection, Variety, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the New York State Council on the Arts. For more information, visit www.filmlinc.com and follow @filmlinc on Twitter.

Photo Credit: Walter McBride / WM Photos