Filmmaker Sophie Brooks can’t look forward to audiences to see her second movie, the darkly humorous and really clever “Oh, Hello!” this week at Sundance. When the movie, starring Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, unspools this weekend in Park Metropolis, it’s coming to the pageant almost recent out of the field, all the higher to hide the pleasant twist and turns at its coronary heart. Please, don’t let something spoil it. (Don’t fear: This chat is spoiler-free.)
“What’s loopy is, we completed the film yesterday. We completed the combo, actually final night time at 7:45 PM,” Brooks mentioned when she spoke to IndieWire final Wednesday afternoon. “Even this morning I awakened and I used to be like, ‘Oh, oh, I don’t need to go to work right now.’ It’s been this wild course of the place we submitted [to Sundance] on a tough reduce, obtained in, which was extremely thrilling. Then it was like, ‘However, it’s a must to end the film.’”
It’s been a very long time coming. Brooks’ first movie, the romantic comedy “The Boy Downstairs,” starred Zosia Mamet as a New Yorker shocked to find her ex-boyfriend lives beneath her brand-new condo. Horrifying, proper? It’s all the more serious, as a result of Mamet’s Diana may additionally not be solely over the dude, and shut proximity is the very last thing she wants. It got here out in 2017, asserting Brooks as a whipsmart rom-com voice to look at. She’s been desperate to make one other as soon as since.
“[That film was] so instructive, however it’s exhausting for me to distinguish how a lot of [my learning] was simply rising up. I made my first function after I was 26 and I’m 35 now,” Brooks mentioned. “It took me 9 years to get my second function made, and I used to be working as a author that complete time, and I used to be connected to tasks as administrators and I used to be in growth, however it was actually exhausting to get my second function made. There have been moments the place I used to be like, ‘Oh my God, when is that this going to occur?’”
Brooks readily admits her first function got here collectively very simply — “I simply was like, ‘You write a script after which the primary actress you ship it to says sure, and then you definitely get financing and then you definitely make it!,’” she mentioned with amusing — and the interim between “The Boy Downstairs” and “Oh, Hello!” now feels a bit extra reflective of the difficult work of getting an indie film made. However that interim? Perhaps it helped.
“My writing has [been] refined in a very deep means over the past 9 years, life expertise taught me loads concerning the tales I wished to inform,” she mentioned. “I feel I’m a braver author now than I used to be in my twenties. I’ve skilled much more of life, the fun of it and the heartbreak of it.”
The thought — as a lot of because it we are able to reveal! — was born of a distinct form of problem. It began in March 2020, when Brooks (who lives in New York), simply so occurred to be a house together with her dad and mom in Los Angeles. You possibly can guess the place that is going. “I had a carry-on bag with me and ended up staying at my dad and mom’ home the place I grew up for eight months in 2020,” Brooks mentioned.
Earlier than the onset of the pandemic, Brooks had been readying to shoot one other movie, which fell aside, as so many issues did within the early a part of 2020. “I used to be having an existential disaster of what my profession was going to be in COVID, which I feel lots of people can relate to,” Brooks mentioned. After which she obtained on the telephone together with her agent Amanda Heimson.
“I used to be on the telephone together with her and she or he mentioned, ‘See should you can give you an thought that might shoot throughout COVID, with restricted actors and restricted places,’” she recalled. Brooks loves a immediate. “It form of felt like being in movie faculty once more and having a professor give me a immediate,” she continued. “I actually cherished movie faculty, and I truly work fairly nicely beneath constraints. I feel it breeds a whole lot of creativity for me to see how I can give you an thought with limits. We hung up the telephone, and doubtless 5 minutes later I had the premise in my thoughts.”
So, the premise. Right here’s how Brooks likes to promote it: “A man and lady take their first romantic journey away collectively, they understand they’re on completely different pages, and issues take a flip.” (And, sure, should you go searching, you’ll find a extra detailed synopsis that was touted when the movie first went into manufacturing, however we actually encourage you to not.)
With the concept in thoughts, Brooks turned to her long-time buddy and fellow filmmaker Molly Gordon, who additionally occurred to be using out the pandemic at her personal childhood house, and was one of many few individuals she was seeing throughout these early days. “I informed Molly the concept and I used to be like, ‘I don’t know. I really feel like there’s one thing there, however I’m unsure what it was,’” Brooks recalled. “And Molly, who’s probably the most enthusiastic, full-of-life individual was like, ‘I really like that. I actually suppose there’s one thing there.’ We, form of on the identical second. had been like, ‘Ought to we do that collectively? Do you wish to be on this?’”
They spent a weekend collectively, creating the story, workshopping the idea, and simply usually bouncing concepts off one another. Then Brooks went house — again to the childhood bed room — and spent two and a half weeks, by her personal depend, “in a fever dream, alone, my dad and mom weren’t there, staying up till 3:00 AM penning this script.”
Gordon, who can be a credited producer on the movie, “actually pushed me to be courageous,” Brooks mentioned. And understanding she was writing the character of Iris for Gordon was additionally instructive. “She’s such a gifted performer, she’s such a very good singer, she’s so humorous, all of these items I do know that she’s good at,” she mentioned. “It was first time I’d written with an actor in thoughts, and it was actually thrilling to suppose, ‘OK, I’ve these constraints, I’ve these restricted quantity of places, these restricted variety of actors, what’s the funnest model of this film with these constraints?’”
A lot of that hinges on not simply the characters Brooks created, however the methods by which they take a look at the world, and this particular weekend journey from hell. With out spoiling an excessive amount of, it’s truthful to say that “Oh, Hello!” is usually rooted in Iris’ perspective — principally, however we’ll get to that — and the way she reacts to the revelation that Isaac (Lerman) isn’t as into their relationship as she is. Iris does some wild stuff to win her man again, however Gordon sells the hell out of it. So does Brooks’ script.
“It’s all about tone, proper? It’s such a skinny line,” Brooks mentioned. “The movie toes this actually skinny line of tone and perspective. It was actually necessary to me that each characters felt like actual individuals and totally rounded, realized variations of themselves. It was extremely useful to me that Molly is inherently charming. I don’t know that the film would work if there was a distinct sort of actress who’s an unimaginable actress, however possibly doesn’t have that charisma that Molly has.”
Gordon’s charisma shines all through, however she additionally brings an unimaginable pathos to the character, as Iris has to hold some fairly heavy ideas, neatly filtered by way of our idea of what a “loopy girl” seems like. She simply desires to be cherished, what’s so loopy about that?
“It’s super-vulnerable, it’s extremely human to need love and to wish to give love and be cherished,” Brooks mentioned. “Generally girls, particularly, who say which can be thought-about determined or loopy, and I feel that’s actually unfair. Iris is a very courageous character, and it’s an ideal storm of every thing form of touchdown in a means on the finish of the primary act the place you’re like, ‘Oh, if these issues hadn’t occurred, she most likely wouldn’t have achieved this loopy factor.’ I hope that folks can relate to love, ‘Oh, I wouldn’t do that, however in an ideal storm, possibly I might.’ … The aim is to do it in a humorous, lighthearted means that’s entertaining to individuals. I feel there’s form of a freedom whenever you’re poking enjoyable at — pay attention, I’m poking enjoyable at myself in 1,000,000 methods, poking enjoyable of this concept of the ‘loopy lady,’ and likewise poking enjoyable of this concept of this ‘delicate boy.’”
Brooks is talking from her personal expertise. “I went by way of a very massive breakup in my late twenties, and I undoubtedly had ideas,” she mentioned “I used to be like, ‘Whoa, I didn’t know I might have these kinds of ideas or this sort of anxiousness.’ It was actually illuminating concerning the human expertise, and there’s one thing actually attention-grabbing to me about exploring these darker ideas that we’ve in quiet moments once we’re alone, and what occurs if somebody acts on these.”
What occurs when Iris acts on these needs? Merely put, she tries to make Isaac love her, to essentially see her, to get to know her and admire her and — God prepared! — not break up together with her. Gordon is pleasant on this pursuit, wacky and horny and foolish, after which, nicely, kind of embarrassing. As she reaches a fever pitch in her quest, instantly, we get a way of what this seems wish to Isaac, care of a scene that’s each extremely humorous and a little bit distressing.
“That had at all times been one thing that was necessary, that the viewers felt this was a two-hander,” she mentioned. “Although Iris is the one who drives the twists and turns, Isaac is an energetic participant and he’s making decisions too. I wished to discover a second that felt in the end humorous, proper? I don’t wish to give an excessive amount of away! Effectively, it’s a sequence the place Iris is form of doing what she’s pitched, which helps him get to know her and giving her life story. It felt like that was the suitable scene for us to completely shift into his perspective.”
However, no spoilers! You’ll comprehend it whenever you see it. “I don’t wish to wreck what it’s, however it’s a enjoyable second to indicate what’s happening in his head and what he’s not telling her,” she mentioned. “As a result of, inherently, the film’s about miscommunication and the way these two individuals are not on the identical web page, that second, the viewers is seeing his perspective in a scene the place it’s alleged to be about her.”
Brooks sometimes seems at screenwriting books earlier than she begins work on a brand new script, which serves to remind her of what she’s making an attempt to perform together with her tales and tips on how to do it. Her different inspirations for the movie had been myriad. Each she and Gordon had been “actually obsessed” with “The Worst Particular person within the World.” Brooks cherished the tv tackle “Scenes from a Marriage,” with Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, plus “Regular Folks.”
And she or he “at all times loves” Nora Ephron. “She’s the filmmaker I feel I relate to probably the most, by way of private tales that even have huge enchantment, I hope,” she mentioned. “It looks like she actually cared about her viewers, whereas additionally actually telling tales that she felt had been necessary to her. I actually relate to that. I actually care concerning the viewers and pleasing the viewers, and I additionally really feel I do my greatest work telling tales which can be private to me.”
After “Oh, Hello!,” Brooks has massive plans. “Subsequent, I’m going to take a nap,” she mentioned with amusing. “I’ve a bunch of tales that I’m excited to inform and scripts that I’ve. One specifically that’s truly the primary script I ever began writing after I was 22, that I’ve achieved a number of completely different variations of and by no means fairly figured it out, and proper earlier than we began taking pictures, ‘Oh, Hello!,’ I form of cracked it and discovered what the story was. I haven’t completed that script. I’m midway by way of it, however that’s the one I’m most enthusiastic about.”
Like “The Boy Upstairs” and “Oh, Hello!,” the movie is rooted within the private. “The film that I wish to make subsequent is exploring comparable themes, which is relationships,” she mentioned. “My dad and mom are highschool sweethearts, and after I was a child I simply assumed I might meet my husband after I was 16. I really was like, ‘That’s what occurs. I’m going to satisfy my husband after I’m 16, so thrilling!’ Then I didn’t have a boyfriend till I used to be 21 and I used to be like, ‘I’m confused. What occurred right here?’ It’s a little bit multi-generational, exploring how our dad and mom’ relationships inform our concepts of affection. I feel individuals suppose divorce fucks children up, however I additionally suppose having dad and mom who’re highschool sweethearts fucks you up and offers you a weird expectation of affection.”
She’s thrilled to share her newest exploration of affection together with her first audiences, as “Oh, Hello!” readies to make its debut at Sundance, care of a major Sunday afternoon slot on the Eccles Theatre. With a giant crowd, the movie will seemingly play fairly nicely, laughs and gasps aplenty.
“I additionally am simply making an attempt to take pleasure in this second, as a result of it’s so exhausting to get a movie made and that is actually thrilling and particular,” she mentioned. “I hope individuals adore it. I really like a narrative that’s multidimensional and isn’t afraid to problem our concepts about love and relationships, and it’s also very entertaining. I’m nervous, as a result of it’s susceptible and scary to place artwork out into the world and have it’s judged.”
And, right here’s hoping, not spoiled.
“Oh, Hello!” will premiere on the 2025 Sundance Movie Competition. It’s presently in search of U.S. distribution.