Monday March 20, 2006

Miller’s Crossing

When director Bennett Miller was nominated for an Oscar for Capote, no one could have been more surprised than me. While I’d seen and enjoyed his documentary debut The Cruise, I knew Miller primarily as a commercials director. As the editor of AdCritic, I knew that if you wanted some jokey, male-seeking comedy, you went to New York production company Hungry Man, which has done comedic campaigns for SportsCenter and Careerbuilder.com, just to name a few. You tried to get Bryan Buckley. If you couldn’t get him, you got Jim Jenkins. And if you couldn’t get him, you got Bennett Miller.

Needless to say, Miller’s commercials are nothing like Capote. They are often over the top, slapstick affairs, which made his big-screen splash—already an accomplishment for a commercials director—all the more surprising. I pitched that angle around and got an assignment in the weeks leading up to the Oscars. Unfortunately, the piece didn’t make it to press and promptly expired.

Ah, but that’s the beauty of blogs. Nothing’s ever really over. Capote comes out on DVD Tuesday, so I’ve posted the piece here. It includes an interview with Miller and some notes on just how rare it is for a commercials director to successfully cross over into features. And to be nominated for an Oscar? That hasn’t happened since Spike Jonze was nominated in 1999.

Posted by jim at 11:56 PM ||