We’re sitting between the “Miscellaneous Horror” and “Juvenile Delinquents” sections at CineFile Video, a compact, densely stocked curated video retailer on the westside of Los Angeles.
Surrounded by bodily media, I’m wondering how “Lurker,” the primary function by writer-director Alex Russell, will finally be categorized right here. The shelf throughout from him holds the DVDs and Blu-rays labeled “Gay.” The conclusion prompts him to chuckle. “That’s me,” he says.
Arms crossed, Russell, 34, at first appears guarded and proof against dialog. He admits doing press about his work remains to be a novel expertise for him. Later, as he digs into the making and that means of his film, he’ll calm down and the phrases will spontaneously move.
Out this Friday, “Lurker” examines the insidious entanglement between rising British music star Oliver (Archie Madekwe) and the seemingly docile Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), a clothes retailer worker turned self-styled tour videographer. As Matthew joins Oliver’s internal circle, their parasocial bond evolves into an actual friendship, till Matthew’s need to belong turns into harmful. And whereas at first Oliver guidelines over a pack of sycophants, the ability shifts.
“Everyone has been in a situation where they want a group of people to like them,” Russell says. “And then sometimes you’re on the other side of it, where you’re already in and you see someone else wanting to be liked by you.”
As somebody who went to a number of completely different colleges rising up, Russell grew to become observant of male relationships and the implicit guidelines by which they function. “I could see how groups of boys, whether it’s in high school, a fraternity or a basketball team, start to assemble themselves and create sort of unspoken hierarchies,” Russell says. The music world introduced a really perfect setting as effectively.
Archie Madekwe, left, and Théodore Pellerin within the film “Lurker.”
(Mubi)
“Lurker’s” mean-boys drama largely takes place in Los Angeles, the place people searching for a profession in leisure by any means needed abound. Russell lived right here for the bigger a part of the final decade, writing the screenplay on the top of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“I felt gross about being in L.A. but also hopeful,” Russell says candidly on the belief that he was one among numerous others right here making an attempt to make it. “What I like about this place — and I think this is represented in the movie — is that it’s full of people who are trying to put themselves out there in some type of way.”
Russell is aware of firsthand what it means to really feel uncovered in pursuit of a dream. His profession writing for TV for award-winning reveals like “Beef” and “The Bear” solely took off after he grew to become vocal and open about his targets.
“There was something liberating about being like, ‘I want to be a working screenwriter,’ which, of course, there’s no greater cliché in L.A.,” he says. “That felt like the more courageous thing. I was used to this self-doubting, cynical philosophy of: I should keep it to myself if I have dreams that could embarrass me if I don’t make them a reality.”
Born in Chicago to an immigrant mom and an American father, Russell initially studied engineering, however quietly taught himself screenwriting. He would dissect the scripts of consolation films like “Legally Blonde” and “The Devil Wears Prada” with a view to be taught construction.
“When you teach yourself something, in a way it’s more organic because you’re just like: OK, what are the movies I actually know? I’ll reverse engineer those,” he says.
However as somebody with no direct connection to Hollywood, his dream required tryout stints in New York and Atlanta, in addition to plenty of crashing with affected person mates. “There are so many couches I have to thank for getting to do the work I do now,” Russell says, laughing however honest.
Throughout these rougher early years, Russell created a pilot for the now defunct Viceland cable community and a brief sequence for Comedy Central’s YouTube channel. “At the time I was looking for anything to grasp onto,” he remembers.
It was in L.A. that he landed his first writers’ room job on the FX comedy “Dave,” a meta sequence centered round rapper Lil Dicky. Russell believes his proximity to the music trade set him aside when the chance emerged, outweighing his inexperience.
Most of his shut mates work in music, together with Kenny Beats, who composed Oliver’s songs for “Lurker,” and Zack Fox, who performs a hanger-on within the movie and is a DJ in actual life. The scenes that present Oliver performing had been shot with actual crowds throughout events at which Fox DJed.
“It was just a huge stroke of luck,” he says. “I had a bunch of half-hour spec scripts that were set in the music world. It was just good timing that they were looking for someone like that, because on a craft level, I really hadn’t found it yet.”
“Lurker” could be an experiment — to find his personal storytelling voice.
“The skill of being in a TV room is: How well can you service the voice of someone else? How can you find the most overlap between yourself and whoever’s running the show?” Russell explains. “That can start to feel like: I would like to know if I have my own tone, if I have my own way of doing things.”
To search out his method into the story, significantly its darker edges of obsession, Russell regarded to Damien Chazelle’s “Whiplash” and Dan Gilroy’s “Nightcrawler” as references. Moreover, “Almost Famous,” Cameron Crowe’s largely autobiographical movie about a teen interviewing a rock band, appeared the closest to his sensibility.
“This kid gets to do this big Rolling Stone article on one of his favorite bands and there are these moments where it feels like he’s in the band and that’s really his dream,” Russell says. “At the end of the movie it’s like: Was that all just for the story he was writing? Or will they talk to him again? And then they do. It’s a wholesome version of the movie that mine isn’t.”
In “Lurker,” conversely, the worst label somebody in Oliver’s orbit can obtain is that of being a “fanboy.” The time period carries an intensely pejorative connotation within the group and speaks to the imbalance of energy between the singer and his fawning entourage.
“A fan is fundamentally an outsider,” Russell says. “What does it mean to admit that you’re a fan? It’s to acknowledge that there’s them and us. You are the watcher of whatever you’re a fan of and they have your attention. Matthew is trying to bridge that gap. He wants to appear as a peer.”
The truth that “other directors weren’t exactly dying to direct” his screenplay, Russell says, coupled along with his producers’ encouragement, satisfied him to get behind the digital camera.
“I didn’t really know what that entailed,” he admits. “I really didn’t think I had certain leadership qualities to rally a bunch of people. I didn’t see myself that way.”
However understanding the motivations of his characters armed him. Russell may decide which potential collaborators interpreted his writing as he envisioned it. For instance, he agreed with cinematographer Patrick Scola that capturing on 16mm movie would add realism to a narrative happening in a realm of artificiality.
Théodore Pellerin within the film “Lurker.”
(Mubi)
In casting Pellerin, a Quebecois actor seen in “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” the filmmaker discovered a performer with the flexibility to exhibit ambiguous intentions, not a one-note villain. Although he’s all the time plotting to remain in Oliver’s good graces, Matthew has a deep want for validation. When he will get a style of the standing being round Oliver grants him, he refuses to let it go.
“You could see him living and dying on each of these social interactions,” Russell says. “You could tell he wants to say and do the right thing. There’s a sweetness to him. We didn’t want this to be so icy that you automatically disliked this guy and you’re shaking your head the whole time. You want to feel like there’s someone in there who just wants to belong.”
Russell finds the proliferation of a social media mindset unsettling, particularly the darker aspect of attention-seeking trolls. “Part of why this movie exists is to instill a little bit of shame,” he says with a darkish snicker. “That’s not something we should be bragging about.”
On prime of these digital-age preoccupations, Russell sought to indict the petty jealousies that exist amongst males — a topic, he thinks, that is still taboo. “There are a lot of movies about women being jealous of each other, but there aren’t a lot about men,” he says.
Close to the tip of “Lurker,” a shocking encounter between Oliver and Matthew illustrates the complexity of their misconnection, a fragile steadiness that showcases Russell’s expertise for mining originality from conditions that might have performed out extra conventionally.
“In that moment, the tension is built up so that either it’s going to turn sexual finally or turn violent finally,” the filmmaker says. “That’s what the audience is thinking, but then it’s this mystery third thing. And I just love it because it genuinely surprises people.”
However no matter the place a viewer is coming from, “Lurker” faucets into one thing totally relatable.
“So many people look to movies because they feel like outsiders,” Russell says. “Everyone has some relationship to being an outsider and being an insider. It’s not black and white. That’s what this movie wants to get into. Those things can shift, the gravitational pull is not anchored.”
A lot much less of an outsider now (he’s even gained an Emmy for “Beef”), Russell has discovered his friends. He and James Sweeney, one other queer director, have grow to be shut. Sweeney’s movie “Twinless,” out Sept. 5, follows the brotherly friendship between two younger males that’s threatened by a secret. Each “Lurker” and “Twinless” premiered on the Sundance Movie Pageant in January. Russell is amused on the similarities between their movies.
“In a city like this, everyone is thirsty for community or feeling like a part of some group,” Russell says. “And the truth of L.A. is that people make up groups. And if you make up your own group, then you get to choose the members.”
