Best International Feature Screenplay
New Renaissance Film Festival, Amsterdam
Raised in a time of apocalyptic anxiety – the post 9/11 world - the overarching concept was “let us hide our children from the danger.” And so our filmic lives were built by the grown-ups around us on their carefully coded superheros and trauma . . . as if speaking to us directly would unleash the instability that their need to control had boxed and hidden away.
The Weather Just Got Sexy will be the first (and possibly last) indie sleaze, men’s water ballet, song of Summer-tinged seaside rock-n-roll whimsy to be committed to film. Adam and Keanu are on a picaresque journey of innocence and stupidity as they leave the world of privilege for long - and strange - days of work under the command of a sadistic rockstar hotelier/wannabe actor. As they are forced onto an all men’s synchronized swim team comprised of band dudes who are barely buoyant, their world and their friendship are turned upside down.
Sexy pulls together a mid-2000s alt rock aesthetic and fuses it with something reminiscent of a Japanese City Pop Summer movie from the 1980s. It’s the Beach Boys meet The Libertines, it’s a year-round, summer cult comedy: fun, warm and empowering. One of those films like School of Rock that you just watch again and again because it allows you to be free of the past and the present.
But now I am a “grown-up.” And the time has come for me as an up-and-coming, award-winning writer-director - to speak differently and joyfully. Biculturally located somewhere between Japan and the West after five years getting a degree in Japanese Gag Manga – that’s comedy with a capital C – I make films to speak to my generation with a voice that is uniquely ours, but which resonates across generations. It is time to let us out of the box. The Weather Just Got Sexy is a film of liberation. In the new Trumpian world order, Sexy is a film of empowerment, of now. It says, “Yes, we can go outside and play and it will all be okay because we’re not afraid: We’ve got this.”
With a puff of sparkly Esther Williams smoke from England’s largest tidal pool and a blow-out rock concert happening simultaneously on the beach, The Weather Just Got Sexy has a sensibility that embraces multitudes: the ironic mockery of Curb Your Enthusiasm, the charm of Parks and Recreation, the cock-eyed optimism of Eddie the Eagle, the eclectic self-discovery of The Darjeeling Limited, the joie de vivre of Itami’s Tampopo, the haplessness of Help! and the unadulterated chaos of Ranma 1/2. In The Weather Just Got Sexy, we get it: we are all heroes just running in our own directions, even though we have no clue where they might will lead.
The way I work on set is imbued with love, laughter and respect. I love working with young actors and taking on unexpected challenges with them. At 30, with an emerging talent award, three award winning short films and three award winning feature screenplays recognized by some of the world’s most important voices in the industry in hand, the time has come for me to use my voice to make movies that no one, including me, has ever seen. I am looking to create an original voice, and make movies that will inspire people to live their lives more fully. I hope to make films that will make the world a more beautiful and joyous place, allowing those who struggle with life’s chaos to be lifted from the quotidian.