A filmmaker’s odyssey

He’s made films of sheer brilliance. Films that reach out and grab the viewer and never let go. Small-scale masterpieces.

He’s one of the best filmmakers of the last decade. With one great film in theaters (Snow Angels) and another upcoming buzz-heavy movie (Pineapple Express) in the can, he’s poised to rocket into the upper realms of commercial and critical success.

His name is David Gordon Green–and you’ve never heard of him.

OK, maybe you have. Maybe you’ve experienced the brilliance of George Washington, Undertow or Snow Angels (see review sidebar), and have become a convert to his deliberately paced, sometimes heart-wrenching, sometimes humorous, but always poignant style of filmmaking.

Yet, even with such amazing output over the last eight years, you’d think the man would be positioned in the public eye next to Paul Thomas Anderson and other virtuoso filmmakers working today. Unfortunately, he hasn’t crossed over to massive mainstream acclaim. But that’s not too far away.

August will see the Green-directed (and Judd Apatow-produced) Pineapple Express, the part stoner-comedy, part throwback action film starring and co-written by the uber-talented and omnipresent Seth Rogen, star of Knocked Up. Undertaking the film was a smart move on Green’s part, and it has already gotten him considerable buzz inside the industry and out.

But how did he go from making small-town personal dramas to one of the potentially biggest hits of this upcoming summer movie season? It’s simple.

“I got drunk with the right people,” Green said during a recent Portland visit. “I have a lot of ambitions that are outside of the small-town crybaby movies I like to make.”

Green has an air to him. Like his films, he draws you into conversation. But what does he have that makes him so interesting? It’s not any sort of outward charisma or a Tom Cruise-like manic confidence that other arty types have. What makes him such a great filmmaker is his sheer love of film-all film-from trash to art house. Like other 1990s filmmakers who grew up on home video (Richard Linklater and Quentin Tarantino are two examples), Green can throw out movie references like a Wikipedia page labeled “Films you never heard of, but sound awesome.”

Green loves obscure 1990s movies, and even straight-to-DVD Steven Seagal movies. Seriously. Name another indie-ish director that has aspirations to become a straight-to-DVD action movie-producing kingpin? He might be joking, but Green could actually pull it off and make Seagal cool. Just listen to the titles of the action movie screenplays he has been working on in his free time: One in the Chamber and Obstruction of Justice. It’s undeniably badass.

What really makes Green stand out from his contemporaries-and maybe a reason he hasn’t exploded in popularity–is that he has been more concerned with cranking out multiple movies than with trying to build his legacy with one visually stunning epic every seven years. Although the quality of his films has been incredibly consistent, you get the feeling that Green doesn’t worry about critical accolades–he’s more concerned about having fun. He’s not afraid to get out there and mess around.

“The day I’m not hungry to be waking up and doing what I’m doing is the day I should go back to bed,” Green said. He is thankful for the chance to make movies how he wants to make them, but it also confuses him. “I’m honestly shocked that people keep giving me money to make movies. It’s bizarre. Especially since my first three movies didn’t crack like $300,000 at the box office.”

Some upcoming projects for Green show his range: a remake of the 1977 Dario Argento horror masterpiece Suspiria and a film version of the nonfiction John Grisham book The Innocent Man. He doesn’t bat an eye when discussing these projects. For Green, making movies is simple: You get in and you get it done.

“I’m not there to try to make any sort of bold statement,” Green said. “I am there to take, in some way, insignificant threads of human frailty and interactions, connections and disconnections, and put a layer on top of it of significant events and consequences.”

Hopefully, the career path of Green will inspire other directors and writers to chill out and learn to screw around. Art isn’t about perfection, so when movies are too shiny and neatly packaged there is very little to love. Loose ends, mixed genres, conflicting emotions–these are the things that make a truly memorable film. They might not be for everyone, but Green’s movies are always memorable.

“If you’ve got something that has an emotional gravity to it, you’ve got an absurdity there waiting in the wing with a fart joke,” he said. “If somebody’s gonna die, somebody’s gonna fart. And it’s got to have that kind of unique balance of sensibilities; otherwise, you are watching a TV movie of the week.”

If Green experiences much-deserved success with Pineapple Express, he may never have to make a small film like Snow Angels again. But no matter what happens with his career, it is very likely that he will put his love of movies into whatever he does.