One of the most refreshing things a jaded reviewer can come across is a minimalist work stripped of nearly all bells and whistles that’s laser-focused on a compelling character-driven narrative. Even a simple story of an overreaction to a traffic ticket can make for an involving time at the movies. Kind of like the adventures of George Costanza sans the laugh track.
I seem to interview most directors upon my first exposure to their work and Adrian Murray is no exception. This multi-hyphenate has been writing and directing for over a decade, often appearing in most of these films, sometimes sharing his name with the character (we joked about an inevitable “Adrian-verse” coming to screens near you).
I recently had the chance to chat with Adrian over Zoom about his sophomore feature Retrograde and the unique joys and challenges of producing a more minimalist and focused story for the screen.
What was the genesis of this film?
I’ve had (traffic) tickets in the past but the real genesis was I was basically at the party that Molly was at in this movie where they’re doing astrology readings. Someone did one for me and I disagreed with it but all my friends and everyone around me thought it was so accurate. I was just so frustrated that I couldn’t assert myself into the world the way I wanted to and I felt I was losing control there.
So that just combined with another story idea I had about a feud with a cop over a ticket because I thought they talked to each other in interesting ways. Losing control, talking about what truth is, talking about perception, stuff like that.
How many iterations of the script did it take for it to be ready to shoot?
It’s tough to say. To me, it’s like watching a plant grow. How many versions of a plant are there? It just sort of happens slowly (laughs).
In terms of complete drafts, I’d say there were maybe three. It was fully scripted, but we do like to leave room for improv so stuff does change on the day. I love being surprised on the day and finding new things all throughout the process.
How did you approach casting?
It was written for Molly Reisman. We’ve been housemates in the past and she’s also been in films I’ve worked on. (These were) smaller roles, but I really thought that she could carry something because she can go from being very likable to being very motivated and I thought this would be an interesting vehicle for her.
The rest of the cast kind of orbited around her. Some of them are friends and I’m in it. The bureaucrat you mentioned earlier, that’s Eric Anderson, one of my friends. I met him through the Toronto film scene and he’s also a filmmaker. Sophia Banzhaf (Gabrielle) knew my wife through the poetry community. So it all came together through connections like that.
Any interesting stories from filming?
There’s always little things. The car we borrowed from my dad. The air conditioning was really loud and we were shooting at the hottest time in the summer. We all got pretty grumpy when we were shooting in the car because we had to turn the A/C off and just bake in the sun. The DP (Joe Palanca) and I were just shoved in the trunk there with the camera, which was also making a lot of heat. Sets are always too hot or too cold. I guess that’s a thing.
It went as smoothly as can be expected. The DP and I would go to the spaces a day beforehand and we’d spend an hour just blocking it out in our own way without the actors to explore the space and know what we could or couldn’t do with it.
But then, as you can see in the film, each scene often plays out in one long take so a day consisted of maybe four setups. So in terms of indie film sets, I’d say it was a slower-moving one. We could spend more time doing setups and more time doing the takes we want and we did a lot of takes, like 20 or so.
Retrograde cast & crew
How did you arrive at this minimalist visual style for this project?
I’ve always been drawn to shooting wider and longer. I think you get a good sense of space. I like seeing how characters move throughout the space in relation to each other, which these nice big wides can do.
My first film Withdrawn was improvised from a treatment and the style sort of came from there and from budget restraints. We wanted to do not very many setups per day, but we still wanted it to look good. So we were like “Ok, we don’t have any grips, it’s just me and the DP and we can spend some time messing around with lights if we’re doing just two setups a day.
So on my first film, it came from budget. We sort of evolved the style on this one. It’s about perception; what you see and don’t see. It’s not clear whether Molly’s telling the truth or not sometimes and we didn’t want to have the option to be hiding things with the edit. It’s sort of like what you see is what you get. We can’t lie here.
How many shooting days did you have?
We had 18 and then 2 days of reshoots. I know it was a bit of a break for some of the crew. The camera crew and tech people felt like this was a way more relaxed shoot than what they were used to commercially, so it’s nice.
What do you hope audiences take away from this film?
I don’t like to tell them what to take. I think you’ll recognize someone you know who’s like Molly or you’ll recognize yourself in her (laughs). I think both are fun and might surprise you which is which.
Retrograde is currently available on all major VOD platforms