Word: toback
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...when a nervous college student interviews a celebrity, especially a rather notorious one, the pen-twirling, stammering twenty-something is subjected to a lot of blank stares, subtle glances at the nearest clock and terse, rehearsed responses. My most recent experience, with the famed indie bad-boy writer/director James Toback ’66, was decidedly against the norm. Of course, anyone versed in Toback’s impressive body of work, which includes the recently released con-game drama, When Will I Be Loved, knows that he is, too. Before I could lay down one of my admittedly redundant...
...often asked that question, and certainly not by a relative stranger. Toback had revealed with his pointed inquiry that if he cared whether or not I had stories in my soul, he must have a few lurking around in his, a fact that’s further reflected in his work, for better or worse. We went on to chat for a solid two hours, riffing on his career in cinema, his views on Hollywood and his personal life, with plenty of comi-tragic anecdotes thrown...
Though Toback’s tangential side-tracking is often hilarious and ironic (consider one true story he related in which famed producer Don Simpson promised Toback to fund his 2001 film Harvard Man minutes before he died of a heart attack), his clear fascination with human beings, myself included, and the way they survive tragedy and day-to-day life is what makes him truly unique. He is often called self-absorbed in relation to his work, and perhaps some truth lies in that statement. But there’s no denying that his preoccupation with human emotion...
Directed by James Toback ’66, this is meant to be an examination of contemporary college life infused with compelling suspense, intellectually stimulating philosophy and intriguing plot surprises. Too bad it sucks...
...Toback recalls that, as an undergraduate, Harvard was “the place to be…if you wanted...