When Nicole Holofcener was coming up in the ’90s, she was celebrated as that rare thing: a female writer-director (“Walking and Talking,” “Lovely and Amazing,” “Friends with Money”). Today, she’s no longer a rarity, and she’s still delivering sharp, funny observational comedies about flawed middle-class New York women (“The Land of Steady Habits”). But somehow, the breadth and potential of her talent remains elusive.
Hollywood gives her scripts to write and rewrite and polish (for the big bucks). She wrote, with Matt Damon and Ben Affleck, “The Last Duel” for Ridley Scott, crafting the Jodie Comer character, and the Scarlett Johansson and Florence Pugh roles in Marvel’s “Black Widow.” She made more on that three-week assignment than three of her movies combined, she said at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, which tributed her this year, playing three of her films (“Enough Said,” “Please Give,” and “You Hurt My Feelings”) for an audience unfamiliar with her work. She’s currently writing for Gillian Anderson and Greta Lee in Disney’s latest iteration of “Tron.”
And she has a shadow career as a TV director, from “Sex and the City,” “Six Feet Under,” and “Orange is the New Black” to “Parks and Recreation.” But when she goes after a more mainstream directing job, she doesn’t land the gig. That includes “Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” for which she earned her first Oscar nomination, for something she did not originate. “Bittersweet” is the word she uses to describe that moment. “There are things to be had that are not just my own movies,” she said. “It has gotten me the the Marvel job. People now know me more and think I can do different things.”
Sometimes, it’s tough for her to watch a filmmaker like Marielle Heller or Ridley Scott direct her carefully scripted scenes. She occasionally let Scott know on “The Last Duel.” His response? “Get out. I don’t need your opinion.”
Holofcener hates being called the “female Woody Allen.” Her inspirations include Allen, Elaine May, Neil Simon, Hal Ashby, Ken Loach, and Albert Brooks. But she too comes from a New York Jewish family; while her biological father, Lawrence Holofcener, was a painter-sculptor and Broadway lyricist, her stepfather was Woody Allen’s producer, Charles Joffe, and her mother Carol Joffe was Allen’s frequent set decorator. Young Holofcener was an extra on “Sleeper,” a production assistant on “A Midsummer Night’s Sex Comedy,” and an editing assistant on “Hannah and Her Sisters.”
“He was fun to hang out with when I was little,” she said. “He teased me, hit me with the newspaper, like a jokey uncle. As I got older, he was more removed. I didn’t really have a relationship with him at all.”
After a series of ’80s short films she made at Columbia University, Holofcener made her feature directing debut with “Walking and Talking,” a film about two friends played by Catherine Keener and Anne Heche, which took six years to finance at $1 million. Miramax scooped it up at Sundance. It didn’t make financing her next films any easier. She has written and directed a total of seven features, of which romantic comedy “Enough Said” (Searchlight) starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini (in his last role) was the most successful, grossing $26-million worldwide. “The Land of Steady Habits,” starring Ben Mendelsohn and Edie Falco, was backed by Netflix.
“That was the only place that wanted to finance it with the actors that I wanted,” she said. “It became a postage stamp really quickly. It’s important to show films in the cinema. It’s a completely different experience. I know people are watching my films on Netflix and going to the bathroom and talking to their kids and scrolling on their phones. I see my own kids do it. I used to work in a video store, and it was such a pleasure to be able to talk to people about movies and suggest movies. It was a real love affair. And I don’t think the streaming platforms encourage that kind of love affair. It’s more rote. It’s like eating lunch. You watch a movie, forget about it, watch another movie, forget about it.”
Times are tough these days for smart filmmakers. “I do think it’s harder now,” said Holofcener. “There’s very few directors who can make huge movies that are funny, like Judd Apatow or Paul Feig. Those movies are great. I’m a big fan of them. I could do one. In fact, I tried to get a job doing one, recently. It was a funny script. And it had funny actors in it. And I was immediately turned down because I was told, ‘I’m going to make it too realistic or sad or whatever.’ Because I wouldn’t know how to be that broad. And I would. And it was frustrating. Comedies like mine don’t don’t win a lot of awards. People don’t take comedy-drama that seriously like they did in the ’70s, ’80s, and ’90s. James L. Brooks’ ‘Broadcast News’ was a huge hit. If that was in the theaters, or streaming now, that would not be a huge hit. It just wouldn’t be big enough.”
Two or three broad comedies that she didn’t land might have made a difference in Holofcener’s career trajectory. “I wasn’t able to get the job,” she said. “There was one story about this Texas murder, and it was broad. And the characters were broad, a crazy Texas thriller. And I was told, ‘Nicole can’t do big hair.’ I would love to be able to make a successful movie and make money and get more opportunities. I can do lots of things. And I wish people would trust me more with that.”
At a time when even such mainstream comedy directors as Nancy Meyers are hustling to get their pictures funded by the studios, the obvious thing for Holofcener to do is create her own TV series. She’s tried to get four series launched to no avail. One she created from scratch and had stars attached. “Just like it’s hard to get my movies made because of what I like to do,” she said, “those TV shows were similar: episodic, real life, funny, sad, not plot-driven. And so I stopped trying. It’s not worth the stress, and the pitching, and all the meetings, and the rejection. Because I can do other things.”
Holofcener feels she has been unfairly placed in a too-narrow niche. “I’ve been pegged to do a certain kind of thing. I’m always telling my agent, ‘Tell people I’ll direct other things, I’ll branch out.’ But most people don’t think I want to. Or I do pass on a lot of things. Because I’m choosy, as anybody should be. I’m not in it to make money. So, it’s frustrating. Sometimes, I can feel pretty bad about it. I’ve made seven films. Can somebody give me more than $6 million to make one? Or spend more on the marketing of my films? People don’t know I can expand my base; most people don’t know who I am.”
Next up: She’s taking her time dreaming up her next movie idea. And she’s adapting Alison Espach’s book, “The Wedding People,” for Will Speck and Josh Gordon to direct. “It’s going to be much broader and bigger budget than what I’m used to,” said Holofcener. “And yet, it’s still character-driven. And so I am having fun writing it. It’s still in my wheelhouse.”
