Film

Buscemi’s fourth movie as a director is a remake of a 2003 film by Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who was later murdered for a documentary about women in Islamic theocracies. The first of three English-language do-overs that Van Gogh had planned to make himself, Interview strikes a decidedly less serious note. With its actorly indulgences and aggressive pseudoprofundity, it almost qualifies as dry comedy.

An arrogant political journalist with the movie-movie name of Pierre Peders (Buscemi) is punished by his editor with an assignment for which any self-respecting junket whore would bribe Harvey Weinstein: He’s got an interview with Katya (Miller), an eminently tabloid-ready star of soap operas and horror films. Insulted by Pierre’s obvious disinterest, she calls off the interview, only to invite him back to her apartment after the cab he gets into crashes. An evening of antiseptics, boozing and LaButean mind games ensues, as the two set out—in the guise of revealing their depths—to play I-can-lie-better-than-you.

Directionless as satire, Interview remains compelling thanks to Buscemi and Miller, who harness their nonchemistry in splendid service of the material. (Not since After Hours has a Soho loft been put to such surreally irrational use.) Notwithstanding Pierre’s declarations of the death of serious journalism, Interview more obviously reflects the movie industry’s contempt for the media. Any reporter worth his salt would be able to sniff out Twists A, B and C; in that sense, Interview, finally, becomes a monument to Pierre’s incompetence.