The first reaction of anyone coming out of The Grey probably won’t be, “I bet the director of The A-Team, Smokin’ Aces, and that BMW short Ticker made this!” Joe Carnahan prefers it to be that way. The director’s fifth feature film isn’t a full-blown action romp, but is instead a thrilling meditation on life, death, and survival. (Check out our review here.) Similar to Carnahan’s breakout feature, Narc, The Grey shows all the trappings of a true personal project — the kind of story that a filmmaker had to tell. And, after speaking with Carnahan for 25 minutes, that was clearly the case. From White Jazz to Killing Pablo, when the personable man finds a story that comes from his core, he’s got to get it made. Here’s what Joe Carnahan had to say about the life and death themes of The Grey, writing and portraying real men, and why he never wants to become a “one for them, one for me” filmmaker:

This week, Fat Guy Kevin Carr tapes some alcohol bottles to his knuckles and gets ready to brawl with wolves. Unfortunately, he first drinks all the booze in the bottles and ends up passing out in the snow. When he wakes up, he brushes himself off and heads downtown to climb on the ledge of a tall building. The police are called to try and save him, but Kevin ends up jumping when he learns that Katherine Heigl is brought in to talk him down. Fortunately, Kevin survives the fall and stumbles to the local multiplex to check out this week’s new movies.

One of the few, if only, highlights of seeing Breaking Dawn last night was seeing some new trailers, including a brand new one for The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, a much leaner and brisker peak at the film. The teaser for The Grey, which hit the net back in September, was shown as well. It played well and managed to get an audience full of girls excited, despite the film being a total sausage fest set in the middle-of-nowhere. Now a day later another trailer has been released, and it’s much longer and spoiler-y than the previous footage we got. This plays out more as a sizzle reel than an actual finely-tuned trailer, but the first half is attention-grabbing. The set-up is sold tremendously well. Unfortunately, the second half of the trailer is a little long-winded. Still, Joe Carnahan‘s film looks like a fun, brutal, and atmospheric man vs. nature survival tale. Carnahan certainly a knack for hilarious brutality, as shown in the extremely fun Smokin’ Aces and The A-Team, but this seems more dramatically and tonally related to Narc.

Meet the Burnetts. The first family to ever get fired by their own therapist. Mom Bunnie puts together charity events to raise money for terminal diseases (but she hates her entire family and presumably most of humanity). Dad Jack is a middle class loser and his ennui and dissatisfaction are not unique or special or sympathetic (neither is Dermot Mulroney in the role). Daughter Kelly wears tight clothes and chain-smokes and digs a dude with a mohawk (basically, she’s a teenager, imagine the horror). Son Eric is a gun-obsessed Christian who spends his free time punishing those who behave in un-Christian ways (which doesn’t seem very Christian, now does it). The Burnetts of The Family Tree are not happy. But they’re about to be. A wacky home accident leaves Bunnie (Hope Davis) with amnesia, mentally catapulting her back to when she and Jack were first married, and that Bunnie was much better at being a wife. That Bunnie cooks and cleans and wears pretty clothes and cares about people. She’s a better Bunnie, and that makes for better Burnetts. Why the Burnetts were unhappy to begin with is unclear – but it must have been Bunnie’s fault. We know old Bunnie was a bad wife because she didn’t cook anymore. We know old Bunnie was a bad mother because she called Kelly (a plucky Brittany Robertson) a slut – to her face. We know old Jack was a bad husband because he ogled other women. We know old Jack was [Due to Content Scraping and Theft, we have been forced to try abbreviated feeds. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause and woud very much appreciate you clicking through to view the full article on FilmSchoolRejects.com]

“Tell me what you like about my body,” came a shy voice from behind me. I mulled that sentence over for a moment. It seemed like such a strange request considering I already thought the guy was sexy enough to lay next to in my birthday suit. Not to sound like a Christina Aguilera video here, but I couldn’t stop touching this man and the post-activity head spins weren’t adequately allowing me to sum up how much I enjoyed his company. And bluntly, would saying how attractive I found him really change how he felt about himself? A few days later I had time to reflect on this jarring moment. It was the first of its kind for me, and I haven’t experienced anything like it since. Of course men have these questions of body image, but I’ve never been with someone who felt so comfortable (or maybe uncomfortable) as to ask what their partner preferred about their physical appearance. Being a nerd who refuses to live in the real world, I couldn’t help but compare this real slice of life with a film that for all intents and purposes hasn’t really stayed in the minds of many viewers.

Inhale, a film involving organ trafficking, is a detective story. On the surface it seems like a normal thriller, but when you get down to the characters and themes it’s very much done in the old school fashion of classic detective tales. The story follows someone who isn’t a boy scout, there’s side characters who turn noir archetypes on their ear, and the whole film itself is basically a mystery. Inhale could’ve been ridiculous or over the top, but it’s mostly done in a surprisingly simplistic manner. This is detective film told in a gritty fashion. Dermot Mulroney may be someone known for his “chick” flicks and some may find his turn here surprising, but Mulroney isn’t just that love interest guy people label him as. He’s played not the most charming or appealing characters in some fantastic films: Undertow, About Schmidt, and even his small turn in Zodiac didn’t show him in the most flattering light. Inhale is another film that can stand amongst his past body of work that doesn’t have him winning the girl in the end. I recently had the chance to talk to Mulroney – who’s a rare breed in terms of his honesty and openness – to discuss playing an anti-hero, being tied to romantic comedies, and the classical archetypes of Inhale.

I wouldn’t say that the new film Flash of Genius is terrible. It’s actually not that bad. However, it could have been so much better.