ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: I read in an interview that you said it would be inaccurate to describe Aces as a ''completely balls-out action movie,'' but I have to tell you, it seemed pretty balls-out to me.
JOE CARNAHAN: I meant it in the sense that certain critics completely overlook the moments of quiet in the film. They simply focus on the elaboration of violence or action. I think I have a way of depicting violence as very sudden or very horrific, and that initial jolt really goes a long way. I just watched The Departed again over the weekend — that's an insanely violent film. And if somebody said, which is more violent, Smokin' Aces or The Departed, I'd immediately say The Departed. But I know people look at Smokin' Aces and say, are you out of your mind? That guy sits on a chainsaw!
But to say as kind of a blanket statement that it's ''just an action movie'' — that's off. I made this solemn oath to myself that I wouldn't get too detailed in terms of the inspiration for the film unless an interviewer brought it up, but Ray Pride — this really brilliant writer in Chicago who's a longtime Sundance tastemaker and photographer — he brought up Iraq. And I said: You're absolutely [right]. The whole film is about misinformation and chaos and then heedless violence and betrayal. But I certainly didn't make it this huge, allegorical piece of business. To say it's just a bunch of stupid characters in a Tarantino film and whatever — that's so dismissive and dead wrong and almost criminal. It just pisses me off.
You're saying that, perhaps compared with Tarantino, this isn't violence for the sake of violence?
No, it's not. And if you look at Smokin' Aces and say there's no emotional connection [among the characters], you're not watching the movie. The scene with Common and Jeremy [Piven] in the bathroom [which is all dialogue] is just as important as anything that happens in that movie. But nobody focuses on that. They just say it's so goddman violent. Well, then, don't watch it! When I read stuff like that — with the exception of the wonderful Owen Gleiberman, who totally got it, God love him — it just reaffirms my belief that the critical consensus is so out of touch. It's increasingly more irrelevant when critics miss the point. I'm not looking for you to like it; I'm not looking for acceptance across the board. But don't just dismiss it because you didn't see little subtleties that others did see. This idea that you just go out and ape a Tarantino film — you'd have to be a complete idiot, in this day and age, to do that.
Do you think you'd ever make another film that had Narc's sort of gritty, low-budget style?
Oh absolutely. I think White Jazz [Carnahan's upcoming project with George Clooney] will be like watching an episode of Cops in 1958. I want to break the formality of those types of films — the idea that, because it's the '50s and a period film, there's an automatic glamour attached to it and the camera work has to be very stylized and smooth and slick. I want to completely shatter that. So my approach to it will be much more like Narc.
You've described Smokin' Aces as a ''collision'' of artistic impulses, which I think definitely comes through in the film. What or who were some your influences? In addition to the war in Iraq, what things collided to make this movie?
Iraq was a big piece of that. We all knew we might be getting snowed here. That was a big part of it, as was my love of this particular genre and trying to tell this intricate, interwoven story involving all these characters. It's a challenge. The minute you stop trying to challenge yourself — what's the point? You may as well just start phoning it in.
The Coen Brothers' films are a huge influence on Smokin' Aces. I don't think they get the [credit] they deserve, because they pioneered the genre that's been hijacked by everybody else. Blood Simple, and Raising Arizona — which is the biggest influence on Smokin' Aces, no question — and Barton Fink and Miller's Crossing. And Martin Scorsese is a huge influence on me — always has been. And listen: I'd own up if I was that deeply indebted to Tarantino. But it pisses me off when none of [my inspiration] comes from that and that's all that anybody wants to talk about.
What's the status of your other upcoming project, Bunny Lake is Missing, with Reese Witherspoon?
That is moving ahead at full steam. We have a tentative mid-March start, so it's going really well.
And that also has a very different style, right?
Completely, which is part of the reason for doing it. It's about a mother who is looking for a missing child, and that could not be further away from Smokin' Aces. It's utterly and completely different — that's what's fun about it. [It's a remake of an] Otto Preminger film. This woman takes her child to school and the kid vanishes. And you think, ''Oh my God, she's got to find her kid,'' then you start to realize that there might not be a child at all. It's very psychological.
