You don't have to be a genius to glean that actor Simon Baker has the makings of a solid director. Having skillfully called the shots on several episodes of The Mentalist, the CBS crime drama he starred in from 2008 to 2015, the Aussie actor is primed to show what he can do in his big-screen directing debut. Turns out he has the chops.
Baker also stars as Sando, a surfing mentor to two teens who've become obsessed with the sport. Samson Coulter excels as Bruce, known as Pikelet, a 13-year-old who...
Baker also stars as Sando, a surfing mentor to two teens who've become obsessed with the sport. Samson Coulter excels as Bruce, known as Pikelet, a 13-year-old who...
- 6/1/2018
- Rollingstone.com
Breath director and star Simon Baker on Samson Coulter and Ben Spence: "They were incredibly brave. They threw themselves into it." Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment of my conversation with The Mentalist star and now feature film director Simon Baker, he discusses with me the casting and rehearsal process with Ben Spence and Samson Coulter for Breath, the details in the costume design by Terri Lamera, Elizabeth Debicki's Eva as Sando's girlfriend, the danger of Klaus Kinski in Loonie, fairy tales about boys in search of fear, Simon's renewed "relationship with the ocean", and his remembrance of "when I outgrew my stepfather."
Pikelet (Samson Coulter) with Sando (Simon Baker) and Loonie (Ben Spence): "As Sando drives away, the first thing he does is look at Loonie …"
"Surrender is what frees you up," surfing champion Sando (Simon Baker) teaches teenagers Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence), while he himself,...
In the second instalment of my conversation with The Mentalist star and now feature film director Simon Baker, he discusses with me the casting and rehearsal process with Ben Spence and Samson Coulter for Breath, the details in the costume design by Terri Lamera, Elizabeth Debicki's Eva as Sando's girlfriend, the danger of Klaus Kinski in Loonie, fairy tales about boys in search of fear, Simon's renewed "relationship with the ocean", and his remembrance of "when I outgrew my stepfather."
Pikelet (Samson Coulter) with Sando (Simon Baker) and Loonie (Ben Spence): "As Sando drives away, the first thing he does is look at Loonie …"
"Surrender is what frees you up," surfing champion Sando (Simon Baker) teaches teenagers Pikelet (Samson Coulter) and Loonie (Ben Spence), while he himself,...
- 6/1/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
“Breath” is a wistful and wounded coming-of-age story about surfing, surrender, and the sordid experience of losing your virginity to a married older woman who’s got a thing for erotic asphyxiation. The movie is able to ride a line right through so many of its genre’s worst clichés because it never stops negotiating between fear and desire, risk and reward. It’s an assured directorial debut from “The Mentalist” actor Simon Baker, who — after 12 long years — has finally done something more impressive than getting Anne Hathaway those “Harry Potter” manuscripts in “The Devil Wears Prada.”
“Breath” doesn’t spend that much time on the water, but it reckons with each wave — from ankle-busters to groundswells — and every single one of them dares these young protagonists to prove something to themselves. Without belaboring the point, or betraying the soft touch of the Tom Winton novel on which his film is based,...
“Breath” doesn’t spend that much time on the water, but it reckons with each wave — from ankle-busters to groundswells — and every single one of them dares these young protagonists to prove something to themselves. Without belaboring the point, or betraying the soft touch of the Tom Winton novel on which his film is based,...
- 5/30/2018
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
For a story about surfing, “Breath” pulls off a rather incredible sleight of hand. The directorial debut of “The Mentalist” star Simon Baker tells a pointed story of obsession and addiction and does so with such laid-back composure that you can conceivably feel as if you are watching a wholly different film.
A period-set coming-of-age drama that deals with many of the difficult realities of growing up, there’s an emotive version of this story that would crest and crash with the waves; instead Baker opts to tell it with the untroubled hush of a whisper.
Set on the Western Australia coast sometime during the mid-1970s, “Breath” follows two 13-year-old boys as they discover what it takes to be a surfer and what it means to be a man — in that order. Pikelet (Samson Coulter) has a relatively stable home life, which is not the case with his friend...
A period-set coming-of-age drama that deals with many of the difficult realities of growing up, there’s an emotive version of this story that would crest and crash with the waves; instead Baker opts to tell it with the untroubled hush of a whisper.
Set on the Western Australia coast sometime during the mid-1970s, “Breath” follows two 13-year-old boys as they discover what it takes to be a surfer and what it means to be a man — in that order. Pikelet (Samson Coulter) has a relatively stable home life, which is not the case with his friend...
- 5/30/2018
- by Ben Croll
- The Wrap
The Mentalist star Simon Baker with Anne-Katrin Titze on the evolution of Tim Winton's Breath, adapted by Baker and Gerard Lee, to become his directorial debut: "I was given the novel by my producing parter Mark Johnson, seven or eight years ago now, just to sign on as a producer." Photo: Denise Sinelov
At the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo before meeting with Simon Baker for a conversation on his film Breath, I was greeted by Pepper, his agent's lovely dog, who is also friendly with Ben Mendelsohn. When Simon joined us I told him that I had just come from an interview with Whit Stillman on the 20th anniversary of The Last Days Of Disco. Simon is also in Fabien Constant's Blue Night, starring Sarah Jessica Parker with Jacqueline Bisset, Renée Zellweger and Gus Birney.
Elizabeth Debicki (who was in Jean Genet's The Maids at...
At the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo before meeting with Simon Baker for a conversation on his film Breath, I was greeted by Pepper, his agent's lovely dog, who is also friendly with Ben Mendelsohn. When Simon joined us I told him that I had just come from an interview with Whit Stillman on the 20th anniversary of The Last Days Of Disco. Simon is also in Fabien Constant's Blue Night, starring Sarah Jessica Parker with Jacqueline Bisset, Renée Zellweger and Gus Birney.
Elizabeth Debicki (who was in Jean Genet's The Maids at...
- 5/26/2018
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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