Filmmakers Marina Tempelsman and Niccolo Aeed Talk Family, Therapy, and the Emotional Chaos of Their Debut this Will Never Work
This Will Never Work.
Directed and written by Marina Tempelsman and Niccolo Aeed, This Will Never Work is about a family coming together to hold an intervention for Amanda's (played by Amandla Jahava) drinking problem. To help facilitate the intervention, they have hired a therapist named Trevor (played by Peter Grosz). When Amanda arrives, Trevor realizes that the family has not been entirely honest with him about why they are holding an intervention. As the film progresses, drama within the family ensues, leading to unexpected reveals, tense conflict, and the airing of everyone's trauma and problems.
With some truly extraordinary performances, a pitch-perfect family dynamic between the cast, a powerfully moving script, and non-stop laughs and surprises, This Will Never Work is a must-watch. You will be howling with laughter one minute, and then the next minute hit with an emotional gut punch that leaves you teary-eyed.
After This Will Never Work had its international premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival this September. REVERIE chatted with the directing and writering duo Aeed and Tempelsman about the film.
“Within a few months of each other, Nicco and I had to do interventions for members of our respective families,” shares Tempelsman. “I had an intervention with a family member with my family, and then a few months later, I got a text from Nicco like, ‘What was the name of the moderator you worked with? Can you send that information my way?’ Basically, [the origins of the film] started with each of us having interventions, then thinking about what a fascinating dynamic it is seeing the way that family narratives are put on the table all at once, and how often those narratives conflict.”
Aeed and Tempelsman have been working together for nearly 20 years, doing sketch comedy, plays, and narratives. This Will Never Work is an incredibly special achievement for the two, as it marks their debut feature. “Lots of people are eager to work on independent projects, and there is a lot of goodwill,” says Aeed. “It’s an empowering thing to be able to just make a movie… It's doable with a lot of talented artists to work with to help make the film and learn from.”
“People want to help and be part of something they believe in, and that was so exhilarating,” smiles Tempelsman.
This Will Never Work film poster.
Since This Will Never Work is a true ensemble, Aeed and Tempelsman thought it was essential to find actors who could work well together as a team. “There was not a single time, even when one of them was off camera, did someone say, ‘Can somebody read for me? I’m going to go home early,” says Tempelsman. “Everybody was there the entire time, even when they had been off camera for hours and were going to be off camera for hours. They truly showed up 100% for each other every single day. I don’t think you can do an ensemble like this without the camaraderie, solidarity, and mutual respect that they had for each other… One day, we did really long continuous takes, and because it was so exhausting, I remember the next day the actors filled in one by one, and someone would come up and privately say, ‘Maybe it might make sense to do some shorter takes today.’ Next actor comes in ‘Hey, I just wanted to say I think maybe shorter takes would be better and breaking it down a bit more.’ Another actor comes in ‘So and so has been sitting on this pretty firm surface continuously, can we just get them a pillow when they’re off camera.’ They just were really taking care of each other and protecting each other’s craft.”
This camaraderie and support translate to the screen exquisitely as the on-screen chemistry between the actors is absolutely perfect, feeling very much like an actual family. “Everyone clicked into a family dynamic pretty quickly,” says Aeed. “They were all close together and just vibed… Marinda [Anderson] and Amandla definitely felt like sisters immediately. Ron Canada, who plays Uncle Earl, was helping give notes because he is such a veteran actor.”
“The very first day we were done shooting and had our lunch break, and we were filming in an apartment, and I popped out for a second to grab something to eat, and all the actors had all congregated around the dining room table in the apartment, and they were all just chatting like this little family already,” recalls Tempelsman.
This Will Never Work masterfully blends outrageously funny one-liners and witty jokes with family drama. “A little bit of salt helps the cookie taste a little sweeter, same with the drama and comedy,” comments Aeed. “I feel like if everyone is taking it very seriously, it feels very funny when reveals get dropped because the drama raises the stakes on everything.”
“The fact that it’s a fool’s errand to try and tell the story of a family to somebody else without everyone disagreeing is also where a lot of the comedy comes in,” adds Tempelsman. “The experience of having to explain what your family thinks is normal to an outsider observer is already a pretty inherently wild thing to have to do.” Tempelsman also shares that the actors knew when to lay off certain comedic elements to help some scenes feel more authentic. “If there was something that felt a little off or not earnest enough or grounded in what the character would emotionally be feeling in that moment, they would let us know. We just had a lot of faith that we wouldn’t be accidentally undermining any of the sincerity with comedy because our actors were too good to let that happen.”
This Will Never Work drew inspiration from films set in a single contained setting, most notably 12 Angry Men. “12 Angry Men is all in one room, but the power dynamics are shifting so much that it feels like there are almost concrete scenes as new pieces of information drop and characters shift their allegiances,” says Tempelsman. “Even though it is technically one continuous scene, it feels very broken down into these reveals, twists, and surprises as you go along. Thinking about that from the audience perspective, what separates one piece from the next piece was really helpful to reference.”
Adding to the conversation about why 12 Angry Men was so influential for their film, Aeed comments, “We wanted to use [one setting], so it felt claustrophobic, so when the characters start leaving the room, you get a breath of fresh air, or when you see the flashbacks, the world gets bigger and your understanding changes. We wanted to lean into that and use it for this sense of an intervention is like getting locked in a ring with your family, and you can't escape it.”
Shruti Kumar’s brilliant, anxiety-inducing score also added to the tense, claustrophobic feeling. “We wanted [the score] to feel like going into an intervention is like going into a fight, like a sumo wrestler fight about to happen,” states Aeed. “It’s a great way to raise the stakes… to help punctuate the jabs and the offhand comments that the family says to each other.”
“Shruti did an incredible job thinking through what instruments would help that and avoiding instruments that would make anything feel too resolved and avoiding anything too melodic,” adds Tempelsman. “She did a really beautiful job of helping us to find the moments where bringing in the music makes the scene more tense, and the moments where cutting out the music makes you very abruptly aware that you are inside the space of just the people here, and it is time for them to fill the air with their words for better or for worse. She did an amazing job finding a sound that puts everyone on edge and also making sure that the quiet also puts everyone on edge, too.”
Another big inspiration for This Will Never Work was Succession. “A lot of our film is about these reaction shots of people’s reactions to what somebody else said, and if what they said is true, and there is a character in Succession named Jess, who is the assistant, who doesn’t have many lines, but she is conveying so much as people say crazy shit around her,” states Aeed. “We looked at that where there is a scene with lots of things happening at once and thinking about the reactions of the characters to what somebody else is saying.”
Overall, This Will Never Work is a very meaningful project for Aeed and Tempelsman, prompting them to reflect on various aspects of independent cinema and life. “It’s such a time of monopoly in movies, and I’m very encouraged that independent creation is possible,” says Aeed. “It also definitely makes me reflect on how far therapy has changed my life personally. So much of this film is about ‘The family doesn’t believe in therapy, and it is the first time they’re kind of talking about therapy. That felt much more present in my life seven years ago when we started this project writing-wise. Now I guess I have changed and written away from a lot of these thoughts and have developed.”
"The experience of going to therapy was so formative,” echoes Tempelsman. “I’m very close with my family, and I grew up very close with my family, and as we’ve gotten older, dynamics have shifted just naturally, which happens when children become adults. I think I had a lot of grief, anxiety, and fear about what it means for members of a family to change and how threatening that can be to a dynamic that you feel really comfortable and at home with. It also [makes me think] about the experience of motherhood. We filmed and wrote this movie before I was a mother, and now I am a mother. Just thinking about what it means to hope for kids, and wonder about having kids, and thinking about what you'll bring forward to the next generation.”
Find the next screening of This Will Never Work and stay tuned for updates via their website.