We sit down with the writer/director of Chicago-based relationship comedy Rendezvous in Chicago, as well as the Austin-based composer responsible for the eclectic sound of Sundance darling Sister Aimee.

Welcome back to More of a Comment, Really…, a weekly interview show hosted by Clint Worthington! Every episode will feature interviews with actors, filmmakers, producers, and more, giving you the skinny on the latest films and TV.

With the Sundance Film Festival wrapping up, there are still more discussions to be had about the fest’s most exciting entries. Alongside his regular collaborations with Richard Linklater, composer Graham Reynolds finds the time to score other intriguing indies like Samantha Buck and Marie Schlingmann’s riveting, idiosyncratic Sister Aimee – a Dust Bowl-inflected journey extrapolating from the real-life disappearance of a traveling evangelist in the 1920s (Anna Margaret Hollyman), imagining that missing period as a vibrant road trip to the border with her lover (Michael Mosley) and a mysterious Latina guide (Andrea Suarez Paz) in tow.

Together, we talk about the origins of the project, the importance of capturing the Western feel of the film, and the challenges and delights of working with filmmakers like Buck, Schlingmann, and Linklater.

Before that, however, I was extraordinarily pleased to sit down with fellow Chicago critic, friend, and filmmaker Michael Glover Smith (Mercury in Retrograde) about his latest Chicago-set film, the comedic triptych Rendezvous in Chicago. Structured by three different couples at three different stages in their relationship – a man and woman’s first conversation in a bar, a gay couple taking some simple-yet-bold next steps, and a woman kicking her deadbeat boyfriend out of their apartment – Rendezvous carries the intimacy of Rohmer alongside the sparse experimentation of Bresson, in a much lighter and more accessible package.

It’s a cracking entry in the filmmaker’s already strong oeuvre, and we get into some spoiler-heavy talk about the film before its Chicago premiere this weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

More of a Comment, Really… is a proud member of the Chicago Podcast Coop. Thanks to Lagunitas for sponsoring this episode!)