Seattle Filmmaker Lynn Shelton Soars With 'Laggies'
Lynn Shelton is best known for her small, intimate movies made on location in her hometown of Seattle.
These indie films are part of a genre known as mumblecore; movies made on small budgets with small crews. Shelton has writing credits on her first five features, but much of the dialogue is improvised.
Now, Shelton is breaking her mold, in more ways than one. Her new feature, "Laggies," is the first film she's directed written by someone else.
Andrea Seigel wrote the story about a 28-year-old named Megan who can't seem to find her path. Megan (Keira Knightley) is mired in the friendships she formed in high school and lives with the boyfriend she's had since she was a teenager. One evening at a friend's wedding, Megan freaks out and runs away. "Laggies" is about her search for her place in the world.
The film also stars Sam Rockwell, Chloe Grace Moretz and Ellie Kemper.
Shelton decided to direct this script because it seemed to fit in with her own original work.
"It actually goes back to the territory of my first feature film," Shelton explains. "It was about a woman who's 23 going through a crisis and she confronts her actual teenaged self." With "Laggies," Shelton feels she's working out answers to similar questions about identity and relationships.
Originally, screenwriter Seigel set her script in Orange County, California, where she grew up. But Shelton and her crew are from Seattle, and she managed to convince the film's producers to change locations. Out-of-town viewers won't notice, but Puget Sound audiences will find themselves on familiar turf, cinematically.
The early scenes, where Megan is still living with her high school boyfriend, were shot on the Eastside. The action moves to a neighborhood near Ballard as Megan's character starts to realize her independent identity. And Shelton got to realize a long-held dream: She and cinematographer Ben Kasulke got to shoot several long shots from a helicopter. Those shots are Shelton's loving tribute to the place she calls home.
Although Lynn Shelton is a veteran filmmaker, she hasn't achieved much commercial success. Her biggest film to date, "My Sister's Sister," wound up on about 130 screens.
"After about a month," jokes Shelton.
"Laggies" opens nationwide on more than 300 screens, and many industry observers expect it will be the filmmaker's commercial breakthrough.
That would please Lynn Shelton, but it probably won't change her. She and her family live in Seattle. Shelton travels to Los Angeles frequently to direct television shows, but she's committed to her hometown.
If you ask her about her future dreams, she just laughs.
"I should have a 10-year plan, but I don't I just want to keep making work. I want to keep working on things I can be passionate about."
Lynn Shelton's sixth feature film, "Laggies," opens in the Seattle area and nationwide on Friday, Oct. 24.
