Kyle Patrick Alvarez: One to Watch

Kyle Patrick Alvarez, winner of the 2010 “One to Watch” Film Spirit Award for writing and directing his intimate film “Easier with Practice,” radiates a polite, positive and contagious energy.

At only twenty-seven, and with his accessible attitude, it’s hard to believe that Alvarez has already accomplished what many aspiring and mature filmmakers could only dream of achieving: in addition to the mentioned award, he and his film have also won the 2009 CineVegas International Film Festival Grand Jury Award, the 2009 Memphis Indie Competition – Special Jury Prize and the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival Best New Feature, not to mention the Spirit Award nomination in the Independent Spirit category. Oh, and, for one year, he worked directly for none other than Warren Beatty.

Given the expected ego from someone in his position, Alvarez’s humbleness and genuine passion for film, specifically for the art of storytelling, offers a glimpse into a subset of Hollywood that actually cares about the craft and about the delicacy with which to handle a real life story, a tale that may have been visually left untold, if it weren’t for one fateful day.

“I just gave my two weeks notice at a job,” Alvarez said. “During those two weeks, I noticed an open article in GQ. I loved that a story that could have been jokey and hokey had a humility to it,” shares Alvarez.

“Easier with Practice,” is a film about Davy, a young man traveling by car with his brother, doing book readings from his latest collection of short stories. The film’s story truly begins when one night in a motel room Davy receives a call from a mysterious woman who insists on having an at-a-distance physical relationship with him.

While, at first, Davy resists the unseen stranger, he quickly realizes that this virtual expression is the next best thing to a real relationship and surrenders to the voice on the other line.

“I loved the idea that I could make a movie about phone sex and rely in its sincerity. Plus, I didn’t have a job, so the timing was perfect.”

The film explores Davy’s sexual awakening with certain rawness and includes a rather explicit scene.  This demanded that the selected actor deliver on this vulnerability with a perplexing authenticity.

When casting for Davy, Alvarez says, “We saw a lot of people, but I had Brian Geraghty’s (“The Hurt Locker”) name from the beginning. I never met him, but remembered him from ‘Jarhead.’ He had the right look and when he did come in, he had the right vibe. I needed the (rare) combination of a character actor, to play the difficult part, and of a leading actor, as his face would be on screen in every scene. It’s hard to find this watchability and Brian works hard for it, playing the sensitive lonely guy.”

To drive the loneliness, Alvarez very intentionally opens the film with wide and distance shots.

“I didn’t want to bore the audience, but I wanted to convey that Davy’s life on the road is not glamorous nor fun,” he said. “It’s not until approximately seven minutes into the film that we finally see a close-up of Davy. This moment occurs during the very first phone call he receives,” which, according to Alvarez, “sets the film motion.”

When asked about the prep time for this critical motel scene, the director states, “I spoke with Geraghty and verbally rehearsed it. We shot the whole movie in four weeks and we shot that scene in week three. It was a long take, but Geraghty was the least nervous. And it was his birthday. We did two takes of it and made sure that only the people that needed to be in the room were there. When we shot it, it was exactly as like I pictured it when I first read the article.”

A second critical scene in the film features Davy exiting a girl’s apartment and Alvarez purposely chose to use the steady cam, with Davy leaving the apartment, walking through a long hallway heading down the building stairs and into the street.  “I had to push this moment. While, in the script, the scene was elaborate, we abbreviated it in the film.  Creating that scene was the first time I felt like I directed an actor. We never leave Davy and his humiliation, this sense of real loneliness, the feeling that you’ll never share your bed with someone and that you’ve reached emotional rock bottom.”

As “Easier with Practice” is released on DVD and reaches foreign markets, Alvarez feels that “people (everywhere) are responding to the movie. They really seem to get it, (specifically) because of the universality of it.”

Loneliness, as a theme, is not new in cinema nor in literature, but the honorable unpretentiousness with which the director showcases the main character’s quest to be liked and accepted is heart-breaking, at times funny and, always, deeply honest. If, in the initial motel scene we see Davy, with a red curtain behind him, close-up, on the phone, talking to a stranger who is paying attention to him, what Alvarez manages to do is pull that metaphorical curtain back and give the audience a voyeuristic peek into ourselves.

Luckily for movie lovers, Alvarez is onto his next project. He just closed on an option on a short essay, the accumulation of two years of work.

“Short essays appeal to me. They lead to features.” And, never forgetting his roots, he kindly shares the following passed-on wisdom from one of Hollywood’s living legends, “While working for Warren, I learned how to talk on the phone, because when the phone rang, it could have been anyone. I learned preparation, communication and how to handle being under pressure. This is infinitely advantageous.”

Finally, to anyone getting started, Alvarez strongly suggests, “Every day, do something to contribute to your goals. Do the work. Don’t over intellectualize screenwriting. It’s a frame.”

It’s no wonder the Spirit Awards recognized Kyle Patrick Alvarez as the “One to Watch.” If what differentiates genuine talent from mere celebrity is the ability to recognize and then, in a new and refreshing light effectively communicate a universal, resonating truth, then he is the real deal. And, as his talent unfolds, we’ll all be watching.

“Easier with Practice” is now out on DVD.