One of the best Irish movies of the year is available to watch now

From the same writer as Adam & Paul and Garage, the film has a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans is about what many music biopics are about: genius being both a blessing and a curse, and something that alienates you from others.

That said, the script by the great Mark O'Halloran (Adam & Paul, Garage), adapting the novel Intermission by Owen Martell, avoids the simple set up/payoff storytelling and neat resolution of most movies in the sub-genre. Instead, he crafts a tale that feels more internal, nuanced, and authentic.

Watch the trailer for Everybody Digs Bill Evans right here:

Every character in Everybody Digs Bill Evans contains multitudes; every interaction is layered with several meanings; and change doesn't happen just because it suits film storytelling conventions. This results in a movie that feels like life, its overall meaning remaining elusive, despite moments of profound clarity.

Anders Danielsen Lie brings his trademark melancholy cool to the lead role. While Evans is often presented as still and silent, emotionally numb with grief, director Grant Gee (the music documentarian behind Meeting People is Easy, making his dramatic feature debut) surrounds Danielsen Lie with a brilliant cast of character actors, all of whom play off the star beautifully, bringing out different sides of his jazz legend.

Everybody Digs Bill Evans interview

Ahead of Everybody Digs Bill Evans' release, JOE spoke to its producer Alan Maher, co-managing director of Cowtown Pictures. One of our first questions for Maher was: How did this movie, about a US jazz musician and set mostly in '60s Florida and New York, wind up shooting in Cork?

He explained: "UK producer Janine Marmont had worked with Grant Gee, the director, before on several documentaries. Grant had seen a photograph of Bill Evans... by Lee Friedlander, that made him curious... He knew a bit about Bill Evans and wanted to know more. 

"He came across the book Intermission, by Owen Martell, a Welsh writer. He really liked the novel, and he approached Janine. Janine thought that was a great idea and optioned the novel... The [book's] structure... is what the movie takes from it, seeing through the eyes of different people in Bill's life. 

"Janine thought of Mark O'Halloran [to adapt it], who at that point... he'd written Garage, and Adam & Paul. Janine knew I was working with Mark [on Rialto]. So, she approached us.

"We then came on board and approached Screen Ireland, and we co-developed it over a number of years. The British Film Institute [BFI] in the UK was supporting it from their side, and Screen Ireland [was] supporting it from our side.  We were very involved in trying to finance it... and at a certain point it seemed to make sense to shoot in Ireland.

"There's a number of reasons. Screen Ireland really liked the project and were big fans of Mark and felt it was good to fully support it to shoot in Ireland. Then Eloise Powell... who is the associate producer, she actually hit upon the idea of shooting it in Cork."

Anders Danielsen Lie in Everybody Digs Bill Evans

According to Maher, it was a major team effort to make Cork look like 1960s New York and Florida. He is very quick to praise the staff at the only recently founded West Cork Film Studios in Skibbereen.

"Because of Grant's previous work in theatre... Grant knew it was going to be stylised, that some of it would be shot in a studio... and that there would be a use of rear projection and different ways of elevating it and really heightening the experience," the producer told JOE.

"We knew that a studio was possible, and so we then started looking... We shot a couple of days in Ardmore in a first block. Then Eloise had come across the West Cork Film Studio, which at that point was shooting Hokum, Damian McCarthy's film.

"So we spoke to Édaín O'Donnell and Stephen Park, who run it... We figured out that this would be possible... With them attached, we knew that we would have some Irish cast as well."

"We just had a brilliant team... and shot in and around Cork. It's not all in a studio; some of the Florida house, as we call it, where the parents live, and Harry Jr's apartment in New York and some of the other locations are around West Cork. 

"I just can't say enough good things about the West Cork Film Studio. They are awesome. 

"There was never a sense of: 'Oh, no'. It was more like: 'Yeah, we could do that. Let's try and do that.' It was just about the work. They want to make good stuff. It was just inspiring, and in a way, when you're feeling - as you do in any production - overwhelmed, that enthusiasm and positivity from Stephen… was amazing."

The real-life Bill Evans

Shooting in West Cork had two benefits for casting. One was that homegrown actors could be cast in the project. This includes Barry Ward, who Maher has known since the '90s.

"I thought he'd be terrific," Maher said. "Barry has a sort of '60s look. It's hard to describe. My partner said: 'He looks like a man.' And he's lovely. He's the nicest guy and really, really smart."

The Hollywood stars in the cast also loved the idyllic West Cork location. When we spoke to Valene Kane last year, she said that Bill Pullman thought the place was "gorgeous", a detail Maher backs up.

"[Bill and Laurie Metcalf] were absolutely ideal and they were both an absolute pleasure to work with and loved being in Skibbereen," the producer said.

"Bill would walk to the studio every day. He liked being in a hotel in Skibbereen where he could just walk in."

On the movie being immensely satisfying to watch, while also avoiding neat narrative resolution, Maher praises Irish screenwriter Mark O'Halloran, stating: "Mark's writing is heartbreaking… that idea of reaching out and people trying to connect, people trying to do the right thing, and that's heartbreaking when people can't do it.

"Life, it can't be just black and white or good and bad. It's about trying to reveal something more of human nature and trying to challenge people, just showing how heartbreaking a lot of things can be.

"With Barry Ward's performance, and Valene Kane and Katie McGrath [as Henry Jr's wife], all of [their characters], you can see how they are trying to connect with Bill or figure him out or help him.

"With Harry Jr., which is Barry's character, I think again, there's real heartbreak there, just looking at his brother and how well he's doing [professionally], and there is [also] some form of envy and jealousy."

Everybody Digs Bill Evans has been rapturously received, garnering a perfect 100% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

Grant Gee also won the Best Director award at the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year for his work on the movie. The head of the jury that gave out the prize was legendary filmmaker Wim Wenders.

On the win, Maher said: "It was well deserved as well because Grant's vision is in every frame.

"He's such a nice man, and he's so, so brilliant to work with. He drew out such good performances. People wanted the film to succeed for Grant and all the cast and Mark."

Grant Gee with his Berlin Best Director Prize

On top of this, there has been some Oscar buzz for Everybody Digs Bill Evans. Several critics have suggested that Bill Pullman could secure his first-ever Academy Award nomination for his supporting role.

Chief film critic at The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw, tweeted after seeing the biographical drama: "This Berlin Film Festival is full of surprises. I just saw next year’s Best Supporting Actor Oscar-winner: Bill Pullman in Everybody Digs Bill Evans."

Meanwhile, Film Ireland wrote in a review: "Pullman, in a spectacular performance, conveys an easy-going grittiness, his face constantly twitching as he basks in his son’s success.

"It’s too early in the year to call an Oscar nomination, but Pullman can certainly mark it down as one of his best pieces of work."

While Maher believes this would be very deserved, he isn't thinking about the possibility too much. He also expressed hope to JOE that even more people who worked on the movie are recognised when award season rolls around.

"I think it's deserved, but it's very competitive… It's going to be driven by word of mouth and people really getting behind the film and being heard above the noise of all the other campaigns.

"It would be amazing. I mean, it would be real left field. All I can say is we will qualify, so it's going to be possible for it to happen, but you never really think too much about those sorts of things.

"Hopefully, there's some other awards that may come down the line, or recognition for the work of everyone in it.

"Laurie, I think, deserves it. Laurie's performance is brilliant, and Barry and Valene are fantastic, and Katie. Anders is remarkable! He's at the centre of it all. He's beautiful.

"Piers, aside from the film looking beautiful, contributes to the performances in a way because of how safe people feel with him.

"Of course, the film is terrifically edited as well by Adam. I should give a shout-out to Roger Goula, who did a great score as well."

Summing up his thoughts on Everybody Digs Bill Evans's award season chances, the producer adds: "Let's see what happens."

Everybody Digs Bill Evans is in cinemas now.