MAX WINKLER

There are a handful of small moments in Ceremony, the debut feature from Max Winkler, that nod at the young auteur’s myriad inspirations—minute grace notes that, as Winkler says, make the film “postmodern in the sense that we wear our references on our sleeve.” The main character, Sam, calls his best friend “old sport,” Gatsby’s favorite term of endearment. A woman is named after the title character of Salinger’s “For Esmé—with Love and Squalor.” For Winkler, the nearly overwhelming weight of our collected cultural history, the continuing influence of past authors, filmmakers, musicians, forms the backbone of not only the style, but the theme itself of the film. “It’s a movie about somebody who believes that he’s the leading man in one of those books but then has to realize that this is the real world,” he says.

Winkler, 27, is a son of Los Angeles, though you wouldn’t know it from Ceremony, about a young writer, played by Michael Angarano, who crashes the Long Island wedding of the older woman he loves—portrayed by Uma Thurman—in an attempt to win her back. “I’ve always had a reverence for New York that I never had for my own city,” he says. “I became obsessed with movies and short stories about New York.” Fittingly, Winkler points to Woody Allen and Wes Anderson as key inspirations. “I probably stole from Woody Allen the most,” he jokes, before listing Spike Jonze and Paul Thomas Anderson as additional influences.

After graduating from USC’s film school, Winkler made a handful of short films before helming the web series Clark and Michael, about two best friends and would-be producers who approach their television show distractedly at best. “I would never want to admit it,” he says, “but I’m just continually interested in making male-relationship movies.” Winkler, who also wrote the script for Ceremony, says that the film came about when producer Jason Reitman suggested he try something personal for his first feature. “Not that the movie’s necessarily autobiographical,” he laughs. “Not that it’s really not.”

Winkler admits that he drew a lot on his own experiences when writing the part of Sam, who tears his way through the celebratory weekend on his way towards acceptance and self-composure. “There were definitely those emotions of reckless, pathetic ownership over romance, where you feel like you have a monopoly on all the pain and suffering in the world, that I was probably inaccurately feeling,” explains Winkler, who says he fluctuates between being a romantic and a nihilist. “I think I’m successful in being incredibly hard on every character in the movie, mostly on the character that I guess would be seen as my foil. I think if you’re as hard on the people as you can be, you can get away with it. They’re all characters that believe in the myth of themselves rather than who they actually are, which I think makes them tragic, but also entertaining to watch.”

Although Winkler says he expects to continue writing, he explains that he sees it as more of a means to directing. “I wish that anyone who wants to make a movie gets to have that experience of getting to make a movie, because it’s so fun and such a wonderful collaboration,” he says. “I like working with people, so sitting in a room writing by myself is truly brutal.” He explains that he helps the process along by focusing on the music he expects to use: “I’m obsessed with music. I start to listen to it before I ever write the script. I start to make a big playlist of music that I want for the movie and I start subtracting the songs and basically end up with the soundtrack.” Kate Bush’s “This Woman’s Work” makes a prominent appearance in Ceremony, as does the music of Winkler’s friends Vampire Weekend, whose post-prep attitude is a perfect fit for the film’s louche and questionably glamorous bohemianism.

Ceremony is, in the end, less a romance than a study of someone who is cognizant of the unique prerogatives of his youth and independence. There are few years in life for being invincible and foolish and misguided, a time when possibilities are infinite and consequences are distant. “Ceremony is about the privilege of how you live your life,” Winkler says. “It’s about the privilege of being allowed to put off the idea of growing up. It’s about the question of, How long can you keep being this romantic that hurts people in your process of feeding your hedonistic need for love? Everybody is privileged in their own way in how they live their lives and how reckless they can be and how they hurt people.”

Esteban Gomez Finds Creatives a Home

With years of experience in the fashion industry, the Creatives Agent at Compass offers designers, photographers, stylists, models, and others a new approach to find a place to call home.

The Last Magazine Celebrates the Fall 2019 Issue

The cover story of our Fall 2019 issue is a love letter to New York City by photographer Dan Martensen and stylist Clare Richardson starring one of our favorite models of the moment, Binx Walton. For our launch party, we packed into Lola, one of the East Village’s newest hotspots, for an all-night dance party […]

Peter Ash Lee's New Magazine 'Burdock' Celebrates Asian-American Talent

Named after a root vegetable common to Asian cuisine, photographer Peter Ash Lee’s new magazine and digital platform celebrates Asian-American culture in an attempt to welcome a more diverse group both in front of and behind the camera.

Hans Neumann's Berlin Skaters

In an exclusive photo essay and “video poem,” the Peruvian photographer and director explores his family’s ancestral home through the lens of a group of young skateboarders who reflect the vitality of a new generation of European youth.

FUMI NAGASAKA STARTS A 'TEENAGE RIOT'

In her second book, the Japanese photographer captures the individual personalities and æsthetics of four adolescent girls in their hometowns in a collection that is both intimate and anthropological.

RO KWON ON CULTS AND YOUNG LOVE IN 'THE INCENDIARIES'

In her propulsive début novel, ten years in the making, the author ponders the unfathomability of others in the tale of a young woman who joins a cult.

MARTIN ZÄHRINGER GOES FISHING WITH JOHN BAKER

In his first book, the London-based photographer documents every facet of the life of a Barbadian fisherman with whom he felt an immediate kinship, acting as both visitor and companion.

JONAH BOKAER'S FIFTEENTH ANNIVERSARY

The collaborative, media-mixing contemporary choreographer celebrates fifteen years of his own company with a retrospective program and world premiere to look back while moving forward.

MARIO SORRENTI SHOWS A NEW SIDE OF KATE MOSS

In a new book of previously unreleased photographs, the famed photographer spotlights the iconic model’s innocence from their days of youthful love.

ROMAN MEJIA SHINES IN A NEW GENERATION OF DANCERS AT NEW YORK CITY BALLET

As the company makes its way through tumultuous times, the eighteen-year-old demonstrates the promise of a rising young crop of dancers with his clean lines and bounding jumps.

NEW YORK BY THE LAST MAGAZINE: VICE IMPACT PUBLISHER KATHERINE KEATING CHANNELS YOUTH ACTIVISM TO CREATE CHANGE

In an era of flourishing youth activism, the politically-minded advocate is harnessing the tools of social media and the internet to effect positive change by a young generation through direct calls to action.

NEW YORK BY THE LAST MAGAZINE: AUTHOR ALEXANDRA KLEEMAN SAYS WRITING IS LIKE PLAYING A VIDEO GAME

In her novel and short stories, the Staten Island-based author probes the border between science and literature with discomfiting tales about the body and its relationship to the perilous world around it.

HERMIONE HOBY'S 'NEON IN DAYLIGHT' REINVENTS THE NEW YORK NOVEL FOR A NEW AGE

In her début novel, the young British author ponders questions of selfhood and power dynamics in a thoughtful bildungsroman set during a sweltering New York summer.

ADWOA ABOAH HOSTS OUR TENTH-ANNIVERSARY PARTY WITH BURBERRY

Take a look at our tenth-anniversary celebration with Burberry at Radegast Hall in Brooklyn, hosted by our latest cover model Adwoa Aboah.

KANAZAWA

Photographer Marie Zucker was given rare access into an okiya, or boarding house, in the Japanese city of Kanazawa, where she captured these reflective images of geisha-in-training.

THE LAST WORD: ICEBERG

The Arctic ice pack puts the freeze on a teetering relationship in the latest edition of The Last Word, our ongoing series of original short fiction.

THE LAST GIFT GUIDE 2017

Our annual selection of gifts for you and yours, including everything you can imagine from a silk toothbrush on up to your own private island.

DAVID HALLBERG ON INJURIES AND INSECURITIES

In his new memoir, the celebrated principal dancer of American Ballet Theatre recounts his intense childhood training, joining the Bolshoi Ballet, and the arduous yearlong rehabilitation after a nearly career-ending injury that gave him a new perspective on his talent and the art form.