Caitlin Cronenberg was not raised on horror. In truth, the youngest daughter of body horror auteur David Cronenberg avoided the genre entirely growing up. "They were available to me, but I could not have handled it at that age," she says. "I would just watch Clueless over and over again."
While her brother, Possessor and Infinity Pool director Brandon Cronenberg, always intended to follow in their father's footsteps, Caitlin studied fashion design before beginning her career as a photographer. "I really, truly didn't [want to be a director]," she says. "I was very happy being a photographer and that being my contribution to the arts. It really wasn't until a friend of mine" — Schitt's Creek star Annie Murphy — "asked me to direct a fake music video for a web series that she was doing, and I got the bug."
"It's a natural extension of photography and I don't have to carry as much gear," Cronenberg says with a laugh, "which is honestly one of the benefits of being a director. And people bring you snacks all the time."
Now, Cronenberg makes her feature directorial debut with Humane, which is set in the not-so-distant future after global ecological collapse has forced society to take extreme measures to reduce population. Over one tense dinner, a well-to-do family must decide which member to sacrifice. Humane is part elevated thriller, part family drama, with an injection of black comedy.
"I was referring to it as a family thriller early on, and then I realized it was actually quite funny," says the filmmaker. "I think it is a film that crosses genre lines. I don't think it needs to fit into one box. And I love something that is a straight-up horror movie or a straight-up thriller, but I think there's also a lot of room for things that do cross those lines. It can be funny and dark. It can be bloody and also a family drama.'"
Below, Cronenberg shares with A.frame five of her favorite films. "I'm trying to pick from each genre that I like," she says. "Thrillers are the kinds of films I like watching the most, but I watch rom-coms, I watch comedies. I love all kinds of movies."
Directed by: Andrew Davis | Written by: Jeb Stuart and David Twohy
I don't remember the first time I saw The Fugitive, but I know my husband showed it to me. He introduced me to the thriller genre, because he really loves that kind of film. And when we watched The Fugitive, I was like, "This is f**king great." Every set piece is entertaining. It's funny. Young Julianne Moore is in it. It's got everything that you could ever want, and so that one really set me on the path to being like, "Thrillers are for me."
Directed and Written by: Joel and Ethan Coen
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one that visually blew my mind. I love the tonality. I love the directing. I love the acting. I love the characters. I love the score; I listen to it over and over again. There's something about that movie that is very unsettling, but it's also very funny. It makes you anxious, but it's also comforting and I can watch it over and over and over again. It crosses so many genre lines, which I enjoy very much. It's really just storytelling. There's a little bit of mythology in it, there's a little bit of old-timiness, but it's like a buddy comedy. It's very weird, and I'll always re-watch that one.
The Coen brothers are like a genre unto themselves. I would put No Country for Old Men and A Serious Man into my favorites of Coen brothers movies, too. A Serious Man is really so funny.
Directed by: Bob Fosse | Written by: Jay Presson Allen
My next genre is musicals, and I'm going with Cabaret. It utterly blew my mind. I think movie musicals are very hard to do successfully, and Cabaret is one that combines the musical numbers and the in-between moments perfectly. There's just no better music and no better story and no better choreo. There are very good ones, but Cabaret is one that I will always want to rewatch. And Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli, like, seriously? What more can you hope for in life?
I convinced my high school to do Cabaret when I was 17. It was an all-girls Anglican high school, and we were dancing in our underwear and talking about Nazis and we did the whole thing. I played Fritzie, one of the Kit Kat Klub Girls. I didn't want too many lines, but I wanted to be in it.
Directed by: Jonathan Lynn | Written by: Dale Launer
I think My Cousin Vinny is the perfect film. I can recite it line for line, and so can my husband. When we met and I realized that he knew it as well as I did, I was like, "You are the person for me." I grew up thinking, "Well, Marisa Tomei's character is the person that I'm going to end up being. I'm going to be a mechanic who is well-spoken, and beautiful, and sassy, and incredible." She is this iconic character, and then with the drama over her winning the Oscar, that made it so much more interesting. As far as genres go, My Cousin Vinny is my favorite black comedy. I can re-watch that over and over.
Directed by: Andrew Fleming | Written by: Pam Brady and Andrew Fleming
I can't say that I'm a cinephile. I've seen many classic films, but it is not my wheelhouse. So I'm going to throw a bit of a curveball and go with Hamlet 2. It starred Steve Coogan and Catherine Keener, and it is about a high school drama teacher in New Mexico who is going through it. And he ends up writing an original musical, which is a sequel to Hamlet. I saw it at Sundance, and I cried laughing. Tears were streaming down my face. And anytime I can tell someone about this film, I feel like I'm doing them a huge solid, because it is one of the funniest, most underrated films I've ever seen. Steve Coogan is a legend. And it has original songs such as "Rock Me Sexy Jesus," and "Raped in the Face." It's so outrageous and so absurd and so incredible, and I think that everybody needs to know about it.
