The Hip Pocket #403 - Corey Sherman
The director of BIG BOYS joins us to talk about some of his indie inspirations, including RUBY IN PARADISE, the anime OCEAN WAVES, and Mike Leigh's caustic CAREER GIRLS.
Sorry this one’s posting a day late. On the other hand, that means you only have to wait six days for the next episode!
It’s my fault. I’m trying to juggle a lot these days, which seems like the only way anyone is getting by if they work in a creative field. I never wanted to be a small business owner, but I find I spend almost as much time on administrative work as I do on writing or posting. Putting up this week’s episode of The Hip Pocket was supposed to be yesterday’s top priority, but instead, I spent the day on a million other invisible things.
I’m excited about this episode, too, because for many of you, it will be an introduction to a filmmaker, and I think people absolutely should know this guy and his work. I met this guy last year and was struck by the thoughtful and empathetic way he approaches not just his own work but other people’s art as well. I wanted to have him on because I was genuinely curious about what kinds of titles he’d pick, but also because I knew it would lead many of you to track down his debut feature.
He came through with his picks, too. This is one of the more eclectic line-ups we’ve had in the entire run of the show, and I love the conversation we had as a result. I hope he’s given the opportunity to keep making features, because I love filmmakers who lead with their heart, people who make personal stories that don’t feel quite like anything we’ve seen before, but that feel honest to a lived experience. I think his debut film is enormously charming, and I think that is unsurprising once you meet this filmmaker.
COREY SHERMAN is a filmmaker whose debut picture, Big Boys, was nominated for two Independent Spirit Awards and won the Audience Award at OutFest 2023. He’s currently developing a new animated horror-comedy series called Monster Night Live, and he’s been working on short films and TV projects for quite a while.
His picks this week took us through some radically different types of filmmaking, starting with the ‘90s indie hit Ruby in Paradise, the film that introduced Ashley Judd to audiences. His follow-up was the dreamy little anime film Ocean Waves, from director Tomomi Mochizuki. Finally, he picked one of the lesser-known Mike Leigh titles, Career Girls, featuring two absolutely blistering performances by Katrin Cartlidge and Lynda Steadman. We cover a lot of thematic ground just trying to wrap our heads around his picks.
Our response film is the difficult, demanding Ulu Grosbard film Georgia, written specifically for Jennifer Jason Leigh by her mother, Barbara Turner. And since I was in a Jennifer Jason Leigh mood, I decided to add Lili Fini Zanuck’s Rush to the Hip Pocket Hall of Fame.
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The Hip Pocket is hosted by Drew McWeeny and Aundria Parker.
Craig Ceravolo is the show’s bandleader and producer.
It is a Formerly Dangerous Production.
100% HUMAN-MADE © 2026 by Matt Kindt, LLC is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0