{"id":342015,"date":"2026-09-09T18:06:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342015\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T18:06:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T18:06:16","slug":"alexandra-pechmans-first-feature-magazine-takes-on-pre-metoo-nyc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/342015\/","title":{"rendered":"Alexandra Pechman’s First Feature ‘Magazine’ Takes on Pre-MeToo NYC"},"content":{"rendered":"

When lockdown hit in March 2020, journalist-turned-filmmaker Alexandra Pechman<\/a> couldn\u2019t help but get a little nostalgic for the good old days. Who didn\u2019t?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe couldn\u2019t really look forward, so a lot of people were looking back. We were all inside and everyone was feeling so nostalgic and reading old journals and diaries and talking to people from the past,\u201d Pechman told IndieWire in her first long-form interview for her first feature film<\/a>, \u201cMagazine<\/a>.\u201d \u201cI was also looking back at what my career had been, and I kept going back to that kind of cusp-y time at the beginning of my career in magazines. It was the last gasp of the Old World, and so it was that feeling of this complicated nostalgia of, \u2018Oh, I really miss that time, but also that time was not great for me or people like me, and why do I miss that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Dau\"<\/a> \"Place<\/a> <\/p>\n

The world of \u201cMagazine\u201d was pulled from Pechman\u2019s own early career in journalism, notably pre-#MeToo. As a young writer in the late aughts, she published stories in Vogue, The New York Times, Vanity Fair, and The New Yorker, and was a staffer at The Paris Review, Aperture, and W magazine. By 2019, Pechman had sold her first script and joined the WGA. And she was trying to get comfy with the idea that, as her filmmaking career was on the rise, she was going to have to say goodbye to journalism.<\/p>\n

Her big farewell: a delightfully winsome, extremely smart first feature, captures the specifics of the time (it\u2019s set in 2011) while hinting at what very much needs to change in the years to come. The film stars Lily McInerny<\/a> as starry-eyed poet Nora, who alights on a summer internship at the lauded lit mag Platen, where she meets fellow interns, played by Lukita Maxwell, Ruby Cruz, and Daniel Zolghadri, plus an alluring older editor, played by Joshuah Melnick.<\/p>\n

The film will debut this week at the Toronto International Film Festival in its Discovery section<\/a>, and what a discovery it is. Ahead, Pechman and her cast tell IndieWire about not just building a world, but finding the characters that truly make it feel real. And worth remembering with genuine affection, if not the reflection that comes with age. <\/p>\n

Before mounting \u201cMagazine,\u201d Pechman wrote and directed a pair of well-received horror shorts \u2014 \u201cThumb\u201d and \u201cSleep\u201d \u2014 and while she\u2019s sold other scripts around town, she was not eager to let this one go to someone else. \u201cI had already been writing for other people when I started writing this, and it was the first thing that I had written where I thought to myself, \u2018I really couldn\u2019t ever give this to someone else because no one would know this world as well as I do,\u2019\u201d Pechman said.<\/p>\n

Pechman is quick to stress that the film is semi-autobiographical<\/a>. That doesn\u2019t dilute its personal power, though. \u201cIf you were going to talk about it like a piece of music, my own experience is maybe a guitar lick or a bass line, but there\u2019s a lot of different layers,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cIt\u2019s 10 years of my own experiences, my friends\u2019 experiences, things I saw, things I heard about, condensed into one summer. There\u2019s little riffs or elements of things that I pulled from different magazines that I worked at or wrote for or interned at.\u201d<\/p>\n

She really loved writing the characters that populate it \u2014 the film is the rare indie that boasts a truly ensemble cast, with supporting turns from Iris Apatow, Jake Lacy, AnnaSophia Robb, and Delaney Rowe, in addition to its core performers. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was really fun about it was pulling details from people that I met,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cSo many people have said to me, \u2018Oh, I know who Daphne is. It\u2019s this person.\u2019 I\u2019m like, \u2018I don\u2019t know that person. I\u2019ve never met them.\u2019 Every generation has its own Daphne. We all encounter that girl. We all encounter a Greer. I feel very humbled and flattered that people think every character is so visceral. There are a lot of details in the script about people that are so hyper-specific that I knew that I wanted, because those are the things, when I wrote or edited a magazine article, I\u2019m like, oh, that really jumps off the page and makes you feel like this is a real person and I\u2019m in the room with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she wanted Platen to be a fictional magazine, so that her audience could \u201center it the way Nora does, without any preconceived notions of what is the culture of that place and to really learn it alongside her.\u201d She added with a laugh, \u201cAnd it\u2019s also fun to create your own magazine, obviously.\u201d<\/p>\n

While the film\u2019s logline hints at something a bit darker \u2014 a young woman makes her way through the rarefied world of New York literary mags in the years before #MeToo is even a glimmer<\/a> \u2014 there\u2019s a real lightness to the final film. While Nora does encounter some icky men, she also finds her people, in the form of the other Platen interns.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make the kind of movie that I grew up loving, and also the kind of movie that you want to watch again,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cI feel like that is such a rarity now. I\u2019ve made a lot of genre movies, which I love and really enjoy, but I also have this deep love of movies like \u2018Almost Famous\u2019 and \u2018Last Days of Disco\u2019 that make you feel a certain way. Maybe in the same way that as a horror filmmaker, you\u2019re chasing a jump scare and getting that reaction from this audience, with this film, I was sort of chasing a warmth and a lightness and a sigh of recognition.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that\u2019s exactly what first sort of attracted me to the script, finding a way to tell stories that include some certain confronting subject matters with a level of levity and fun and excitement and this sense of potential that you\u2019re sensing parallel to Nora\u2019s journey,\u201d McInerny told IndieWire.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018Magazine\u2019Courtesy of \u2018Magazine\u2019<\/p>\n

Added Pechman, \u201cThe structure of it is meant to reflect what coming of age is like, where you think the job is the most important thing that\u2019s going to help you find yourself, or maybe love or romance or sex. Ultimately, what do we all remember from being 21? Our friends and the relationships you make, and that\u2019s how you create your identity and your sense of self.\u201d<\/p>\n

Within that framework, there\u2019s plenty to play with and lots of perspectives to tap into. As the lone male intern, Leonard, Zolghadri gets to be a bit more sardonic and removed, but the actor loved watching how every character\u2019s journey unfolded in hyper-specificity. <\/p>\n

\u201cI thought of it as an office drama, and everyone has a different part in that. My character has some humor and then you come to understand him a little bit later,\u201d Zolghadri said. \u201cYou start to read it with a group of people, and everyone just sort of uses their imagination to come up with their own backstory and what it should be. \u2026 Everything was on the page. When you read it, you got a very clear sense of the tone and the part that you and all the characters are playing in that. Then I had a conversation with Alexandra about it and I came to understand that it was a personal story and I was on board.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell had just wrapped Kane Parsons\u2019 \u201cBackrooms\u201d<\/a> before she decamped from Vancouver to New York City to film Pechman\u2019s film in the summer of 2025. As different as those films are, the actress saw similarities that really appealed to her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first thing that was really apparent to me was her world was very specific and it was very built,\u201d Maxwell said. \u201cAnd that was a similar thing that I really appreciated from Kane with \u2018Backrooms.\u2019 When I saw the visual deck for that and I had a conversation with Kane, I was incredibly impressed with how meticulous the world had been built and how much detail there was in every single dark corner of this film that he was about to embark on. It was a similar thing with Alexandra. I remember I got a visual deck with my audition, which is not a common thing to get, and she painted a very clear picture of exactly the style that she wanted the film to be in, and it was very clear that it was something personal to her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Cruz, \u201cIt\u2019s just beautiful to find someone like Alexandra who\u2019s been a writer and been an artist in other ways, finding her voice through film about her own story. This is somewhat of a return to a memory, which I thought was really such a cool thing to go down together.\u201d<\/p>\n

As Nora, the closest the film gets to a Pechman surrogate, McInerny was thrilled by the ways in which she connected with the filmmaker. McInerny\u2019s agents originally brought her and Pechman together, guessing their backgrounds and sensibilities would be a match. \u201cShortly after sitting down together, we connected on a lot of different subject matters that the script covers. Before even reading it, I could tell that this was for me,\u201d the actress said.<\/p>\n

Much like the film itself, McInerny has a lightness that\u2019s not readily apparent in her previous two films, the dark drama \u201cPalm Trees and Power Lines\u201d<\/a> and the frisky remake of \u201cBonjour Tristesse.\u201d<\/a> \u201cI was really surprised because I had maybe expected someone much more serious, because the roles that she had played were much darker and somber, and then I met her and she\u2019s so delightful and sparkly and magical,\u201d Pechman said.<\/p>\n

That appealed to McInerny, too. \u201cThat was something that also really attracted me to the project, being able to express a side of myself that a lot of people in my daily life recognize, but I hadn\u2019t yet really portrayed on screen yet,\u201d McInerny said. \u201cThis level of fumbling that you couldn\u2019t really see in the precociousness of \u00a0\u2018Bonjour Tristesse\u2019 or this level of silliness or goofiness that there wasn\u2019t really a place for in a film like \u2018Palm Trees and Power Lines.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

While Pechman had imagined the film\u2019s world with impressive specificity, she was keenly aware it would not work without the right cast. \u201cI only take half the credit for writing and directing, but they really brought these characters to life,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cI think all of them had a really strong understanding of who they were. \u2026 It was non-negotiable that they needed to chem read from the beginning, I just knew that if that didn\u2019t work, the movie won\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cruz ad-libbed bits as her character Greer. McInerny and Maxwell read together over Zoom, where they became instant BFFs much the way their characters do in the film. \u201cWithin the first 10 minutes, they were talking about how they were both in Shakespeare Club in high school, and they were kind of wearing the same outfit and they were laughing,\u201d Pechman said with a laugh.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like she cast the coolest group of people in the entire world,\u201d Cruz told IndieWire. \u201cImmediately, it was the most welcoming \u2014 I will stress this! \u2014 the most welcoming and most lovely. I made actual, genuine friends. And, as Greer, I was able to tap into this feeling of, \u2018Oh my God, these people are so cool. I am intimidated by them,\u2019 and that was really helpful because they are just some of the coolest, nicest, most talented people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while the BFF-bonding that unfolds throughout the film is its heart and soul, there are a pair of romantic entanglements tucked inside the story. And, yes, they are disarmingly pre-#MeToo in the ways they play out, the ways they feel.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really talked about toeing this line of sexuality as a young woman in a workplace environment especially, but everywhere you go, there is this very sort of fine line of behavior that is deemed attractive enough to gravitate toward, but pious enough and guarded enough to always be unattainable and respected,\u201d McInerny said.<\/p>\n

When Nora lands at Platen, she\u2019s instantly smitten by young editor Thomas (Joshuah Melnick), who initially seems to be very interested in the young poet. From Nora\u2019s perspective, they\u2019re starting a new relationship. From Thomas\u2019? Well, it\u2019s a little different.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really important that Alexandra and I made clear that Nora really enjoys sex, and she is somebody who craves a passionate sexual relationship in her life, and yet keeps bumping up against this paradox, this bind in not really feeling safe or able to express that,\u201d McInerny added. \u201cAnd then she starts discovering that dating as a young woman can become a lot more just about control and power than just pure, authentic desire.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas shows his true colors early and often, but that doesn\u2019t make them smart any less. But, as with the rest of the film, the role is treated with care and consideration. He\u2019s not the bad guy, but he\u2019s a part of a world built on bad behavior that keeps being rewarded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the antagonist of the film is the culture of this world and he is the mascot of that, if you will,\u201d Melnick said. \u201cHe\u2019s a bit of a tragic figure, it\u2019s a pretty tragic arc and life. He sees himself as a person who, in many ways, has a lot of power and yet does not see the power in himself, so he is consciously and unconsciously wielding this power in ways that are destructive to those around him. He has all this ambition and desire for the power, but is quite insecure at the end of the day.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Melnick had plenty of fun, too. While Pechman didn\u2019t name names, she shared some of her own experiences with men like Thomas with the young actor, including a moment that takes shape during an early date with Nora. Nora has a beer with dinner, while Thomas opts for an apple juice\u2026 that comes in a box.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u2018Magazine\u2019Courtesy of \u2018Magazine,\u2019 exclusive to IndieWire<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then the apple juice, she had a real story! And it\u2019s about him just infantilizing himself and maybe he\u2019s not even conscious of it,\u201d Melnick said. \u201cBut she went on a date once with somebody who drank milk at a date. So that was real.\u201d<\/p>\n

Melnick also did some of his own research, including reading \u201ca lot\u201d of Graydon Carter interviews<\/a>, during which he discovered the legendary editor\u2019s cologne of choice: Eight & Bob<\/a>. Melnick bought a bottle, which came in luxe packaging made to look like a book \u2014 perfect! \u2014 to add to his Thomas prep. Only later did Melnick realize that John F. Kennedy also wore the cologne, which made preparing for his next big role even easier: he\u2019s playing JFK in the upcoming miniseries \u201cKennedy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Maxwell\u2019s Tabitha also finds herself in an inter-office relationship best termed problematic. The reveal of it partially upends her bond with Nora, just as she\u2019s grappling with what all these incestuous Platen entanglements really mean.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is that painful naivete of somebody, in all of their position as interns, in this echelon of power dynamics where they\u2019re at the bottom of this situation,\u201d Maxwell said. \u201cThat\u2019s what the whole film is about, is just trying to get to swim with the big fish. In Tabitha\u2019s mind, there\u2019s not a lot of thought to consequence. It\u2019s almost like, even if something bad happens, it\u2019ll make me stronger because then I\u2019ve learned something or I\u2019m taking something out of the situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

That\u2019s coming of age, the hard way. But as hard as some of those relationships end up being, as painful and formative, \u201cMagazine\u201d finds a soft place to land in the form of the intern friend group. Over the course of the film, they go from wary competitors to dedicated compatriots. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe really talked about writing a love letter to friendship and the ways in which you can really romanticize these platonic friendships, that have such passion and joy and affection that they almost hold a romantic place in your memory,\u201d McInerny said. \u201cThe chemistry was created really organically, we really immediately got each other as a cast. We didn\u2019t have that many days to shoot, there wasn\u2019t really an intense rehearsal process. Any time we weren\u2019t shooting, we were all sitting around on a floor, just laughing and bonding and sharing and just really immediately loving one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

They also loved the physical world that Pechman built for them, one that feels instantly, viscerally like being teleported right back into NYC, circa 2011. Pechman and her team trawled The Real Real for clothes (Peter Pan collars, ahoy!) and eBay for Blackberries and iPod Nanos. The interns tapped away on one laptop, loaded up with Myspace.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were all kind of coming of age on the internet at this time, and fashion maybe wasn\u2019t as homogenized, and people were still building their references from the internet, but in a way less algorithmic way, so everyone\u2019s references are so different,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cAnd it was really fun to build because the office of Platen is meant to be layers of history and layers of references that all come together and look effortless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Every book in the Platen office was handpicked by Pechman and \u201cborrowed, donated, or discounted from her friends and former colleagues.\u201d Artwork is by her friend Math Bass. Thomas\u2019 apartment and Greer\u2019s apartment belong to friends. They shot other scenes at friends\u2019 bars and event spaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nostalgic because it\u2019s right there, it\u2019s close enough that we have a familiarity to it, but it\u2019s distant enough,\u201d Melnick said. \u201cAnd the Blackberries! The texting of the Blackberry is funny, and the way they make the dates and the plans, there\u2019s more of a commitment. You can text me back out, but it\u2019s like if you set a plan in motion, you\u2019re going to show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Cruz, \u201cWhat I really loved about working with her is she\u2019s so clear about what she wants. The way she communicates it is very clear, but there\u2019s still room for you to interpret it and for you to try things and for us to play. Everybody she brought on, all of the heads of department too, collaborated so beautifully. I just can\u2019t wait to see the world for myself because living in it was one thing. I can\u2019t wait to see it put all together.\u201d<\/p>\n

When the film premieres at TIFF this week, Pechman will be joined by the majority of her cast and crew, all of whom seem overjoyed at the prospect of reuniting. And, of course, celebrating, which remains at the center of the film\u2019s creation and execution.<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted to make something celebratory and joyful not just about being young, but about a complicated time and to be able to look at this 2011\u2019s coming of age, early twenties time and to celebrate the messiness and find the joy,\u201d Pechman said. \u201cThere is an undercurrent of some darkness there, but that\u2019s not the focus and that I would hope that as I do, for most people, when I look back on my early twenties, it was complicated and messy, but mostly fun. To make a movie and you\u2019ve already lived through that? Now you can look back and see it clearly and enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMagazine\u201d will premiere at the 2026 Toronto International Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When lockdown hit in March 2020, journalist-turned-filmmaker Alexandra Pechman couldn\u2019t help but get a little nostalgic for the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":342016,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[128313,3056,749,2482,128314,1472,9,24,55,54,56],"class_list":["post-342015","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-alexandra-pechman","tag-festivals","tag-film","tag-interviews","tag-lily-mcinerny","tag-magazine","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-city-headlines","tag-new-york-city-news","tag-ny"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342015","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=342015"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/342015\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/342016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=342015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=342015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=342015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}