It took Colin West just a few minutes to read my mail, as they say. 

We use the word “resistance” around her to purposefully refer to many things. For some, it describes fear or marketplace demands. For others, it’s expectations or a lack of inspiration. But in many of our conversations, the resistance has also referenced the mundane—the fact that real life gets in the way of the life we actually want to be living. Call it adulting. Call it routine. It’s the resistance.

Or is it? 

Leading up to my conversation with Colin, I was excited to talk to the screenwriter and filmmaker about what he’s learned about the Resistance and how he’s wrestled with it. My goal, as always, is to glean some further insights about facing it. So imagine my surprise when, instead, Colin opens up our interview by challenging me to embrace it.

Colin’s new film, Linoleum, is truly remarkable, a dizzying film that’s equal parts drama, comedy, romance, and sci-fi that features a loaded cast, from Rhea Seehorn to Jim Gaffigan and Katelyn Nacon to Tony Shalhoub. It premiered at SXSW as a Grand Jury Prize nominee and was recently a New York Times Critics Pick. 

But while the film is making all kinds of demands on his time these days, it’s impossible for Colin to separate this season from the 5-6 years he spent writing and rewriting the script again and again.  It was in those years Colin found the substance and the story to begin with. In fact, it’s when life is “normal” or mundane or rote or boring that we’re given the very raw clay to begin to shape into something. 

We need to live life in order to bring something to it. That’s one of the main takeaways from our conversation with filmmaker Colin West here on The Resistance. We hope you enjoy it!

You can buy/rent Linoleum on digital here.