MOVIE INTERVIEW

Why you'd want to be Nicole Holofcener's friend

The 'Friends With Money' writer-director is smart, centered and bold.

She's a trouper. The writer-director of the sharp, funny and altogether wonderful "Friends With Money" gamely answers our questions by phone from her media tour in Dallas even though she's under the weather (allergies are suspected).

She will give it to you straight. Holofcener's movie explores the awkwardness and tension that income disparities can cause among friends. Jennifer Aniston plays an ex-teacher who's now struggling to get by as a housekeeper while her friends — Catherine Keener, Frances McDormand and Joan Cusack — are all comfortably wealthy. If you've ever wished your group of pals would pick a less pricey place for dinner or hesitated before lending a friend money, the film will ring uncomfortably true.

"I find it fun to write about things that we're not supposed to talk about," Holofcener, 46, says.

She's not going to pull any diva nonsense. "I've had really good experiences with the women in my movies" (which include the female-oriented "Walking and Talking" and "Lovely and Amazing"), Holofcener says when asked about reported "catfights" on productions such as "Desperate Housewives." "I bet there are sets, though, that are fraught with jealousy and pettiness. But it's created by the Hollywood machine — the size of a trailer or the salary. Fortunately, in my movies, everyone gets the same thing. I think I knew going in that I was casting normal people whose priorities are in the right place."

Later in the conversation, she adds: "I try to find out a person's reputation because it's really important for me to work with nice people. I can't imagine when it would be worth it to work with someone difficult. I think you can be talented and be nice."

She would totally watch "Sex and the City" with you. Holofcener directed several episodes of the landmark TV show (she's also worked on "Gilmore Girls" and "Six Feet Under"), and it still seems to hold a special place in her heart.

"That show had a magical quality," she says. "It only worked because it was at its soul honest and true to a lot of single women. And gay men."

She is pro-you: So how great is it that someone has made a movie where women get to act like real women instead of being subjected to the embarrassing forced wackiness and quirkiness that are hallmarks of most "chick flicks"? Pretty great.

Holofcener is proud to make woman-centered films, but she isn't crazy about that "chick flick" label.

"Generally, any label tends to be derisive. If 'Brokeback Mountain' is a 'gay' film, that negates all of the rest of the things it is. I don't want to be negated or labeled, but at the same time it has not stopped me from making the movies I want to make. So I don't really care."

slindner@statesman.com; 445-3826