Interview – Director Nick Butler Talks ‘Lunar Sway’ Dark Comedy

Filmmaker Nick Butler’s Lunar Sway made its NY premiere at this year’s Brooklyn Film Festival. Starring in the film are Noah Parker, Liza Weil, Grace Glowicki, Douglas Smith, Kaden Connors, and Andy Yu.

Lunar Sway follows Cliff, a young man looking for love in all the wrong places in a small desert town. When his birth mother, Marg, arrives unexpectedly, they start to connect. But her secrets soon catch up with them.

Nick Butler is a New York-based, Canadian filmmaker whose feature film debut, The Legacy of Cloudy Falls, received a select theatrical release in 2025. His second feature, Lunar Sway, is scheduled for release in 2026.

Ahead of the screening, we spoke with Butler about the inspirations behind Lunar Sway, his creative process, and the artistic choices that shaped the film.

ADDISON HAMMOND: Can you introduce Lunar Sway and tell us what it’s about?

NICK BUTLER: Lunar Sway is an offbeat dark comedy about a young man named Cliff, played by Noah Parker, who is looking for love in all the wrong places in the small desert town where he lives. When his estranged birth mother, Marg, played by Liza Weil, shows up unexpectedly, he thinks he’s found someone he can really connect with, but she has her own secrets and soon draws him into her life of crime.

AH: What inspired you to bring this story to the screen?

NB: I was really interested in exploring characters who are yearning for connection but are not particularly good at managing human relationships. There’s a lot of absurdity, humor, and sadness in that, and I think it’s very universal. I was also really inspired by the visual world of the movie. Because it’s about liars and con artists and a main character who never knows what to believe, I felt we had permission to set it in a heightened environment laced with surrealism. That was a big part of why I was excited to make the movie.

AH: What scene or moment in the film means the most to you personally?

NB: There were so many, but I always return to the scene where Cliff and Marg sit down to talk for the first time in a diner. Noah and Liza are such compelling actors to watch, and in that scene, there’s so much going on behind their eyes. It’s such a turning point for their characters, and neither knows what they’re getting themselves into. They both think they’re in control of the situation, but they have no idea what’s really coming.

AH: The film has a very distinct atmosphere. How did you develop its visual language?

NB: The visual world was an important entry point. It’s a very stylized movie that almost feels like it could be set in a slightly alternate reality or a dream. I wanted it to feel increasingly surreal as the story goes on and the main character gets more and more overwhelmed. I collected references and made collages for all the departments, starting when I was writing it. Often, still photography, paintings, and magazine photo shoots. We spent months location scouting and finding all the right environments. But beyond that, it’s about every tiny decision made along the way and ensuring they’re all building toward the same movie. The devil is in the details. Everything from what hat a character wears, to what the wallpaper looks like, establishes how heightened the world is. Our entire crew, from the camera department to art to costume, is so talented, and it’s amazing what they accomplish every day without enough time or resources. It takes the collaboration between all departments to bring the imaginary world to life.

AH: Is there a particular question you wanted audiences to leave the theater thinking about?

NB: This movie asks more questions than it answers. We really wanted to invite the audience to draw their own conclusions, make their own connections, and bring their own interpretations. So my hope is that people leave the theatre still thinking and talking about the unanswered questions.

AH: What was the most challenging aspect of bringing Lunar Sway to life?

NB: The movie features an impressionistic dream sequence that blends CGI with practical effects to create a surreal recreation of Cliff’s life. That was the most challenging sequence to shoot. We shot a portion of it in a cave set that already existed on a mini golf course. But we couldn’t get all the actors to that location, so the art department had to recreate the cave wall in an old warehouse many miles away. Our costume designer and their team had to hand-sew exaggerated, nightmare versions of the characters’ regular costumes. So that was an ambitious portion of the movie to pull off, but it was also so much fun.

AH: Why did you decide to showcase the film at the Brooklyn Film Festival?

NB: It’s such an honor to be screening at the Brooklyn Film Festival. They have such a history of supporting indie films and taking risks, and we are very grateful to be screening here. Our movie is unconventional, and I think Brooklyn Film Festival audiences embrace unusual independent films. So it feels like an ideal fit for us. We were so thrilled when we found out Lunar Sway was selected.

AH: What advice would you give to emerging filmmakers trying to make their first feature?

NB: When applying for funding or pitching to investors, always present the version you’re most passionate about, instead of trying to second-guess what funders want to hear. You can never know that. But your passion will be the thing that gets people’s attention. If you try to be too strategic and end up pitching a watered-down version you don’t really believe in, they’ll sense that.

AH: How has your experience on previous projects, like The Legacy of Cloudy Falls, shaped how you approached creating this film?

NB: I was very lucky to work with much of the same crew on both films. When you find the right team, you do whatever you can to keep them together, so we flew them all across Canada for this one.

Honestly, the first shoot was much, much smoother. I’m a big believer that the movie is made in prep, and on Lunar Sway, we had to fire and replace a number of people working on the logistics who let’s just say…didn’t share that philosophy. So this shoot was less organized than I normally like, but it’s a testament to the rest of our crew and also our cast that it went as smoothly as it did under the circumstances.

AH: Are you currently developing any future projects you can tell us about?

NB: Yes! I’m deep into writing a new feature I’m very excited about. It mixes magic realism with pulpy film noir, and it’s very visually stylized.

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This interview has been edited for length, clarity, and formatting. Some responses may have been condensed or lightly modified to improve readability while maintaining the original intent.