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Interview: Mark and Jay Duplass

And now with Cyrus, you've reached another turning point?
Jay: It's definitely a turning point, because we took our caveman process and our telepathic speak and we had to learn how to share it with 70 crew members and a studio. Whether or not it resonates with a whole new section of people, we're really hopeful. We've always felt that our movies are, at the heart, traditional stories just being told from a very specific point of view. We've always wanted our movies to reach greater audiences. But we realized that, with low-resolution video and no stars, it's hard to get random people in the center of America into the movie theater. We're very hopeful that this makes a transition for us.

This is a traditional story like Oedipus.
Jay: There's the Oedipal angle. For us, it's a love-triangle movie. You've got three people, and two of them are warring for the affections of one of those people. It just so happens that one is coming from more of a romantic side, and her son, the other side, is coming from more of an emotional, spiritual, mother-son connection. They are kind of like in an old, stale marriage. They just don't have sex or romance in their relationship.

Not anymore, anyway.
Jay (laughs): Yeah, you know, the flames have faded.