Go ahead and print it.

Josh hipped me to this Salon interview with Mike "Not the guy in R.E.M. but the graphic designer slash director" Mills. I've been looking forward to his feature debut, Thumbsucker (you mean one film has D'Onofrio and Tilda and Vince Vaughn and Keanu...?), and this interview amped up my anticipation. In addition to describing himself as "a total Criterion Collection guy" and dumping haterade on both Garden State and American Beauty, Mills drops this hilarious not-at-all-blind item:

A very famous supposed "friend of the director," a big producer-financier guy, said, "Friday night, people looking for what they want to see, and you've got a movie called 'Thumbsucker'! You might as well fucking name it 'Buttfucker'!" I was curious -- here's this homophobic statement, you know what I mean? It is similar to homophobia. Another person told us we might as well call it "Masturbator." But it isn't masturbating, or butt fucking -- not that either of those things are bad, right? But it's an interesting conundrum you get into. Actually, It was James Schamus who said that, the "Buttfucker" thing. Go ahead and print it.

For the record: Gay cowboys? James says yes. Thumbsucking? No.

And I would be remiss if I finished this post without ever mentioning that Air named one of its very best songs after Mills. You best all own that shit. It's a prerequisite or something.