From KCRW Santa Monica and KCRW.com, it's The Treatment.

Welcome to The Treatment. I'm Elvis Mitchell. So he's good to have somebody in the show who's done it a couple times before. And for movies, I think, that Occupy, I think a unique place in the world of cinema.

He finds the comedy in what could be intensely dramatic situations.

From the night before to the whackness to 50-50, there's always comedy to give us some perspective on what these people are going through.

His new film, Long Shot, certainly trades on that as well.

Very interesting, potentially dramatic situation.

First of all, Jonathan Levine's good to have you back.

Great to be here.

Thank you.

But you do that, don't you?

I mean, you do find these situations that could be played I'd done the whackness, and we kind of bonded.

Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg.

Yes, who produced 50-50, and they were looking for a filmmaker, and I sort of came in to pitch myself for it.

And we talked a lot about the movies of Hal Ashby and how that became this kind of common touchstone for us.

And I think for me, being able to, you know, joking and laughing is kind of the grammar with which I speak about life.

You know, just as a human being, I can, there's nothing I could not joke about in my own personal life.

And so to me, it's just a perspective on the world.

And I think sometimes, you know, the movies are able to take that perspective.

And I think that's when they're the most successful is they're reflecting a worldview.

And I think Hal Ashby was like the first person I saw who did that.

Yeah.

And we could say the same thing about Ashby, too, if it's the last detail of shampoo or being there, those movies that could function as much as drama as they do comedy,

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