Jeff Baena, the director and screenwriter who wrote the dark drama “My Heart Huckabees,” and the director of films including “Life After Beth” and “Horse Girl,” died on Friday. He is 47.
His death was confirmed by a press representative, who did not mention the cause.
Mr. Baena often complements dark themes with humor in his works. There are zombies and romance in “Life After Beth” (2014), and illegitimate parents in “Little Time“(2017).
She is married to actress Aubrey Plaza, who plays the main role in “Life After Beth,” about a woman who comes back from the dead after a snake dies, and plays features in “Little Time,” and “Spin Me Round.” (2022), which Mr. Baena directed and wrote with actress Alison Brie.
Mr. Baena also wrote the 2004 film “I Heart the Huckabees,” a dark comedy starring Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin and Mark Wahlberg. The movie, about an environmentalist who hires “existence detectives,” isn’t a box office success but creates cult followings based on its misogyny. and characters.
“My parents are divorced, so I’m sure the divorce helped teach me a sense of humor,” Mr. Baena said in an interview at New fictionYouTube channel, 2022. “Most comedy probably comes from acting.”
He decided to become a filmmaker at the age of 11, he told Fresh Fiction, when he was turning from the radio station and switched to Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.” He was so impressed by the movie that he asked his father to take him to a video store, where they rented it in 1963. Federico Fellini’s film “8 ½.”
“I’ve always been drawn to weirdo movies,” he says of Fresh Fiction. He said that he was exposed “to a lot of things that I thought were a little left out of place, and that’s why it made me good,” adding, “I sought it out.”
Jeffrey Baena was born on June 29, 1977, and grew up in Miami. He graduated from New York University in 1999, where he majored in film and minored in Medieval and Renaissance Studies, according to The New Yorker.
He later wrote “My Heart Huckabees” with director David O. Russell. The film “creates left-wing expectations with a sense of horror,” critic Manohla Dargis wrote in it. 2004 assessment of the film for the New York Times.
Ms. Dargis added that it’s “fun of talking, that fights against each other like people get hurt, but it’s nothing if not sincere.”
The full list of Mr. Baena’s survivors were not immediately available. His wife, Ms. Plaza, is best known for his role as April Ludgate in the television series “Parks and Recreation,” in which he plays a disgruntled, sardonic and reluctant employee. She has recently starred in films including “Megalopolis” (2024) and “Emily the Criminal” (2022).
In addition to directing and writing “Life After Beth” and “Little Time,” Mr. Baena wrote and directed the movie”Joshy” (2016), and “Eating Girl” (2020), which he wrote with Ms. Brie.
Jack Begg help with research.