Skip to main content

Following Films Podcast: Jennifer E. Montgomery on This Tempting Madness, Scoring a Film with Simone Ashley’s Voice, and The Resposibility of Adapting Trauma Into Art

Image
By

 


Welcome back to the podcast, everyone. Today, we are examining the architecture of memory, trauma, and the blurred lines of reality. Hitting theaters and VOD on June 12, 2026, is a film that I promise is going to get under your skin. It’s called This Tempting Madness, a breathtakingly tense psychological thriller that marks the feature directorial debut of Jennifer E. Montgomery.  

Now, if you think you’ve seen all sides of Bridgerton superstar Simone Ashley, think again. She delivers a raw, bold, and genuinely transformative performance as Mia, a woman who awakens from a coma with a fractured memory, a grievously injured body, and the devastating realization that the man she loves is completely missing. Alongside an incredible supporting cast, the film takes us directly inside Mia's disoriented mind as she tries to piece together a past she can no longer trust.  

But what makes This Tempting Madness truly unforgettable is where the story came from. This isn't just a Hollywood script; it is deeply inspired by a harrowing true story. Director Jennifer E. Montgomery wrote the film with her longtime collaborator and spouse, Andrew M. Davis, after living through her own firsthand tragedy. Years ago, Montgomery watched her own best friend's life quietly collapse over a period of six months—culminating in an act of severe violence. When her friend finally woke from a coma, those entire six months of memory were completely gone.  Instead of making a straightforward documentary, Jennifer and Andrew built an immersive cinematic landscape that mirrors how trauma actually works—in loops, contradictions, and shifting colors. 

From a custom score built literally out of Simone Ashley’s own vocal tones to vintage Panavision lenses that make the frames feel like unpredictable memories, every single detail of this film was crafted to make us question what is real right along with Mia.  We are incredibly lucky to have the mastermind behind this phenomenal film with us today. Joining me to talk about the immense responsibility of turning personal trauma into art, pushing cinematic boundaries, and running towards the fire of complex storytelling... please welcome the director and co-writer of This Tempting Madness, Jennifer E. Montgomery!



Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Explaining the Ending of No Country for Old Men

By
No Country for Old Men is a tense, spare, and philosophical thriller that upends traditional narrative expectations. While it contains the elements of a crime drama—drug deals, hitmen, shootouts—it refuses to follow a conventional path. By the time the film ends, the central conflict seems unresolved, the villain walks away, and the protagonist we’ve been following disappears offscreen. To understand the film’s ending, one must look beyond plot and consider its themes: fate, violence, moral decay, and the erosion of order in the modern world. The Narrative Setup The story begins with Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin), a Vietnam veteran who discovers a drug deal gone wrong in the Texas desert and makes off with $2 million in cash. Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem), a remorseless hitman, is sent to retrieve the money. Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones), a weary and introspective lawman, tries to make sense of the violence unfolding around him. At first glance, the film appears to set up a c...
2 comments
Read More

Explaining the Ending of MULHOLLAND DRIVE

By
David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive remains one of the most haunting and enigmatic films ever made. It operates like a riddle that refuses to be solved, luring the viewer into a world where time, memory, and identity dissolve into one another. What begins as a mysterious, almost whimsical Hollywood fairy tale gradually transforms into a psychological nightmare. By the end, it’s clear that what we’ve been watching is not a mystery to be unraveled but an emotional landscape, the mind of a woman caught between fantasy and despair. The film tells the story of two women, Betty Elms and Rita, whose lives intertwine after Rita survives a car crash and loses her memory. Betty, a bright and optimistic aspiring actress freshly arrived in Los Angeles, takes her in. Together, they embark on an investigation into Rita’s identity, which unfolds like a noir detective story bathed in dreamlike light. Everything about this world feels heightened: Betty’s charm, the coincidence of events, and the ease with w...
2 comments
Read More

Explaining the Ending of 2001: A Space Odyssey

By
Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is a masterpiece of science fiction cinema, known for its ambitious themes, pioneering visual effects, and cryptic storytelling. The film culminates in one of the most enigmatic endings in cinematic history, as astronaut Dave Bowman undergoes a surreal journey through a cosmic gateway and is transformed into a new lifeform known as the "Star Child." To understand the ending, one must consider the film’s structure, symbolism, and philosophical inquiries into human evolution, technology, and transcendence. The Journey to the Infinite The final act begins after Dave Bowman disconnects HAL 9000, the malfunctioning AI that had killed his crew. Alone on the spaceship Discovery One , Bowman continues toward Jupiter, following a signal emitted from a monolith discovered on the Moon earlier in the film. These monoliths—rectangular, black, and featureless—are central to the film’s themes. Each appearance marks a leap in human evolution:...
1 comment
Read More