For the record, The Kill Room’s director, Nicol Paone, is an art-lover. At the onset of our Zoom interview, Paone revealed her long-standing relationship with fine art and its industry: her close friend is an art advisor, and it was vicariously through her, over the course of the last decade, that Paone learned the ins and outs of art, how its sold, and, more importantly, how it is perceived. “I’m just fascinated by it and what makes people attracted to a certain piece,” she said. “I’m fascinated by the moment when an artist — or a piece — goes wider, bigger, and gets recognition.”

Set in the contemporary art world, not unlike the one Paone just touched on, The Kill Room follows Patrice (Uma Thurman), an art dealer whose career is circling the drain. In order to do right by the artists she represents, the studio she owns, and the collectors she sells to, Patrice realizes she needs money in order to make money. As such, she enters a money-laundering partnership with Gordon Davis (Samuel L. Jackson). Meanwhile, Gordon’s hitman, Reggie (Joe Manganiello), is tasked with making the art for their scheme. What nobody anticipates is how Reggie’s work inadvertently becomes an overnight success.

Essentially, The Kill Room merges fine art and organized crime. Equal parts comedy and thriller, the film can be read as a hilarious skewering of the art world by the way it seemingly underscores the absurdity of hype and how, in our materialistic society, the worth of one thing is too often defined by its popularity and desirability rather than its actual quality. In the film, Reggie’s art isn’t necessarily good, but it’s provocative enough that, with some savvy publicity and entrepreneurship on Patrice’s part, it becomes the must-have piece of the industry.

It’s Okay to Like Art

“I certainly don’t want to make anyone feel ridiculous,” Paone said when asked about The Kill Room’s commentary on how we consume, respond to, and talk about art, particularly on a collective — and ravenous — level. Indeed, many characters are conned into thinking Reggie’s works, veritably crude, are actually masterpieces. Of course, it’s such an organic crescendo that it’s not hard to draw parallels to other quotidian instances in which an artwork, a product, or even a fashion trend takes over our collective consciousness and becomes the thing everyone needs to have, like the cryptocurrency hype from earlier this year or, more broadly, the return of bucket hats (which I was coincidentally wearing in our interview).

Are Paone and The Kill Room, as such, making fun of those who follow or are excited by what’s trending? Certainly not; rather, the director is solely interested in “putting up a mirror to it,” free of judgment. And it’s not just the art world, per se: “The aspect of the art world, or any world for that matter, [that is interesting] is when people go crazy for something that they think is going to bring them any kind of emotion — happiness, joy, prestige — other than loving something, no matter what it is, whether it’s a plant or a painting or a cool hat.”

Related: The Kill Room: Plot, Cast, Release Date, and Everything Else We Know

In this regard, what’s remarkable about The Kill Room is how Jonathan Jacobson’s script adds nuance to this discussion of hype-versus-value, while deftly balancing the humor and intrigue, so that even if you do see the ridiculousness with which the characters fawn over Reggie’s art (and, in some instances, pay exorbitant prices to be part of the hype) and possibly see yourself in them, you nonetheless feel like you’re in on the joke. In fact, there are profound moments where Patrice, the con artist herself here, is deeply moved by Reggie’s art, which goes to show that, trend or not, sometimes we can’t help but like what we like.

Talking about the script for The Kill Room, Paone said “the humor was all there” when she initially read it. An alumnus of The Groundlings and an expert player in sketch comedy productions on-screen and onstage, Paone possesses a strong background in comedy, but, according to her, there was very little intervention on her part.

“I sort of guided it [towards] a little bit of humor and more levity and some story turns — that’s really all the script needed, in my opinion,” she said, while also noting that collaboration with the actors on the day of filming also came into play. “It was a mix of me getting involved with Jonathan, writing a couple of jokes, and then the actors bringing their own pizzazz to everything.”

Related: The Kill Room Clip Pairs Samuel L. Jackson and Uma Thurman for the First Time in 20 Years

A Pulp Fiction Semi-Reunion
Shout! Studios

Perhaps one of the biggest talking points about The Kill Room is how it reunites two major members of the Pulp Fiction cast for the first time since Quentin Tarantino’s film released (along with a brief scene together 20 years ago in Kill Bill Vol. 2). In Thurman’s case, in addition to starring in the film, she is also one of the producers, and Paone had nothing but utmost praise for her. “Uma is so intelligent, beyond any human I’ve really ever been around, and I know that’s a bold statement to make,” said Paone, who added:

She was brilliant to work with, and I hope this starts the ‘Umaissaince’ because I think she is one of the best actresses of our time.

Thurman was the one who suggested Jackson to Paone as potential co-star. Originally, his character was named Herschel, and after some minor rewriting, a script was sent to Jackson. “It was truly one of the greatest collaborative moments of my life thus far. Just watching them together — Sam, Uma, and Joe — I could have played their scenes in a three-shot because their performances were just so in sync with one another. They’re all brilliant at what they do, and I’m just grateful that they all trusted me enough to say yes.”

The Kill Room is now playing in theaters.