Director and screenwriter Jeff Baena, co-writer of the dark comedy “I Heart Huckabees” and co-writer of “Life After Beth,” died Friday at a home in Los Angeles Director of films such as Life After Beth and Horse Girl. He is 47 years old.
A press representative confirmed his death but did not specify a cause. On Friday morning, Los Angeles police responded to investigate a death at a location that matched records in Baena.
Mr. Baena often elevates dark thematic elements in his work in a humorous way. There are zombies and romance in Life After Beth (2014), and deviant nuns in Little Hours (2017).
He is married to actress Aubrey Plaza, who played the eponymous character in “Life After Beth,” about “The Little Hours” and “Spin Me Round” (2022), which Mr. Baena directed and co-starred with actress Alison Brie. Co-screenwriter.
Mr. Baena also co-created the 2004 film “I Love Huckabee,” a drama starring Dustin Hoffman, Jude Law, Jason Schwartzman, Lily Tomlin and Mark Wahlberg Black comedy. The film, about an environmentalist who hires an “existential detective”, didn’t do well at the box office but attracted a cult following for its quirky plot and characters.
“My parents were divorced, so I’m sure the trauma of the divorce helped develop my sense of humor,” Mr. Baena said in a 2022 interview with YouTube channel Fresh Fiction.
He told Fresh Fiction that he decided to become a filmmaker at age 11, while surfing cable channels and listening to Stanley Kubrick’s “A Clockwork Orange.” He was so interested in the film that he asked his father to take him to a video rental store, where they rented the 1963 Federico Fellini film 8 ½.
“I’ve always been attracted to weird movies,” he says in Fresh Fiction. He said he’d been exposed to “a lot of stuff that I thought was a little bit off-center, so that was normal to me,” adding, “I found it.”
Jeffrey Baena was born on June 29, 1977 and grew up in Miami. According to The New Yorker, he graduated from New York University in 1999 with a major in film and a minor in medieval and Renaissance studies.
He later co-wrote “I Love Huckabee” with director David O. Russell. In a 2004 review of the film for The New York Times, critic Manohla Dargis wrote that the film “captures the desperation of the liberal left with stunning humor.”
Ms. Dargis added that it’s a “dialectical comedy, where opposing dualities battle each other like wounded lovers, but it’s nothing if not sincere.”
In addition to directing and writing “Life After Beth” and “The Little Hours,” Mr. Baena also created and directed the films “Life After Josh” (2016) and “The Life After Josh,” which he co-wrote with Ms. Baena Horse Girl (2020).
His wife, Plaza, is best known for her role as April Ludgate on the TV series Parks and Recreation, where she played a moody, sarcastic and reluctant military officer. . Her most recent starring roles include Megacity (2024) and Emily (2022).
In addition to Ms. Plaza, survivors include his mother, Barbara Stern, and stepfather, Roger Stern; his father, Scott Baena, and stepmother, Michelle; Michele Baena; brother Brad Baena, stepsister Bianca Gabay and stepbrother Jed Fluxman.
Jack Begg Contributed research.
