'D' is for Duchovny, and now Director
BY CINDY PEARLMAN (April 24, 2005)

From http://www.suntimes.com/output/movies/sho-sunday-david24.html

The D stands for Dear Old Friends. David Duchovny got a call from one of those last weekend.

"I pick up my cell phone and it's a very familiar voice I haven't heard in over a year," says the actor, who makes his directorial debut in the film "House of D," which opens Friday.

Yes, the former Agent Fox Mulder of "The X Files" was again listening to the mellow tones of Agent Dana Scully.

She was not on the line to report an alien attack in the City of Angels.

"Gillian Anderson was in Los Angeles and she caught my movie," Duchovny says. "She wanted to call to say she really loved it and that meant so much to me because the call was out of the blue. I haven't spoken to her in over a year. We e-mail, but it was good to hear the voice of a friend."

Duchovny needs some support for his directorial effort, which many have called a charming coming of age story set in New York City. Others haven't been as kind.

"Critics aren't really helping," says a blunt Duchovny over tea at the Ritz Carlton in Chicago. "I really have to depend on word of mouth with this movie.

"It's painful," he adds. "You work hard. You work sincerely. I'm not trying to rip anyone off or pull the wool over anyone's eyes. I'm not trying to hurt the children. I'm trying to make a movie to reach out and maybe make you feel or think a little bit."

The movie marks Duchovny's big-screen directorial debut in his favorite genre: coming-of-age films. "House of D" revolves around a teenage boy named Tommy (Anton Yelchin) in New York, who later becomes an American artist living in Paris (Duchovny).

The story flashes back to Tommy's troubled childhood near the women's house of detention in New York City -- the House of D. Tommy also must come to terms with his depressed mother (played by Duchovny's real-life wife ....