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“Insecure” star Jay Ellis was fully prepared to become public enemy number one after Sunday night’s episode aired. Titled “Pressure, Okay?!,” the half hour was dedicated to what happened after Lawrence (Ellis) and Condola (Christina Elmore) welcomed their son and all the drama that comes with co-parenting.

“Maybe I can be public enemy number two or three,” Ellis joked, catching up with Variety over the phone ahead of the episode’s debut, as he steeled himself for fan reactions.

“I remember first reading it during the table read and I was like, ‘This is gonna be rough,’” he added. “Like I might go to Mexico or Cuba or something and hide out for a few weeks after this episode because there’s some stuff that’s really hard to come back from.”

In fact, Ellis hadn’t yet watched the episode, despite series creator and star Issa Rae telling...

A melancholic mood permeates “Lorelei,” a love story, character study and social melodrama somberly if unevenly rolled into one, with the subtlest touch of mysticism. Set amid the picturesquely dewy backdrops, brisk natural lights and impossibly tall trees of Oregon, writer-director Sabrina Doyle’s fable-like tale of working-class Americans on the fringe navigates its elusive waters with compassion and care, even when it veers into some predictable shallows from time to time.

More often than not, though, debut feature filmmaker Doyle’s commitment to quiet moments of humanism sells this unassuming story. Commendably, the director sidesteps patronizing miserabilism, yielding an empathetic yarn of second chances that steadfast leads Pablo Schreiber and Jena Malone elevate through their delicately reflective performances. In a thematic landscape that loosely resembles Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s “The Mustang” and the lesser known but worthy “The Free World” by Jason Lew, the duo portray Wayland and Lola,...

In the lead up to this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Mindy Kaling noted that “Late Night,” the story of an aspiring writer who endures a “Devil Wears Prada”-like initiation into the world of comedy, is a familiar story about breaking into the entertainment business. But, the Indian-American Kaling noted, her version has one key difference.

“So much of this movie is about being a fan and being on the outside of the entertainment business,” Kaling told Variety. “That story has been told many, many, many times by 52-year-old white men, and I love all those movies. And as a comedy nerd I’ve always identified with them because it was the closest thing that I could identify with. There was no one like me making those kind of films.”

“Late Night,” which scored a record $13 million domestic distribution deal following its premiere last week, isn’t the only...

[[tmz:video id="0_8j0ropge"]] Big news from Caron Butler on his Mark Wahlberg-produced biopic -- a director has been chosen to lead the project and the script-writing process is underway. We got Caron leaving a meeting with script writers ... and he told us the flick (which is in the early writing stages) is gonna show the Real story behind his childhood struggles as a drug dealer. C.B. says Wahlberg (as well as director Jason Lew and writer...

“The Free World” is the tale of a released convict who struggles to find love and peace in his newly gained freedom. That sounds like the premise for promising TV show — after all, “Rectify” has already been covering that territory for four seasons — but first-time writer-director Jason Lew constructs his movie with the hallmarks of an exhausting pilot that falls short of making the case for a full season.

Muhammad Lundy (Boyd Holbrook) works at an animal shelter after his recent tenure at Louisiana’s Angola prison. (If you ever forget that he’s essentially trading in one caged environment for another, this is a film that will repeatedly remind you.) His place of employment soon becomes the refuge of Doris (Elisabeth Moss), who shows up after hours with blood-covered hands in search of her recently euthanized dog. Recognizing her frightened demeanor and vulnerable emotional state, Muhammad “rescues” Doris, bringing...

This is a reprint of our review from the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.

Actor and writer Jason Lew, the screenwriter behind Gus Van Sant‘s “Restless,” makes his feature directorial debut with “The Free World,” a sometimes-curious picture that takes on a big story with an intimate execution. “Curious” only because “The Free World” ends up in a place vastly different from where it starts, genre-hopping and taking unexpected turns.

Continue reading Despite Some Missteps, ‘The Free World’ Starring Elisabeth Moss & Boyd Holbrook Is An Admirable Indie Drama [Review] at The Playlist.

Letting go of a troubled past is no easy thing, and sometimes in facing the future, you can’t shake the habits and behavior that have shaped your life. These ideas come into play in Jason Lew‘s feature directorial debut “The Free World.”

Read More: The 30 Most Anticipated Films Of The 2016 Toronto International Film Festival

Starring Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss, Octavia Spencer and Sung Kang, the story follows an ex-con trying to go straight after serving time for a crime he didn’t commit.

Continue reading Exclusive: Elisabeth Moss Makes A Mistake In Clip From ‘The Free World’ at The Playlist.

Here's the first trailer for The Free World, a new movie from IFC Films that debuted at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Boyd Holbrook (Narcos) plays an ex-con who discovers a beaten and bloody woman (Elisabeth Moss, Mad Men) with a mysterious past, and the two slowly fall for each other as they outrun an officer chasing them down (Sung Kang, Fast Five) with what appears to be the aid of the ex-con's case worker (Octavia Spencer). Looks pretty good to me!

I'd never heard of this movie before this morning (thanks to /Film for fixing that), but we don't have long to wait until we have the chance to see it — the film hits theaters and VOD on September 23, 2016.

How hard would you fight to be free? After spending two decades in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Mo (Boyd Holbrook) struggles to put his past behind...

Following a Sundance premiere back in January, Jason Lew‘s The Free World is now headed to theaters. Boyd Holbrook and Elisabeth Moss lead the downbeat romantic drama. He plays Mo, fresh out of prison after spending two decades locked away for a crime he didn’t commit. Nowadays he spends his days working at an animal shelter, which is where […]

The post ‘The Free World’ Trailer: Elisabeth Moss and Boyd Holbrook Go on the Run appeared first on /Film.

Two weeks out from its bow in select theaters, IFC Films has dropped the first trailer for Jason Lew’s (Restless) poignant drama The Free World, which sees Elisabeth Moss and Boyd Holbrook fighting two very different forms of abuse.

Holbrook, for instance, plays ex-con Mo who takes the defining first steps towards starting a new life by working in an animal shelter, overseeing the protection of wounded or stray pets under the guidance of Octavia Spencer’s character. Meanwhile, Doris (Elisabeth Moss) has her own cross to carry, symbolizing a pain that so often originates from her abusive relationship with her hothead police officer of a husband.

Those two paths cross when Doris pays a visit to Mo’s animal shelter, but will their budding friendship help or hinder each respective predicament? Today’s first trailer hints that it could well be the latter.

Jason Lew will beckon viewers...

Premiering at Sundance earlier this year, The Free World marks the directorial debut from Jason Lew (Restless), and IFC Films has now released the first trailer. The film begins as a study of rehabilitation as ex-con Mo (Boyd Holbrook) works at an animal shelter under the tutelage of Linda (Octavia Spencer), clearing cages and shows a tender care for the battered animals brought in. One day, Doris (Elisabeth Moss) brings in her dog Charlie, seemingly beaten by her aggressive hothead police officer husband. Things then start to spiral downhill for our characters from there.

I said in my review, “The greatest southern gothic tales feature richly detailed atmosphere dripping with a strong sense of location. Night of the Hunter and other classics certainly fit the category, and the fairly recent Sundance drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints was a fine example, featuring characters that, whether in a doomed romance or not,...

"Why are you helping me?" IFC Films has debuted the trailer for the indie drama The Free World, which premiered at Sundance this year, about a man fresh out of prison for crimes he didn't commit. He meets a woman with an abusive husband, and decides to risk his own life to be with her. Starring Elisabeth Moss as Doris, and Boyd Holbrook as Mo Lundy. The cast includes Octavia Spencer, Sung Kang, Sue-Lynn Ansari and Waleed Zuaiter. It seems like a solid drama, but I don't remember hearing much buzz about it during Sundance. As always, Moss looks to be giving a great performance and it might be worth it for her. Here's the first official trailer (+ poster) for Jason Lew's The Free World, direct from YouTube: Following his release from a brutal stretch in prison for crimes he didn't commit, Mo is struggling to adapt to life on the outside.

Read More: Sundance Review: 'The Free World' Starring Boyd Holbrook, Elisabeth Moss & Octavia Spencer Describing the inspiration for his work during an "Indiewire in Conversation at Chase Sapphire on Main" panel at the Sundance Film Festival last week, writer-director Jason Lew remarked, "I'm always attracted to characters that dwell on the outside and feel very uncomfortable in the world." That would probably be the best way to describe his directorial debut, "The Free World." The film premiered at this year's Sundance, where it was quickly described as an extremely intense drama featuring by two amazing performances from leads Boyd Holbrook and Elisabeth Moss. Holbrook plays an ex-convict who used to be Martin Lundy but now is a devout Muslim going by the name Mo (short for Muhammed). After being locked up for a crime he didn't commit, Mo has been exonerated and tossed back into a society that is completely alien to him.

The greatest southern gothic tales feature richly detailed atmosphere dripping with a strong sense of location. Night of the Hunter and other classics certainly fit the category, and the fairly recent Sundance drama Ain’t Them Bodies Saints was a fine example, featuring characters that, whether in a doomed romance or not, feel destined for one another. On paper, The Free World seemingly has all the necessary ingredients, yet the drama stumbles out of the gate with cliche after cliche, even when it tries to change things up with a sharp dramatic turn.

Beginning as a study of rehabilitation, Mo (Boyd Holbrook) recently got out of a prison stint in which he became defined as the toughest inmate, earning the nickname “Cyclops.” Working at an animal shelter under the tutelage of Linda (Octavia Spencer), he cleans cages and shows a tender care for the battered animals brought in. One day,...

Actor and writer Jason Lew, the screenwriter behind Gus Van Sant's "Restless," makes his feature directorial debut with “The Free World,” a sometimes-curious picture that takes on a big story with an intimate execution. “Curious” only because “The Free World” ends up in a place vastly different from where it starts, genre-hopping and taking unexpected turns. At times it feels as though the story might exceed the scope of the film, but it manages to stretch to contain it, and pushes the boundaries of what a “Sundance film” might be. The film opens with a look inside the very small world of Mo (Boyd Holbrook). He’s a recently released felon working in an animal shelter for Linda (Octavia Spencer), who seems to have knowledge of “the inside” as well. He has a sparse life, an apartment with no furniture and no car. As we come to find out through snippets of conversation,...

text-autospace:none"> mso-bidi-font-family:Helvetica">Liberty is a relative concept in The Free World, a soft-boiled Southern noir in which the theme of cages, confinement and abuse is countered by redemptive notes of spirituality and human connection. Those whispers of hope almost risk going unheard amid all the dour solemnity and dread of writer-director Jason Lew's moody first feature. But the uneven drama remains reasonably engrossing thanks to affecting performances from Boyd Holbrook and Elisabeth Moss, playing strangers whose respective experience of violence gives them a soulful bond. Whether that will be enough to yield much of a

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Comprising a considerable amount of our top 50 films of last year, Sundance Film Festival has proven to yield the first genuine look at what the year in cinema will bring. Now in its 38th iteration, we’ll be heading back to Park City this week, but before we do, it’s time to highlight the films we’re most looking forward to, including documentaries and narrative features from all around the world.

While much of the joy found in the festival comes from surprises throughout the event, below one will find our 25 most-anticipated titles off the bat, which doesn’t include some of the ones we’ve already seen and admired, notably Cemetery of Splendour, The Lobster and Rams. Check out everything below and for updates straight from the festival, make sure to follow us on Twitter (@TheFilmStage, @jpraup, @djmecca and @DanSchindel), and stay tuned to all of our coverage here.

Kate Plays ChristineThe lineup for the 2016 Sundance Film Festival, taking place between January 21 -31, has been announced.U.S. Dramatic COMPETITIONAs You Are (Miles Joris-Peyrafitte, USA): As You Are is the telling and retelling of a relationship between three teenagers as it traces the course of their friendship through a construction of disparate memories prompted by a police investigation. Cast: Owen Campbell, Charlie Heaton, Amandla Stenberg, John Scurti, Scott Cohen, Mary Stuart Masterson. World Premiere The Birth of a Nation (Nate Parker, USA): Set against the antebellum South, this story follows Nat Turner, a literate slave and preacher whose financially strained owner, Samuel Turner, accepts an offer to use Nat’s preaching to subdue unruly slaves. After witnessing countless atrocities against fellow slaves, Nat devises a plan to lead his people to freedom. Cast: Nate Parker, Armie Hammer, Aja Naomi King, Jackie Earle Haley, Gabrielle Union, Mark Boone Jr. World PremiereChristine (Antonio Campos,...

In last year’s selection of sixteen U.S. Dramatic Competition offerings, it was Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s Me & Earl & the Dying Girl that landed both U.S. Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic and Audience Award: U.S. Dramatic awards, it was Rick Famuyiwa’s Dope who landed the richest deal ($7 million range), it was Patrick Brice’s The Overnight that had the most post festival momentum, it was Marielle Heller’s The Diary of a Teenage Girl that received a longer term accolades (Bel Powley won Best Actress at the Gothams) and it might be Robert Eggers’ The Witch that becomes the cult item we reference back in a decade from now. This year we accurately predicted ten of the sixteen items below. Among the more familiar folk, we have established names such as Antonio Campos (Christine – see pic of Rebecca Hall above) and So Yong Kim (Lovesong). We have second...

Titles include Tallulah starring Ellen Page and Allison Janney, and Chad Hartigan’s Morris From America (pictured); Next strand also announced.Scroll down for full list

Sundance Institute has announced the 65 films selected for the Us Competition, World Competition and out-of-competition Next categories set to screen at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival (Jan 21-31) in Park City.

Us Dramatic Competition selections include Sian Heder’s Tallulah with Ellen Page and Allison Janney; Antonio Campos’ Christine; Clea DuVall’s feature directorial debut The Intervention; and Richard Tanne’s Southside With You, about Barack Obama’s first date with the First Lady.

Among the Us Documentary Competition selections are: Holy Hell by undisclosed; Jeff Feuerzeig’s Author: The Jt LeRoy Story; and Sara Jordenö’s Kiki.

The World Cinema Dramatic Competition entries include: Belgica (Belgium-France-Netherlands), Felix van Groeningen’s follow-up to The Broken Circle Breakdown; Manolo Cruz and Carlos del Castillo’s Between Sea And Land (Colombia); and Nicolette Krebitz’s Wild...

You can only have an actor attached for so long until they “grow” out of the role and you can only have a director on board for a short lapse until they move onto other projects. The wobbled history of Goat, a book to film adaptation begins back in 2004 when we first reported that David Gordon Green would direct the project. A 2005 update that Emile Hirsch would topline and then the baton was passed onto Jeff Nichols in 2007 when he was suppose to have taken over the director’s chair. Flash-forward to late last year when James Franco joined forces with Killer Films, and Andrew Neel (a fiction and non-fiction filmmaker with already five features under his belt including 2012’s King Kelly) was hired – thus landing the coveted directing gig. Production took place in May in Cincinnati, and if this takes a truly savage, rough hewn approach, no doubt that...

Best known as the writer for the Gus Van Sant directed Restless back in 2011 and he also moonlights as an actor, Jason Lew originally mounted this directorial debut with major starlets in Cillian Murphy and Bryce Dallas Howard but it ended up being American indie players Boyd Holbrook and Elizabeth Moss who would transition into the roles of Mo and Doris. A film of broken spirits and strays (this includes a pooch) with criminal backgrounds, production on The Free World began this past July in New Orleans.

Gist: Mo (Holbrook) has finished serving his time for a brutal crime he did not commit—the murder of two young girls. In prison, his fellow inmates named him “The Cyclops” for his violent behaviour he called himself Mohamed, in homage to the prophet. Not entirely prepared for his new freedom and under constant suspicion by the small town community, he finds solace...

Will the real Matt Ross please stand up. Don’t be all that surprised if Matt Ross (28 Hotel Rooms, Captain Fantastic) and Matthew Ross wind up on the same Park City foothills this January. The former Filmmaker Mag and Variety writer who moved away from writing about other folk’s films, commenced lensing on his feature debut back in February. With a handful of short film projects (Lola, Red Angel and Curtis and Clover) under his belt, the proposed rom thriller of Frank and Lola features Michael Shannon and Imogen Poots in the top spots with Michael Nyqvist, Justin Long, Rosanna Arquette and French actress Emmanuelle Devos as supporting players. A sort of what would happen if you pissed off Anthony Bourdain revenge pic, this is indeed ready as it recently participated in the 2015 Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Lab: Feature Film this past July and the cherry on...

Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Competition title.

Memento Film International (Mfi) has acquired international rights to Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep and Argentine Diego Lerman’s Refugiado ahead of their Cannes premieres.

Ceylan’s Palme d’Or contendor Winter Sleep, revolves around retired actor Aydin, who runs a hotel in central Turkey with his emotionally estranged wife and a sister, who is getting over a divorce.

As winter closes in, the hotel becomes both a shelter and a prison. Differences come to a head and Aydin contemplates taking off. The film is set against the beautiful high plateau of Cappadocia.

It is Ceylan’s sixth film to screen in competition at Cannes, where he has picked up three prizes including the Grand Jury Prize for Once upon a Time in Anatolia in 2011.

Winter Sleep has already generated a fair amount of attention on the basis of its length, which extends...

Turkish director Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Competition title.

Memento Film International (Mfi) has acquired international rights to Turkish Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s Winter Sleep and Argentine Diego Lerman’s Refugiado ahead of their Cannes premieres.

Ceylan’s Palme d’Or contendor Winter Sleep, revolves around retired actor Aydin, who runs a hotel in central Turkey with his emotionally estranged wife and a sister, who is getting over a divorce.

As winter closes in, the hotel becomes both a shelter and a prison. Differences come to a head and Aydin contemplates taking off. The film is set against the beautiful high plateau of Cappadocia.

It is Ceylan’s sixth film to screen in competition at Cannes, where he has picked up three prizes including the Grand Jury Prize for Once upon a Time in Anatolia in 2011.

Winter Sleep has already generated a fair amount of attention on the basis of its length, which extends...

The Free World

Cillian Murphy is set to co-star with Bryce Dallas Howard in "Restless" scribe Jason Lew's directorial debut "The Free World". Filming begins this Fall.

Murphy will play a man trying to re-adjust to civilian life after a brutal twenty-year prison stint. His world collides witha mysterious woman (Howard) with a violent past. [Source: Screen]

Home

Topher Grace will star and Patricia Clarkson is in negotiations to co-star in Dennis Iliadis' supernatural thriller "Home" for Blumhouse Productions and Universal Pictures. Leonardo DiCaprio. Jennifer Killoran, Jason Blum and Graham King will produce.

Adam Alleca's script follows a man (Grace), recently released from a mental institute, who inherits a mansion after his parents die. After a series of disturbing events, he comes to believe it is haunted. [Source: Heat Vision]

Time Out Of Mind

Richard Gere will produce and star in Oren Moverman's "Time Out Of Mind". Moverman has adapted the...

Memento Films International has picked-up international rights to scribe Jason Lew’s directorial debut The Free World.

BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee Cillian Murphy (Inception; upcoming Transcendence; as well as Ron Howard’s Heart Of The Sea), joins Golden Globe nominee Bryce Dallas Howard (The Help, and soon to be seen in Jurassic World) to top line the film.

Lew previously wrote Gus Van Sant’s Restless which opened the 2011 Festival de Cannes’ Un Certain Regard.

The Free World is the story of Mohamed “Mo” Lundy (Murphy), a man attempting to adjust to civilian life after a brutal 20-year stretch in prison for crimes he did not commit. His world collides with Doris Lamb (Howard), a tragic and mysterious woman with a violent past, for whom he will come to risk everything, including his new found freedom.

Untitled Entertainment’s Laura Rister will produce the project. She has produced and...

Exclusive: Cillian Murphy to co-star opposite Bryce Dallas Howard in thriller.

Memento Films International (Mfi) has acquired international rights to Jason Lew’s directorial debut The Free World.

Actor and writer Lew previously wrote the screenplay for Gus Van Sant’s Restless, about the relationship between a terminally ill girl and a boy obsessed with death, which opened Cannes’ Un Certain Regard in 2011.

Irish actor Cillian Murphy, soon to be seen in Transcendence and Ron Howard’s Heart of the Sea, is set to co-star opposite Bryce Dallas Howard in the thriller. Howard’s upcoming credits include Jurassic World.

Murphy will play Mohamed “Mo” Lundy, a man trying to re-adjust to civilian life after a brutal 20-year stretch for crimes he did not commit.

His world collides with Doris Lamb (Howard), a mysterious woman with a violent past. Mo will do anything for this woman include risking his newfound freedom.

The film is...

Blu-ray/DVD Release Date: Jan. 24, 2012

Price: Blu-ray/DVD $45.99

Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment

With Restless, Sony continues its pattern of releasing smaller movies as a Blu-ray/DVD combo pack with no individual DVD.

The quirky coming-of-age love story, directed by Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), stars newcomer Henry Hopper and Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) as the unlikely romantic couple.

Hopper’s Enoch Brae has given up on life and spends his time talking to the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from World War II and going to the funerals of strangers. Wasikowska’s Annabel Cotton is a terminally ill girl who has a deep love of life and the natural world. When they have a chance encounter at a funeral, they find unexpected common ground.

Restless, which is the first feature film written by Jason Lew, also stars Jane Adams (TV’s Hung) and Ryo Kase (Letters From Iwo Jima...

Well. Director Gus Van Sant (Milk) and screenwriter Jason Lew just went right ahead and upped the ante on the manic pixie dream girl. She now must not only be ethereally lovely, perfectly saintly, and at the same time completely bonkers, she also must be dying beautifully of cancer, the kind that doesn’t make your hair fall out but leaves you with a so-cute elfin haircut and a peachy glow. Oh, wait: A Walk to Remember did that a decade ago. Perhaps that nagging sense that there wasn’t a shred of originality in their work is what pushed Van Sant and Lew over the edge, for they sure do scramble to cram the “quirky” back into the please-god-kill-me-and-save-me-from-yet-another-ridiculous-teen-romance. Enoch. Seriously, our hero’s name is Enoch. He draws chalk outlines of himself in the street, like crime-scene cops do! He goes to the funerals of strangers... for fun!

Director: Gus Van Zant Writer: Jason Lew Starring: Henry Hopper, Mia Wasikowska, Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Lusia Strus, Jane Adams “Let me get this straight,” one character says to Enoch (Henry Hopper), the teenage hero of Restless. “You’re a funeral crashing dropout with no car and a dead friend?” Yep, Enoch’s path is a strange and difficult one. As Gus Van Sant’s new film opens, Enoch is a brooding teen who, like Bud Cort in Harold and Maude, likes to don his best suit and overcoat and slip into funerals and memorial services. As if that weren’t enough, Enoch’s constant companion and confidant is a dead World War II kamikaze pilot named Hiroshi (Ryo Kase), who also plays a mean game of Battleship. Then one day Enoch meets the delightful, impish Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska) at a memorial service. Annabel, like Ruth Gordon’s Maude,...

Bryce Dallas Howard is having quite a year. Currently starring in 50/50, Howard is fresh off the phenomenal success of The Help (don't miss our The Help review) and has a film that she produced, Restless, also out in theaters. Oh, and did we mention she’s currently expecting her second child? As she strolls into our interview room, Howard is beaming and one could expect nothing less.

Howard speaks about everything from producing to the power of 50/50 (don't miss the 50/50 trailer) and the power of The Help. From when her career first began through her incredible 2011, I’m reminded of a famous saying in Hollywood, “The kid stays in the picture.” That is never truer than it is in 2011 for Bryce Dallas Howard.

Movie Fanatic: How are you doing with this whirlwind of promoting Restless, 50/50 and being pregnant at the same time here at the Toronto Film Fest?

Bryce Dallas Howard: Well,...

Director Gus Van Sant and actress Bryce Dallas Howard were recently in New York for a roundtable to promote their new film Restless. The film portrays an incurably ill Annabel Cotton and young man, Enoch Brae, that encounter a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII. The three characters intertwine whether its finding a way to live, embracing the time that's left to live or how to move on. It was written by Jason Lew.  

Making her producing debut, the very pregnant Bryce and affable Gus touched on the production of the film before heading out to its 2011 Toronto International Film Festival premiere. 

What attracted them to Restless

Gus Van Sant: Well, I saw the script when I was sort of- forty drafts later, it had been developed for over 12 years--it interested me partly because I usually look at story, character, settings and I like the settings of memorials and the funerals.

Rating: 3.0/5.0

Chicago – Gus Van Sant’s “Restless” is an undeniably twee and hipster film that will annoy some viewers about as much as bad performance art, but I found the film’s commitment to a unique tone and world view refreshing as so few directors even know what those words mean. It may not be grounded enough to be emotionally effective, but another strong performance from the stellar Mia Wasikowska and a consistency to its vision make “Restless” worth a look.

“Restless” is a film about two people facing death. It is not just an unknown quantity in their lives, as it is for so many people. It is something that has forever impacted one of them and will soon take another. In many ways, Jason Lew’s script feels like an attempt to offer a different take on the common love-through-illness tale. It’s like “Dying Young” as remade by The Decemberists.

Restless

Directed by Gus Van Sant

Screenplay by Jason Lew

2011, USA

Gus van Sant is a very dynamic filmmaker that has tried his hand at many kind of genres and types of films. His latest, Restless tells the story of Enoch, an angry teenager who withdraws from the world following the deaths of his parents. Instead of going to school, he spends his time hanging out with his friend Hiroshi, the ghost of a kamikaze pilot and crashing strangers’ funerals. At one of these funerals, he meets Annabel, a precocious young girl who we soon find out is dying from cancer. Their growing friendship soon blooms into a tender romance. As the two experience young love they also have to grapple with the fact that Annabel has limited time left on this earth.

Though van Sant has made films focused on teenagers before – Elephant and Paranoid Park, for example – that...

Bryce Dallas Howard may have Hollywood in her genes via her dad Ron, but she's proved her mettle on the big screen. The multitasking actress costars in Oscar favorite "The Help" as the bitchy Hilly Holbrook and is currently promoting the dramedy "50/50," in which she takes on another hard-to-swallow role as a crappy girlfriend to a young guy with cancer.

With the Gus Van Sant movie "Restless," she's taken on a new responsibility, as producer. The arty romance about a dying girl named Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) who falls for a funeral-obsessed teen (Henry Hopper) is set to open this Friday. Watch the trailer here. She talked to us about working with Van Sant, playing an unsympathetic character and her take on the controversy over "The Help."

You were instrumental in getting the "Restless" script to the screen, and as a hands-on producer. What's it to be involved day-to-day in a production role?...

When Restless opened Un Certain Regard in Cannes this spring, most critics groaned and moved on to their next screening. Some, though, such as Manohla Dargis in the New York Times, weren't ready to dismiss it entirely, and Daniel Kasman found a few kind words for cinematographer Harris Savides. Still, having screened in Toronto and now set for a limited release in the States tomorrow, Restless is being slapped with another round of pans.

Nick Schager in Slant: "Gus Van Sant's cinema, which of late has been fixated on immersing viewers in particular times and spaces, takes a detour into excruciating quirkland with Restless, a work of off-putting bathos and lovey-dovey nonsense that inspires not just the titular agitation, but stomach-cramping, eye-rolling antipathy. Written by Jason Lew with a dedication to making every single note ring false, this modern-hipster Love Story charts the unexpected and ill-fated romance of two dopey fictional creations,...

Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper in Restless

Photo: Sony Pictures Classics Note: This review was originally published on May 12, 2011 after I saw it at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. I am reprinting it here as it hits theaters this weekend.

Once you've seen Gus Van Sant's Restless, you realize the distributor shuffle the film has done over the past several months says a lot about what kind of film it is. Is it a movie better suited as a specialty film housed at Sony Pictures Classics, or is it more of a slightly comical, but more serious romantic drama for Columbia Pictures? Sony chose to hand it over to the former after it originally had a January release date with the latter. Do they have it figured out?

The dilemma Sony faced is represented in this tonally conflicted drama that never really seems to figure itself out. Just when you...

But 'Restless' Helmer Was Never Going To Direct Artist Drama 'The Golden Suicides' Gus Van Sant is not an easily predictable director. His films are always instantly identifiable, but can vary between experimental, difficult pictures like "Gerry" and "Last Days," to more nakedly commercial fare like "Finding Forrester," and, occasionally, as in "To Die For" and "Milk," a sweet spot in between. His latest, "Restless," is another left turn, a quirky teen romance from a first time screenwriter, Jason Lew, that stars Henry Hopper, son of Dennis, and "Alice in Wonderland" lead Mia Wasikowska. For a brief moment, the release…...

After bookending the summer with prestigious appearances at festivals in Cannes and Toronto, acclaimed auteur Gus Van Sant brings his latest film, Restless, to theaters this weekend in limited release. The outcome of an unusual creative collaboration including co-producers Ron Howard and his daughter Bryce Dallas Howard, her former New York University colleague and screenwriter Jason Lew, and the visionary for hire Van Sant, Restless stars Mia Wasikowska as a terminally ill teenager who sparks up a star-crossed love affair with a gloomy, funeral-crashing, imaginary friend-confiding orphan (played by Henry Hopper).

Hitting theaters in New York and Los Angeles this Friday, Restless marks the first feature film from director Gus Van Sant since his Academy Award winning Milk in 2008. Teaming with actress-turned-producer Bryce Dallas Howard, he brings to celluloid Jason Lew's stage play, "Of Winter and Water Birds" (with Lew himself adapting the piece for screen). Henry Hopper stars as Enoch Brae, a young man who, after losing his parents in a fatal car accident, finds a disconnect with the living, regularly speaking with the ghost of a Kamikaze pilot, Hiroshi (Ryo Kase). Fascinated by death, Brae meets a girl his age, Annabel Cotton (Mia Wasikowska), at a funeral and the two quickly form a bond, both learning to share their own unwilling confrontations with mortality....

• Toronto Entry #4

There is a Truffaut film, rarely seen, named "The Green Room," based on the Henry James short story "The Altar of the Dead." That was about a man whose constant companions were the friends he had lost. He was faithful to their shrines in his memory. The term for his obsession is thanatopsis, a meditation upon death. Truffaut himself plays the hero of his film, and maintains a little chapel to the memory of his late wife and other loved ones. Nathalie Baye plays a woman he meets who shares his devotion, and it seems possible they may find happiness together, but she cannot reach him because his mind seems to reside in the next world.

This doesn't seem to be a theme that would attract Gus Van Sant, one of the most cutting-edge of directors, but then he rarely makes films that resemble one another. Here at Toronto he is showing "Restless,...

We are now four days into the Toronto International Film Festival which runs a total of ten days so I felt it would be best to look back at some of the coverage we’ve posted thus far. Admittedly we are all a bit behind but we do intend on catching up before the fest if over. So far this year the festival hasn’t been as exciting for me as compared to previous years. Most of my time is spent running around from one cinema to the next, networking and trying to find some time to maintain the site and do some writing. The first day is usually a write off spent picking up tickets, finding a place to stay and meeting up with some old friends, so unfortunately my movie watching only began on Friday evening. So I’ve decided that in the future, I will arrive in...

Bryce Dallas Howard hosted a cocktail party for kate spade New York in Toronto last night. Bryce is the face of their handbag collection and was decked out in a custom-made chambray shirtdress and bright pink necklace from kate spade, which matched the walls at The Harbourd Room. Bryce's costar from The Help Jessica Chastain swung through the soiree to say hello and catch up for a moment before heading off to her next Tiff bash. The redheads, whose movie The Help has had huge box office success, posed for photos and shared a few laughs as Bryce sipped on a mocktail. Bryce was also joined by her good friend Jason Lew, who wrote Restless, the film that Bdh produced which helped kick off the festival with a big red carpet premiere on Thursday. Bryce is expecting her second child with husband Seth Gabel, though he couldn't come along to...

The Skin I Live In

Written by Pedro Almodóvar

Directed by Pedro Almodóvar

Spain, 2011

A debauched, high camp mashup of Face/Off, OldBoy, and the world’s glossiest telenovela, The Skin I Live In takes Pedro Almodóvar’s signature, soapy sensibility and applies an ingeniously effective genre (plot) twist. Antonio Banderas is terrifically deranged as Dr. Robert Ledgard, a world-renowned plastic surgeon capable of effecting the sort of fanciful transformation that turned John Travolta into Nicolas Cage. He’s likewise capable of acts of vengeance that are positively South Korean in their extremity, and, fittingly, also demonstrates a proclivity for sexual transgression that would make Chan-wook Park proud. Beyond these (hopefully) enticing teases, the less you know, the better, save that Almodóvar springs what would be a lesser film’s crowning reveal just past Skin’s midpoint. This paves the way for a superbly subversive third act, wherein the tropes...

Trailer for Gus Van Sant's Restless, starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper. Check out the latest trailer for the drama scripted by Jason Lew and produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Bryce Dallas Howard. Restless opens in theaters on September 16th and also stars Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams, Lusia Strus and Chin Han. Annabel Cotton (Wasikowska) is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae (Hopper) is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (Kase) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot...

Trailer for Gus Van Sant's Restless, starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper. Check out the latest trailer for the drama scripted by Jason Lew and produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Bryce Dallas Howard. Restless opens in theaters on September 16th and also stars Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams, Lusia Strus and Chin Han. Annabel Cotton (Wasikowska) is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae (Hopper) is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (Kase) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot...

Trailer for Gus Van Sant's Restless, starring Mia Wasikowska and Henry Hopper. Check out the latest trailer for the drama scripted by Jason Lew and produced by Ron Howard, Brian Grazer and Bryce Dallas Howard. Restless opens in theaters on September 16th and also stars Ryo Kase, Schuyler Fisk, Jane Adams, Lusia Strus and Chin Han. Annabel Cotton (Wasikowska) is a beautiful and charming terminal cancer patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. Enoch Brae (Hopper) is a young man who has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. When these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world. For Enoch, it includes his best friend Hiroshi (Kase) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot...

Leave it to director Gus Van Sant to make a love story about death.

Van Sant's last movie, the 2008 biopic Milk, followed the life of San Francisco's openly-gay Supervisor Harvey Milk and the rise and unfortunate fall of his life and career. The movie earned Van Sant an Academy Award nomination for his direction, and won Sean Penn his second Oscar for his work in the title role. His latest directorial effort is Restless, returns Van Sant to his more indie roots, with another intimate, character-driven story about love and death.

Written by actor-turned-screenwriter Jason Lew, Restless is about the terminally ill Annabel (Mia Wasikowska) who falls for a morose Enoch (newcomer Henry Hopper, son of the late Dennis Hopper), whose best friend is the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot (Ryo Kase). It all makes sense in the latest trailer for the movie, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Sneak Peek the new poster supporting "Restless", the latest dramatic feature from director Gus Van Sant, based on a screenplay by Jason Lew, starring Henry Hopper and Mia Wasikowska :

"...'Annabel Cotton' (Wasikowska) is a chronically ill patient with a deep felt love of life and the natural world. 'Enoch Brae' (Hopper) has dropped out of the business of living, after an accident claimed the life of his parents. But when these two outsiders chance to meet at a funeral, they find an unexpected common ground in their unique experiences of the world.

"For Enoch, it includes his best friend 'Hiroshi' (Ryo Kase) who happens to be the ghost of a Kamikaze fighter pilot. For Annabel, it involves an admiration of 'Charles Darwin' and an interest in how other creatures live.

"Enoch offers to help Annabel face her last days with an irreverent abandon, by tempting fate, tradition and even death itself.