The Inevitable Defeat of Mister and Pete, premiering next week at the Sundance Film Festival, is the kind of heart-wrenching, emotional, and funny coming-of-age drama that isn’t afraid to be rough around the edges. It also boasts big names, from Alicia Keys as co-executive producer and composer, to American Idol alums Jennifer Hudson and Jordin Sparks as stars.
The movie, directed by George Tillman, Jr. (Soul Food), follows two boys — sad-eyed, feisty, and ambitious 14-year-old Mister (breakout Skylan Brooks) and small, innocent 9-year-old Pete (Ethan Dizon) — abandoned by their moms and surviving within the gritty world of the Brooklyn projects. They fend for themselves, searching for food and avoiding the police.
Check out an exclusive clip from the movie, below, with an intro by Hudson, Keys, Brooks, and Tillman, Jr. in our very own Sundance EW video suite. Future Oscar buzz may kick in swiftly for Brooks and Oscar-winner Hudson, who plays against type as Mister’s heavily abusive, tattooed, prostitute drug addict mom.
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Thanksgiving, movies, and reasons to be grateful
The gratitude lists emailed among friends and families this Thanksgiving are lovely and thoughtful, expressing heartfelt appreciation for food, shelter, health, friends, family, babies’ smiles, rainbows, Mom’s lasagna, all that good stuff. The only problem is, when mentioned in the same breath as Mom and rainbows, offering thanks for the genius of Netflix looks pretty puny. But not here: Here’s where movie lovers can offer up movie love in the spirit of the holiday. I’ll go first:
1. Thanks to great American actors whose appearances invigorate every movie they’re in. My choice trio: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, and Jeffrey Wright, above. Who would you add to the list?
2. Thanks for cup holders and stadium seating in movie theaters.
3. Thanks to filmmakers who know the proper length for their movies. Sometimes 90 minutes is all that’s needed to tell a story; occasionally 140 minutes feels right. (Mostly, the 90-minute range is plenty. Thanks again.)
4. Thanks for the work of great actors already famous in their own countries, stars in the bigger world, including READ FULL STORY »