One big problem with Hollywood “true-love” stories is there’s often very little “truth” in them.
Then along comes a movie like Like Crazy — an indie, not a studio picture — where the relationship is allowed to be so real, so subtle, and so heartfelt that it almost feels voyeuristic. Like a love note you find, and probably shouldn’t read, but …
That was the experience many had at Sundance watching director and co-writer Drake Doremus’ film at Sundance this year, about two star-crossed lovers (Anton Yelchin and Felicity Jones) who fall intensely for each other in college only to find themselves separated by a continent and an ocean, but bound — hopefully — by something stronger.
When the movie’s first screening at Sundance ended, there weren’t just a lot of tear-streaked faces, but a lot of thumbs texting loved ones from afar. “This guy came up to me right after and he just broke down and said he’d just talked to the ex-girlfriend he hadn’t spoken to in five years, just there, there in the audience,” Doremus recalls. “He said, ‘The movie inspired me to act on something I’ve been feeling and thinking for many years.’ I was blown away.”
Like Crazy won Sundance’s grand jury prize and a best actress award for Jones, while Paramount Pictures and Indian Paintbrush bought the distribution rights for $4 million. Come Oct. 28, when it debuts in limited release, it’ll start playing to the masses.
But Like Crazy is one of those movies that will inevitably find its audience through word of mouth, just like the beautiful but shy friend you know others will swoon for if you just make the right introduction
So here it is — that intro: the first look at Like Crazy‘s trailer and a poster with an almost subliminal message, after the jump. READ FULL STORY »
We Need to Talk About Kevin, the unflinching mother/son drama about a Columbine-style mass murderer starring Tilda Swinton, was named Best Film at the 55th BFI London Film Festival, besting such Oscar hopefuls as The Artist, The Descendants, and Shame. “In the end, we were simply bowled over by one film, a sublime, uncompromising tale of the torment that can stand in the place of love,” said the jury’s chair, director John Madden (The Debt). “We Need to Talk About Kevin is made with the kind of singular vision that links great directors across all the traditions of cinema.”
