Vanessa Kirby received an Emmy nomination for her performance as Princess Margaret in The Crown, and an Oscar nomination for her gut-wrenching turn in Pieces of a Woman. Now she’s back on Netflix in a visceral new thriller. In Night Always Comes, based on the novel by Willy Vlautin, Kirby will play a woman on a mission to save her family’s home before time runs out. Directed by Benjamin Caron (Sharper) from a script by Sarah Conradt, Night Always Comes is part of a multi-year, first-look deal with Kirby’s production company Aluna Entertainment. In partnership with Lauren Dark, the actor and producer seeks to bring complex women’s stories to the screen.
As the movie kicks off production in Portland, Oregon, read on for more information about Night Always Comes below.
Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, Lynette sets out on a...
As the movie kicks off production in Portland, Oregon, read on for more information about Night Always Comes below.
Risking everything to secure a future for herself and her brother, Lynette sets out on a...
- 5/24/2024
- by John DiLillo
- Tudum - Netflix
Vanessa Kirby, who earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Pieces of a Woman and is best known for the White Widow character she played in Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning (as well as landing the role of Sue Storm in the upcoming Marvel Cinematic Universe version of The Fantastic Four), launched a production company called Aluna Entertainment with former Film4 executive Lauren Dark back in 2021, and Variety reports that Aluna Entertainment is now in production on its first feature film. It’s a thriller called Night Always Comes, and Kirby stars alongside Eli Roth (Inglourious Basterds), Jennifer Jason Leigh (The Hateful Eight), Zack Gottsagen (The Peanut Butter Falcon), Stephan James (If Beale Street Could Talk), Julia Fox (Uncut Gems), Randall Park (WandaVision), and Michael Kelly (House of Cards).
Benjamin Caron, whose credits include The Crown and Andor, is directing Night Always Comes from...
Benjamin Caron, whose credits include The Crown and Andor, is directing Night Always Comes from...
- 5/24/2024
- by Cody Hamman
- JoBlo.com
An adaptation of the 2021 novel written by Willy Vlautin, Night Always Comes is on the way from Netflix and Aluna Entertainment, and Variety has announced the cast this week.
For starters, Vanessa Kirby is leading the cast and will produce through Aluna.
Eli Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight,” “Fargo”), Zack Gottsagen (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Julia Fox (“Uncut Gems”), Randall Park (“Always Be My Maybe,” “WandaVision”) and Michael Kelly also star in the Netflix thriller.
The film “follows Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.”
Benjamin Caron ( “Andor”) directs from a script by Sarah Conradt (“Mother’s Instinct”).
Variety also notes in their report, “Netflix acquired the project as part of a multi-year...
For starters, Vanessa Kirby is leading the cast and will produce through Aluna.
Eli Roth, Jennifer Jason Leigh (“The Hateful Eight,” “Fargo”), Zack Gottsagen (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Julia Fox (“Uncut Gems”), Randall Park (“Always Be My Maybe,” “WandaVision”) and Michael Kelly also star in the Netflix thriller.
The film “follows Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.”
Benjamin Caron ( “Andor”) directs from a script by Sarah Conradt (“Mother’s Instinct”).
Variety also notes in their report, “Netflix acquired the project as part of a multi-year...
- 5/23/2024
- by John Squires
- bloody-disgusting.com
Vanessa Kirby has amassed an impressively starry ensemble cast for the first feature out of the gates for Aluna Entertainment, the production company she established in 2021 with former Film4 exec Lauren Dark.
“Night Always Comes,” which Oscar nominee Kirby will lead, is set to star Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Julia Fox (“Uncut Gems”), Eli Roth, Randall Park and Michael Kelly.
Shooting is now underway in Portland on the thriller, which is based on the 2021 novel by Willy Vlautin. Benjamin Caron directs from a script by Sarah Conradt (“Mother’s Instinct”).
As per the logline, “Night Always Comes” follows Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.
Kirby and Dark are producing...
“Night Always Comes,” which Oscar nominee Kirby will lead, is set to star Jennifer Jason Leigh, Zack Gottsagen (“The Peanut Butter Falcon”), Stephan James (“If Beale Street Could Talk”), Julia Fox (“Uncut Gems”), Eli Roth, Randall Park and Michael Kelly.
Shooting is now underway in Portland on the thriller, which is based on the 2021 novel by Willy Vlautin. Benjamin Caron directs from a script by Sarah Conradt (“Mother’s Instinct”).
As per the logline, “Night Always Comes” follows Lynette, a woman who risks everything to secure a future for herself and her brother by setting out on a dangerous odyssey in Portland, in doing so confronting her own dark past over one propulsive night.
Kirby and Dark are producing...
- 5/23/2024
- by Alex Ritman
- Variety Film + TV
Housing in America is becoming a huge issue, with astronomical housing prices beginning to eliminate a generation of potential home buyers. Monthly rents are soaring; it’s a real-life issue ripe for dramatic exploration in both features and television. Deadline reports that a new film set in Portland based on the novel “The Night Always Comes,” written Willy Vlautin, is in the works and will explore some of those grim housing/debt issues.
Continue reading ‘The Night Always Comes’: Vanessa Kirby & Director Benjamin Caron Reunite For Portland-Set Noir Drama At Netflix at The Playlist.
Continue reading ‘The Night Always Comes’: Vanessa Kirby & Director Benjamin Caron Reunite For Portland-Set Noir Drama At Netflix at The Playlist.
- 3/5/2024
- by Christopher Marc
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Napoleon star Vanessa Kirby will reunite with The Crown’s Benjamin Caron on a movie based on Willy Vlautin’s 2021 novel The Night Always Comes, about a working-class woman in the Pacific Northwest who embarks on a 24-hour quest to call in old debts and raise enough money to keep a roof over her head.
Netflix has acquired the project for release.
Kirby portrayed Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of The Crown and many of the episodes she appeared in were directed by Caron.
Caron was also a director of Disney+ series Andor. Last year, he directed Apple Studios feature film Sharper, starring Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith and Briana Middleton.
The Night Always Comes film is based on a screenplay by Seattle-based screenwriter Sarah Conradt whose credits include Mothers’ Instinct and 50 States of Fright. Vlautin’s 2010 book Lean on Pete was adapted and directed...
Netflix has acquired the project for release.
Kirby portrayed Princess Margaret in the first two seasons of The Crown and many of the episodes she appeared in were directed by Caron.
Caron was also a director of Disney+ series Andor. Last year, he directed Apple Studios feature film Sharper, starring Julianne Moore, Sebastian Stan, Justice Smith and Briana Middleton.
The Night Always Comes film is based on a screenplay by Seattle-based screenwriter Sarah Conradt whose credits include Mothers’ Instinct and 50 States of Fright. Vlautin’s 2010 book Lean on Pete was adapted and directed...
- 3/5/2024
- by Baz Bamigboye
- Deadline Film + TV
British director Andrew Haigh’s modern American odyssey sees Charlie Plummer excel as a teen fleeing grim realities
A performance of remarkable depth, candour and vulnerability by rising star Charlie Plummer lies at the heart of this terrifically moving fourth feature film from British writer-director Andrew Haigh. Adapted from the 2010 novel by Willy Vlautin, Lean on Pete blends timeless American myths with pin-point portrayals of modern urban hardship, as its lonely teenage lead heads east from Oregon with a horse on its last hurrah. The travails are tough but there’s an unsentimental tenderness at the centre of Haigh’s movie – a melancholic counterpoint to the grim realities of life from which our young hero flees.
Plummer plays Charley Thompson, a lanky 15-year-old (he lies about his age) who has moved home umpteen times with his single father, Ray (Travis Fimmel). With dreams of playing for the high-school football team blighted by a nomadic lifestyle,...
A performance of remarkable depth, candour and vulnerability by rising star Charlie Plummer lies at the heart of this terrifically moving fourth feature film from British writer-director Andrew Haigh. Adapted from the 2010 novel by Willy Vlautin, Lean on Pete blends timeless American myths with pin-point portrayals of modern urban hardship, as its lonely teenage lead heads east from Oregon with a horse on its last hurrah. The travails are tough but there’s an unsentimental tenderness at the centre of Haigh’s movie – a melancholic counterpoint to the grim realities of life from which our young hero flees.
Plummer plays Charley Thompson, a lanky 15-year-old (he lies about his age) who has moved home umpteen times with his single father, Ray (Travis Fimmel). With dreams of playing for the high-school football team blighted by a nomadic lifestyle,...
- 5/6/2018
- by Mark Kermode, Observer film critic
- The Guardian - Film News
A troubled teenager and his beloved old racehorse take to the big country in 45 Years director Andrew Haigh’s poignant adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel
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Andrew Haigh’s sad and lovely new film Lean on Pete is adapted by him from the 2010 novel by American author and alt.country musician Willy Vlautin. It’s got the wonderfully easy, unforced naturalism and calm that distinguished his last two films, Weekend (2011) and 45 Years (2015). Things are taken mostly at a walking pace, a measured, controlled tempo, like someone carefully leading an injured horse. That doesn’t mean to say there aren’t some dramatic and violent moments, including a fateful highway incident, fabricated brilliantly but unobtrusively with digital effects, that had me clasp both hands over my mouth in shock.
A lonely teenage boy, Charlie (Charlie Plummer...
• Sign up for Film Today and get our film team’s highlights of the day
Andrew Haigh’s sad and lovely new film Lean on Pete is adapted by him from the 2010 novel by American author and alt.country musician Willy Vlautin. It’s got the wonderfully easy, unforced naturalism and calm that distinguished his last two films, Weekend (2011) and 45 Years (2015). Things are taken mostly at a walking pace, a measured, controlled tempo, like someone carefully leading an injured horse. That doesn’t mean to say there aren’t some dramatic and violent moments, including a fateful highway incident, fabricated brilliantly but unobtrusively with digital effects, that had me clasp both hands over my mouth in shock.
A lonely teenage boy, Charlie (Charlie Plummer...
- 5/3/2018
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
His fans include Donna Tartt and Roddy Doyle; Andrew Haigh has adapted his third novel, Lean on Pete, into a film. So why does Vlautin still struggle with self-belief?
For Willy Vlautin, a book tour is not just about books. Yes, his fifth novel, Don’t Skip Out on Me, the melancholy tale of a young, half-Paiute wannabe prizefighter, was published recently. It’s written in the sort of scorched, bare-bones prose, stripped of metaphors and similes, that has won him fans such as Roddy Doyle, Donna Tartt and Colm Tóibín. But there are also gigs to play – Vlautin, who is 51, was the frontman of the twangy alt-country outfit Richmond Fontaine, which he founded in his mid-20s shortly after moving from Reno, Nevada, where he grew up, to Portland, Oregon.
He disbanded the group in 2014 after 20 years, keen to part on good terms rather than, as he puts it,...
For Willy Vlautin, a book tour is not just about books. Yes, his fifth novel, Don’t Skip Out on Me, the melancholy tale of a young, half-Paiute wannabe prizefighter, was published recently. It’s written in the sort of scorched, bare-bones prose, stripped of metaphors and similes, that has won him fans such as Roddy Doyle, Donna Tartt and Colm Tóibín. But there are also gigs to play – Vlautin, who is 51, was the frontman of the twangy alt-country outfit Richmond Fontaine, which he founded in his mid-20s shortly after moving from Reno, Nevada, where he grew up, to Portland, Oregon.
He disbanded the group in 2014 after 20 years, keen to part on good terms rather than, as he puts it,...
- 4/23/2018
- by Ryan Gilbey
- The Guardian - Film News
Add another animal star to the ever-expanding movie zoo. Now make room Garfield and Benjy, ’cause he’s a big fella’, part of the equine film lineage. He’s not recreating a true sports legend like Seabiscuit or Secretariat. No, he’s a descendant of the fictional horses that have had special friendships with their human riders and trainers. It’s a long line going back to Black Beauty thru National Velvet and My Friend Flicka up to Casey’S Shadow and The Black Stallion (plus there’s the sidekick spin-offs such as My Pal Trigger). From the look of this film’s poster art, movie goers might think they’re in for a new version of the sentimental stories of the friendship between a boy and his “four-footed friend”. Well, hold on to the reins, because this tale’s got a curve more surprising than the twistiest of running tracks.
- 4/19/2018
- by Jim Batts
- WeAreMovieGeeks.com
Updated at 11:45Am Pt with more numbers and analysis. Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, the first feature from the director since 2011, rocketed to a strong launch in its debut, grossing $129,911 in three theaters.
Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs added hundreds of runs for its third frame, taking in $4.6M to boost its cume to $12M. The weekend gross was enough to land it in the overall top 10 as of Sunday morning.
Released by Amazon Studios, You Were Never Really Here put up a hefty average of $43,304. The per-theater tally places it just behind the 2018 opening averages of Isle of Dogs ($60,011), Black Panther ($50,250) and The Death of Stalin ($46,201) for the year and well above the debut of her last feature, We Need To Talk About Kevin. That Tilda Swinton squirm-fest opened in a single location in 2011, grossing a healthy $24,587 en route to a $1.73M cume.
Ramsay and star Joaquin Phoenix,...
Searchlight’s Isle of Dogs added hundreds of runs for its third frame, taking in $4.6M to boost its cume to $12M. The weekend gross was enough to land it in the overall top 10 as of Sunday morning.
Released by Amazon Studios, You Were Never Really Here put up a hefty average of $43,304. The per-theater tally places it just behind the 2018 opening averages of Isle of Dogs ($60,011), Black Panther ($50,250) and The Death of Stalin ($46,201) for the year and well above the debut of her last feature, We Need To Talk About Kevin. That Tilda Swinton squirm-fest opened in a single location in 2011, grossing a healthy $24,587 en route to a $1.73M cume.
Ramsay and star Joaquin Phoenix,...
- 4/8/2018
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
After debuting on the fall festival circuit at Venice, Telluride and Toronto, A24 held Andrew Haigh’s finely wrought drama Lean on Pete for the less-crowded period of April, even though there is no question it is as awards-worthy as many of those films that did find a release in 2018. As I say in my video review (click the link above to watch), I didn’t warm to this story simply because my name is in the title, though that helped make it a must-see when I caught up with it in Telluride. Actually, I greatly admired the authentic nature of Haigh’s previous films Weekend and especially the marital drama 45 Years, which earned Charlotte Rampling a Best Actress Oscar nomination. Haigh’s films are about people, human stories that are subtly told, heartfelt without dwelling in sentimentality, and movies that take their time to unfold and sneak up on you.
- 4/6/2018
- by Pete Hammond
- Deadline Film + TV
Just in time for the Cannes announcements, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, which debuted at last year’s event, is headed to U.S. theaters. Starring Joaquin Phoenix, the Amazon Studios feature had a solid opening in the U.K. last month. The title headlines a fairly wide pack of newcomers this weekend, including A24’s Lean On Pete by British filmmaker Andrew Haigh and starring Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny and Charlie Plummer. Great Point Media/Paladin are launching Where Is Kyra? with Michelle Pfeiffer and Kiefer Sutherland in roles the director, Andrew Dosunmu, swears fans of the two will be surprised by. And Well Go USA is opening Tribeca ’17 thriller, The Endless in New York before heading to L.A. next week.
Also opening in limited release is Warner Bros.’ Pandas. Other titles making bows this weekend include Sweet Country with Sam Neil and Bryan Bishop as well as Shout!
Also opening in limited release is Warner Bros.’ Pandas. Other titles making bows this weekend include Sweet Country with Sam Neil and Bryan Bishop as well as Shout!
- 4/6/2018
- by Brian Brooks
- Deadline Film + TV
If there’s an animal mentioned in the title of a film, there’s a good chance that you’re going to cry by the end of it. Sometimes it’s the animal itself, sometimes it’s just the portal towards human emotion. This week, Lean on Pete opens to try and give your tear ducts some exercise. Whether it has to do with the animal who gives the movie its title or the events that happen to the protagonist, I’ll leave for you to discover, but this is the sort of picture that would love for you to cry. Luckily though, it never feels manipulative. Andrew Haigh actually tells the story in a distant enough way that the organic moments of emotion are more on your part than on the part of the filmmaker or the actors. That’s an accomplishment. This movie is a drama that initially...
- 4/5/2018
- by Joey Magidson
- Hollywoodnews.com
When a European director makes his or her first movie in the United States, you can pretty much rely on two things: the camera’s awe at the wide-open spaces and big skies, and a downbeat story of how the Land of Opportunity so often lets its most helpless citizens fall between the cracks.
So on the American Miserabilism shelf at your local shuttered video store, you can put Andrew Haigh’s powerful and poignant “Lean on Pete” alongside such other classics of the genre as Werner Herzog’s “Stroszek” and Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey.”
“Lean on Pete” calls to mind other greats as well — one imagines a pitch meeting where it was described as “The 400 Blows” meets “Wendy and Lucy” — but writer-director Haigh, working from the novel by Willy Vlautin, has his own way of telling this kind of story. While the film’s semi-picaresque, road-trip nature might seem antithetical to the maker of such intimate dramas as “Weekend” and “45 Years,” Haigh brings his gifts as a filmmaker with him to the great outdoors, always capturing little moments of character and emotion even in an expanse of seemingly infinite American desert.
Also Read: 'A Quiet Place' Film Review: Make Some Noise for John Krasinski's Nerve-Racking Horror Tale
Teenage Charlie (Charlie Plummer, “Boardwalk Empire”) has just moved to Portland, Oregon, with his ne’er-do-well dad Ray (Travis Fimmel). Mom is long-gone, and Charlie’s only other family is his loving aunt Margy (Alison Elliott, “20th Century Women”), who he hasn’t seen since childhood after she and Ray had a squabble about how he’s been raising Charlie. (When Charlie was 12, Ray left the boy alone for several days to spend time with a woman.)
Their new house is near a racetrack, and Charlie ingratiates himself with small-time horse owner Del (Steve Buscemi), working with him at the stable and traveling with him to seedy races on the state-fair circuit. Along the way, Charlie befriends Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny), a jockey who rides Del’s horses from time to time. Bonnie tries to tell Charlie that the horses aren’t pets, and that he shouldn’t get attached, but it’s too late — he’s already bonded with an aging Quarter Horse named Lean on Pete, even though the racer is coming to the end of his career, likely to be “sent to Mexico” (where horses can be legally slaughtered) once his use to Del has run out.
Also Read: 'Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana' Film Review: Neil Gaiman, George Romero and Others Reflect on Free Speech
When the husband of Ray’s latest conquest beats Ray bad enough to send him to the hospital, Charlie has to elude Family Services while still earning money to keep up the household. But as Ray’s condition worsens, and Lean on Pete seems destined to be destroyed, Charlie steals Del’s truck in an attempt to save the horse and to look for Margy in Wyoming.
As you might imagine, Charlie’s journey gets more and more bleak as he faces starvation, thirst and eventual homelessness. But while “Lean on Pete” certainly has its dark moments, and its 119 minutes seem like it’s never going stop throwing obstacles in Charlie’s way, there’s ultimately a sense of hope here, much of it being communicated by Plummer, in an extraordinary performance. There’s so little calculation or actorliness in his work that I thought Haigh had found a 15-year-old non-actor; I was surprised to learn after the fact that Plummer is an experienced pro with an ascendant career. (He’s about to play kidnap victim John Paul Getty III in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming “All the Money in the World.”)
Also Read: 'Tyler Perry's Acrimony' Film Review: Taraji P. Henson Is Furious, But Is She Right?
The anguish and determination that Plummer can display with just a look or subtle motion is heartbreaking; this is the kind of naturalistic acting that can just kick you in the stomach. He’s part of a strong ensemble: Buscemi’s Del makes an honest mentor, but he doesn’t sugarcoat the character’s darker side. (And it’s fun to see the easy chemistry between Buscemi and Sevigny: she starred in his feature directorial debut “Trees Lounge” two decades ago.) Steve Zahn turns up as a mercurial homeless man who offers Charlie some help along the way, and Elliott (an indie stalwart since her breakout role in “The Spitfire Grill”) radiates a warmth that makes you realize why finding Margy is worth Charlie’s Herculean effort.
Haigh adjusts to a different kind of storytelling here: “Weekend” was fairly dialogue-heavy (as was, to an extent, his little-seen debut “Greek Pete”), and unlike “45 Days,” he can’t substitute dialogue with a meaningful glance from Charlotte Rampling. Still, he manages a lot of quiet here — with the exception of some exposition dumps that Charlie gives the horse in conversation — and his storytelling is no less powerful. Danish cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Joenck (“A War”), also working in the States for the first time, collaborates with Haigh to place the characters into a very specific context, finding both beauty and horror in the American sprawl.
Your gut will be wrenched by “Lean on Pete,” but it’s also quite likely that your heart will be touched. It’s a powerful new entry for a director who is ever more deserving of attention, and it provides a spotlight for a talented young actor who would appear to be going places.
Read original story ‘Lean on Pete’ Review: Andrew Haigh’s Boy-and-His-Horse Tale Hits Hard At TheWrap...
So on the American Miserabilism shelf at your local shuttered video store, you can put Andrew Haigh’s powerful and poignant “Lean on Pete” alongside such other classics of the genre as Werner Herzog’s “Stroszek” and Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey.”
“Lean on Pete” calls to mind other greats as well — one imagines a pitch meeting where it was described as “The 400 Blows” meets “Wendy and Lucy” — but writer-director Haigh, working from the novel by Willy Vlautin, has his own way of telling this kind of story. While the film’s semi-picaresque, road-trip nature might seem antithetical to the maker of such intimate dramas as “Weekend” and “45 Years,” Haigh brings his gifts as a filmmaker with him to the great outdoors, always capturing little moments of character and emotion even in an expanse of seemingly infinite American desert.
Also Read: 'A Quiet Place' Film Review: Make Some Noise for John Krasinski's Nerve-Racking Horror Tale
Teenage Charlie (Charlie Plummer, “Boardwalk Empire”) has just moved to Portland, Oregon, with his ne’er-do-well dad Ray (Travis Fimmel). Mom is long-gone, and Charlie’s only other family is his loving aunt Margy (Alison Elliott, “20th Century Women”), who he hasn’t seen since childhood after she and Ray had a squabble about how he’s been raising Charlie. (When Charlie was 12, Ray left the boy alone for several days to spend time with a woman.)
Their new house is near a racetrack, and Charlie ingratiates himself with small-time horse owner Del (Steve Buscemi), working with him at the stable and traveling with him to seedy races on the state-fair circuit. Along the way, Charlie befriends Bonnie (Chloë Sevigny), a jockey who rides Del’s horses from time to time. Bonnie tries to tell Charlie that the horses aren’t pets, and that he shouldn’t get attached, but it’s too late — he’s already bonded with an aging Quarter Horse named Lean on Pete, even though the racer is coming to the end of his career, likely to be “sent to Mexico” (where horses can be legally slaughtered) once his use to Del has run out.
Also Read: 'Boiled Angels: The Trial of Mike Diana' Film Review: Neil Gaiman, George Romero and Others Reflect on Free Speech
When the husband of Ray’s latest conquest beats Ray bad enough to send him to the hospital, Charlie has to elude Family Services while still earning money to keep up the household. But as Ray’s condition worsens, and Lean on Pete seems destined to be destroyed, Charlie steals Del’s truck in an attempt to save the horse and to look for Margy in Wyoming.
As you might imagine, Charlie’s journey gets more and more bleak as he faces starvation, thirst and eventual homelessness. But while “Lean on Pete” certainly has its dark moments, and its 119 minutes seem like it’s never going stop throwing obstacles in Charlie’s way, there’s ultimately a sense of hope here, much of it being communicated by Plummer, in an extraordinary performance. There’s so little calculation or actorliness in his work that I thought Haigh had found a 15-year-old non-actor; I was surprised to learn after the fact that Plummer is an experienced pro with an ascendant career. (He’s about to play kidnap victim John Paul Getty III in Ridley Scott’s forthcoming “All the Money in the World.”)
Also Read: 'Tyler Perry's Acrimony' Film Review: Taraji P. Henson Is Furious, But Is She Right?
The anguish and determination that Plummer can display with just a look or subtle motion is heartbreaking; this is the kind of naturalistic acting that can just kick you in the stomach. He’s part of a strong ensemble: Buscemi’s Del makes an honest mentor, but he doesn’t sugarcoat the character’s darker side. (And it’s fun to see the easy chemistry between Buscemi and Sevigny: she starred in his feature directorial debut “Trees Lounge” two decades ago.) Steve Zahn turns up as a mercurial homeless man who offers Charlie some help along the way, and Elliott (an indie stalwart since her breakout role in “The Spitfire Grill”) radiates a warmth that makes you realize why finding Margy is worth Charlie’s Herculean effort.
Haigh adjusts to a different kind of storytelling here: “Weekend” was fairly dialogue-heavy (as was, to an extent, his little-seen debut “Greek Pete”), and unlike “45 Days,” he can’t substitute dialogue with a meaningful glance from Charlotte Rampling. Still, he manages a lot of quiet here — with the exception of some exposition dumps that Charlie gives the horse in conversation — and his storytelling is no less powerful. Danish cinematographer Magnus Nordenhof Joenck (“A War”), also working in the States for the first time, collaborates with Haigh to place the characters into a very specific context, finding both beauty and horror in the American sprawl.
Your gut will be wrenched by “Lean on Pete,” but it’s also quite likely that your heart will be touched. It’s a powerful new entry for a director who is ever more deserving of attention, and it provides a spotlight for a talented young actor who would appear to be going places.
Read original story ‘Lean on Pete’ Review: Andrew Haigh’s Boy-and-His-Horse Tale Hits Hard At TheWrap...
- 4/4/2018
- by Alonso Duralde
- The Wrap
Andrew Haigh’s partner gave him a copy of Willy Vlautin’s Lean on Pete shortly after he finished making Weekend, and after falling in love with the way in which the author portrayed a sensitive, resilient teenage boy, he decided to turn it into a film. It would take Haigh roughly another six years or so to turn the novel into a film, in the meantime working on HBO’s Looking, and directing 45 Years which earned him critical acclaim. Perhaps the wait was for the best, since the years in between where the same during which actor Charlie Plummer broke out into the business, and given his work as Charley in Pete, it’s hard to believe any other actor could’ve been better. Haigh’s conversations with Plummer, which focused on Charley’s sensitivity and why this boy who steals a horse to rescue him from the slaughterhouse,...
- 4/4/2018
- by Jose Solís
- The Film Stage
Lean On Pete A24 Reviewed by: Harvey Karten Director: Andrew Haigh Screenwriter: Andrew Haigh, novel by Willy Vlautin Cast: Charley Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloë Sevigny, Travis Fimmel Screened at: Park Ave., NYC, 1/31/18 Opens: April 1, 2018 There’s not a single reference to politics in “Lean on Pete,” but people in the audience who are […]
The post Lean on Pete Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
The post Lean on Pete Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.
- 4/1/2018
- by Harvey Karten
- ShockYa
I've got a trailer here for a great looking film called Lean on Pete. The movie tells the story of a boy and his horse, but before you write it off, watch this trailer. This is a film that tells a moving and heartwarming tale. With all of the crazy shit going on in the world right now, a movie like this seems like a breath of fresh air.
In case you need a little extra push to want to see the movie, it stars Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny. The main character in the film, Charlie, is played by a young man named Charlie Plummer. The movie is based on Willy Vlautin's acclaimed novel and this is the synopsis:
Charley Thompson is a 15-year-old who has no stability in his life. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year.
In case you need a little extra push to want to see the movie, it stars Steve Buscemi and Chloë Sevigny. The main character in the film, Charlie, is played by a young man named Charlie Plummer. The movie is based on Willy Vlautin's acclaimed novel and this is the synopsis:
Charley Thompson is a 15-year-old who has no stability in his life. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school he can attend for more than part of a year.
- 12/8/2017
- by Joey Paur
- GeekTyrant
Charlie Plummer is on a mission in the trailer for Lean on Pete.
Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) directed the adaptation of Willy Vlautin's novel, which stars Plummer as a lonely teen who bonds with the titular aging racehorse. Upon learning from the horse's owner (Steve Buscemi) that the animal is set to be slaughtered, the boy takes extreme measures to save its life and heads on a trip across America.
Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel are also among the cast of the film, which first debuted to strong reviews earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival.
A24 will...
Andrew Haigh (Weekend, 45 Years) directed the adaptation of Willy Vlautin's novel, which stars Plummer as a lonely teen who bonds with the titular aging racehorse. Upon learning from the horse's owner (Steve Buscemi) that the animal is set to be slaughtered, the boy takes extreme measures to save its life and heads on a trip across America.
Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel are also among the cast of the film, which first debuted to strong reviews earlier this year at the Venice Film Festival.
A24 will...
- 12/7/2017
- by Ashley Lee
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After his stellar pair of dramas, 45 Years and Weekend, Andrew Haigh returned with his latest theatrical feature Lean on Pete at the fall festival circuit. An adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same title, Charlie Plummer stars as Charley Thompson, a fifteen-year-old who takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer and befriends a horse.
With a cast also including Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, and Thomas Mann, A24 is saving it for a spring 2018 release and now the first trailer has landed. We said in our review, “large portions of his latest film, Lean on Pete, while exquisitely photographed, are devoted to admiring those stunning vistas, but you might be left wondering what happened to the plot.”
See the trailer below.
Charley Thompson is a 15-year-old who has no stability in his life. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school...
With a cast also including Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, and Thomas Mann, A24 is saving it for a spring 2018 release and now the first trailer has landed. We said in our review, “large portions of his latest film, Lean on Pete, while exquisitely photographed, are devoted to admiring those stunning vistas, but you might be left wondering what happened to the plot.”
See the trailer below.
Charley Thompson is a 15-year-old who has no stability in his life. He wants a home, food on the table and a high school...
- 12/7/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
‘Lean on Pete’ Trailer: ’45 Years’ Director Andrew Haigh Returns With a Powerful Coming-of-Age Story
In his acclaimed directorial efforts “Weekend” and “45 Years,” Andrew Haigh has proved to be a master at investigating the intimate depths of human relationships. “Lean on Pete” represents a new kind of challenge in that its tells the story of a teenager’s connection with a horse, but Haigh still approaches this relationship with his trademark humanism.
Read More:‘Lean on Pete’ Review: Andrew Haigh Delivers an Understated Coming-of-Age Story About a Boy and His Horse
“Lean on Pete” is adapted from the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin. Charlie Plummer stars as 15-year-old Charley Thompson, who moves to Portland, Oregon with his father and befriends the workers at a local racetrack for horses. Charley gets a job looking after an aging Quarter Horse named Lean On Pete and bonds with its owner (Steve Buscemi) and jockey (Chloë Sevigny). When the teenager is ordered to bring Pete to the slaughterhouse,...
Read More:‘Lean on Pete’ Review: Andrew Haigh Delivers an Understated Coming-of-Age Story About a Boy and His Horse
“Lean on Pete” is adapted from the novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin. Charlie Plummer stars as 15-year-old Charley Thompson, who moves to Portland, Oregon with his father and befriends the workers at a local racetrack for horses. Charley gets a job looking after an aging Quarter Horse named Lean On Pete and bonds with its owner (Steve Buscemi) and jockey (Chloë Sevigny). When the teenager is ordered to bring Pete to the slaughterhouse,...
- 12/7/2017
- by Zack Sharf
- Indiewire
As we’ve learned from Andrew Haigh, director of “45 Years” and “Weekend,” he knows how to make tough but tender dramas. And once again, he’ll be beautifully breaking our hearts with “Lean On Pete,” and the first trailer might just have you reaching for the Kleenex.
Based on the beloved novel by Willy Vlautin, and starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Thomas Mann, and Amy Seimetz, the film tells the story of a teenage Charley, who finds a reprieve from his knockabout home life in a horse named Lean On Pete.
Continue reading ‘Lean On Pete’ Trailer: Andrew Haigh’s Heartbreaking Horse Story at The Playlist.
Based on the beloved novel by Willy Vlautin, and starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny, Steve Zahn, Thomas Mann, and Amy Seimetz, the film tells the story of a teenage Charley, who finds a reprieve from his knockabout home life in a horse named Lean On Pete.
Continue reading ‘Lean On Pete’ Trailer: Andrew Haigh’s Heartbreaking Horse Story at The Playlist.
- 12/7/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Lean On Pete Review Lean On Pete (2017) Film Review from the 74th Annual Venice International Film Festival, a movie directed by Andrew Haigh, starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, and Chloë Sevigny. Adapted from the eponymous novel by Willy Vlautin, Haigh gives us a touching story about a young man’s odyssey through hard times and [...]
Continue reading: Film Review: Lean On Pete: A touching tale of a boy’s search for home [Venice 2017]...
Continue reading: Film Review: Lean On Pete: A touching tale of a boy’s search for home [Venice 2017]...
- 9/11/2017
- by PopcornMovieMaiden
- Film-Book
Leaving one’s comfort zone is seldom easy. When it comes to the world of filmmaking it’s a fact that might apply to directors more than others in the business. Credit should always be given to those brave (or maybe foolhardy) enough to do so. This is especially true when considering location, more so when it comes to somewhere like the United States, a difficulty even further magnified comes to that nation’s countryside. Indeed, for every Paris, Texas there is at least one This Must Be The Place. Andrew Haigh, whose films to this point have been drenched in the authenticity of his British midlands locales, might have fallen victim to this particular juju and gotten tipsy on all that rural iconography. Indeed, large portions of his latest film, Lean on Pete, while exquisitely photographed, are devoted to admiring those stunning vistas, but you might be left wondering what happened to the plot.
- 9/3/2017
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
Two years ago, Andrew Haigh directed Charlotte Rampling to her first Oscar nomination in the domestic drama “45 Years.” He returns to the Oscar race this year with “Lean on Pete,” which he also adapted from Willy Vlautin‘s 2010 bestselling novel of the same name about a teenage boy who befriends a failing racehorse. This […]...
- 9/1/2017
- by Paul Sheehan
- Gold Derby
Following his stellar drama 45 Years, Andrew Haigh is back on the festival circuit with Lean on Pete, an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same title. One of our most-anticipated fall festival premieres, it recently debuted at Venice and ahead of our review, we have the first clip. Charlie Plummer stars as Charley Thompson, a fifteen-year-old who takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer and befriends a horse. With a cast also including Chloë Sevigny, Steve Buscemi, Steve Zahn, and Thomas Mann, A24 is expected to release the film next year.
“Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin is a wonderfully humane novel. It is a story of a kid that refuses to lose hope or heart despite the harsh realities of his world,” Haigh says in a director’s statement. “I found it immensely moving, tender and yet never sentimental. I wanted the film to have the same sense of purity.
“Lean On Pete by Willy Vlautin is a wonderfully humane novel. It is a story of a kid that refuses to lose hope or heart despite the harsh realities of his world,” Haigh says in a director’s statement. “I found it immensely moving, tender and yet never sentimental. I wanted the film to have the same sense of purity.
- 9/1/2017
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
This adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel about lost souls saddled with a fading racehorse gets lost out on the range – but you end up rooting for it
Lassie came home and Willy was freed but the omens aren’t looking good for Lean on Pete, the imperilled racehorse at the centre of Andrew Haigh’s heart-rending creature feature. Pete, we soon learn, is overworked and past his prime, destined to be sold south for slaughter as soon as he loses his next race. And while Disney might conspire a happy ending for this horse, it’s likely that British-born Haigh has a different destination in mind.
Flushed with the homegrown success of Weekend and the brilliant 45 Years, Haigh’s first American-set picture fairly wallows in hardship and misery, almost to a fault. It proceeds to cut Pete loose, point him towards the desert and then drags its anxious audience along for the ride.
Lassie came home and Willy was freed but the omens aren’t looking good for Lean on Pete, the imperilled racehorse at the centre of Andrew Haigh’s heart-rending creature feature. Pete, we soon learn, is overworked and past his prime, destined to be sold south for slaughter as soon as he loses his next race. And while Disney might conspire a happy ending for this horse, it’s likely that British-born Haigh has a different destination in mind.
Flushed with the homegrown success of Weekend and the brilliant 45 Years, Haigh’s first American-set picture fairly wallows in hardship and misery, almost to a fault. It proceeds to cut Pete loose, point him towards the desert and then drags its anxious audience along for the ride.
- 9/1/2017
- by Xan Brooks
- The Guardian - Film News
“Sorry I can’t give you more.” Ray (Travis Fimmel) doesn’t speak much — it’s hard to talk with a can of beer pressed to your lips — so everything he says in his unplaceable twang carries a kind of double weight. His words might be the only thing in his life that he’s ever chosen carefully. So when he sits on the porch of his rundown Portland house, holds out a wad of cash, and apologizes to his towheaded teenage son that he only has $20 to spare, it’s easy to understand that Ray’s not just talking about the money.
It’s not that he’s a bad guy, necessarily, he’s just weak. A screw-up. He loves Charley (Charlie Plummer), and he’s raised the kid by himself after his ex-wife skipped out on them both, but he can’t hold down on a job to save his life,...
It’s not that he’s a bad guy, necessarily, he’s just weak. A screw-up. He loves Charley (Charlie Plummer), and he’s raised the kid by himself after his ex-wife skipped out on them both, but he can’t hold down on a job to save his life,...
- 9/1/2017
- by David Ehrlich
- Indiewire
What reads on the surface like an archetypal tale of a boy and his horse becomes an affecting snapshot of the contemporary American underclass in Andrew Haigh's lovely, slow-burning drama Lean on Pete. Poverty and broken families are less a subject of this delicate film than an integral part of its texture. Adapted from the novel by writer-musician Willy Vlautin, this is a compassionately observed story told with unimpeachable naturalism and without a grain of sentimentality, propelled by a remarkable performance from Charlie Plummer that's both internalized and emotionally raw.
The triple launch platform of Venice, Telluride and Toronto festival slots...
The triple launch platform of Venice, Telluride and Toronto festival slots...
- 9/1/2017
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
After “Weekend” and “45 Years,” we’ll pretty much watch anything Andrew Haigh does, which is why “Lean On Pete” has been a film we’ve been eagerly awaiting. Now, it’s set to unspool in Venice and Telluride, and the first taste of the film has landed.
Based on the book by Willy Vlautin, and starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, and Chloë Sevigny, the story revolves around a young boy seeking stability in his life, who finds communion and something to care for in a horse.
Continue reading ‘Lean On Pete’ Clip: Steve Buscemi Is A Horse Whisperer at The Playlist.
Based on the book by Willy Vlautin, and starring Charlie Plummer, Steve Buscemi, and Chloë Sevigny, the story revolves around a young boy seeking stability in his life, who finds communion and something to care for in a horse.
Continue reading ‘Lean On Pete’ Clip: Steve Buscemi Is A Horse Whisperer at The Playlist.
- 8/31/2017
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Exclusive: Focus Features among buyers of upcoming Andrew Haigh drama.
Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete has sold out worldwide as joint sales agents The Bureau Sales and Celluloid Dreams have closed a slew of deals on the upcoming Us-set drama.
The most high-profile new deals is with Focus Features, who have picked up German speaking territories, Scandinavia and most of Asia and Eastern Europe.
Further deals have been done with Japan (Gaga), Australia (Transmission), Latin America (Sun), Spain (Diamond), Poland (Monolith), Ex Yugoslavia (Blitz), Portugal (Alambique) and airlines (Skeye).
Previously announced deals include A24 for North America, Curzon Artificial Eye for the UK, as well as France (Ad Vitam), Italy (Teodora), Benelux (Imagine), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Seven), Korea (Beetwin), China (DDDream).
Written and directed by Haigh and adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name, Lean On Pete stars rising star Charlie Plummer as a fifteen-year-old boy who takes a summer job with a...
Andrew Haigh’s Lean On Pete has sold out worldwide as joint sales agents The Bureau Sales and Celluloid Dreams have closed a slew of deals on the upcoming Us-set drama.
The most high-profile new deals is with Focus Features, who have picked up German speaking territories, Scandinavia and most of Asia and Eastern Europe.
Further deals have been done with Japan (Gaga), Australia (Transmission), Latin America (Sun), Spain (Diamond), Poland (Monolith), Ex Yugoslavia (Blitz), Portugal (Alambique) and airlines (Skeye).
Previously announced deals include A24 for North America, Curzon Artificial Eye for the UK, as well as France (Ad Vitam), Italy (Teodora), Benelux (Imagine), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Greece (Seven), Korea (Beetwin), China (DDDream).
Written and directed by Haigh and adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name, Lean On Pete stars rising star Charlie Plummer as a fifteen-year-old boy who takes a summer job with a...
- 5/20/2017
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Lean on Pete
Director: Andrew Haigh
Writer: Andrew Haigh
British filmmaker Andrew Haigh may possibly unveil two new projects this year, the first being Lean on Pete, which he adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel about a fifteen year old who goes in search of his aunt after he’s abandoned by his father.
Continue reading...
Director: Andrew Haigh
Writer: Andrew Haigh
British filmmaker Andrew Haigh may possibly unveil two new projects this year, the first being Lean on Pete, which he adapted from Willy Vlautin’s novel about a fifteen year old who goes in search of his aunt after he’s abandoned by his father.
Continue reading...
- 1/8/2017
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
Exclusive: Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years follow-up stars Charlie Plummer and Steve Buscemi.
Screen can exclusively reveal the first image from Lean On Pete, the new feature from director Andrew Haigh following his critically-acclaimed drama 45 Years.
Produced by The Bureau, the picture stars Charlie Plummer in the lead role of Charley Thompson, a fifteen-year-old boy who takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer. There, he befriends a failing racehorse named Lean On Pete.
Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel also feature in a cast that has added Steve Zahn, Amy Seimetz, and Thomas Mann.
The film is an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name. Tristan Goligher is producing for The Bureau and the project was co-developed and funded by the BFI and Film4.
Andrew Haigh commented: “Willy’s book is unsentimental, honest, and deeply affecting. I’ve thought about Charley Thompson every day since I first read the book four years...
Screen can exclusively reveal the first image from Lean On Pete, the new feature from director Andrew Haigh following his critically-acclaimed drama 45 Years.
Produced by The Bureau, the picture stars Charlie Plummer in the lead role of Charley Thompson, a fifteen-year-old boy who takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer. There, he befriends a failing racehorse named Lean On Pete.
Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel also feature in a cast that has added Steve Zahn, Amy Seimetz, and Thomas Mann.
The film is an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name. Tristan Goligher is producing for The Bureau and the project was co-developed and funded by the BFI and Film4.
Andrew Haigh commented: “Willy’s book is unsentimental, honest, and deeply affecting. I’ve thought about Charley Thompson every day since I first read the book four years...
- 9/10/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Exclusive: Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years follow-up stars Charlie Plummer and Steve Buscemi.
Screen can exclusively reveal the first image from Lean On Pete, the new feature from director Andrew Haigh following his critically-acclaimed drama 45 Years.
Produced by The Bureau, the picture stars Charlie Plummer in the lead role of Charley Thompson, a boy who, hoping for a new start, takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer. He then embarks on a perilous journey in search of his long lost aunt and a possible home, his only companion the stolen racehorse Lean on Pete.
Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel also feature in a cast that has added Steve Zahn, Amy Seimetz, and Thomas Mann.
The film is an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name. Tristan Goligher is producing for The Bureau and Film4 is co-financing.
Andrew Haigh commented: “Willy’s book is unsentimental, honest, and deeply...
Screen can exclusively reveal the first image from Lean On Pete, the new feature from director Andrew Haigh following his critically-acclaimed drama 45 Years.
Produced by The Bureau, the picture stars Charlie Plummer in the lead role of Charley Thompson, a boy who, hoping for a new start, takes a summer job with a washed-up horse trainer. He then embarks on a perilous journey in search of his long lost aunt and a possible home, his only companion the stolen racehorse Lean on Pete.
Steve Buscemi, Chloe Sevigny and Travis Fimmel also feature in a cast that has added Steve Zahn, Amy Seimetz, and Thomas Mann.
The film is an adaptation of Willy Vlautin’s novel of the same name. Tristan Goligher is producing for The Bureau and Film4 is co-financing.
Andrew Haigh commented: “Willy’s book is unsentimental, honest, and deeply...
- 9/10/2016
- by tom.grater@screendaily.com (Tom Grater)
- ScreenDaily
Based on the 2006 debut novel by musician Willy Vlautin, The Motel Life also marks the directorial debut of brothers Alan and Gabe Polsky. It is apropos that a story about two brothers be told by two brothers, and the Polskys have some semblance of a track record, both having produced Werner Herzog’s Bad Lieutenant remake. In this instance, they find themselves behind the camera in the bleak, uncompromising Sierra Nevadan frontier, as one traumatic accident sends two brothers into a tailspin.
Read more...
Read more...
- 7/25/2014
- by Kyle North
- JustPressPlay.net
Blu-ray & DVD Release Date: June 3, 2014
Price: DVD $14.93, Blu-ray $19.97
Studio: Cinedigm
Emile Hirsch (Bonnie & Clyde) and Stephen Dorff (Immortals) are brothers in trouble in independent film The Motel Life.
The drama movie is based on the novel by Willy Vlautin and focuses on Frank (Hirsch) and Jerry Lee (Dorff) who are forced to race across the state to the home of Frank’s old girlfriend Annie (Dakota Fanning, The Runaways) after Jerry Lee is involved in a hit and run accident.
Although they seem safe from the law, Jerry Lee becomes increasing instable from grief, putting them all at risk.
Featuring animation from award-winner Mike Smith (ParaNorman), The Motel Life is the first feature film directed by Alan Polsky and Gabe Polsky, producers of The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans.
Kris Kristofferson (Deadfall) also stars in the indie film, which got plenty of love from critics. Hollywood Reporter...
Price: DVD $14.93, Blu-ray $19.97
Studio: Cinedigm
Emile Hirsch (Bonnie & Clyde) and Stephen Dorff (Immortals) are brothers in trouble in independent film The Motel Life.
The drama movie is based on the novel by Willy Vlautin and focuses on Frank (Hirsch) and Jerry Lee (Dorff) who are forced to race across the state to the home of Frank’s old girlfriend Annie (Dakota Fanning, The Runaways) after Jerry Lee is involved in a hit and run accident.
Although they seem safe from the law, Jerry Lee becomes increasing instable from grief, putting them all at risk.
Featuring animation from award-winner Mike Smith (ParaNorman), The Motel Life is the first feature film directed by Alan Polsky and Gabe Polsky, producers of The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call — New Orleans.
Kris Kristofferson (Deadfall) also stars in the indie film, which got plenty of love from critics. Hollywood Reporter...
- 5/8/2014
- by Sam
- Disc Dish
★★★★☆The hard-drinking, hobo-like existence of the two main characters from real-life siblings Alan and Gabe Polsky's The Motel Life (2012) recalls the kind of blighted figures and transient lives found in the pages of those classic State-side literary works which trawl the American underbelly. The drab wood-panelled watering holes and charmless cut-rate casinos the duo frequent feel like they've been ripped straight of a Bukowski novel, but the film (itself an adaptation of a novel by writer and musician Willy Vlautin) has a surprisingly strong personality of its own, offering up a low-key, yet consistently absorbing character study of life on the fringes of conventional contemporary society.
- 4/8/2014
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
Alan and Gabe Polsky's film about two hobo brothers on the run labours with heroes who are neither sympathetic or interesting
Brothers Alan and Gabe Polsky have established themselves in the last five years as indie La producers with a line in literary projects: they reportedly own the rights to biographies of Freud and Einstein, and brought Werner Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant to the screen. One of their properties was a 2006 novel by the country singer Willy Vlautin, The Motel Life, about two hobo brothers on the run. James Franco was once said to be attached to direct, but the Polskys evidently decided to get the job done themselves and made their own joint directing debut with this 2012 film. Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch play brothers in Reno, Nevada, who are bonded by a tough childhood and have no one in their lives but each other. They do odd jobs,...
Brothers Alan and Gabe Polsky have established themselves in the last five years as indie La producers with a line in literary projects: they reportedly own the rights to biographies of Freud and Einstein, and brought Werner Herzog's remake of Bad Lieutenant to the screen. One of their properties was a 2006 novel by the country singer Willy Vlautin, The Motel Life, about two hobo brothers on the run. James Franco was once said to be attached to direct, but the Polskys evidently decided to get the job done themselves and made their own joint directing debut with this 2012 film. Stephen Dorff and Emile Hirsch play brothers in Reno, Nevada, who are bonded by a tough childhood and have no one in their lives but each other. They do odd jobs,...
- 4/3/2014
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
The Motel Life is adapted by Alan and Gabe Polsky, from the debut novel by American writer and musician Willy Vlautin, frontman of alt-country critical darlings Richmond Fontaine. Vlautin’s songs and novels chiefly deal with the disenfranchised no-hopers on the fringes of the American dream, desperate people who make desperate choices. And so it is with The Motel Life.
The film follows the plot of the book faithfully, the story of brothers Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, played by Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff, respectively. Neither brother has much going for them. It’s implied that they’ve been drifters ever since their mother died and Jerry Lee lost a leg in an accident with a train. They move from motel to motel, the drab walls given some semblance of life by Jerry Lee’s drawings. The two escape their mundane struggles through Frank’s stories, where they play...
The film follows the plot of the book faithfully, the story of brothers Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, played by Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff, respectively. Neither brother has much going for them. It’s implied that they’ve been drifters ever since their mother died and Jerry Lee lost a leg in an accident with a train. They move from motel to motel, the drab walls given some semblance of life by Jerry Lee’s drawings. The two escape their mundane struggles through Frank’s stories, where they play...
- 4/2/2014
- by Mark Grassick
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Well, it's been a long time coming, nearly a year in fact since its 2012 Rome Film Festival debut, where it picked up three awards—editing, screenplay and the coveted Audience Award—but "The Motel Life" (our review here) is finally making its way onto screens this week. The debut film from producing-turned-directing brothers Gabe and Alan Polsky, starring Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff with Dakota Fanning in a small role, the film is based on the 2006 novel by musician and writer Willy Vlautin and tells the story of two brothers who flee their Reno motel after getting involved in a fatal hit-and-run accident.While they're new on the scene as directorial talents, the brothers have been around for a while, producing Werner Herzog's lunatic "Bad Lieutenant: Port Of Call - New Orleans" and the Juno Temple film "Little Birds," and having an in-development slate that currently boasts no fewer than seven titles.
- 11/8/2013
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
In The Motel Life, Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff play two brothers, Frank and Jerry, who are living a lonesome country tune’s tale, with specific accents on their bad luck. When Jerry becomes involved in a hit-and-run accident, the two flee their Reno motel for some type of other home, continuing their existence as whiskey-drinking, fantasy-drawing vagabonds. Dakota Fanning stars as Hirsch’s fixation, Annie James, and Kris Kristofferson appears for a few scenes as their working-class daddy figure Earl Hurley. The Motel Life is based on the novel by Willy Vlautin.
Featuring two raggedy performances from the nicely paired Dorff and Hirsch, The Motel Life is a drama that functions well with its influences, namely the Coen Brothers’ romanticism of cold, bad luck, and bits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s own debut Hard Eight.
The Polsky Brothers made their break into the business with their producing work on...
Featuring two raggedy performances from the nicely paired Dorff and Hirsch, The Motel Life is a drama that functions well with its influences, namely the Coen Brothers’ romanticism of cold, bad luck, and bits of Paul Thomas Anderson’s own debut Hard Eight.
The Polsky Brothers made their break into the business with their producing work on...
- 11/8/2013
- by Nick Allen
- The Scorecard Review
Chicago – Alan and Gabe Polsky are brothers, film producers and now directors. The sibling tandem make their debut with “The Motel Life,” featuring Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff as disparate brothers trying to make a go in life with no money and no prospects, just a series of random motels and their unbreakable kinship.
Alan and Gabe Polsky for ‘The Motel Life,’ on the Red Carpet during the Chicago International Film Festival
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com
Brothers Alan and Gabe Polsky are known as producers, for notable films like “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans” (2009) and the HBO documentary “His Way” (2011, profiling producer Jerry Weintraub). “The Motel Life” is the first time as directors, adapting the source novel by Willy Vlautin. This is a stylish film, with an added touch of animation to fulfill the fantasy elements of storytelling between the film brothers.
Alan and Gabe Polsky for ‘The Motel Life,’ on the Red Carpet during the Chicago International Film Festival
Photo credit: Joe Arce of Starstruck Foto for HollywoodChicago.com
Brothers Alan and Gabe Polsky are known as producers, for notable films like “The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans” (2009) and the HBO documentary “His Way” (2011, profiling producer Jerry Weintraub). “The Motel Life” is the first time as directors, adapting the source novel by Willy Vlautin. This is a stylish film, with an added touch of animation to fulfill the fantasy elements of storytelling between the film brothers.
- 11/7/2013
- by adam@hollywoodchicago.com (Adam Fendelman)
- HollywoodChicago.com
Following a debut at the Rome Film Festival last year, and appearances in Chicago and Philadelphia, the new drama The Motel Life is finally heading to theaters. Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff star in the film as two brothers living in Reno, Nevada, trying to hide evidence of a fatal accident one of them caused. While the plot is pretty basic, what really makes this one stick out is the inclusion of animated segments for parts of the story. In the trailer, they seem a little out of place, but maybe they work better in the context of the film's story presentation. Also, Dakota Fanning continues to grow up before our eyes. Watch below! Here's the first trailer for Gabe & Alan Polsky's The Motel Life, originally from Yahoo: The Motel Life is directed by Gabe & Alan Polsky and written by Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster, based on the novel of...
- 9/23/2013
- by Ethan Anderton
- firstshowing.net
On the surface, there should be nothing particularly special about producer-turned-director brothers Gabe and Alan Polsky's debut, "The Motel Life," which premieres tonight at the Rome Film Festival. Threatening to sound like indie-by-numbers on paper, the film, based on the well-received novel of the same name by Willy Vlautin, is indeed familiar in its downbeat, disenfranchised Americana setting and even some of its themes: familial love, redemption and the fragility of hope in the face of ill-starred circumstance. But while it doesn't reinvent the wheel, or revolutionize the genre, it achieves its modest ambitions affectingly well, in no small part due to a clutch of cherishable performances, especially from leads Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff, as brothers Frank and Jerry Lee. And beyond being well-performed, it has an inspired ace up its sleeve. Interspersed within the minor-key drama, but somehow never interrupting its flow, are brief pencil animations,...
- 11/16/2012
- by Jessica Kiang
- The Playlist
With an excellent leading trio in the form of Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch, and Stephen Dorff, The Motel Life is certainly a drama to look out for next year.
The film will be screening as part of the Rome Film Festival, which kicks off in earnest on Friday, and ahead of its debut, half a dozen first-look images have made their way online, giving us a great look at Fanning, Hirsch, and Dorff.
“The Motel Life explores the intense bond between two brothers living on the fringes of Reno, Nevada. Orphaned early, they grew up depending on their big imaginations to escape the challenges of their transient life. When one of the brothers is involved in a fatal accident, it forces both of them to chose between running away or facing reality. It is a story of brotherhood, shared dreams and the redemptive power of hope.”
The film marks the...
The film will be screening as part of the Rome Film Festival, which kicks off in earnest on Friday, and ahead of its debut, half a dozen first-look images have made their way online, giving us a great look at Fanning, Hirsch, and Dorff.
“The Motel Life explores the intense bond between two brothers living on the fringes of Reno, Nevada. Orphaned early, they grew up depending on their big imaginations to escape the challenges of their transient life. When one of the brothers is involved in a fatal accident, it forces both of them to chose between running away or facing reality. It is a story of brotherhood, shared dreams and the redemptive power of hope.”
The film marks the...
- 11/8/2012
- by Kenji Lloyd
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Nope, the festival season isn't over yet. The Rome Film Festival gets underway this weekend, and our Jessica Kiang will be on the ground fueled on espressos and cinemas to bring us coverage. But before that, we've got a few sneaks at some of the movies coming up, and the first is from "The Motel Life." Don't worry if you forgot about this movie, it was over a year ago when we last reported anything on it, but it stars the promising trio of Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff in the thriller based on the novel by Willy Vlautin about two brothers who, following a fatal hit-and-run accident, flee their Reno motel room. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster penned the screenplay with Alan and Gabriel Polsky directing. Here's the official synopsis: The Motel Life explores the intense bond between two brothers living on the fringes of Reno, Nevada.
- 11/7/2012
- by Kevin Jagernauth
- The Playlist
Exclusive: The rooms at "The Motel Life" are getting a little more full as reps for indie actor Joshua Leonard ("Humpday," "Bitter Feast") have confirmed to the The Playlist that he has joined the film. Leonard joins a cast that currently includes Dakota Fanning, Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff in the thriller based on the novel by Willy Vlautin about two brothers who, following a fatal hit-and-run accident, flee their Reno motel room. Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster penned the screenplay with Alan and Gabriel Polsky directing. Production on the film is already underway. Leonard is off to a hot…...
- 2/28/2011
- The Playlist
Dakota Fanning is probably the busiest girl in Hollywood these days.
Few days ago we reported that young actress is set to star in the upcoming Mississippi Wild opposite Ryan Donowho, and today, we’re here to report she will star in The Motel Life as well, together with Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff. But, The Motel Life comes first!
So, Fanning will shoot The Motel Life this month together with above mentioned Hirsch and Dorff.
Alan and Gabe Polsky will produce and direct the movie through their Polsky Films banner, with Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster scripting.
It’s an adaptation of the novel by Willy Vlautin that follows: “a few weeks in the broken lives of two working-class brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, who abruptly ditch their Reno motel after Jerry Lee drunkenly kills a boy on a bicycle in a hit-and-run.
The two are case studies...
Few days ago we reported that young actress is set to star in the upcoming Mississippi Wild opposite Ryan Donowho, and today, we’re here to report she will star in The Motel Life as well, together with Emile Hirsch and Stephen Dorff. But, The Motel Life comes first!
So, Fanning will shoot The Motel Life this month together with above mentioned Hirsch and Dorff.
Alan and Gabe Polsky will produce and direct the movie through their Polsky Films banner, with Micah Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster scripting.
It’s an adaptation of the novel by Willy Vlautin that follows: “a few weeks in the broken lives of two working-class brothers, Frank and Jerry Lee Flannigan, who abruptly ditch their Reno motel after Jerry Lee drunkenly kills a boy on a bicycle in a hit-and-run.
The two are case studies...
- 2/22/2011
- by Fiona
- Filmofilia
It looks like Stephen Dorff is going to find out what working with the other Fanning sister is like. Variety reports that Dakota Fanning has signed on for a couple of films that should keep her busy for the next little while. First up, she's come aboard "The Motel Life" that currently has Emile Hirsch set to star and recently added the aforementoined Dorff. Based on the novel by Willy Vlautin, the story “centers on two brothers who flee their Reno motel room after getting involved in…...
- 2/16/2011
- The Playlist
Stephen Dorff will star opposite Emile Hirsch in the adaptation of Willy Vlautin's novel "The Motel Life."According to Variety, Alan and Gabriel Polsky ("Bad Lieutenant: Port of New Orleans") are producing through their Polsky Films.The brothers will also direct and adapt the script.The film centers on two brothers (Dorff, Hirsch) who flee their Reno motel room after getting mixed up in a deadly hit-and-run accident.Shooting is expected to begin later this year in Reno.Dorff was last seen in Sofia Coppola's "Somewhere," opposite Elle Fanning. He appears in the upcoming films "Born to be a Star" and "Immortals."...
- 2/14/2011
- by Adnan Tezer
- Monsters and Critics
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