Originally set to be released by Sony this past January 25th, then bumped over to their arthouse arm, Sony Pictures Classics and then selected as the opening film of the Un Certain Regard program at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Gus Van Sant‘s “Restless” has had a bit of a bumpy ride to the big screen. Now set to hit theaters this fall, a new trailer for the film has landed and you couldn’t find a quirkier movie this side of a bad Wes Anderson knockoff.
The film stars Mia Wasikowska, Henry Hopper, Schuyler Fisk and Ryo Kase and centers on the story of a terminally ill teenage girl (Wasikowska) who falls for a boy (Hopper) who likes to attend funerals and whose best friend just happens to be the ghost of a Japanese kamikaze pilot from WWII (Kase). We caught up with the film at Cannes and it was easily one of our biggest disappointments of the festival and one of the worst movies we saw. As the trailer attests, this is Van Sant in full on Mainstream Mode but even then, but it’s so anonymously directed we’re not sure why he bothered. While there could’ve been a tender movie about life and death and coming-of-age, Van Sant doesn’t miss a single moment to pile-drive every emotional beat by slathering the film in an indie rock soundtrack with Sufjan Stevens, Iron & Wine and even Nico‘s “These Days” making sure you know when to cry. And this is on top of a never ending series of quirks that fill the film: Death! Ghosts! Beautiful vintage clothing! Pixie girl haircuts! Brooding adolescence! If you are thirteen and have never heard of “Harold & Maude” you might dig this, but for everyone else, it will be overly familiar and warmed over.
So yeah, needless to say, this writer didn’t care for it and this newest trailer was only a reminder of its worse traits. But hey, maybe we were just cranky, jet-lagged and a little bummed we couldn’t snag a seat in the theater next to Rachel McAdams. Check out the trailer for yourself below along with a new poster for the film. “Restless” hits theaters on September 16th.
*My last comment was @Kevin
It would be ironic if he wrote for The Playlist, but alas, he doesn\’t.
Oh, okay. Yeah, that makes sense.
At 1:26, there\’s a quote from none other than IndieWire. Oh, the irony.
Thanks for the feedback Ryan. That particular article you link to was written by another writer who hasn\’t seen the film yet and was based on his impressions of the script. However, even he said at the time: \”Yes, the teenagers have their angst, but trust us, we\’re the first to be put-off by this tone if it doesn\’t ring true.\”
And as the film bears out, the tone doesn\’t ring true at all hence the thoughts expressed in this post.
Back before this was a movie, ThePlaylist posted an entry speculating that \’Restless\’ could be Gus Van Sant\’s \’Most Unique Film Ever?\’ (http://theplaylist.blogspot.com/2009/11/gus-van-sants-restless-his-most-unique.html) And at the time I pointed out that it was a strange post, and didn\’t expand on that idea, but I think it just felt like a really bold statement, one which was wrong(?). I haven\’t seen the film, but I\’m supposing based on all I\’ve read about it, that it\’s not very good.
It\’s the idea that if Roger Ebert or some single blogger says \”Restless: Gus Van Sant\’s most unique film ever?\” and then it isn\’t, it would be weird for him to use titles for entires like \”relentless quirk fest \’restless\’\” without being like, \”Yo, I thought it was gonna be awesome, it kind of sucked, I was off.\” (and I totally may have missed that entry, and I\’ll eat my words if this has been explicitly clear elsewhere)
Or, I guess more specifically, if someone only read Gus Van Sant\’s \’Most Unique Film?\’ post two years ago and then went to see the movie and then said, \”Hey, that sucked\” and then went to the Playlist to say, \”Hey, that sucked,\” they\’d find posts like this and the perception might be, \”Yeah, we always knew it sucked,\” which I know isn\’t what you\’re saying, you use the word \”disappointed\” in this write up, but it could be accidentally perceived that way.
This is kind of a bullshit comment, and I really do appreciate all that you guys do. I know ThePlaylist was excited about the script and wanted to tell people and I think script reviews are great. It\’s just weird in the sort of anonymous landscape of the internet that an identity like The Playlist can often feel so fractured, as it is. I think a post (and, once again, maybe this has gone up in the past and I missed it) stating, \”Yo, we may have jumped the gun suggesting this could have been Van Sant\’s most unique film,\” or something like that, would make the site feel a bit more personal, less schizophrenic at times.
It\’s rare that this is even an issue for a site like you guys–you\’re usually dead-on in your predictions, as you were most notably with \”The Kids Are All Right\” last year. I was especially grateful that ya\’ll put that on my radar early.
You guys can totally just ignore this too as it is kind of bullshit and I understand that different writers for the site have different opinions.
I guess I just thought it was an interesting problem of multiple-writer blogs, or at least one worth discussing.
I don\’t know, I\’m just spitballing here.
did they lift the theme from badlands for this trailer? or is that just me