CinemaCon got a preview of new movies from Ethan Coen and Alexander Payne
Two of the most anticipated movies of the year are coming to art houses near you
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Focus Features brought the goods to CinemaCon. In addition to a new trailer from “the Marvel of specialty box office” Wes Anderson for Asteroid City and the trilogy capper My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3, Focus played trailers for Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers and Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls. Unfortunately, the studio didn’t release trailers publicly, but we can at least share what we saw.
Payne’s The Holdovers sees the director stepping back from the high-concept sci-fi satire of Downsizing, returning to high school for the first time since Election, and bringing back Paul Giamatti for the first time since Sideways. The brief clip looks like a throwback to 70s slice-of-life comedies, complete with heavy film grain that was very apparent on the giant screen at CinemaCon. The Holdovers follows a group of prep school students who don’t go home for Christmas and a disgruntled Paul Giamatti, sporting a constantly moving lazy eye, as a cranky teacher who goes too far in his verbal abuse of the kids. After telling a student (Dominic Sessa) that no one loves him, Giamatti discovers that the student’s father is dead. The pair strikes an unlikely friendship with the help of a school nurse played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph.
The coming-of-age story comes out in limited release on November 10 and everywhere on November 22.
As for Ethan Coen’s Drive-Away Dolls, anyone missing that classic Coen brothers style will be happy. This ain’t The Tragedy Of Macbeth. Drive-Away Dolls, written by Coen and Tricia Cooke and directed by Coen, puts the dumbasses doing crime a lá Burn After Reading and the Coens’ trademark frenetic camera work into a college road comedy. Based on the few moments shown today, Drive-Away Dolls could better explain how the Coens style came into being.
The plot is pure nonsense: Two college students come into possession of a gangster’s briefcase with some MacGuffin in it and take a road trip to Florida to avoid being killed. Drive-Away Dolls stars Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein, Pedro Pascal, Colman Domingo, Bill Camp, and Matt Damon.
The movie speeds into theaters on September 22.
10 Comments
Coen Brother, even if solo? Fuck yeah.Beanie Feldstein? Dammit.
Oh, she’s fine. And the rest of that cast is downright stellar. What’s up with the solo Coens, though? Did they have a falling out? Is Joel okay? Should I google these questions?
I think they finally got to the point where trying to synch up their lives for every project just wasn’t working any more. No falling out, best I can tell (granted they’re also famously private, so who knows).
Apparently Joel just wants to direct plays now. Carter Burwell has said that he’s read about a filing cabinet’s worth of finished scripts that the brothers wrote but never got around to and that some of them are amazing. Hopefully Ethan will dust off a couple of them down the line.
When are we getting the Election sequel, Tracy Flick Can’t Win?
We already had it in 2016.
They both look like they’re posing for a really awkward and uncomfortable police line-up. Get Eugene Levy in there somewhere, we could have the nerdiest and most socially inept remake of The Usual Suspects on our hands.
Alexander Payne is such a creep. Surprised more hasn’t come out about him over the years.
Yeah, for a website that likes to bring up Jason Sudeikis’s messy divorce every chance it gets, not mentioning Payne’s statutory rape accusation is a real missed opportunity for them.
Drive-Away Dolls, written by Coen and Tricia Cooke and directed by Coen, puts the dumbasses doing crime a lá Burn After Reading and the Coens’ trademark frenetic camera work into a college road comedy.“a lá”?