By Shannon Hood and Jane Almirall
On day two, we got several screenings in, and an interview. Here’s how it all went down.
Mother’s Day Directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. Starring Jaime King, Rebecca De Mornay, and Deborah Ann Woll.
Jane’ thoughts: Mother’s Day is an interesting remake of the 1980 Charles Kaufman feature. Bousman updates the original by changing the story from a camping trip gone wrong (in which several campers are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family) to a horrifying tale of home invasion – based on actual events – (in which friends at a birthday party are held hostage and terrorized by a criminally insane family).
Mother’s Day maintains a palpable tension throughout it’s running time as the party-goers turned hostages are humiliated, tortured and killed by this extremely dysfunctional family. There are several nods to it’s roots in Troma – particularly Rebecca De Mornay’s performance, which is peppered with camp – though for the most part the torture and kill scenes play without a wink. This film went on a little bit long for my tastes, but to it’s credit kept my heart rate up for it’s entirety.
Interview: Edward Norton
Shannon: I got to attend a round table interview with Edward Norton, who was in Austin to promote Stone, co-starring Robert De Niro and Milla Jovovich.
Edward was charming and intelligent, and gave us some insight into how he prepared for his role as an inmate, why ambiguity is not a bad thing in movies, and gave us some details regarding the creative process that director John Curran worked through to bring the movie to fruition. Interview is forthcoming.
Continue Reading →
