Summit Entertainment and Roadside Attractions have released the first trailer for the Philip Roth adaptation Indignation. The 1950s-set drama stars Logan Lerman as a precocious young Jewish boy who travels on scholarship to a small, conservative college in Ohio where he begins to blossom into the man he will become—parents and teachers be damned. I was able to catch the movie at Sundance this year and it’s pretty terrific, featuring a downright phenomenal turn from Lerman that marks his best performance to date. Moreover, the film features a 15-minute tet-a-tete between Lerman and Tracy Letts, playing the college dean, that is worth the price of admission alone. You can read my full review right here.
This trailer is, to be frank, a little odd. The movie is nowhere near as dour and foreboding as this trailer would lead you to believe, as it’s actually quite funny. It marks the feature directorial debut of writer/director James Schamus, who spent years as the head of Focus Features and produced films like Brokeback Mountain and Hulk and makes a successful transition to filmmaker here with a rare good Philip Roth adaptation.
So check out the trailer below, but don’t be put off its self-seriousness. The film also stars Sarah Gadon, Pico Alexander, Danny Burstein, Linda Emond, and Ben Rosenfield. Indignation opens in theaters on July 29th.
Here’s the official synopsis for Indignation:
Based on Philip Roth’s late novel, Indignation takes place in 1951, as Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman), a brilliant working class Jewish boy from Newark, New Jersey, travels on scholarship to a small, conservative college in Ohio, thus exempting him from being drafted into the Korean War. But once there, Marcus’s growing infatuation with his beautiful classmate Olivia Hutton (Sarah Gadon), and his clashes with the college’s imposing Dean, Hawes Caudwell (Tracy Letts), put his and his family’s best laid plans to the ultimate test.
