[This is a re-post of my Joe review from the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.  Joe opens today in limited release.]

After watching Prince Avalanche earlier this year, I hoped that director David Gordon Green would continue with smaller, more intimate stories. With his follow-up, Joe, he has not only built on the palette-cleanser of Prince Avalanche, but also delivered one of his best movies. Featuring tremendous performances from stars Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan as well as a cast of non-professional actors, Joe is both compassionate towards its characters and non-judgmental towards their actions. It’s a story about men teetering between honest living and losing all restraint with their violent tendencies. Casually and with great subtlety, Green examines not only the inner struggle to maintain control, but also how much responsibility we owe to others and the limits of that responsibility.

One of my favorite films of the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival was David Gordon Green‘s Joe.  Nicolas Cage plays the eponymous character who is trying to live a quiet life in a rural town, but must confront his inner demons when he meets and wants to protect Gary Jones (Tye Sheridan), a young man in danger of following in the footsteps of Joe’s dark past.  It’s a terrific movie, and I’m so glad that audiences will be able to see it next month.

Joe will open this year’s Atlanta Film Festival, so I got the chance to interview Green and Sheridan.  During our conversation, we talked about moving from studio features to a trilogy of indies (Prince Avalanche, Joe, and the upcoming Manglehorn), viewing the film as a western, Joe as the last man on the frontier, Green and Sheridan’s upcoming projects, the festival circuit, and much more.  There’s also a fun story of how Cage got Sheridan into a Snoop Dogg concert.  Hit the jump to check out the interview.  The 2014 Atlanta Film Festival begins tonight and runs to April 6th.  Joe opens in theaters and on VOD on April 11th.

Lionsgate has released the trailer and poster for David Gordon Green’s new drama, Joe. The overarching plot is about the relationship that forms between the troubled titular character (Nicolas Cage) and an abused teenager (Tye Sheridan), but it’s more of a character-driven piece about two people who are struggling against giving into the violence that pervades their lives. It’s a powerful film, and while I’m flattered that they’ve quoted my review on the poster and in the trailer, I think the trailer goes too deep into the picture, although it does give a good sense of the main theme.

Hit the jump to check out the trailer and poster. In case you’re wondering who the old man in the trailer is, it’s Gary Poulter, a late non-actor whose remarkable performance is on par with Cage and Sheridan.  Joe opens in theaters and on VOD on April 11th.

As acquisitions and sales at the Berlin Film Festival continue, the first image and synopsis have been released for Philip Martin‘s The Forger.  According to the synopsis, the movie” tells the story of a former child art prodigy and second generation petty thief, Ray Cutter (John Travolta) who arranges to buy his way out of prison to spend time with his ailing son, Will Cutter (Tye Sheridan). Ray and his father, Joseph Cutter (Christopher Plummer), must come together to carry out one last big job for the syndicate who financed his early release.”  I’m a bit confused by this synopsis.  If you were an art prodigy, then wouldn’t you commit counterfeiting instead of petty thievery?  That’s like being a guitar prodigy and deciding to play the slide whistle.

Hit the jump for the image and press release.

We’ve got a couple of casting stories to address today.  First up, it was announced that Ewan McGregor will lead the cast of writer/director Rodrigo Garcia’s (Albert Nobbs) new drama Last Days in the Desert.  McGregor will be joined by Ciaran Hinds (Harry Potter), Ayelet Zurer (Man of Steel), and the young Tye Sheridan (Mud) in the pic, which follows a holy man and a demon on a journey through the desert.  McGregor will play both the holy man and the demon, and the story finds the former encountering a family struggling to survive in the harsh environment that forces the man to confront his own fate.  Production is currently underway in the Southern California desert with cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki (Gravity, The Tree of Life) lensing the film.

Hit the jump for casting news concerning Harry Potter alum Emma Watson tackling the thriller genre and for the full press release for Last Days in the Desert.

David Gordon Green‘s Joe was one of my favorite films at last year’s Toronto International Film Festival, and now the first trailer has gone online.  The story is about the relationship that forms between the troubled titular character (Nicolas Cage) and an abused teenager (Tye Sheridan).  That’s the brief logline, but Joe is primarily a character driven piece and all the more rewarding for it.  This trailer tries to walk the balance between the tone and the loose narrative, and hits on the darkness and violence permeating the picture.  I can’t recommend the movie enough since it’s Green’s best film after George Washington and has one of Cage’s finest performances.

Hit the jump to watch the trailer.  Joe currently doesn’t have a U.S. release date.

Star Wars fans may want to sit down for this one.  While J.J. Abrams has now been onboard to direct Star Wars: Episode VII for nearly a year, solid news with regards to the pic has been very, very hard to come by.  As the film’s production start date looms closer, we all knew this was about to change, and last night we learned that Friday Night Lights actor Jesse Plemons is being eyed for a role in the pic. Now THR has dumped a huge quantity of info about the follow-up, including word that Michael Fassbender, Hugo Weaving, and Adam Driver are all being eyed for roles.  More interestingly, though, the script for Episode VII has apparently changed significantly since screenwriter Michael Arndt was pushed off the project, and the lead characters for Episode VII may now be the original trilogy stars: Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, and Harrison Ford.

Hit the jump for the Star Wars: Episode VII motherload.

Since George Washington hit theaters in 2000, director David Gordon Green has impressed me again and again.  Whether tackling a big studio comedy like Pineapple Express, an intimate drama like Snow Angels, or outrageous characters like Kenny Powers on HBO’s Eastbound & Down, Green has repeatedly shown he’s a gifted filmmaker that can handle any subject.  In his new film, Joe, which just premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, he tackles the story of an ex-con (Nicolas Cage) who becomes a role model to 15-year-old Gary Jones (Tye Sheridan), the oldest child of a homeless family led by a drunk father.  Loaded with fantastic performances (including some incredible work by non-professional actors), Joe really impressed me at this year’s festival.

Shortly after the premiere I got to sit down with Sheridan for an exclusive video interview.  He talked about being at TIFF, making Joe, working with Gordon Green and Cage, working with non-actors, the way he prepares for a role, what it was like to work for Terrence Malick on The Tree of Life, what he collects, future projects like Dark Places and The Forger, and a lot more.  Hit the jump to watch.

After watching Prince Avalanche earlier this year, I hoped that director David Gordon Green would continue with smaller, more intimate stories.  With his follow-up, Joe, he has not only built on the palette-cleanser of Prince Avalanche, but also delivered one of his best movies.  Featuring tremendous performances from stars Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan as well as a cast of non-professional actors, Joe is both compassionate towards its characters and non-judgmental towards their actions.  It’s a story about men teetering between honest living and losing all restraint with their violent tendencies. Casually and with great subtlety, Green examines not only the inner struggle to maintain control, but also how much responsibility we owe to others and the limits of that responsibility.

The 70th Venice Film Festival is a wrap and the award-winners have been announced.  While showcasing some of the world’s top talent, the festival also serves to illustrate just how out of touch I am personally with the global cinematic world.  While the overall award for Best Film (the Golden Lion) went to Gianfranco Rosi’s Sacro Gra, a couple of other notable names made the list: Tye Sheridan earned the Best Young Actor award for his work in David Gordon Green’s Joe, and Gabe Klinger’s Double Play: James Benning and Richard Linklater won the Best Documentary on Cinema award.  Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope earned the Best Screenplay Award for Stephen Frears’ Philomena.

Hit the jump to view all the winners.

Filming has commenced on the adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel Dark Places.  Written and directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner (Sarah’s Key), the film stars Charlize Theron as a woman who, at the age of 7, survives the massacre of her family and testifies against her brother as the murderer.  Years later, when confronted by a group obsessed with solving notorious crimes, Theron’s character is forced to confront the truth about what she saw—or didn’t see.  The film is told in a series of flashbacks and features an impressive cast that includes Chloe Grace Moretz, Nicholas Hoult, Christina Hendricks, Corey Stoll (House of Cards) and Mud breakout Tye Sheridan.

In addition to the announcement that filming is underway in Shreveport, Louisiana, it was announced that Sterling Jerins (World War Z) and Shannon Kook (The Conjuring) have joined the cast in supporting roles, with Jerins playing the younger version of Theron’s character.  Hit the jump to read the full press release.

Today’s latest casting news can be gleaned at a glance below:

• Stef Dawson (6 years, 4 Months & 23 Days) has joined the final two installments in The Hunger Games films, playing Annie Cresta in Francis Lawrence’s The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 & 2.
• Tye Sheridan (Mud) will star alongside John Travolta in Philip Martin’s heist film, The Forger.
• Scott Eastwood (Chicago Fire) has joined the cast of David Ayer’s World War II tank-battle picture, Fury, starring Brad Pitt, Shia LaBeouf, Michael Pena, Logan Lerman and Jon Bernthal.

Hit the jump for more on each story.

Writer/director Jeff Nichols has been a burgeoning talent in the filmmaking world for a few years now following his one-two punch of Shotgun Stories and Take Shelter, but his latest release is proving to be his most successful yet.  Not only has Mud caught on with general audiences (to the tune of $26.8 million and counting), but the film provides a unique, enthralling, and almost mythic take on the coming-of-age genre that boasts a magnetic performance by Matthew McConaughey and truly stunning breakthrough work from the young Tye Sheridan.  The result is one of the best films of the year, and it’s now available on home video.  Hit the jump for my review of Mud on Blu-ray. 

It’s never too early to start talking Oscar, right?  We’re officially at the midway point of 2013, and while the bulk of awards season is normally concentrated towards the latter third of the year, there have been some strong contenders in the past that were released closer to the beginning of the year—Silence of the Lambs is probably the most famous example, having won Best Picture after being released in February of 1991.  The first half of 2013 has seen at least a couple of potential Best Picture contenders, and in addition to more than a handful of standout performances in smaller indie fare, we may very well have already seen the release of the film that will go on to take home the Oscar in technical categories like Best Visual Effects or even Best Production Design.

Hit the jump to read on as we examine the possible Oscar contenders from the first half of 2013.

Philip Seymour Hoffman (The Master) is in negotiations to join Daniel Espinosa’s Child 44, an adaptation of Tom Rob Smith’s Stalin-era thriller set in the Soviet Union.  Hoffman would join Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, Gary Oldman and Joel Kinnaman.  Hardy stars as a Soviet military policeman who investigates a string of gruesome child murders, but soon finds that his own government is stonewalling his attempts.  Deadline also reports that principal photography on the film is currently underway in Prague.  Hoffman will next be seen in The Hunger Games: Catching Fire and A Most Wanted Man.

Hit the jump for more on the actors testing opposite Jeff Bridges for the lead in The Giver.