Review: 'Laggies' starring Keira Knightley, Chloe Moretz, and Sam Rockwell

NOTE: This is a reprint of my review from the Sundance Film Festival. Laggies opens on October 24th.

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lie solely at Shelton's feet; however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest clique. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and sometimes make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

 Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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First Trailer and Poster for 'Laggies' Starring Keira Knightley, Chloe Moretz, and Sam Rockwell

From Humpday to Your Sister's Sister to Touchy Feely, Lynn Shelton has earned her place as an indie darling for crafting small-scale stories that emphasize relationships over spectacle. More often than not they have to do with characters who find themselves in a state of arrested development, manifested in ways that are unpredictable and confounding to the people in their lives. Her latest film, Laggies, is just such a story and now the first trailer for it has been released months after the film debuted at Sundance.

Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, and Chloe Grace Moretz, Laggies centers on Megan, a 28-year-old who used to be hot stuff in high school but now as all of her friends' lives are improving she's been stuck in a rut. She's still with her loyal but dull high school sweetheart (Mark Webber, typecast again) and she can't hold on to the crappy jobs she keeps getting. When her boyfriend suddenly proposes marriage, Megan has a total breakdown, runs away, and starts hanging out with a teenaged crowd led by 16-year-old Annika.

It's pretty silly but Shelton's strength has always been finding a means of taking crazy concepts and making them personal and meaningful. Unfortunately it doesn't quite work with Laggies, noting in my review "the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions".

Also starring Ellie Kemper, Kaitlyn Dever (Short Term 12), Gretchen Mol, and Jeff Garlin, Laggies opens October 24th.

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Sundance Review: 'Laggies' Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Rockwell, and Chloe Moretz

Film festivals, in particular Sundance, have always been fertile ground for the "arrested development" comedy. Usually these movies involve men, are generally pretty comfortable and inoffensive, although they tend to be presented as more meaningful than they really are. Indie stalwart Lynn Shelton has always been given to headier comedies that explore uneasy relationships, such as in movies like Humpday, Your Sister's Sister, and Touchy Feely. With Laggies, Shelton puts a twist on the formula with a female protagonist, and while the film has its charms and is quite a bit of fun at times, it's also improbable and a step down compared to Shelton's more challenging work.

The fault doesn't lay solely at Shelton's feet, however, as Laggies marks her first time directing someone else's script. Novelist Andrea Seigel penned the story which centers on high school beauty Megan (Keira Knightley), who ten years after graduation is still best friends with her closest cliq. She's been dating her high school sweetheart Mark (Mark Webber), drifting aimlessly through life while her friends are moving forward with babies and weddings. Her stagnation is enabled by her father (Jeff Garlin), who hires her to twirl a giant arrow sign luring in customers to his tax business. Basically she's going nowhere fast, and it's begun to piss off her friends.

After screwing up the wedding of her uptight best friend (Ellie Kemper), witnessing her father in a compromising position, and Mark's sudden marriage proposal, Megan freaks out and looks for anywhere to escape. Running into the 16-year-old Annika (Chloe Moretz) and buying the girl a bunch of liquor, Megan feels a kinship with her and, seeing a brief respite from responsibility, spends the evening drinking with Annika and her friends. Another encounter leads to Megan staying at Annika's house for the week, lying to Mark that she's off at a career-building seminar. Basically she decides to give up her old friends and start again with new, younger ones.

Sound plausible? Of course not, and at least the oddness of the situation is addressed, mostly by Annika's lawyer father (Sam Rockwell), a single dad who seems intrigued to have a sexy woman in the house again but disturbed by this adult hanging out with his child. And he darn well should be disturbed, because Megan is a tough character to root for. She lies, makes awful decisions that hurt a great many people, and is often irresponsible in the way that isn't cute. More sympathetic is Annika, played beautifully by Moretz, who desperately is seeking some sort of motherly connection to balance her father's overprotective nature. Similar to how he gave The Way Way Back a boost of comic energy last year, Rockwell steals every scene he's in and makes everyone around him better. The rest of the supporting cast is solid, although someone needs to tell Mark Webber it's time to move on from the boring nice guy roles. There are other personality traits beyond "nice". Short Term 12 break-out Kaitlyn Dever makes the best of limited time as Annika's rambunctious best friend.

Megan's dysfunction is relayed in broad strokes, and the consequences of her most dangerous actions can be forgiven with a hug, some sweet music, and a joke. When her irresponsibility actually causes an accident that endangers Annika, it isn't treated as a very big deal. Yes, the film skates on the edges of believability but it calls on us to take certain things seriously when there are never any repercussions for Megan. While it's true that adults don't always have the answers and some times make childish mistakes, Laggies says as long as you look like Keira Knightley everything will be fine.

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Sure Shots: Keira Knightley; Scott Cooper; Reese Witherspoon

* A major change is in order for Laggies, the long-developing dark comedy from Your Sister's Sister director, Lynn Shelton. Anne Hathaway had been set for the film, but due to scheduling conflicts with Christopher Nolan's Interstellar, she's had to drop out. EW now reports that Keira Knightley is in talks to replace her as the 28-year old woman who freaks out after her boyfriend's marriage proposal and runs off to hang out with a group of adolescents. Sam Rockwell, Mark Webber, and Chloe Moretz co-star.

* Scott Cooper (Crazy Heart, Out of the Furnace) has had no trouble attaching himself to a slew of projects, most of which don't seem to be progressing all that much. But that won't stop him from adding one more, as he'll next take on 36th Precinct, a remake of the 2004 cop film directed by Olivier Marchal. The story will be set in the NYPD anti-terrorism unit, and follows a pair of ruthless cops seeking a promotion by taking down a criminal gang. [Deadline]

* Reese Witherspoon is hoping you're done staring at her mugshot and ready to embrace her as America's sweetheart again. Witherspoon, who has booked two big projects in the last week, is set to rejoin her Walk the Line director James Mangold for Three Little Words. An adaptation of Ashley Rhodes-Courter's memoir, the story follows a Florida girl who entered the child welfare system at the age of four. Witherspoon will play the social worker trying to convince the child's mother to give up her rights. Amanda Seyfried is currently being eyed to play the mother. The last time Witherspoon and Mangold teamed up, she walked away with an Oscar win. Can it happen again?

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Anne Hathaway, Chloe Moretz, Mark Webber, and Sam Rockwell join Lynn Shelton's 'Laggies'

Lately, a number of indie stalwarts of the "Mumblecore" movement have been making the transition to more mainstream friendly films. Joe Swanberg will be hitting multiplexes before too long with Drinking Buddies, starring Olivia WIlde and Jake Johnson. The Duplass Brothers have perhaps fared the best as Mark has been appearing in bigger budgeted projects of late, while the duo teamed up to direct Jeff Who Lives at Home with Jason Segel. Now it appears to be Lynn Shelton's turn, as she's rounded up a number of names guaranteed to get her next film some serious attention.

Shelton has been set to direct Laggies for two years now, with Paul Rudd the only name really circling the film. But now he appears to be out, only for Anne Hathaway, Chloe Moretz, Mark Webber, and Sam Rockwell entering talks. Written by Andrea Seigel, the film follows 28-year old Megan (Hathaway), a woman in a permanent state of adolescence who responds to her boyfriend's marriage proposal by fleeing, pretending to go on a retreat, but really spends the week hanging out with a bunch of high schoolers. Moretz will play a teenager named Annika, while Webber is the jilted boyfriend. Rockwell is a character named Craig, but it's unclear how he factors in.

Last year was something of a transition to this point for Shelton, as she brought together Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt for the excellent relationship dramedy, Your Sister's Sister. Her latest film, Touchy Feely, debuted at Sundance, starring DeWitt and Ellen Page.

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Sure Shots: Javier Bardem; Paul Rudd; Clark Gregg

* With Skyfall and The Counselor on the way, Javier Bardem is still finding time to fit in an adaptation of his brother's novel, Alacrán Enamorado(aka Scorpion in Love). Carlos Bardem will adapt his own book, with Santiago Zannou directing the film which is being described as a multicultural take on Romeo and Juliet. The story follows a neo-Nazi nicknamed "Scorpion"(Alex Gonzalez) who falls in love with a Latin American immigrant. Bardem will play a neo-Nazi idealogue. [Twitch]

* I think Lynn Shelton may be looking at one of the surprise hits of the summer when Your Sister's Sister opens later this year. She had been set to direct Laggies, yet another indie relationship dramedy with a script by Andrea Spiegel, but it was delayed and she filled that time by taking on Touchy Feely, which stars Ellen Page, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Scoot McNairy. Now it looks like Laggies is back in the picture, and she's even brought along Paul Rudd to star. The story follows a 28-year old woman in a state of arrested development, who responds to her boyfriend's marriage proposal by pretending to be on a retreat with a bunch of high school kids. No word on who will play the woman, but when we last wrote about this film I had hoped for Greta Gerwig. Fingers still crossed.  [NYT]

* One of the best things about all of Marvel's films, including The Avengers, has been the emergence of Clark Gregg as S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Phil Coulson. Always a great character actor, Gregg is now stepping out beyond the world of superheroes for his next film, although the talent involved could be considered superhuman. He'll join Labor Day, the next project from Jason Reitman(Young Adult), an adaptation of Joyce Maynard's novel about a boy and his divorced mother(Kate Winslet), who pick up a hitch-hiker(Josh Brolin) over Labor Day weekend. He turns out to be an escaped convict, who proceeds to impart some life lessons on them both. James Van Der Beek co-stars, with Gregg's role currently unknown. [THR]

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Trailer Time: 'Your Sister's Sister', starring Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass

When I wasn't raving about The Raid after this year's Sundance Film Festival, I was busy telling people about two other movies that stole my heart. Both, coincidentally, starring indie stalwart, Mark Duplass. The first was the sci-fi comedy, Safety Not Guaranteed. The other was Your Sister's Sister, from Humpday director, Lynn Shelton, co-starring Emily Blunt and Rosemarie DeWitt.

This emotional, insightful powerhouse of a film has Duplass playing Jack, a guy still reeling from the death of his brother the year before. Drowning in misery and self pity, he's subject to an intervention by his best friend, Iris(Blunt), who just so happens to be his brother's ex. Iris basically banishes him to a remote family cabin to clear his head, but upon arrival he discovers Iris's flighty sister, Hannah(DeWitt), who is there for essentially the same reason. After a wild night of tequila drinking leads to some poor decision making, the situation only gets more complicated when Iris shows up at the front door.

Even though it's coming out in the summer where blockbusters will swallow up any hope of success, if Your Sister's Sister is in your local theater be sure clear some time to check it out. You won't be disappointed. The film will have a presence at the Tribeca Film Festival starting today, then will hit theaters on June 15th. Check out the new trailer below, and then my review here....

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Sundance Review: 'Your Sister's Sister', starring Emily Blunt and Mark Duplass

Dig this. Jack, (Mark Duplass) who is still struggling to deal with the death of his brother a year later, is suggested to by his best friend, Iris,(Emily Blunt) to take some time alone at her family's secluded cabin to clear his head. There, he finds that the place isn't so secluded, as his best friend's lesbian sister, Hannah,(Rosemarie Dewitt) is there, and the two share a night of drunken chatter which leads to equally intoxicated(not exactly intoxicating) sex. Then the best friend shows up suddenly the next morning. Awkward!

Sounds like something out of a bad sitcom, right? So did 2009's Humpday, Lynne Shelton's witty, razor sharp comedy about two very male, very heterosexual best friends who make a pact to have sex with each other as some sort of art project. Silly as it seemed, Shelton's understated, realistic writing made it work, navigating the tension that comes from guy relationships. Here, she's working on a slightly different playing field, but the results are no less dynamic than before.

Shelton weaves an intricate web connecting these three people. Iris is more than just Jack's friend, she was also his brother's ex-wife, a fact which has made their tightening bond awkward. Hannah, who just ended a relationship with her long-term partner, is suffocating under feelings of being unwanted, a ticking biological clock, and loneliness. That last point is one afflicting them all, really, and it drives them to hurt one another in ways that are unexpected. Much like Humpday, the story may end up in a familiar place, but the route it takes getting there is full of unexpected, natural swerves.

What separates Shelton from other writers is that she seems to have every single facet of these characters figure out. She understands them on levels others were never attempt to explore. Here, that gift is put to extraordinary use in in the sisterly bond between Hannah and Iris. Emily Blunt, no stranger to roles like this(such as in Sunshine Cleaning opposite Amy Adams) is a natural fit for Shelton's low-wattage style. Rosemarie Dewitt, who first blew down festival doors a few years ago in Rachel Getting Married, is a perfect jumble of contradictions. Duplass, however, is having the Sundance of a lifetime. With three very different projects(Black Rock, Safety Not Guaranteed), Duplass is showing he's someone to be reckoned with both behind and in front of the camera. His Jack is someone every guy both would aspire to be more like, and yet never want his life in a million years. He's self deprecating, charming, a little bit nervous, and also an emotional train wreck, yet there's a warming heart underneath that draws people to him. Duplass is quickly becoming a personal favorite.

While there are moments when the film gets a bit too chatty for it's own good, and Shelton's crude camerawork can occasionally be a drag, Your Sister's Sister never ceases to be engaging. It's one of Shelton's great talents, to create characters you want to see succeed. They're so genuine you root for them to be happy, even when(or perhaps because of) they slip up and make mistakes.

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