In director Joe Dante’s Burying the Ex, Anton Yelchin stars as Max, a twentysomething caught between trying to fully extricate himself from one relationship that has run its course, with the clingy and possessive Evelyn (Ashley Greene), and find stability and success in his relationship with new girlfriend Olivia (Alexandra Daddario). That sounds like a familiar scenario, both on screen and in real life. The twist, though? Evelyn has died and become reanimated as a zombie, which she merely takes as a sign that her love for Max is a star-crossed-and-forever type of thing. Prior to it wrapping up principal photography just before Christmas, I had a chance to visit the film’s Los Angeles set, observe a day’s shooting and talk with the cast and crew about their take on the material. My one-on-one conversation with Yelchin about the film, his helmer Dante’s previous work experience with Roger Corman, and the bracing experience of getting into the editing room on a recent movie is excerpted over at ShockYa, so click here for the read.
Daily Archives: January 19, 2014
Sundance: Drunktown’s Finest
Amateurishness outstrips earnestness by a wide margin in writer-director Sydney Freeland’s Drunktown’s Finest, a Sundance premiere in the NEXT category. A coming-of-age triptych that makes the obligatory third act play for interwoven significance, this Native-American-centric drama has a hearty helping of festival cred (it was work-shopped at various Sundance labs, and Robert Redford serves as an executive producer), but seems unlikely to find a much wider home, even with arthouse audiences, given Freeland’s tin ear for dialogue and extraordinarily poor grasp of how addictive impulses inform behavior. For the original capsule review, from Paste, click here. (Dry Lake Productions/Indion Productions, unrated, 90 minutes)