Elwood (Abbott), a sinister criminal from out of town, commits a crime that shakes the local community, then hangs around waiting to get paid off for his work. Sweet Virginia is a 2017 neo-noir thriller film directed by Jamie M. Dagg, written by Benjamin China and Paul China, and starring Jon Bernthal, Christopher Abbott, Imogen Poots, Rosemarie DeWitt, Odessa Young and Jared Abrahamson. Sam seems puzzled when Elwood tells him about his mother's death and how his father was absent due to incarceration. We encountered an issue signing you up. Jamie M. Dagg's Sweet Virginia combines two of the crime genre's most reliable tropesthe paid killing and the heist gone wrongand invests them with passages of . 'Sweet Virginia' Sets A Gripping Noir In Remotest Alaska Keith Phipps November 14, 2017 There's not a lot of joy at the Sweet Virginia motel. Don't listen to the bad reviews. two men accompanying his target. The movie is dictated by Lila (Imogen Poots) hiring Elwood (Christopher Abbott) to murder her husband, which he ended up killing two more people. A former rodeo champ befriends a young man with a propensity for violence. 2023 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. When Mitchell tells him to leave because the bar is closed, the man threatens him and angrily leaves. jon bernthals nose. The atmosphere is tense and steeped with paranoia. murder. It looks like we don't have any synopsis for this title yet. headlights of a car that appears to be tracking her. Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Your Ticket Confirmation # is located under the header in your email that reads "Your Ticket Reservation Details". It may be predictable, but it sure isn't boring. The score of the film is great creates the perfect atmosphere, the performances of all the actors individually are very good and it's a very good but very short slow burn. Personal performances where outstanding. The camera moves slow and methodically, often lingering on a frame for a second too long. The bartender says, "We're closed." Taken aback, she pretends not to know Elwood before quickly leaving. Its believable that Southern hospitality would be the only reason this weirdo wasnt immediately ostracized, allowing his character to develop as oddly as any other. At the motel the manager was having an affair with one of the victims. Contact Lori, VFO Locations Manager, with the particulars of your shoot. Director Jamie M. Dagg is a master of building suspense This can be interesting with the right story and good execution but that is what's missing here. The movie opens with a brutal killing, as an outsider cruises into town, lurking in his car outside a local bar till well after midnight before bursting in on a friendly card game and murdering all three men in the establishment, taking money from the register practically as an afterthought. It was Daggs idea to relocate the movie to Alaska, though he kept the title, turning it into the element that Abbott and Bernthals characters have in common, allowing them to bond where otherwise each would probably keep to himself: Both have roots in Virginia, but have run off to Alaska for their own reasons. This film tells the story of people connected with a motel called Sweet Virginia. The title has survived because one of the films central locations, a motel, is The rest of the cast seem a little bit less asleep. Excuse my spelling. Theres a confounding simplicity to Sweet Virginia, making its characters the load-bearing creeps of the film. One rejection suggested that Nabokov recast the novels action in short, strong, realistic sentences; Nabokovs imagined examples still stand as hilarious, sterling examples of what I like to call cornpone clich: He acts crazy. You're almost there! Full Cast and Crew | Release Dates | Official Sites | Company Credits | Technical Specs. A big pile of nothingness. Best Buy, Fable and DAVIDsTEA, to name a few. This 10-digit number is your confirmation number. Smart and well-acted, Sweet Virginia delivers a tense, atmospheric thriller that transcends genre conventions even as it embraces them. Whoa. Sometimes you can find an independent film that can be somewhat captivating, I say this because Sweet Virginia without aspiring to be something great has good attributes in its favor: dark story, interesting actors playing equally interesting roles as well as simple but very daring scenes. They open a ton of threads about all of them in subtle, natural ways, plus relationships between some of them By what name was Sweet Virginia (2017) officially released in India in English? She is arrested and the final shot is of Bernadette cutting Sam's hair while he thinks about his riding accident. Tap "Sign me up" below to receive our weekly newsletter Watched this late at night,was blown away. Daggs direction creates the proper atmosphere, but Benjamin and Paul Chinas script fills it with nocturnal life. Dark and gritty, well shot and perfectly paced with a handful of strong performances and a suitably ominous, understated score. with updates on movies, TV shows, Rotten Tomatoes podcast and more. There were 12 other movies released on the same date, including The Star, Wonder and Zack Snyder's Justice League. Overall this isn't a bad a movie; it's good, but not great. Loss and revenge. And it takes place in Alaska (though filmed in British Columbia), where we open with a triple homicide in a small town diner. Right out of the gate, the China brothers noir-hearted sensibility was being compared to that of fellow film siblings Joel and Ethan Coen, as critics hailed the Australian writer-director duos debut Crawl as a modern-day Blood Simple. On the surface, their 2012 Black List-selected screenplay for Sweet Virginia dives further down that rabbit hole, featuring as it does a wife who hires a guy to bump off her own husband (a gender-flipped twist on the basic Fargo plot) and a hit man whos as cold-blooded as No Country for Old Men killer Anton Chigurh. And also, speak up!!! Hearing a noise, Bernadette goes to investigate and is chased by Paul while Elwood breaks into a wall safe. Upon returning to the motel, Sam finds a tenant complaining about the noise in room 128. I won't bother reading them. Small town politics. ', Donnie Yen Called Out John Wick 4 and Rogue One Asian Stereotypes, Got Scripts Changed: Why Is the Name Always Shang or Chang, The True Story Behind 'Cocaine Bear': A 175-Pound Beast, a Dead Drug Smuggler in Gucci Loafers and More, Michael B. Jordan Meets Reporter at 'Creed III' Premiere Who 'Teased Him all the Time' in High School: 'I Was the Corny Kid, Right? One of those movies where the trailer looks so promising but then you are so disappointed when you watch the whole movie. Imogen Poots is solid but underused. As she And it's always good to see Jon Bernthal in a lengthy role. Take it away Elwood (no really): I dont talk about it much, but I guess there is. And some scenes that should've been done in a quick 30 seconds or one minute tops took 2 or 3 minutes long. We apologize, but this video has failed to load. Ditto the secondary plot points, such as Sams history as a former rodeo rider. A former rodeo star, with a small time life, unknowingly starts a rapport with a young man who is responsible for the violence that has suddenly gripped his small town. We linger on dread throughout Sweet Virginia, externalizing a movie whose strengths are all internal. Cinemark So. Mobilesite. Just embarrassing. 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All rights reserved. Und Jon Bernthal ist als Ex-Rodeo-Cowboy souvern schweigsam, aber auch erfrischend unhart. Letterboxd is an independent service created by a small team, and we rely mostly on the support of our members to maintain our site and apps. Klassisches Sonntags-Couchkino. Funny how some writers, and some audiences, still consider this kind of mush authentic, let alone powerful. Elwood, who was injured in the struggle with Bernadette, tries sneaking out the next morning but is stopped by Sam who merely wants to say goodbye. So much atmosphere. But this review already risks giving away too much. To bylo proputno 17. listopadu 2017, IFC Films. "Rock 'N' Roll Hotel" originally was filmed in state-of-the-art 3-D. Imogen Poots and Rosemarie DeWitt play widows of those murdered by Elwood, both seeking comfort, and the mysterious ways theyre tied into the plot speak depths about levels of emotional desperation in a small town and the mistakes and panic it can bring. Read Less. 4 / 5 stars 57% 79% . A little after that, a lawyer says to Lila, Were you aware of your husbands financial difficulties and this wannabe Phyllis Dietrichsons eyes go all wide and she practically mouths the word Ooops.. it holds a lot of power over me like its scary. When Crime goes wrong could be a different title. All people are so sad all the time. Even with her husband gone, they try to be circumspect about it. We almost never see the sun in this Alaskan Nowheresville, where Jon Bernthals brooding former bull rider now owns and manages a single story hotel, hoping to God his hands would just stop shaking for five seconds. thing surprising about Elwood is that hes accepting money for something he Fresh off the 2012 Black List for best unproduced scripts, the screenplay from twin brothers Benjamin China and Paul China offers up a neo-noir with a familiar enough premise in a not-so-familiar setting. The former Girls star, whose blooming career is still often seen as a response to his brief time on (and tumultuous exit from) that epochal HBO show, has spent the last few years playing one brooding knuckle-dragger after another, like hes trying to rid himself of whatever cooties Lena Dunham may have left behind. I only new a couple. Chris Knight: The central theme of murder and its aftermath is interesting for as far as it goes, but thats not enough to carry the picture home. It thrives like unmowed kudzu in the dialogue of this aspiring noir written by brothers Paul and Benjamin China and directed by Jamie M. Dagg. Sweet Virginia is an odd title for a movie set in Alaska. It starts with a bang, ends with a bang, and those scenes bookend some solid Moving the setting further north to Alaska gives the film a different edge, although it does render the title less meaningful. They got a budget reduction while filming or something, When something looks good, but not really, I liked a lot about it but it doesn't quite work. After calling Lila and leaving her a threatening voicemail, he violently beats the two men before leaving. . Just so you know what youre getting into, Sweet Virginia isnt too sweet. 27 August 2016. With a svelte running time of about 90 minutes, this movie hits the sweet spot. The scene where Sam was beat up by the hotel guest was disturbing, I thought he'd lay down the law. Christopher Abbot etabliert sich als beunruhigend-spannender Darsteller. Read critic reviews. probably enjoys. The film stars , , in the pivotal roles. 24/10/2018.