Earlier this year, Lee Daniels’ new film The Paperboy premiered at the Cannes Film Festival to less-than-stellar reviews. Those who were nicer towards it referred to it as “a surprisingly involving film with solid performances from its cast,” while other found it to be ” A lurid, florid, humid, flaccid and insipid waste of time and money for the audience.”
Our own James Powell caught the film at Cannes and found himself leaning towards the negative, calling it “a slightly lackluster affair with little imagination” in his review.
Today we have the first trailer for the film for your viewing pleasure. It’s not much to judge the film on, but personally it did nothing for me in terms of making me want to see it. The cast (which includes Nicole Kidman, Matthew McConaughey, John Cusack, and Zac Efron) appear to be giving some pretty cheesy performances, while the premise looks to be a generic “innocent man behind bars” kind of film.
The official synopsis reads:
A directionless young man helps his reporter brother investigate the possible wrongful conviction of a man on death row, and in the process, falls for the woman whom the convict has been romancing through prison correspondence.
Like most, I enjoyed Precious, Daniels’ previous film, though not quite as much as everyone else seemed to. After earning two Oscar nods for the film (producing and directing), many have been wondering what he would follow it up with, but so far, most seem to have been disappointed with the result.
While it looks like The Paperboy may not be his return to powerhouse filmmaking, it may interest you to know that he is already hard at work on his next film, The Butler, which tells of a White House butler who served eight presidents over three decades. Just from seeing the cast list, I’m already far more excited for that than I am for The Paperboy.
However, for those still intending to check The Paperboy out, it arrives in limited theaters on October 5th.
(Source: The Film Stage)