Post by mochakitty on Feb 12, 2013 19:37:59 GMT -4
From Wikipedia:
Trailer
Poster
Official Website
Official Facebook
Fox Searchlight Twitter
Fox Searchlight Tumblr
The East @ IMDb.com
Prommotional Stills:
Group Shot
Alexander Skarsgård & Ellen Page
Alexander Skarsgård & Brit Marling
The East is a 2013 thriller film directed by Zal Batmanglij and starring Brit Marling, Alexander Skarsgård, and Ellen Page. Batmanglij and Marling spent two months in 2009 practicing freeganism and co-wrote a screenplay based on their experiences and drawing on thriller films. The East was filmed in two months in Shreveport, Louisiana at the end of 2011. The film premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013.
Synopsis
Sarah Moss is an operative for a private intelligence firm called Hiller-Brood that is hired by corporations to protect their interests. She is sent to infiltrate an anarchist collective known as The East that has executed attacks on corporations. While she lives among them, she finds herself falling for the group's charismatic leader.
Cast
Brit Marling as Sarah Moss
Alexander Skarsgård as Benji
Ellen Page as Izzy
Toby Kebbell as Doc
Shiloh Fernandez as Luca
Julia Ormond as Paige Williams
Patricia Clarkson as Sharon
Production
The East is directed by Zal Batmanglij. He co-wrote the screenplay with Brit Marling, who also stars in the film. Batmanglij and Marling were inspired by the concept of Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest against consumerism, and decided to experience a Buy Nothing summer. They spent two months in 2009 with proponents of freeganism, which is a practice of "[eating] discarded food in their pursuit of a moneyless existence". Marling said, "We wanted to have some adventure, and we didn't have any money. We learned to hop trains, we learned to sleep on rooftops, we learned to claim the space that feels so private. We joined this anarchist collective." The pair drew from their experiences as well as thriller films like The Bourne Identity and Michael Clayton to craft the story, which they wrote before they began filming Sound of My Voice for a 2011 release.
Following the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January, Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights for Sound of My Voice (directed by Batmanglij and starring Marling) and Another Earth (also starring Marling). In the process, the distributor greenlighted production of The East. By September 2011, Marling and Alexander Skarsgård were cast in the starring roles. Felicity Jones was attached to play Izzy, but she dropped out to promote Like Crazy. Jones was replaced by Ellen Page. With a reported budget of $6.5 million, filming took place in Shreveport, Louisiana for two months, from mid-October 2011 to the following December.
Batmanglij and Marling wrote to have the anarchist organization target a multinational corporation instead of a government. Marling said, "Multinational corporations are outside of the purview of any nation-state. These are the entities that are shaping and running the world... The modern anarchy movement is about rebelling against the corporate structure." Batmanglij said the film focused on the pharmaceutical industry due to the writers hearing stories about the side effects of drugs, such as a drug to help quit smoking that resulted in some people committing suicide. He said they considered focusing on banks due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, but they chose the pharmaceutical industry so the mission in the film would have emotional resonance. They titled the film The East to make a variety of references. The director explained, "'The East' is ... the East Coast, which is like something in our American collective consciousness—New England, tony, center of power. The Wicked Witch of the East in the Oz mythology was the bad witch because the book was about how the Midwest was getting screwed over by the east, by Washington. And then of course we have the Middle East or the Far East, which is seen as different or other. The ultimate Other. So, it's funny that this word means two things, and I thought that was an interesting name for a resistance group that is combined of kids from New England who want to make themselves the Other."
Reception
The East premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. According to Wall Street Journal, the film "opened to mostly strong reviews". Variety's Justin Chang reviewed the film, "This clever, involving spy drama builds to a terrific level of intrigue before losing some steam in its second half." He noted that, "the appreciable growth in filmmaking confidence here should translate into a fine return on Fox Searchlight's investment". John DeFore, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, described The East as "a social-conscience espionage film that has actually thought about its 'eco-terrorism' themes beyond figuring out how to mine them for suspense". He said, "Batmanglij balances emotional tension with practical danger nicely, a must in a story whose activist protagonists can make no distinction between the personal and the political." Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave The East 5 stars and highlighted it as a Sundance standout. He said the film felt like a "sophisticated" Earth First! take of The Parallax View and other 1970s films with the theme of paranoia.
Logan Hill, reviewing for indieWire, said, "Fast-paced and energetic, 'The East' hits a beat and hurries along to the next 'Jam.' As slickly paced as a big-studio espionage movie, it nearly succeeds as a pure adrenaline-rush thriller. In the end, the problem isn't that there's too much plot, but rather a certain dramatic illogic." Hill commended the cast and said of the direction, "Batmanglij has a particular talent for capturing that unmoored, twentysomething search for meaning, and the tight-knit allure of a group that offers a reason for living. But the film is so plot-driven, those don't have much room to breathe."
The Sundance Institute, as part of their Sundance Film Festival USA program, screened The East at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 31, 2013. Over 1,300 people were in attendance for the screening, and Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling showed for a Q&A session.
Synopsis
Sarah Moss is an operative for a private intelligence firm called Hiller-Brood that is hired by corporations to protect their interests. She is sent to infiltrate an anarchist collective known as The East that has executed attacks on corporations. While she lives among them, she finds herself falling for the group's charismatic leader.
Cast
Brit Marling as Sarah Moss
Alexander Skarsgård as Benji
Ellen Page as Izzy
Toby Kebbell as Doc
Shiloh Fernandez as Luca
Julia Ormond as Paige Williams
Patricia Clarkson as Sharon
Production
The East is directed by Zal Batmanglij. He co-wrote the screenplay with Brit Marling, who also stars in the film. Batmanglij and Marling were inspired by the concept of Buy Nothing Day, an international day of protest against consumerism, and decided to experience a Buy Nothing summer. They spent two months in 2009 with proponents of freeganism, which is a practice of "[eating] discarded food in their pursuit of a moneyless existence". Marling said, "We wanted to have some adventure, and we didn't have any money. We learned to hop trains, we learned to sleep on rooftops, we learned to claim the space that feels so private. We joined this anarchist collective." The pair drew from their experiences as well as thriller films like The Bourne Identity and Michael Clayton to craft the story, which they wrote before they began filming Sound of My Voice for a 2011 release.
Following the 2011 Sundance Film Festival in January, Fox Searchlight Pictures acquired distribution rights for Sound of My Voice (directed by Batmanglij and starring Marling) and Another Earth (also starring Marling). In the process, the distributor greenlighted production of The East. By September 2011, Marling and Alexander Skarsgård were cast in the starring roles. Felicity Jones was attached to play Izzy, but she dropped out to promote Like Crazy. Jones was replaced by Ellen Page. With a reported budget of $6.5 million, filming took place in Shreveport, Louisiana for two months, from mid-October 2011 to the following December.
Batmanglij and Marling wrote to have the anarchist organization target a multinational corporation instead of a government. Marling said, "Multinational corporations are outside of the purview of any nation-state. These are the entities that are shaping and running the world... The modern anarchy movement is about rebelling against the corporate structure." Batmanglij said the film focused on the pharmaceutical industry due to the writers hearing stories about the side effects of drugs, such as a drug to help quit smoking that resulted in some people committing suicide. He said they considered focusing on banks due to the financial crisis of 2007–2008, but they chose the pharmaceutical industry so the mission in the film would have emotional resonance. They titled the film The East to make a variety of references. The director explained, "'The East' is ... the East Coast, which is like something in our American collective consciousness—New England, tony, center of power. The Wicked Witch of the East in the Oz mythology was the bad witch because the book was about how the Midwest was getting screwed over by the east, by Washington. And then of course we have the Middle East or the Far East, which is seen as different or other. The ultimate Other. So, it's funny that this word means two things, and I thought that was an interesting name for a resistance group that is combined of kids from New England who want to make themselves the Other."
Reception
The East premiered at the 2013 Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2013. According to Wall Street Journal, the film "opened to mostly strong reviews". Variety's Justin Chang reviewed the film, "This clever, involving spy drama builds to a terrific level of intrigue before losing some steam in its second half." He noted that, "the appreciable growth in filmmaking confidence here should translate into a fine return on Fox Searchlight's investment". John DeFore, writing for The Hollywood Reporter, described The East as "a social-conscience espionage film that has actually thought about its 'eco-terrorism' themes beyond figuring out how to mine them for suspense". He said, "Batmanglij balances emotional tension with practical danger nicely, a must in a story whose activist protagonists can make no distinction between the personal and the political." Joe Neumaier of the New York Daily News gave The East 5 stars and highlighted it as a Sundance standout. He said the film felt like a "sophisticated" Earth First! take of The Parallax View and other 1970s films with the theme of paranoia.
Logan Hill, reviewing for indieWire, said, "Fast-paced and energetic, 'The East' hits a beat and hurries along to the next 'Jam.' As slickly paced as a big-studio espionage movie, it nearly succeeds as a pure adrenaline-rush thriller. In the end, the problem isn't that there's too much plot, but rather a certain dramatic illogic." Hill commended the cast and said of the direction, "Batmanglij has a particular talent for capturing that unmoored, twentysomething search for meaning, and the tight-knit allure of a group that offers a reason for living. But the film is so plot-driven, those don't have much room to breathe."
The Sundance Institute, as part of their Sundance Film Festival USA program, screened The East at the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, Michigan on January 31, 2013. Over 1,300 people were in attendance for the screening, and Zal Batmanglij and Brit Marling showed for a Q&A session.
Trailer
Poster
Official Website
Official Facebook
Fox Searchlight Twitter
Fox Searchlight Tumblr
The East @ IMDb.com
Prommotional Stills:
Group Shot
Alexander Skarsgård & Ellen Page
Alexander Skarsgård & Brit Marling