The TV Addict 

Writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s feature film YOU CAN COUNT ON ME (2000) remains one of my Top 10 favorite films of all time. I’ve seen it something like over twenty times now, own the published screenplay, and have one of its posters hanging over my bed. After the film was released I couldn’t wait to see what Kenneth Lonergan would write/direct next. So I waited. Then noticed he contributed to the screenplay to Martin Scorcese’s GANGS OF NEW YORK. But still no word on another project of his own. So I waited again. And waited. And … well, you get the idea.

I’d more or less given hope, fearing that Lonergan somehow felt burned by the film industry and returned to playwriting. However, a few weeks ago I was talking to someone about YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, and decided to use that as an excuse to check up on Lonergan for the first time in a while. So I ambled on over to his IMDB spread, and what should my unworthy eyes see? A new credit. Even better, a new film called MARGARET. Even better, it’s written and directed by him! Then I checked out the cast, and was elated to see he’s still able to draw a great set of actors, including Anna Paquin (starring in the title role), Matt Damon, Jean Reno, Allison Janney and up-and-comer Olivia Thirlby. Not just that, but several YOU CAN COUNT ON ME alumni are in it as well, including Matthew Broderick, Mark Ruffalo and Kieran Culkin. As if that weren’t enough, the film was also produced by heavy hitters Syndey Pollack and Anthony Minghella (both sadly lost to us recently) and Scott Rudin.

Though the story seems much more ambitious than Lonergan’s previous outing, it clearly still has the same emphasis on complex human story, and dramatic deep characters. IMDB describes the plot as follows:

“MARGARET centers on a 17-year-old New York City high-school student who feels certain that she inadvertently played a role in a traffic accident that has claimed a woman’s life. In her attempts to set things right she meets with opposition at every step. Torn apart with frustration, she begins emotionally brutalizing her family, her friends, her teachers, and most of all, herself. She has been confronted quite unexpectedly with a basic truth: that her youthful ideals are on a collision course against the realities and compromises of the adult world.”
Sadly the film does not seem to have a release date, so I’m uncertain as to how long I’ll have to wait for this. But you can rest assured whenever it is released, I’ll be there.

Or you know, if a certain someone (*cough* Fox Searchlight Pictures *cough*) would maybe like to send me a screener copy, that’d be cool too.