I was a big fan of Nat Faxon and Jim’s Rash‘s scripted The Descendants back in 2011, the film starred George Clooney alongside Shailene Woodley and while wasn’t the usual type of family drama, it really had a unique heart to it which not only captivated me but also, just saying, won the Oscar for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Downhill keeps the family connection but also throws in Force Majeure (2014) helmers Erik Hemmendorff and Ruben Östlund, who exec produce, and have adapted their story for a new audience in fact with Ruben commenting:
“I would say that Downhill is more comedy then Force Majeure. Maybe its because Swedes are not as verbal as Americans. The first thing I thought about was the differences of how we look on the concept of the nuclear family; I believe there is a stronger expectation on the American father to be the family supporter and patriarch then in most Swedish families. …I have decided for myself to embrace the differences and look at it like when they put up classic plays in the theatre: it’s the differences in the reading that is a big part of what is interesting.”
Directed by the aforementioned Faxon and Rash, I really liked this trailer – it holds all that indie goodness that, believe it or not, I don’t think we’ve seen as much of recently. Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Will Ferrell,
Zoë Chao, Zach Woods, Miranda Otto and Kristofer Hivju, watch it now from Searchlight Pictures
critical popcorn 