Synopsis: Mr. Damon plays Steve Butler, a corporate salesman who arrives in a rural town with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Ms. McDormand). With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Mr. Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (Mr. Krasinski) who counters Steve both personally and professionally. [Synopsis courtesy of Focus]
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Anne Thompson and TOH! writers Maggie Lange, Beth Hanna, Matt Brennan, and Jacob Combs share their picks for Worst Movies of 2012.
Read More »Happy almost new year, cinephiles! To ring in the last week of 2012 the studios are releasing films that feature the most wretched, bloody, depraved, licentious, gruesome characters imaginable. To ensure you don't forget how extreme these storylines are, the roles are filled by Hollywood's m...
Read More »The legend goes that when Wong Kar-Wai brought "2046" to the Cannes Film Festival, the print was still dripping as he worked until the very last minute to finish it. And to say that his latest, the martial arts biopic "The Grandmaster," has had a few road bumps and delays would b...
Read More »In case you forgot, "Zero Dark Thirty" isn't the only topical drama hitting theaters this month. Right before everyone gets wasted on New Year's Eve, "Promised Land" will hit theaters, a drama set against the backdrop of a tumbling economy, and the promise of financial ga...
Read More »This weekend sees the wide releases of J.A. Bayona's well-received, heart-tugging tsunami drama "The Impossible," starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor, and of Gus Van Sant's divisive fracking drama "Promised Land," starring co-screenwriters Matt Damon and John Krasinski.
Read More »If the narrative of the modern-day salesman in fiction is that of a man who believes in his business but finds his faith shaken once the white lies of his trade begin to grow, a man who loses his moral compass and finds himself along the way, then “Promised Land" doesn’t stray far from that mold. An...
Read More »"Promised Land" is Matt Damon's third teaming with director Gus Van Sant, who jumped into directing the film at the last minute after Damon decided he couldn't direct the film that he wrote with John Krasinski. We know that Van Sant is a capable director--nothing is wrong with his handling of this m...
Read More »At its best, Gus Van Sant's "Promised Land" channels environmental politics into an agreeable drama about small town America facing down the forces of capitalist greed. In lesser moments it trumpets that tension with a complete disregard for the powers of subtlety. Co-written and starring Matt Damon...
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