With occasional reflection on the perpetual absurdity/intrigue of life and society in general.

Monday, April 5, 2010

Leaves of Grass - Featured Film of Interest

Edward Norton as a pot farmer and his intellectual brother.
BY ROGER EBERT / March 28, 2010

"Leaves of Grass" has been acquired by a new distributor and rescheduled for release in the summer of 2010.

Tim Blake Nelson's "Leaves of Grass" is some kind of sweet, wacky masterpiece. It takes all sorts of risks, including a dual role with Edward Norton playing twin brothers, and it pulls them off. It is certainly the most intelligent, philosophical and poetic film I can imagine that involves five murders in the marijuana-dealing community of Oklahoma and includes John Prine singing "Illegal Smile."

Sometimes you can't believe your luck as a movie unfolds. There is a mind behind it, joyful invention, obvious ambition. As is often the case, I had studiously avoiding reading anything at all about "Leaves of Grass" before going to see the movie, although I rather doubted it would be about Walt Whitman. What I did know is that the actor Tom Blake Nelson has written and directed three films I enormously admired: "Eye of God" (1997), "O" (2001) and "The Grey Zone" (2001), all three dealing in a concrete dramatic way with important questions: Religion, redemption, race, the Holocaust. And that the actorEdward Norton has never agreed to appear in a film he didn't believe he had reason to respect.

You can link through the post-title for Ebert's full review, and cast and credits.

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