We open on a young girl hanging out in her bedroom. She’s going about her business when she hears something hit her window. Immediately we assume it’s a boy suitor or a gal pal slinging a pebble against the glass to get her attention. And that assumption proves correct–kind of.
Indeed a young male has thrown a pebble against the window. But the camera reveals that she lives in a high-rise city apartment complex and hitting the window with anything represents a Herculean feat in terms of arm strength and accuracy.
Turns out the young lad grew up to be Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Alex Rios who we see in game footage rocketing a throw to nail a base runner. These Jays have some exciting young guns, another reason to turn out to the ball park.
“Pebble” is one of three spots in a campaign directed by James Haworth of The Partners’ Film Company, Toronto, for agency Publicis, Toronto.
Aerin Barnes served as executive producer/producer for Partners’, with Stanny Park serving as producer. The DP was Tico Poulakakis.
The agency team consisted of creative director Duncan Bruce, group creative directors Tim Kavander and Bill Newbery, art director Mark Spalding, copywriter Miles Markovic and producer Erica Metcalfe.
Editor was Leo Zahartos of Blue Highway, Toronto. Visual effects artist was Alex Boothby of Technicolor, Toronto.
The Hottest Ticket At Sundance: Writer-Director Mary Bronstein’s “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You”
Rose Byrne plays a mother in the midst of a breakdown in the experiential psychological thriller "If I Had Legs I'd Kick You."
Anticipation was high for the A24 film, which will be released sometime this year. Its premiere Friday at the Sundance Film Festival was easily the hottest ticket in town, with even ticketholders unable to get in. Those who did make it into the Library theater were treated to an intense, visceral, inventive story from filmmaker Mary Bronstein that has quickly become one of the festival's must-sees.
Byrne plays Linda, who is barely hanging on while managing her daughter's mysterious illness. She's faced with crisis after crisis, big and small — from the massive, gaping hole in their apartment ceiling that forces them to move to a dingy motel, to an escalating showdown with a parking attendant at a care center. The cracks in her psychological, emotional and physical wellbeing are become too much to bear.
"I'd never seen a movie before where a mother is going through a crisis with a child but our energy is not with the child's struggle, it's with the mother's," Bronstein said at the premiere. "If you're a caretaker, you shouldn't be bothering with yourself at all. It should all be about the person you're taking care of, right? And that is a particular kind of emotional burnout state that I was really interested in exploring."
Byrne and Bronstein went deep in the preparation phase, having long discussions about Linda with the goal of making her as real as possible before the quick, 27-day shoot. Byrne said she was obsessed with figuring out who Linda was before the crisis. The film was in part inspired by Bronstein's experience with her own daughter, but she didn't want to elaborate on the... Read More