Filmmaker Drake Doremus of B-Reel directed this spot which introduces us to glassophobia–anxiety over or fear of public speaking–and the lad who has it yet still has to make a speech in front of his class. Deploying his Google Nexus 7 tablet, the boy accesses great historic speeches, Colin Firth’s performance in The King’s Speech, and assorted other resources that help him feel more comfortable talking before an audience.
A brief message from mom–“if you’ve changed one mind, you’ve succeeded”–also provides inspiration as he embarks on his big day in class.
This warm, humorous tug-at-the-heartstrings piece ends with the boy delivering a rousing speech which elicits applause from his classmates, including a girl who catches his eye. This leads to his embarking on a quest to tackle another fear when his next query via tablet is, “How do I ask a girl out?”
Agency is Autofuss.
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