After watching this new trailer for David Gordon Green's PRINCE AVALANCHE, I couldn't shake the feeling that it felt like something really refreshing, fun, and even emotional. What comes off at first like an odd-couple-esque comedy morphs into something so much deeper. After winning best director at Berlinale 2013 for the film, Green has shown that he's got an ace up his sleeve in terms of getting back to his indie roots. Throughout the years, I've been a big fan of the director, be it with his wacked out comedies (PINEAPPLE EXPRESS, YOUR HIGHNESS, Eastbound and Down) or quirky, dark drama's (ALL THE REAL GIRLS, UNDERTOW, SNOW ANGELS), and it's great to see him still challenging himself and taking on a diverse amount of projects like this.
Take a look:
Here's the synopsis:
An odd couple of sorts, meditative and stern Alvin and his girlfriend's brother, Lance, dopey and insecure, leave the city behind to spend the summer in solitude repainting traffic lines down the center of a country highway ravaged by wildfire. As they sink into their job in the remarkable landscape, they learn more than they want to about each other and their own limitations. An unlikely friendship develops through humor and nasty exchanges, leading to surprising affection. Adapted from Icelandic film Either Way, Prince Avalanche is driven by wonderful performances by Paul Rudd, Emile Hirsch, and Lance LeGault. Writer/director David Gordon Green gets back to his independent roots with this character study, which shows his knack for realistically capturing people and finding meaning in their lives and dreams.
The pairing of Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch is a tremendously awesome move and they seem to play perfectly off one another, playing characters with, well, character, rather than settling into their usual bag of tricks. All in all, PRINCE AVALANCHE looks like a great indie pic and given the WMD that is this summer's line-up of big-budget pics, it's nice to have something like this to help temper the crowd.
PRINCE AVALANCHE hits theaters on August 9, 2013.