Not even the less high-concept Netflix series are safe from the cancellation axe, it seems. After one tepidly-reviewed season, Naomi Watts and 50 Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson’s Gypsy is officially out of business.
Destin Daniel Cretton’s Short Term 12 was one of the best movies of 2013, and remains one of the most surprising indie dramas of the past several years. It’s the film that finally put Brie Larson on the film industry’s radar, charting a path towards an eventual Oscar win. One of the greatest strengths of that film is how delicately it unpacks the day-to-day trauma and struggle of neglected teens living at a group home. With that in mind, Cretton’s latest film The Glass Castle sounded especially promising – an adaptation about a dysfunctional family told through the eyes of a young girl. Unfortunately The Glass Castle is nothing like Short Term 12, trading in nuance for glib storytelling while giving Larson little to do.
Brie Larson’s The Glass Castle definitely looks like one of those awards-bait family drama movies that actors join up with when they really, really want to win an Oscar. But Larson has already won an Oscar, and keep in mind that this is from Destin Daniel Cretton, the director of Short Term 12, the movie that effectively launched Larson’s leap to stardom.
We’re admittedly on edge with Netflix’s sudden willingness to limit its content, but a seductive new psychological thriller from Naomi Watts and 50 Shades of Grey director Sam Taylor-Johnson offers a good start. Watch the first trailer for Gypsy, as Watts gets more than a little hands-on with her patients.
Audiences first took notice of Brie Larson’s dramatic talents with 2013’s Short Term 12. Now, after earning her first Oscar and landing the lead in Marvel’s upcoming female-led superhero film, the actress is reuniting with the director who helped bring her into the spotlight.