The Family Fang Welcomes You
Monday, April 11, 2016 at 8:00PM Manuel here. Nat got a look at The Family Fang in Toronto and ahead of its screening at Tribeca (and its limited release later this month), we finally got a poster and a trailer for Jason Bateman's sophomore effort. The film features the Arrested Development star and TFE fave Nicole Kidman as the Fang siblings (Buster and Annie) who are brought together after their parents mysteriously disappear. In true indie drama mode, though, this is an excuse to unearth all sorts of dysfunctions, mostly stemming from the fact that the senior Fangs are kooky performance artists who scarred their children by incorporating them into their live art pieces (and, you know, by referring to them as child A and child B).
In a feat of perfect casting, the Fang patriarch is played in his later years by Christopher Walken who shares top billing with Kidman and Bateman in the poster below:
So many things to love about this poster but at the top of my list is the inclusion of Kathryn Hahn on the side who is just perfect as the young matriarch, Camille Fang. That said, you could easily mistake this for a Wes Anderson poster, don't you think? The line reminding you that the film was written by "Pulitzer Prize Winner David Lindsay-Abaire" (for, coincidentally, Rabbit Hole which Nicole brought to the screen in 2010) is straight out of Moonrise Kingdom.
I can't really do a Yes/No/Maybe So given I already got to see the finished film last week, but I'm curious to see whether the poster and trailer are making you eager to get to meet the Fang family.
Reader Comments (10)
Why, oh why did she have to wear a headdress? :/
Nomination #4 feels so elusive. Hopefully it's a Best Actress bid locking her status as a perennial in the category.
YES
Yes to Nicole.
Bateman, Kidman and Walken are three people who have been in far more than their share of terrible movies.
No.
I always find Kathryn Hahn delightful whenever she pops up in something. Wish there'd be more projects where she's front and center.
I'm kind of a yes on the trailer, but probably a no on the poster. The quirky behaviour here doesn't feel anywhere near as romanticized and the decor not as classically designed as a Wes Anderson movie. Why not get something hand drawn from, say, Maxwell Atoms for this?
Yes.
This looks much better than I expected. It seems they get the tone right. I am hopeful.
@ Suzanne - You're probably right, this has all the elements to be terrible (I mean, the lead character is named Buster Fang, for crying out loud! That is practically the definition of trying too hard). It looks like one of the bazillion quirky famiky indie comedies that have spurned on the wake of the Royal Tennenbaums and Little Miss Sunshine.
Still, sometimes crappy promotional material actually hides movies with some value to them (like Philomena or Hope Springs), so I'll say I'm a maybe until the movie comes out and there is more insight available into the movie itself.
I'm a sucker for the Family Drama genre, so I'm a "yes", and this seems a unique take on it, too.