Dee Rees on 'Mudbound'
Friday, September 8, 2017 at 1:45PM by Murtada
Mudbound is having a moment this week. On the eve of its TIFF premiere, the trailer drops and Dee Rees, Carey Mulligan and Mary J Blige get the cover at Variety. Rees talks about how difficult it was to find a distributor at Sundance in the year after The Birth of a Nation debacle:
I feel like we were in the shadow of other films. This film is certainly on the level of — if not better than — that. To burden our film with that was unfair. That’s the hard thing about Hollywood; you realize it’s not fair. It’s not a meritocracy. It’s like, Come on.
More from Rees plus the movie's trailer after the jump..
Rees also talks about being a black female out filmmaker and how that affects financing of her films:
If I were a white guy who had done ‘Pariah,’ my next film would have been huge. I do think there’s a different trajectory. Films are talked about differently. It’s like a film by an independent black director gets talked about for who made it, not for what the film is.
Netflix seems to be pushing hard for Mudbound to make a dent at the Oscars. Post TIFF, the film will also play the New York Film Festival before being released on November 17. The jury is still out on whether their day and date streaming strategy will be embraced.
The trailer though hints at a strong sweeping story with multiple points of view. In addition to Mulligan and Blige, Jason Mitchell and Garrett Hedlund seem to have meaty parts. The reception at Sundance - as the critical quotes tell us in the trailer - was good. We’ll see if Mudbound can build on that at the fall festivals. No matter though we are excited to see a new movie from the filmmaker we fell in love with because of Pariah (2011).
What are your thoughts on the trailer?
Reader Comments (13)
trailer looks v. promising to me! good players in front of and behind the camera. this film is definitely on my radar to keep an eye on.
Better than Bitrth of a Nation? Really. I will check it out just for that. Better be good!
Holy shit this looks gorgeous/terrifying. All in for Dee Rees.
Mulligan is a truly great actress who chooses her roles very carefully. Even when she disappears for two years, she doesn't disappoint when she comes back (like in Far From the Madding Crowd), so i can't wait to watch her again on a silver screen.
I'm so excited. This looks great.
Can. Not. Wait. This has Best Picture/Breakout Performances potential written all over it.
Shame I'll never get to see it since it will only be on TV and I don't have Netflix. Sounds like it would have been an interesting movie if it had been released on the big screen (and no, a couple of qualifying screens in NYC and LA don't count).
No way this should be in the Oscar discussion if it's not getting a theatrical release.
@SFOTroy
Supposedly it's getting a limited theatrical release in select theatres.
But I agree, this definitely seems like a film to see on the big screen, and I'm puzzled why they went with Netflix when supposedly the film received other offers from A24 and Annapurna - when they specifically wanted an Oscar campaign. That's a big gamble, particularly when Oscar has had little interest in welcoming Netflix to the big ceremony, unlike the Emmy's.
So this is getting a theatrical release? Just added it to my list of "most anticipated films" this fall. Of which there are already many!
(I'm sorry, to me it's not a Movie - with a capital M - unless it's in a theater.)
Aaron - they went with netflix because - as Rees says it in her first quote above - all other distributors were not willing to pay after Birth of a Nation fizzled at the box office.
lylee - it's unclear how big of a theatrical release it will get. At the very least it will be the same that Okja got, which wasn't very much.
This "M" is for movie crap and whining over Netflix needs to stop. Netflix has done more to pave the way for distributing small films than nearly every other entity. Dee Rees probably has a lot of respect for that kind of work, seeing as her breakout, Pariah, was tiny.
Get over the "big screen" ridiculousness and enjoy the fact that Mudbound will be seen by a lot more people simply because of how it is being distributed. Isn't that the point?
Jake
No. It doesn't need to stop. Watching a film on the big screen is better EVERY TIME. Especially when a film is campaigning for Best Picture.
Lylee : I couldn't agree with you more.