A First Trailer for "Disobedience"
Thursday, February 1, 2018 at 7:00PM 
Chris here. If 2017 doesn't announce Sebastián Lelio as one of our patron saints of actressexuality, I don't know what will. This weekend sees the limited release of his Oscar-nominated A Fantastic Woman with Daniela Vega's breakthrough performance, and later this year Julianne Moore stars in the English language remake of his own Gloria. But audiences should also be getting excited for his gay religious romance Disobedience.
The film stars Rachel Weisz as a woman returning to her strictly conservative Jewish comunity after the death of her father...
Back home she finds her former friend (Alessandro Nivola) is now moving up the rabbinical ranks and married to her former secret lover, a stellar Rachel McAdams. Team Experience has already called the film one of the best yet to come, but you'll definitely want to catch this for a never better McAdams.
As teased by the film's poster and trailer, Disobedience features a centerpiece sex scene that you may have already heard about. The details are best left to an unexpecting viewer, but the kinkier bits are still depicted with the balance of respect and frankness already illustrated in Lelio's work. There's something quietly revolutionary about what you'll see in this romance of faith, family, and repression - and after a year of notable queer stories, Disobedience is rather unique. Disobedience opens April 27!
Reader Comments (21)
I actually just watched Gloria for the first time this week and I have not been able to stop thinking about it, mostly in regards to Paulina García's lovely performance. I happened to watch it on the same day I watched Star Wars: The Last Jedi and found Gloria way more exciting and interesting.
I'm now beyond excited for Disobedience and A Fantastic Woman! I'm overdosing on great actressing and I'm so thankful.
It may sound silly to say that an Oscar winner is underrated and underrewarded, but that's the case of Rachel Weisz. Since her very deserved Oscar win she's been on fire. I am not really into second wins, but she should have won for Deep Blue Sea, but she wasn't even nominated!
A Fantastic Woman made me a a fan of Lelio. Great to hear good things about McAdams and that she keeps challenging herself.
I agree, Weisz has always been very underrated and, really, under-the-radar. Her work in Youth outclassed and outgunned Fonda's and almost no one paid attention. Her performance in The Lobster was one of its trickiest to get right (ditto the narration), and she managed to traverse the other side as one of the few authentic figures in it, while still playing to the satire. Her work in The Bourne Legacy was lovely in how subtly she underplayed almost every scene and added warmth and candor to almost non-existent chemistry between her and Renner.
I'll never forget how Almodovar himself, one of the kings of melodrama, recognized her ability to play it and play it alongside the greats. So her Deep Blue Sea performance will always remain a touchstone for me.
As for critics who say she doesn't have any talent or versatility, I need only point out The Brothers Bloom.
She was also the best thing in Oz the Great and Powerful, and just about the only one in the cast who understood what type of movie she was in.
Her win for The Constant Gardener remains one of the most deserved in Oscar history, and I don't care what anyone says: it's not category fraud. Her performance and impact on the film is just so intense, we feel her even when she's not on screen.
Here's to another day at the Oscars! :)
P.S. Film Experience has always been very low-key with Weisz; almost no mentions, even when she's killing it. Not saying it's bias, just what I've noticed. Even this article doesn't mention her at all except to say she's in it.
The moment when she screams "I have always been this way!" gives me chills. Before coming out I would imagine worse case scenarios and invisioned myself screaming the same thing. The trailer hit me harder then I thought it would.
Totally seeing this!
Strange release date given the actresses attached. It would have always been a longer shot but April pretty much takes it out of awards. Although McAdams snuck a nomination for a relatively thin performance and Weisz got a lot of traction for the lesser seen Deep Blue Sea
Nic - I'm not sure this would have been an awards player regardless, though I'd say McAdams is worthy of the conversation and it's a solid film. It's perhaps slightly more understated than the trailer implies
That poster is so CAT PEOPLE.
Weisz is so weirdly underrated.
She robbed Amy Adams and Michelle Williams's Oscar
Although Weisz DIDN'T deserved that Oscar, category fraud or not, She's still the better Rachel here.
That said these are both lovely actresses, quite watchable. Looking forward to that scene I did heard about.
No she did't rob anyone. She was perfect in The Constant Gardener in a very difficult role, the annoying know-it-all activist that manages do handle an unexpected love story. She's fearless and emotional in the role and you miss her every single frame she's not in.
That was perhaps the most competitive supporting actress year for the new millennium. Weisz was a deserving winner but the other nominees would be good winners too.
Manny, ITA about Rachel's performance in Youth. That monologue is extraordinary. I love Fonda in that film, but Weisz really makes a mark.
Was there a smackdown for 2005? If not there really should be
Love the fact that Rachel Weisz IS an Oscar Winner, hadn`t she won for The Constant Gardner ( Weisz is electrifying ) she`d be one of those immensely talented actresses that we feel speechless for not having one yet ( looking at you Amy Adams, Annette Bening, Sharon Stone, Michelle Williams & Pfeiffer) , The Deep Blue Sea is a wonder and she`s incandescent in it , she`s at once a sensible, capable, intelligent woman and a mad, keening martyr for love. And she has such a daring way to find the most interesting projects, hence Sunshine, The Fountain, The Brothers Bloom, Page Eight, The Lobster, Youth, Complete Unknown, Denial ....hell, she even know how to pick her blockbusters ( Constantine, anyone?). In my book she would have two more Oscar nods (for Agora and The Deep Blue Sea) and she looks on fire and close to perfect (again) in Disobedience ....definitely a YES.
Love the fact that Rachel Weisz IS an Oscar Winner, hadn`t she won for The Constant Gardner ( Weisz is electrifying ) she`d be one of those immensely talented actresses that we feel speechless for not having one yet ( looking at you Amy Adams, Annette Bening, Sharon Stone, Michelle Williams & Pfeiffer) , The Deep Blue Sea is a wonder and she`s incandescent in it , she`s at once a sensible, capable, intelligent woman and a mad, keening martyr for love. And she has such a daring way to find the most interesting projects, hence Sunshine, The Fountain, The Brothers Bloom, Page Eight, The Lobster, Youth, Complete Unknown, Denial ....hell, she even know how to pick her blockbusters ( Constantine, anyone?). In my book she would have two more Oscar nods (for Agora and The Deep Blue Sea) and she looks on fire and close to perfect (again) in Disobedience ....definitely a YES.
This looks stunning...and y'all, Rachel McAdams DESERVED that supporting actress nomination for Spotlight...that was, in my opinion, the epitome of a SUPPORTING performance. Unlike Vikander and McAdams who had full-blown lead roles.
Hm unlike all of the commenters above I myself feel like Weisz's single face expression gets a bizarre amount of adulation all over film blog land. I've seen at least a dozen of her performances and she's never made a single acting choice in a scene that I found inspired or surprising, not even her Kate Winslet impression in The Constant Gardener.
I'm watching this film for McAdams and Lelio, both of whom I find genuinely underappreciated.
Tom : agree with you about that line up though I would drop Keener for her nothing performance in Capote for Hathawsy in Brokeback Mountain. The phone scene alone at the end should have clinched her the nomination.
Wow, I never knew Rachel Weisz was so divisive! I feel like I should rewatch The Constant Gardner to get in on this.