Ever since we heard reports last year of a film shoot at The Stone Fox, we've been keeping tabs on the indie drama Lovesong, the fourth feature by Korean-born filmmaker So Yong Kim (Treeless Mountain, In Between Days). Co-written and edited with her husband, filmmaker Bradley Rust Gray (The Exploding Girl), it's described as a quietly building character study about the growing attraction between two old friends, a reserved stay-at-home mom (Riley Keough from Mad Max: Fury Road and the recent Dixieland) and an unabashed free spirit (Jena Malone, soon to be seen in Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon).
The film had its premiere earlier this week at the Sundance Film Festival, where co-producer Elise Tyler joined cast and crew before returning home to break the news of the beloved Nations hangout's imminent closing this weekend. On a happier note, the early reviews tend to agree this is writer-director Kim's best and most accessible film. From Jon Frosch in The Hollywood Reporter:
It's Kim's strongest film to date, a far more involving showcase for her brand of minimalism than her last effort, 2010's ho-hum Paul Dano vehicle For Ellen. The difference this time is that Kim, working from a screenplay she co-penned with husband Bradley Rust Gray (Jack & Diane), has written interesting characters and succeeds in pulling us into their inner lives.
Justin Chang in Variety:
Malone, with her knack for playing strong-willed, hard-edged young women, is perfectly cast as the brash, impulsive, needy and inconsiderate friend who has come to rely deeply on Sarah. And Keough makes entirely clear why Sarah invites her friend’s trust: Bearing an uncanny resemblance to Kristen Stewart at her most expressively withdrawn, the actress (soon to be seen on Starz’s “The Girlfriend Experience”) projects a soulful integrity that keeps the character from seeming too passive. She may not seem to be doing much at any given moment, but her every silent, darting glance makes clear that she’s both a natural caretaker — of her friend, of her daughter — and also someone with an eye on a potentially new horizon.
So far, there's been no word on distribution at a festival marked by staggering deals (like the $17.5 million paid for actor-director Nate Parker's Nat Turner drama The Birth of a Nation). But it's got an intriguing supporting cast that includes Rosanna Arquette, Amy Seimetz (who directed Keough in The Girlfriend Experience) and True Detective/Beasts of No Nation director Cary Joji Fukunaga, as well as local musicians Marshall Chapman and William Tyler (Elise's brother and Stone Fox co-founder), so here's hoping. (Watch also for Jamin Orrall and Luke Schneider.) We'll keep our fingers crossed for a Nashville Film Festival slot in April.
