In 2000, playwright Kenneth Lonergan wrote and directed his first feature, You Can Count on Me, a simple, but assured piece of small-time filmmaking that netted two Academy Award nominations, one for his original screenplay, and one for Laura Linney's wonderful performance. The coming of age drama about a small town brother and sister reconciliation was funny, moving, and in a rare gesture of American independent filmmaking, felt completely honest. Linney's counterpart, Mark Ruffalo should have been nominated as well for deft breakthrough performance as her fuck-up sibling. Five years later, Lonergan began principle photography on his second feature, a seemingly more challenging ensemble drama centered around a horrible bus accident. The movie wrapped sometime in 2005, and has been awaiting release ever since. A lot of the drama seemed centered around Lonergan's finicky final edit of the film, and his perfectionist work ethic...the filmmaker, even though it was only his second film, had an exclusive final cut of the film, a rarity even for some of the most internationally regarding directors working today. There was also two lawsuits between distributor Fox Searchlight and production company Gilbert Films, and huge names listed with producer credits, including luminaries like Scott Rudin, and the sadly passed away likes of Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella. Shelved and put on hold, and assumed to have be assembled and reassembled countless times, many a patient filmgoer may have thought the idea of theatrical release for Margaret would never come. I, for one, am not fully going to buy until I've watched the trimmed two hour and thirty minute feature in its entirety. The movie stars a pre-Sookie Anna Paquin, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick, Allison Janney, Keiran Culkin, Olivia Thirlby and Mark Ruffalo. Allegedly it will be release by Fox Searchlight Pictures on September 30th.
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