Category: Movies

I’m so happy as I write this whole post up because this is the type of news I love to hear when it comes to Mary’s professional career. We first told you that Mary was already getting early buzz for the film, but now it’s official.

SMASHED finished premiering over at Sundance for the first time ever and after the screening, Mary has received several amazing reviews from various people. Below are some of the following reviews she got:

From Marie Claire magazine:

Mary Elizabeth Winstead kills it in Smashed! #Sundance

Hitfix:

Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays cinema’s most adorable alcoholic in “Smashed.” She’s also mighty good.

From FirstShowing.net

This is super exciting! Smashed is only a few days from premiering at Sundance 2012 and Mary has been getting a bunch of early online buzz for her performance as well as one of the films to check out if you’re attending Sundance. Huge congrats Mary! This is only the beginning of one heck of an amazing career! We’ll keep you posted on all Sundance updates and photos of Mary!

THR for one, named Mary as one of the six faces to watch out for:

Although the 27-year-old actress has done her share of studio work (The Thing, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, Final Destination 3), her raw performance in the competition film Smashed as a woman struggling to shed her marriage’s dependence on alcohol showcases stripped-down dramatic chops that could open doors.

NextMovie also praises Mary’s acting, saying it’ll show audiences her acting chops. Something we’ve all known she’s always had. 😉

Mary Elizabeth Winstead (“The Thing”) has long been one of our favorite young actresses, but up until now she’s never really been given the chance to show what we knew she had all along — real acting chops. That all looks to change with her reportedly harrowing turn in “Smashed,” an intense drama in which she stars as Kate, a hard partying elementary schoolteacher forced to get her life on track. Winstead is the reason we’re psyched to see this, but the film also boasts a solid supporting cast that includes Aaron Paul (“Breaking Bad”), Octavia Spencer (“The Help”) and “Will and Grace” funny-lady Megan Mullaly.

FilmSchoolRejects also echoes the same feelings…

While many films look at addiction and the downward spiral it can send users into, Smashed looks to focus on the point between rock bottom and recovery as Kate (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) sobers up and realizes that her marriage to Charlie (Aaron Paul) may have been rooted in booze rather than love. Paul has been getting critical acclaim for his work on AMC’s Breaking Bad and it should be interesting to see him playing against Windstead (whose performance was one of the highlights in last year’s The Thing) with TV royalty Nick Offerman and wife Megan Mullally rounding out the cast.

The more I hear about this film, the more I want to see it. Following the video we posted with director James Ponsoldt talking about Smashed, Indiewire caught up with the director and spoke a little bit more about the film. Here’s what he had to say about it:

“My co-writer – Susan Burke – and I set out to write a screenplay about an alcoholic that didn’t deal in objectification. Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who plays our lead, “Kate”) is an amazing, vulnerable, and profoundly empathetic actor, so her ability to fully inhabit the character and make her relatable helped us tremendously. And Susan is sober and has a lot of experience with recovery, so our story should feel authentic.”

“Basically, this was my breakthrough: hire people who are smarter and more talented than yourself, explain your story and ideas clearly, listen to what they have to say and then give them the autonomy and creative freedom to elevate your film. It’s liberating. You can always respectfully disagree if you don’t like something. But to treat everyone as an equal, a collaborator, and to let the best idea win out (wherever it comes from). If a director doesn’t enjoy that, they should probably take up something more solitary, like knitting or whittling.

“I hope audiences like hanging out with the characters in our film; I sure do. And whether “Kate” and “Charlie” – the married couple at the center of “Smashed” – make good partners, or are co-dependent and enable each other’s worst behavior and are better off apart, well, I think it would be great if audiences are completely divided. I’m very curious to hear how people feel.”

I’m so excited to see this film & the way James describes Mary’s acting is so great.

About two weeks and counting until SMASHED premieres at this year’s Sundance! Until then, Sundance has posted this video with the film’s director, James Ponsoldt, talking about his upcoming film and why people will be drawn to his film.

Check out his interview below: