Category: Movies

Yay, Mary! Today, a couple of new reviews post-Smashed screening over at Sundance FF 2012 have been published, and they’re nothing short of amazing. Here’s the first one via Slashfilm:

Filmmaker James Ponsoldt‘s feature debut Off The Black premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006. It was met with a lackluster response, but everyone seemed to praise the performances despite the troubled screenplay. After seeing last year’s heavily buzzed-about film Like Crazy, Mary Elizabeth Winstead contacted producer Jonathan Schwartz and Andrea Sperling because she wanted to be in a film like the one they produced. This year, Ponsoldt, Schwartz and Sperling returned to Park City Utah with Smashed, which features a must-see tour de force performance from Winstead.

The character-driven script follows a teacher dealing with alcoholism, and the problems that her marriage poses in her efforts to become sober. Winstead plays the teacher, and Aaron Paul (Breaking Bad) plays her almost-always drunk husband. The story is basic and obvious (as in that it has the standard after school special character arc) but the details are polished and authentic-feeling.

The screenplay also features some nice moments of comedy. For example, when Winstead’s character turns up hungover to work and vomits in front of her class, she lies about being pregnant to keep her job. This lie snowballs into some funny bits later on. The fact that the film has comedic moments shouldn’t be surprising considering it was co-written by sketch comic Susan Burke.

But the film is Mary Elizabeth Winstead‘s to own. Winstead’s performance is powerful, moving — a must see. It will bring you to verge of tears. Aaron Paul has a nice turn, but nothing out of the realm that we’ve seen in Breaking Bad. It’s also worth noting that Octavia Spencer (The Help) has a nice supporting performance.

/Film Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Continue reading More Awesome Reviews of Mary’s SMASHED Performance!

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.