Centerpiece: Indignation
Description
Acclaimed screenwriter/producer (and longtime Ang Lee collaborator) James Schamus makes his directorial debut with this insightful and beautifully acted adaptation of Philip Roth’s admired 2008 novel, a look at a young Jewish man from New Jersey who heads to a small, and much more Anglo, Midwest town. Amidst the conformity and political conservatism of 1950s America, Marcus Messner (Logan Lerman, in a breakout performance) decides to avoid the Korean War draft and joins a Christian college in Ohio instead, but soon finds himself at odds with everyone from classmates to the dean, especially in matters of religion, or lack of it. A relationship with a troubled, provocative blonde (Sarah Gadon) promises at least a sexual awakening (this is, after all, based on a Roth novel), but even something as physical as that connection only leads to more intellectual doubt, and possibly something even more challenging. Schamus, who defined the American independent film scene of the 1990s and 2000s as the co-founder of Good Machine and the CEO of Focus Features, brings the same grasp of human frailty and interpersonal dynamics that his award-winning script for The Ice Storm demonstrated, balanced with a veteran’s feel for cinema brought from a lifetime producing some of indie film’s most prestigious, elegant works.
One of the most influential figures in recent American independent cinema, the screenwriter/producer/director James Schamus earned his BA, MA and Ph.D from UC Berkeley before moving on to co-found (with Ted Hope) the film company Good Machine in 1991. It produced films such as Todd Haynes’ Safe, Todd Solondz’s Happiness and Ang Lee’s The Ice Storm, among many others, before being bought by Universal in 2002, where Schamus created the art-house wing Focus Features. In addition to producing, Schamus has also written several scripts with his frequent collaborator, Ang Lee. As one of the screenwriters of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), he received a Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar® nomination. Schamus received SFIFF’s Kanbar Award in 2010.
Film Details
Language English
Year 2015
Runtime 110
Country USA
Director James Schamus
Producer Anthony Bregman, James Schamus, Rodrigo Teixeira
Writer James Schamus
Editor Andrew Marcus
Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt
Music Jay Wadley
Cast Logan Lerman, Sarah Gadon, Tracy Letts
Print Source Roadside Attractions