RIDE THE EAGLE
****
Director: Trent O’Donnell
Screenplay: Trent O’Donnell and Jake Johnson
Principal cast:
Jake Johnson
Susan Sarandon
J.K. Simmons
D’Arcy Carden
Luis Fernandez-Gil
Cleo King
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 89 mins.
Australian release date: In QLD, WA, SA, TAS and NT cinemas from September 9 and ACT, VIC and regional NSW cinemas from September 23.
Australian director Trent O’Donnell and US actor Jake Johnson have come up with a surprising, original screenplay for their film Ride the Eagle. And a funny one, too. It’s a wild premise: man-child Leif (excellently captured by Johnson) is a bit of a loser, a dope-smoking bongo player in a band of much younger musicians, long estranged from his mother, Honey (Susan Sarandon). Out of the blue, Missy (Cleo King), an acquaintance from the dim, distant past, turns up on his doorstep and informs him that Honey has died and left him her ‘cabin’ in Yosemite, but the inheritance is conditional on Leif performing certain tasks. He is told that he must drive to Honey’s home to get the instructions he is required to follow. O’Donnell explains that, “In my experience, when family becomes estranged, it isn’t because one person was overtly bad and the other overtly good, but rather it’s a series of smaller events and people wearing each other down that leads to these situations. I was interested in making our story one of grey areas, rather than black and white or good vs bad. Honey didn’t set out to become estranged from her son - she made choices at the time that she thought were the right thing to do. It just didn’t play out the way she imagined and for his part, Leif was unable to forgive her for that.” The device of the conditional will forces mother and son back together, even though one of the pair is no longer with us. Clever, huh?
When Leif arrives in Yosemite with his inseparable companion Nora, a black Labrador, he finds that the ‘cabin’ is actually a rather sumptuous two-storey timber house with a number of sealed envelopes and a video cassette waiting inside for him. The tape has been recorded by Honey in anticipation of her death as her way of reconnecting with her son; it’s no maudlin mea culpa, though. It turns out that Honey was quite a gal! As Leif works through his ‘to do’ list, he learns more and more about his mother and her life (on one occasion, way more than any child should know about their mum!) - she had left him when he was 12, so there’s a lot to learn - and, naturally, he also learns a lot about himself in the process.
Sydney-born writer/director Trent O’Donnell had a storied CV of off-beat comedy series for Australian television, shows like Review with Myles Barlow, The Chasers War on Everything, Laid, and A Moody Christmas, before he relocated to Los Angeles in the early 2010s. He has been working there consistently ever since, directing high-profile TV series such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grace and Frankie and No Activity; indeed, he met his star and co-writer Johnson when they were both working on New Girl, the hit series starring Zooey Deschanel. The two hit it off and had been looking for a project to work on since then but it “took the pandemic for us to take a breath and figure what we could actually go out and make together and the result of that is Ride the Eagle”, says the director. He’s not the only Aussie involved, either: cinematographer Judd Overton is responsible for the film’s gleaming look. The wide-screen exteriors in Yosemite are particularly fine. The film has a small cast and all the performances are spot-on, particularly D’Arcy Carden as Audrey, Leif’s love-interest from the past. She’s terrific.
It may be hard to catch, given the open-and-closed nature of the country right now but, if you are able to see Ride the Eagle, do so. It is one of the most inventive films you will see this year, plus you’ll learn the reason for the cheesy title.
Screenplay: Trent O’Donnell and Jake Johnson
Principal cast:
Jake Johnson
Susan Sarandon
J.K. Simmons
D’Arcy Carden
Luis Fernandez-Gil
Cleo King
Country: USA
Classification: M
Runtime: 89 mins.
Australian release date: In QLD, WA, SA, TAS and NT cinemas from September 9 and ACT, VIC and regional NSW cinemas from September 23.
Australian director Trent O’Donnell and US actor Jake Johnson have come up with a surprising, original screenplay for their film Ride the Eagle. And a funny one, too. It’s a wild premise: man-child Leif (excellently captured by Johnson) is a bit of a loser, a dope-smoking bongo player in a band of much younger musicians, long estranged from his mother, Honey (Susan Sarandon). Out of the blue, Missy (Cleo King), an acquaintance from the dim, distant past, turns up on his doorstep and informs him that Honey has died and left him her ‘cabin’ in Yosemite, but the inheritance is conditional on Leif performing certain tasks. He is told that he must drive to Honey’s home to get the instructions he is required to follow. O’Donnell explains that, “In my experience, when family becomes estranged, it isn’t because one person was overtly bad and the other overtly good, but rather it’s a series of smaller events and people wearing each other down that leads to these situations. I was interested in making our story one of grey areas, rather than black and white or good vs bad. Honey didn’t set out to become estranged from her son - she made choices at the time that she thought were the right thing to do. It just didn’t play out the way she imagined and for his part, Leif was unable to forgive her for that.” The device of the conditional will forces mother and son back together, even though one of the pair is no longer with us. Clever, huh?
When Leif arrives in Yosemite with his inseparable companion Nora, a black Labrador, he finds that the ‘cabin’ is actually a rather sumptuous two-storey timber house with a number of sealed envelopes and a video cassette waiting inside for him. The tape has been recorded by Honey in anticipation of her death as her way of reconnecting with her son; it’s no maudlin mea culpa, though. It turns out that Honey was quite a gal! As Leif works through his ‘to do’ list, he learns more and more about his mother and her life (on one occasion, way more than any child should know about their mum!) - she had left him when he was 12, so there’s a lot to learn - and, naturally, he also learns a lot about himself in the process.
Sydney-born writer/director Trent O’Donnell had a storied CV of off-beat comedy series for Australian television, shows like Review with Myles Barlow, The Chasers War on Everything, Laid, and A Moody Christmas, before he relocated to Los Angeles in the early 2010s. He has been working there consistently ever since, directing high-profile TV series such as Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Grace and Frankie and No Activity; indeed, he met his star and co-writer Johnson when they were both working on New Girl, the hit series starring Zooey Deschanel. The two hit it off and had been looking for a project to work on since then but it “took the pandemic for us to take a breath and figure what we could actually go out and make together and the result of that is Ride the Eagle”, says the director. He’s not the only Aussie involved, either: cinematographer Judd Overton is responsible for the film’s gleaming look. The wide-screen exteriors in Yosemite are particularly fine. The film has a small cast and all the performances are spot-on, particularly D’Arcy Carden as Audrey, Leif’s love-interest from the past. She’s terrific.
It may be hard to catch, given the open-and-closed nature of the country right now but, if you are able to see Ride the Eagle, do so. It is one of the most inventive films you will see this year, plus you’ll learn the reason for the cheesy title.