Inside the 2011 Cannes Film Festival Day 4: Liza Johnson’s Return

It was the world premiere night in the Directors’ Fortnight section for Liza Johnson and her debut feature film, Return. Starring Michel Shannon in a minor supporting role and focusing on Linda Cardellini in what could be her ticket to a more interesting array of indie parts, this isn’t a major mood-swinging piece and comparatively its a tame when compared to the dozen others and is obviously the point — Johnson spins this without any cliches, something that appeared co-joined to the hip in this dramatic sub-genre.

Home from her deployment, Cardellini’s mother/wife character just doesn’t fit anymore, she doesn’t know why but what she does know is that others had it worse — you get a sense that Return was researched and elements were drawn into the possible backstory of the character, so this isn’t dependent on addiction-like stupors to fill the character description, but rather, visuals of the environment, a rural, mainland America coats and underlines her aimlessness. Here is world premiere night presentation and post-screening footage.