Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #49. Anna Boden & Ryan Fleck’s Mississippi Grind

Mississippi Grind

Directors: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Writers: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Producers: Electric City Ent.’s Lynette Howell and Jamie Patricof, Sycamore Pictures’ Ben Nearn and Tom Rice
U.S. Distributor: Rights Available
Cast: Ryan Reynolds, Analeigh Tipton, Sienna Miller, Ben Mendelsohn, Alfre Woodard

In our books, the Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck are two for three in their relatively young filmmaking career. The tonally deficient adaptation of Ned Vizzini’s It’s Kind of a Funny Story (2010) landed like a dud, but this doesn’t take away from the pure, almost direct cinema portraits in Half Nelson (2006) and sophomore film Sugar (2008), both of those films are like riding your bike without holding onto the handles: unfiltered worlds captured with a graceful air of unknown. The key ingredient here with Mississippi Grind is Ben Mendelsohn – we’ve yet to see him in an off performance since Animal Kingdom and this will be among the many showcase items in his breakout year ahead.

Gist: Down on his luck and facing financial hardship, Gerry (Ben Mendelsohn) teams up with younger charismatic poker player, Curtis, in an attempt to change his luck. The two set off on a road trip through the South with visions of winning back what’s been lost.

Release Date: Shooting began in January – so this logically could be ready for TIFF and Venice. Sundance 2015 is a likely candidate if we don’t hear from this in August.

[related]Top 200 Most Anticipated Films of 2014[/related]