Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2011: Liza Johnson’s Return

#97. Return

Director/Writer: Liza Johnson
Producers: Noah Harlan and Ben Howe
Distributor: Rights Available.

The Gist: Back from a tour of duty, Kelli (Cardellini) can’t wait to rejoin her old life in the rust belt town she’s always lived in. She’s ready to experience the feelings of everyday life– the carpet under her bare feet, a cold beer in front of the television, the smell of her baby’s head. Slowly, though, she realizes that her everyday life doesn’t resemble the one she left. A gap opens up with her husband Mike (Shannon), who doesn’t entirely understand the things she’s seen and been through.….(more)

Cast: Linda Cardellini, Michael Shannon and Mad Men’s John Slattery

List Worthy Reasons…: Short film filmmaker and installation work artist Liza Johnson is among of the folks that we included in our inaugural American New Wave 25 series, and we’re expecting a breath of fresh air in the subject matter she examines in her feature debut. In cinema, post-traumatic stress disorder following war traumas has been done to death, but I’m betting this discourse might have a little more to offer than previous viewpoints — the small town template includes a shifting of the family paradigm and if the perf is well-calibrated then I think we might see Scooby Doo thesp Linda Cardellini’s name mentioned during awards season same time next year. This little indie number also includes Michael Shannon and the extremely busy Tim Blake Nelson.

Release Date/Status?: Now in post-production, this could be ready as early as Cannes, or fully charged for the fall film festival season or delayed until Sundance 2012, where the filmmaker workshopped the project in the Labs.