Gus Van Sant may not always be on top of his game, but his films are nevertheless fascinating regardless of success and failure. Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, his latest drama starring Joaquin Phoenix as a wheelchair-bound alcoholic and Jonah Hill (unrecognizable) as his friend, has that look of good Gus.
The cast beyond Phoenix and Hill – again I cannot stress how different Jonah Hill looks – is stacked, and the tone is interesting. Check it out:
After Portland slacker John Callahan (Joaquin Phoenix) nearly loses his life in a car accident, the last thing he intends to do is give up drinking. But when he reluctantly enters treatment – with encouragement from his girlfriend (Rooney Mara) and a charismatic sponsor (Jonah Hill) – Callahan discovers a gift for drawing edgy, irreverent newspaper cartoons that develop a national following and grant him a new lease on life.
With Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot and the pulp thriller You Were Never Really Here on the horizon – two complete sentence titles, oddly enough – Joaquin Phoenix is set up for a great 2018.
This will be Van Sant’s first film since the disastrous Sea of Trees, which was a bad move on just about everyone involved. Aside from Phoenix and Hill, the film stars Rooney Mara, Jack Black, and even Udo Kier plays a role. The screenplay is based on John Callahan’s (Phoenix’s character) biography, with Van Sant doing the bulk of the screenwriting. It will hit theaters May 11, just in time to get all that summer blockbuster money no doubt.
