Raise your hand if you just got out of Backrooms and simultaneously want to go down an internet rabbit hole about Kane Parsons’ horrific world based on an internet creepypasta and go outside to touch grass! I’m here and ready to break down what just happened during the ending of one of the most critically-acclaimed movies on the 2026 release schedule. Feel free to walk outside and read this… if you can find the door, that is. SPOILERS AHEAD.

Poor Mary! Renate Reinsve’s character goes after her patient Clark (Chiwetel Ejifor) to the backrooms and tries to help him out. What she finds when she goes through the invisible door he rambled about is a crazed man who would rather live in an unsettling place full of endless rooms than live among society.

She does manage to escape him after learning something really scary about the backrooms: it seems to create copies of whoever enters its space, except they are abnormal versions of humans that don’t seem to feel pain. It’s also unclear if they have minds of their own or not. The end of Mary’s journey that we see is when she meets a man named Phil (Mark Duplass).

Who Is Phil In Backrooms?

Phil is an employee of the fictional Async Research Institute, which is a prominent element of director Kane Parsons’ YouTube series this whole movie is based on. You definitely don’t have to have watched the series to enjoy or understand the movie itself, but it does help, perhaps, explain the movie’s ending. In the YouTube series, the backrooms were actually created or discovered by Async in an effort to solve global storage and residential problems on Earth. This episode from the series is a good place to start:

The YouTube series often follows Async as they explore the backrooms and attempt to explore its vastness, but several strange anomalies begin to be made known – including openings popping up in unexpected places, from a freeway to people’s homes. While Phil’s exact position isn’t clarified in Backrooms, he’s part of the company that is trying to contain the problems that the backrooms have started to create. We can definitely assume Mary is not safe now that she’s seen it extensively.

Does Backrooms Set Up A Franchise?

While the YouTube series kind of starts where the movie ends, it's a very smart way to introduce the masses to Kane Parsons’ backrooms lore without stepping on the toes of the web series. In the web series, it’s concluded that there’s an uptick in missing persons after the backrooms were opened because so many have found them through multiple portals. Clark is one of the latest casualties who will never be found, but Mary’s fate is more complex. Will they try to recruit her or do away with her?

Since the nature of Backrooms is infinite rooms based on places on Earth, I think this movie is absolutely setting up a franchise. Introducing Async gives Parsons the option to tell the story next from the institute’s perspective or involve them more in a potential sequel. I definitely see a second movie acting as an anthology of sorts rather than continuing where the end leaves off, but either option (or both) is definitely on the table.

All that being said, I absolutely love how Backrooms can work as a standalone movie, too. If it doesn’t inspire any upcoming horror movies, it gets its terrifying message across and could be one of the best scary movies of the year.

The first trailer for Blumhouse and A24's The Backrooms has landed on the 2026 movie schedule, and it’s doing something that most Hollywood adaptations of internet series struggle to pull off, especially when it comes to new horror movies. It actually feels like the thing people fell in love with in the first place.

Based on the viral YouTube series created by Kane Parsons, The Backrooms' first trailer leans heavily into the lo-fi, found-footage movie aesthetic that helped the original videos explode online in 2022. At the same time, this is clearly a larger production, backed by A24, with recognizable actors and a wider theatrical release on the way.

That mix could have easily gone sideways. Instead, the trailer suggests the filmmakers understood the assignment because it's giving me all the creepy vibes I could have asked for.

A Rare Case Of Hollywood Not Sanding Down The Edges

One of the biggest risks when adapting internet-born horror is over-polishing it. The roughness is often the point. The original Backrooms videos worked because they felt like something you weren’t supposed to see or found on some forgotten corner of the internet. The camera drifted. The lighting was harsh and wrong, and the spaces felt endless and empty. The trailer keeps that all intact.

There are long, uneasy shots of fluorescent-lit hallways that seem to loop in on themselves. The camera perspective shifts to handheld and lofi, giving it an unstable quality in comparison to something closer to modern digital cinema. It doesn’t abandon the analog horror roots that made the series popular.

That’s where the surprise comes in. Studio horror, especially when it originates from a niche source, often trades atmosphere for clarity. Here, the atmosphere appears to be the priority.

Found Footage Meets A Bigger Canvas

What makes this version of Backrooms stand out is how it blends two approaches that don’t usually coexist. On the one hand, there’s the stripped-down, almost DIY feel of the best found-footage movies and the creepiness of the "liminal space" aesthetic. It's a similar vibe we got when the experimental viral film Skinamarink dropped in 2022. On the other hand, unlike Skinkamarink, there’s a clear expansion in scope, with actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve stepping into a story with more defined characters and stakes.

The original series hinted at narrative threads but often left viewers to piece together the story. The film looks like it will give audiences more structure without over-explaining the central mystery. That balance is tricky, especially with a concept built around liminal spaces and the fear of getting lost in an unexplainable universe that doesn’t follow the rules of physics as we know them.

Parsons, who was still a teenager when his Backrooms videos took off, is at the helm of this big-screen adaptation, making his feature directorial debut here. The upcoming A24 project also marks a significant step for the production company, which continues to invest in unconventional horror that doesn’t fit neatly into mainstream formulas.

Backrooms Feels Different From Other Internet Lore Adaptations

There’s a long track record of adaptations taking something strange and internet-specific and flattening it into something generic. That doesn’t appear to be the case here. Just look at Slender Man. Not the HBO documentary Beware the Slenderman, which is worth watching, but the fictional studio version. The original concept and online lore are genuinely unsettling. The film, on the other hand, misses the mark entirely and earned its 8% score on Rotten Tomatoes.

If anything, the trailer suggests The Backrooms is trying to preserve the unease that made the original series work, while expanding it into something that can sustain a full theatrical runtime. It doesn’t look like it’s explaining away the mystery or smoothing out the weirdness. That restraint might be the most promising sign.

The Backrooms is set to hit theaters on May 29, and if the trailer is any indication, this could be one of the rare cases where a viral horror concept survives the jump to the big screen without losing what made it unsettling in the first place.

The horror genre has been thriving for years, and fans like myself have been thoroughly enjoying its current renaissance. Some of the best horror movies in recent memory come from wholly original concepts, many of which are produced by Blumhouse. One long-awaited upcoming horror movie is Mark Duplass' Creep 3, and the Morning Show star recently offered an update on the threequel that will please fans.

The first two Creep films (which are streaming with a Netflix subscription) were examples of great found footage movies. While the franchise was recently expanded with The Creep Tapes, fans are still hoping for another horror sequel movie to form a bonafide trilogy. While speaking with The Direct at Fantastic Fest 2025, Duplass shared his ongoing commitment to the threequel, saying:

Talk about pressure. While Duplass has worked on two movies and a TV show for the Creep franchise so far, it sounds like the forthcoming threequel is high stakes situation. Namely because it might be the final chapter in the horror property. So they've got to really get the story right if it'll be the last time audiences see Peachfuzz is all his terrifying glory.

The first two Creep movies show how to do found footage right, and also prove how much can be done with a minimal budget. The first movie was reportedly filmed with just $500 dollars, thanks to a three-person crew and only two actors (one of which was Duplass). As such, it was easily able to make a profit.

The Creep Tapes brought the franchise to TV, airing on Shudder and with an AMC+ subscription. Fans were treated to six episodes, revealing even more of Peachfuzz's kills. While it sounds like Duplass had a wealth of stories to explore, he further explained why he's taken his time on Creep 3. In his words:

Honestly, this makes sense. On top of developing a story that'll be dynamic enough to end the franchise, Creep 3 also has to live up to the terrifying expectations set by the previous two movies. So while the first horror flick arrived back in 2014, Mark Duplass' sense of care about the found footage threequel makes it seem like it'll be worth the wait whenever its finally released.

As previously mentioned, the first two Creep movies are streaming on Netflix right now. There is no release date for Creep 3, so we probably shouldn't expect it on the 2026 movie release list. Although since its such a low budget situation, maybe it can be shot and edited in quick succession. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

The streaming wars are in full effect, and one of the best Apple TV+ shows to watch is definitely The Morning Show. The Emmy-winning series is returning for its fourth season, with the cast returning to their signature roles. But actor Joe Marinelli won't be back having died back in June. But a few of the actors spoke to CinemaBlend about what the late actor brought to the table.

What we know about The Morning Show Season 4 is limited, but it's premiere is coming this week for those with an Apple TV+ subscription. As you can see in the video above, I spoke to the cast about the new batch of episodes, where Chip Black actor Mark Duplass spoke spoke about what Marinelli brought to the table as Donny, the director of the fictional news show. In his words:

While folks are figuring out how to watch The Morning Show Season 4, longtime fans have likely noticed Joe Marinelli's absence. While he played Donny in the first three seasons, the late actor unfortunately won't be present in the newest batch of episodes. But clearly he's in the hearts of his coworkers, and will forever be part of the legacy of the series as a whole.

This conversation came up when I asked them about which actors they'd like to see return to The Morning Show. There have been some big names throughout its tenure on the air, with Season 3 bringing in Jon Hamm and Season 4 introducing Marion Cotillard. But rather than waxing poetic about the major guest stars, Duplass instead spoke aout what Joe Marinelli brought to the show. Billy Crudup joined on the praise of what he brought to Donny Spagnoli, saying:

The Morning Show has a huge cast, thanks to how many people are working in the studio at UBA. Not all of them get main storylines like Chip, Stella, or Mia, they still help to create the world of the acclaimed Apple TV series. Marinelli's presence in his recurring role as Donny is part of what made the control room in particular feel like such a real place.

Fans are eager to return to the Apple series, especially following The Morning Show's Season 3 finale cliffhanger. In it we saw Reese Witherspoon's Bradley Jackson turning herself into the authorities for the ways she tried to cover her brother's involvement in the January 6th insurrection. We'll just have to see where all of our characters land in the fourth season.

The Morning Show will return for Season 4 on September 17th as part of the 2025 TV premiere schedule. Unfortunately, we won't be able to see Joe Marinelli's character Donny back in the control room.

The first episodes of Good American Family have hit the 2025 TV schedule, and I’ve very much been looking forward to this. As a longtime Grey’s Anatomy fan, I was excited to see Ellen Pompeo taking on this new, intriguing role (that’s very different from Meredith Grey). In the two-and-a-half years between the series’ announcement and its release, I watched the documentary about the same subject — The Curious Case of Natalia Grace — and now having seen both, I’m liking the Hulu series more. I just don’t know if that’s a good thing.

It’s important to note that Good American Family (streaming now with a Hulu subscription) is unrelated to the 2009 horror movie Orphan, in which a woman with dwarfism cons a family into thinking she is a child in order to terrorize them. The Hulu series centers around Natalia Grace (portrayed by Imogen Faith Reid, pictured below), who was 7 when she was adopted by Kristine and Michael Barnett (Pompeo and Mark Duplass). Let me explain why, after watching all three seasons of the docuseries, I’m wary of the dramatized retelling.

What Is Ellen Pompeo’s New Series Good American Family About?

It’s easy to see why Natalia Grace’s case drew such widespread interest, because there are a lot of twists and not much agreement on what exactly happened. Just to give a quick overview, the Barnetts adopted Natalia, a young Ukrainian girl with dwarfism, in 2010. They allegedly soon became suspicious that she was older than she claimed to be, and ultimately her birth year was legally changed from 2003 to 1989.

Kristina and MIchael Barnett grew concerned with Natalia’s behavior and felt their family was unsafe around her. Because she was legally an adult after being “re-aged,” they moved her into her own apartment in Indiana and relocated to Canada in 2013. Natalia’s original birth year has since been restored after medical testing, meaning she was only 10 years old when she was left alone in a house that was not accessible for her disability.

The Curious Case of Natalia Grace tells her story over three seasons, with Good American Family appearing to depict her time with the Barnetts, which was the primary story in Season 1 of the doc.

Ellen Pompeo And Mark Duplass Are More Tolerable Than Their Real-Life Counterparts

There’s a lot that’s unknown about Natalia Grace’s experience with the Barnetts — and I will note that all charges of neglect against the couple were ultimately dismissed in court — but looking at the facts, it’s hard to have a lot of sympathy for them. Kristine refused to participate in The Curious Case of Natalia Grace, and Michael (pictured above) used that to his full advantage, painting his now-ex-wife (they split in 2014) as his and Natalia’s “shared monster.”

Ellen Pompeo shows a softer side of Kristine Barnett than the Investigation Discovery doc (available to stream with a Max subscription) was able to. Having only seen the first two episodes of Good American Family, I can’t say how ugly the character is going to get, but so far the dramatized series humanizes her.

As for Michael Barnett, let’s just say if Mark Duplass played him the way he actually behaved on The Curious Case, people would never buy it. Michael was overdramatic and unpredictable, screaming and crying to get his points across.

The Morning Show star mercifully dulls the edges of Michael’s character, and through the first two episodes, he comes off simply as a dad who wants to bond with his adopted daughter. If that means letting her stay up late to play video games and eat extra snacks (thus drawing the ire of his wife amidst their already-rocky relationship), so be it.

While seeing these two likeable actors in these roles makes the Barnetts much more palatable, is that a good thing? It feels a little wrong to try to find relatability in Kristine and Michael Barnett knowing the facts of the case and the accusations regarding their treatment of a severely disabled child.

The Hulu Series May Address Questions Left Unanswered In The Doc, But How Much Will Be Truth?

One thing that frustrated me about The Curious Case of Natalia Grace was that it showed a lot of different perspectives but couldn’t ultimately clarify what was true and who had what agenda. While Ellen Pompeo’s series may seem to include Kristine Barnett, Natalia and others’ perspectives missing from the doc’s first season, Good American Family can’t be taken as fact.

That’s made clear right at the beginning, with a disclaimer that reads, in part:

This isn’t a knock on the series, and I’m glad it’s making sure to clarify that Good American Family is not a straight retelling of facts, but rather a complicated narrative of conflicting accounts. It does, however, further my point, in that the Hulu show will likely be more satisfying and paint a fuller picture, but it’s unlikely to help me (or other viewers) figure out the truth.

I don’t think anyone knows the truth, honestly. It seems like Kristine, Michael, Natalia and everyone else involved suffered trauma on some level after the young girl joined the Barnett family, and that’s my biggest issue with the series overall.

It Feels A Little Gross To Find Entertainment Value In This Family’s Situation

Any way you cut it, whether no one here is telling the truth or everyone is telling their version of it, this is a tragic story. An adoptive family was torn apart, a marriage ended. A disabled child was abandoned. All of these are real people, and the events being depicted — whether real, fictitious or somewhere in the middle — didn’t happen all that long ago.

It’s an undeniably fascinating story but one that centers around a woman who is today just 21 years old and continued to have issues finding safety after the Barnetts left her (as depicted in Seasons 2 and 3 of The Curious Case). I can’t say I feel great about dipping into this well for entertainment value.

The ID docuseries was a rough watch for me, and after two episodes of Good American Family, it does seem like this series is a lot easier to digest. I’m just not sure this situation should be easy to enjoy.

If you want to give Ellen Pompeo’s new show a try, the first two episodes of Good American Family are streaming now on Hulu, with a new episode each Wednesday.

Alex Levy, Bradley Jackson and the rest of the UBA gang are back for another round of the Apple TV+ drama The Morning Show, where workplace romances and real-world issues go hand-in-messy-hand to provide some titillating and often dark television. Season 3 is set to premiere on Wednesday, September 13, and while that’s exciting news for those with an Apple TV+ subscription, it’s been almost two years since we last saw the television crew in the throes of COVID. Where did we leave things and where will they pick up? Here are five things to keep in mind about The Morning Show Season 3 as it premieres. 

The Morning Show Season 3 Premieres September 13 On Apple TV+ 

The third season of the workplace drama, which Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon both star in and executive produce, is set to drop on Apple TV+ at 12:01 a.m. ET Wednesday, September 13. After waiting nearly two years — the Season 2 finale was released way back on November 18, 2021 — fans will be happy to know that the premiere will consist of the first two episodes. 

Season 3 received a 10-episode order, and after the double premiere, new episodes will be available to stream each Wednesday through the November 8 finale.

How The Morning Show Season 2 Ended 

When we last saw Alex Levy (Jennifer Aniston) she had finally accepted that her affair with Steve Carell’s Mitch Kessler was about to be exposed in a tell-all book, after she spent much of Season 2 trying to prevent that exact occurrence. While traveling to Italy, she contracted COVID, and in a genius (if not desperate) attempt to save both of their careers, Alex and Chip Black (Mark Duplass) broadcast her battle with the virus on the recently launched UBA+, thus making her a sympathetic figure. 

Meanwhile, Bradley Jackson (Reese Witherspoon) was in a bit of a love triangle, as she had struck up a romance with Julianna Margulies’ Laura Peterson, and the two looked to escape New York and ride out the pandemic on Laura’s ranch in Montana. Just as Bradley was leaving, however, UBA bigwig Cory Ellison (Billy Crudup) showed up to profess his love for the fiery journalist.

Other UBA employees, including Mia Jordan (Karen Pittman), Stella Bak (Greta Lee) and Yanko Flores (Néstor Carbonell) were left trying to figure out how, exactly, one could run a news organization with everyone in quarantine. Clearly, we’ll be seeing a time jump when Season 3 premieres, however, we don’t know how close to the current day we’ll get, or how relevant these cliffhangers will still be in the new season.

Jon Hamm Joins The Season 3 Cast, And There's A New Showrunner 

The main players listed above will all return to The Morning Show Season 3, save for Steve Carell, whose character shockingly died in Season 2. In addition to the familiar faces of UBA, we’ll also be introduced to some new characters. 

Mad Men star Jon Hamm is having a TV comeback of sorts, as he joins the fray as big money man Paul Marks. The actor said his storyline with Jennifer Aniston’s Alex will be “juicy,” and I can’t wait to see the sparks fly between the tech billionaire and the ruthless newswoman.

Tig Notaro will also appear in the show’s third season, per Deadline, as Amanda Robinson, Paul Marks’ chief of staff. Nicole Beharie will play newbie UBA staffer Christina Hunter, and Natalie Morales will appear as Stella’s best friend from college. 

Possibly the biggest shakeup on The Morning Show’s production was the announcement in January 2022 that Charlotte Stoudt was replacing Kerry Ehrin as showrunner of the drama. Stoudt previously worked on series including Fosse/Verdon, Homeland and House of Cards, and the move was part of an overall multi-year deal between her and Apple TV+. Ehrin, meanwhile, served as a consultant for the upcoming season, while continuing to develop new series for the network. 

UBA’s Future Will Be Thrown Into Question And Private Truths Revealed Amid Cyberattack 

One of the biggest questions going into Season 3 is which real-world problems are going to be at the center of the UBA drama. The first season discussed the #MeToo movement, opening with Mitch’s firing amid sexual misconduct allegations, and the second season was set in early 2020 at the onset of the pandemic. The third season's preview, which you can view at the top of this page, shows the characters back in the office, not wearing masks, so it’s probably safe to say the worst of COVID has passed. As for what we can expect, Apple’s official synopsis tells us: 

That’s pretty vague, but we get a little more information from the trailer. It appears Bradley is now anchoring the evening news, as she’s shown in the studio, with a presumably fully recovered Alex still holding down the fort before sunrise. Financial issues seem to still be afoot for the network, and my money’s on a certain Jon Hamm-shaped billionaire to be the knight who rides in to save the day. 

Everything is thrown into chaos in the trailer, when the station gets hit by a cyberattack — per Bradley’s somber on-air announcement — and I’m guessing this is where private truths become public knowledge.  

The Morning Show Has Already Been Renewed For Season 4 

Despite what fate meets the cast of the fictional Morning Show, it seems the network will survive in one form or another to report the news another day. A fourth season of the popular Apple TV+ series was confirmed back in April, with the streamer making the Season 4 announcement at the same time it let viewers know Season 3 would be premiering in the fall. That did little to make the time go faster, but thankfully our long wait is over. 

The first two episodes of The Morning Show will be available on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, September 13, and be sure to keep up with all of the other upcoming premieres by taking a peek at our 2023 TV schedule. 

The prolific rom-com genre may have worn out some long-standing tropes, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for more untold stories within the genre to be told to freshen it up. In 7 Days, Geraldine Viswanathan’s Rita and Karan Soni’s Ravi find themselves on a terribly awkward first date set up by their parents via an Indian dating site on the same day that the world shut down due to COVID-19. Due to the circumstances, the pair of strangers end up spending a week together in quarantine. 7 Days injects comedy into a number of poignant topics, which CinemaBlend discussed with the filmmakers. 

7 Days was co-written by Soni alongside director and real-life physician Roshan Sethi, who also co-created the Fox series, The Resident. When I spoke to the filmmakers, Sethi shared the backstory of their romantic comedy with these words: 

The movie features Soni’s Ravi, who is a more straight-laced traditionalist who is ready to get married and have children, whereas his prolonged date Viswanathan’s Rita is a closet drinker who only entertains her mom’s plans to set her up with a husband to keep the peace. At the start of the film, 7 Days features actual Indian couples who got arranged marriages. Sethi shared the decision behind this: 

Karan Soni shared with CinemaBlend that the dynamic was inspired his own with Sethi as a couple, with the Deadpool actor being more of the traditionalist, but as comedies go, 7 Days heightens everything. The story certainly sheds light on immigrant experiences, which Sethi commented on as well: 

7 Days touches on the struggle of this balancing act and Rita and Ravi grow closer in quarantine despite being so different on the surface level. Karan Soni shared his own experience with these words: 

7 Days is clearly a personal story to Karan Soni and Roshan Sethi, who wrote the script during the summer of 2020 when they were starved for a creative outlet. With support from the Duplass Brothers, the movie was shot in eight days. The movie reteams Miracle Workers costars Geraldine Viswanathan and Karan Soni, who worked together on three seasons of the comedy show alongside Daniel Radcliffe and Steve Buscemi. 

The movie won the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature for director Roshan Sethi. 7 Days is now playing in theaters. Check out what other upcoming 2022 movies are on the way and for more from our interview, check out what Soni said about returning for Deadpool 3 here on CinemaBlend. 

Besides having an enthusiastic audience, one of the first hurdles any revival of a show has to overcome is having willing participants. Namely, the cast and the original creative forces need to be as eager to reprise the series as the fandom. With so many TV audiences having been satiated with a second chance to re-enter the magic of a bygone series, it is no wonder that fans want the comedy The League to be visited. The good news is original star Mark Duplass is too, saying:

A lot of what Mark Duplass is saying regarding a potential revival of The League to IndieWire lines up with what Topher Grace recently said regarding a That '70s Show revival. Unfortunately, the same article that features Mark Duplass' upbeat quote on the topic of reviving The League has been updated to add that FX has reached out to the publication, and they have no plans to continue the series.

It is unclear if FX's statement marks the end of a potential revival of The League, or if the show could pop up elsewhere. While FX may not be interested in rebooting the show, the cast appears to be open to the chance of revisiting the series. In fact, one of the series' showrunners, Jeff Schaffer has previously stated, there were stories they didn't get to tell before the show ended.

Hopes surrounding a potential reunion were apparently fueled by a picture Mark Duplass posted on Twitter, last month. The photo showed him hanging out with his former cast mates, one of whom is Duplass' spouse. Katie Aselton, who played Jenny on the show, has been married to Duplass since 2006.

The League premiered in 2009 and ended with 84 episodes under its jersey in 2015. The show followed a group of friends living in Chicago, all of whom are active in a fantasy football league. While it has only been three years in the real world, since the show signed off, that is a lot of time for television characters.

It certainly seems like there is a lot of potential story to explore if The League were to come back somehow, continuing past its original seven season run. For now, you can fill The League-sized hole in your heart by checking out Mark Duplass and company's other works on Netflix. Several of the actors' films are currently streaming on the service, as are some of the docuseries Duplass has produced with his brother Jay.

For more of what's streaming on Netflix this year, check out our 2018 Netflix premiere rundown. If you are also curious about Amazon Prime, CinemeBlend has you covered there too with this handy guide to all of the new and returning shows set to premiere on the streaming platform in 2018.

In Jason Reitman's Tully, Ron Livingston plays a challenging role. Drew, the husband of Charlize Theron's Marlo, is the father of three children, but leaves most of the parenting to his wife while he works and frequently travels on business. This might immediately paint him as an absentee dad, but the movie works to compensate for it by adding scenes of him pitching in - for example, helping his kids with their homework. The funny thing is, that scene was actually a late addition to the movie, because apparently test audiences initially reacted negatively to the character.

Earlier this month I sat down with Ron Livingston and co-star Mark Duplass at the Los Angeles press day for Tully, and bulk of our conversation surrounded the ways their individual roles depart from being architypes. In the case of Drew, I noted in my question that the movie shows him helping out and contributing, but Livingston revealed that wasn't always the case. While he didn't exactly get into it at length, he suggested that there were some reshoots after early screenings that helped his character's image a bit.

Drew definitely isn't ultimately depicted as a bad dad or even necessarily a bad husband in Tully, but he is a bit tuned out to everything that's going on even while actively making an effort. Describing Drew's role as a parent in Tully, Ron Livingston told me about a conversation that he had with Jason Reitman about the character, and used an analogy to try and get his impression across:

Click play on the video below to watch my interview with Ron Livingston and Mark Duplass for Tully, which includes also Duplass' thoughts on his complex character: Marlo's wealthy brother, Craig, who actually isn't the stereotypical snobby jerk that you expect.

In Tully, Charlize Theron's Marlo is an exhausted and overworked mother who has just given birth to her third child. Completely overwhelmed, she accepts an offer from her brother (Mark Duplass) to hire a night nanny. This introduces Marlo to Tully (Mackenzie Davis), an ambitious, philosophical young woman who slowly begins to reshape the way Marlo looks at her life. You'll be able to see the film soon, as it will be arriving in theaters courtesy of Focus Features next Friday, May 4th. Stay tuned for more of our coverage here on CinemaBlend, including my interview with Charlize Theron and Jason Reitman!

As I've expressed in previous reviews, I am a sucker for a bottle story. Sure, I love a well-made action sequence as much as anybody, but I can also be completely satisfied with an entire movie about a bunch of people stuck together with nothing else to do but talk through all of their insane issues. As an extension of this, I should have been a fish in a barrel as a critic viewing writer/director Jeffrey Blitz's Table 19­ -- which not only sports a wedding-themed version of what I've described, but also has a cast stacked with impressive, likable talent. Despite all of that, however, I left the theater feeling what can really only be described as "whelmed."

Co-written by Jay and Mark Duplass (who have regularly proved to be capable of much better), the ensemble comedy centers on the random individuals who find themselves seated around the titular piece of furniture during the reception of a wedding of a young couple. Seated furthest away from the action, they are the people who either have an extremely limited connection to the betrothed, or who would have been better off not attending. There's Eloise (Anna Kendrick), the emotionally fragile young woman who was going to be the Maid of Honor before being dumped by the bride's brother (Wyatt Russell); Walter (Stephen Merchant), a relation of the husband's father recently released from prison; Jo (June Squibb), the bride's former nanny who was basically invited out of spite; Renzo (Tony Revolori), a young, socially inept teen who is essentially there to test his social skills; and Bina and Jerry (Lisa Kudrow, Craig Robinson), a disgruntled married couple who merely have business connections with the father of the bride.

After a period of getting to know each other, it takes very little time for them to piece together that there are the total rejects of the reception, and as Eloise puts it, the people who could leave in the middle of the event and not be noticed. It's not that simple, however, as various bouts of personal crisis wind up leaving a trail of chaos at the wedding -- leading the randoms at Table 19 to team up and try and get each other through their own crap before the night is through.

In these kinds of narratives, character is really everything, just because conflicts and problems don't mean anything if you don't care about the individuals trying to solve them. In this game, Table 19 is hit and miss thanks to what can best be called imbalanced material brought to life by solid performances. Anna Kendrick's Eloise is unquestionably the script's largest focus, given the most significant hurdles within the wedding context -- and while her story is modestly compelling (despite an unfortunate lack of chemistry with Wyatt Russell) it leaves every other narrative flimsy.

The notes mentioned within each character description above is pretty much the only one that each one sings by the time the film is done, and it's really only kept compelling by the individuals bringing each character to life. There isn't much to Walter beyond his desire to keep his criminal history a secret, but it does lead to some classic awkward comedy at which the Stephen Merchant is an expert. Craig Robinson's Jerry and Lisa Kudrow's Bina have a strong back-and-forth -- aided by a running gag related to Bina being dressed exactly like the waitstaff -- despite the fact that their contentious marriage is nothing we haven't seen before.

With so many different characters to deal with within the film's 87 minute runtime, Table 19 could be described as tight, but the more appropriate adjective would be rigid. Odd as it may be as a criticism, the film is never not about what it's about, and as a result never gives itself any breathing time. It's a film that could take a lesson from Reservoir Dogs or Clerks. and recognize that not every conversation needs to be about big gestures and life changes. In that, it lacks the naturalness of the Duplass' past work, and feels overwritten.

Table 19 is never boring, and it has a handful of laugh out loud moments compelled by its talented ensemble, but it really just doesn't amount to much. It's disappointing because you expect more from the talented people involved, but also don't feel completely shirked of a good time. It actually isn't far off from the experience of being at a mediocre wedding: you probably won't remember most of it, but at least you had some cake.

Want to see what a resurrected Olivia Wilde looks like? Then today is your lucky day, because that’s exactly what transpires in the first trailer for The Lazarus Effect, which you can watch in its entirety below.

Spooky stuff. The Lazarus Effect revolves around a team of medical students who devise a way to bring dogs, and eventually humans, back to life. But rather than patting themselves on the back and immediately declaring to the world that each and everyone one of them is in fact God reincarnated, they soon discover that the people and pets that they are resurrecting are pretty evil once they are walking, talking and eating again. Olivia Wilde plays The Lazarus Effect’s lead character, Zoe, who after being electrocuted is brought back to life by her beau, Frank (Mark Duplass). However, it becomes clear that Zoe’s experience has altered her drastically, and the evil force that now permeates through her body soon starts to wreak havoc on those closest to her. Eep.

In addition to the new trailer, the first poster for The Lazarus Effect has also been released online, and it proves that Olivia Wilde is going to be looking far from glamorous throughout the film.

The Lazarus Effect looks as though it will possess plenty of jumps and spooks to keep the mainstream horror masses pleased. Plus, it also boasts a rather stellar cast. As mentioned, right alongside Olivia Wilde is the always immensely watchable star of The League Mark Duplass, as well as Community’s Donald Glover and X-Men: Days Of Future Past’s Evan Peters. They must have all signed up to star in the film for a reason, so hopefully their faith will be rewarded with a decadent scare-fest. It looks as though Donald Glover will be the first to meet a grisly end too, as The Lazurus Effect’s trailer showed him being squashed to death inside a cabinet thanks to Olivia Wilde’s telekinetic powers. It's always the black guy, right?

If the talented cast weren’t involved, I’d be very sceptical. That’s despite the fact that The Lazarus Effect features a villainous dog. And as we all know, any horror film with an evil dog in it is always worth watching. In fact The Lazarus Effect’s resurrected pooch looks as though he could be the craziest cinematic dog since the Stephen King created Cujo. Here's fingers crossed that turns out to be true,

The Lazarus Effect is being released through Lionsgate and it will hit cinemas in the United States on February 27th.

Today, FXX simultaneously gave us some good news and bad news when the network made an announcement about The League. On the bright side, The League will be returning for a seventh season next year. However, unfortunately Season 7 will also be the final season for the show.

The League follows a ragtag crew of friends living in Chicago who belong to a fantasy football league. For six seasons now, we’ve seen Taco, Ruxin, Pete, Jenny, Kevin, and Andre get up to shenanigans in their personal and professional lives, all while attempting to win the elusive Shiva trophy. They’ll give it their all when The League returns for Season 7. Thirteen episodes will be produced next season, and those episodes are expected to hit the schedule in the fall of 2015.

The League hasn’t had the most easy TV trajectory. Fans had to deal with the fact that partway through the comedy’s run, FX decided to split into more than one network, shipping the comedy along with other shows, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, to FXX. Still, FX Networks reports that the ratings for Season 6 were on par with what the show was doing during Season 5 in both total viewership and the 18-49 demographic, so ratings don’t seem to be the biggest factor behind why The League is ending next year.

It’s more likely that the network and writing staff came to a mutual conclusion to end the show. (Seriously, how could The League possibly top doing the draft during a funeral?) Beyond having had a long shelf life, the actors on the show have opportunities outside of The League. Mark Duplass especially has a ton of stuff going on at any given moment. The actor, writer, director and producer is slated to star in HBO’s upcoming comedy Togetherness, which will hit the schedule in January of 2015. Season 3 of Nick Kroll’s Kroll Show is in the works and Paul Sheer will appear in the upcoming ABC comedy Fresh Off The Boat. Even if those involved with the show are ready to move on, The League will hopefully still end with a bang.

The League creators Jackie Marcus Schaffer and Jeff Schaffer spoke out today to thank FX Networks for giving The League so much time to crack dick jokes and name babies Chalupa Batman. During the thank you Jeff Schaffer also mentioned that Season 7’s ending is already pretty well mapped out.

Obviously, it will be a while before The League works out all of the details for the seventh and final season, but it seems the show is off to a good start. We’ll keep you posted as FX moves forward, and potentially even signs on another comedy to take The League's place.

How do you sell a movie that's premise takes a bonkers but brilliant turn in its second act, without giving away said twist? This is the seemingly impossible task put to the marketing team of RADiUS, the distributor of the unconventional and sensational romantic-comedy The One I Love. From the film's first trailer viewable above, it seems the answer is to tease--but not reveal--that twist, then roll out its scads of critical praise. Well played, RADiUS. Well played.

Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss co-star in The One I Love as Ethan and Sophie, a married couple on the brink of separation. But there's a ray of hope when their therapist (Ted Danson) sends them on a weekend retreat where they can focus on their relationship, and rediscover what brought them together to begin with. But at a beautiful, isolated home with a pool and guesthouse, the two discover something strange that could change their lives--and relationship--forever.

Can you guess what that might be?

The One I Love made its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival last fall. While the praise for the film that stars Mark Duplass and Elisabeth Moss was immediate, the reviews out of Sundance were noticeably--and at times infuriatingly--vague when it came to the movie's plot. When I finally had the good fortune to see this rom-com at The Tribeca Film Festival, I at long last understood. Not knowing the twist made the film far more fun and thrilling. But how do you write a proper review that digs into what makes The One I Love and the performances by its leads so stupendous without getting into the second act's details.

You can read my review, divided into a spoiler-free and spoiler-filled section, here.

I admire RADiUS. The One I Love is a risky property on several fronts. For one thing, it's the feature directorial debut of helmer Charlie McDowell. For another, it boasts no major stars. Mark Duplass is an indie darling, and Elisabeth Moss is a celebrated television actress thanks to Mad Men and Top of The Lake. But neither is an established box office draw. But above all things, I admire RADiUS for not only taking on this film, but also trying to maintain its central, scintillating secret. Though admittedly, it is teased in the film's artfully composed poster:

But does this coyness on the part of the advertising campaign work? Are you appropriately intrigued?

This poll is no longer available.

The One I Love will open in limited release August 15th.

HBO has a pretty decent track record of moving pilots forward to series. Even so, it’s always nice when a project we’ve been hearing about for months and months gets greenlighted to series at the subscription cable network. Today, we have the pleasure of bringing HBO subscribers some great news. Togetherness, the pilot from brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, is moving forward to series on HBO.

The two mumblecore writers are mostly known for putting together oddball films like Cyrus and Jeff, Who Lives at Home. In January, the two family members sold their very first comedy pilot, which went into production in April. At the time, there were no plans for Mark, who has acted in FX’s The League and even movies like Argo, to star in the series. However, as the show moved forward into the pilot process, that all changed.

The show will follow four adults living under the same roof who must work on their relationships while pursuing individual goals. We first learned that Bent actress Amanda Peet would be joining the pilot as Tina, a smart woman who movies to Los Angeles and decides to board with her sister. Early on, Melanie Lynskey was also signed on to the pilot as the aforementioned sister. The two will be living under the same roof with Lynskey’s husband on the show, who will be played by Duplass (Assumedly, this won't cut into his work over at FX), and Alex, a recently homeless dude who needs to crash at the house for a while. Alex will be played by frequent Duplass collaborator Steve Zissis, who has taken roles in Cyrus, Jeff, Who Lives at Home, and The Do-Deca-Pentathlon, and will also write and serve as a consulting producer on the series.

We still have a while before the comedy will begin airing on HBO. According to THR, production on the new show won’t even begin until 2014. Luckily, with the pilot already finished, all of the pieces seem to be in place for the comedy, with the Duplass brothers signed on to executive produce, alongside co-executive producer Stephanie Langhoff.

Togetherness won’t be the only comedy hitting HBO over the next several months. Stephen Merchant’s newest project, Hello Ladies, has already earned a September release date on the subscription cable network. A comedy movie from Larry David called Clear History is also set to hit the schedule soon. In the wake of shows like Bored to Death and the more recently cancelled Enlightened, the network is surely looking for some comedy hits to fill out the comedy lineup alongside Veep and Girls. We’ll let you know as soon as Togetherness gets an official premiere date.

While The League is currently between seasons, Mark Duplass and his brother Jay have been keeping busy playing midwives Brendan and Duncan Deslarier on Fox's The Mindy Project, and also working on a single-camera comedy pilot called Togetherness for HBO. The duo is writing, directing and executive-producing the comedy, but neither was planning to star in it. Now it looks like that situation has changed for Mark, as he's reportedly set to play one of the leads.

The comedy centers on four characters living together. Two of them are a married couple and the other two are separate friends who move in with them. Deadline says that Amanda Peet is on board to play Tina Morris, who moves from Houston to Los Angeles to live with her sister Michelle, played by Melanie Lynskey, and her husband Brett, who is now set to be played by Mark Duplass. Steve Zissis is on board to play Alex, "a struggling, over-the-hill actor" who also moves in with the couple, rounding out the foursome of friends all trying to pursue their dreams.

Duplass' character Brett is described as health food obsessive and successful in business, but despite his seemingly perfect life, he's struggling with some personal and professional problems.

Should Togetherness go to series at HBO, it will be one more role in a list of current and future credits for the actor, The League's fifth season among them. Down the line, we'll also see him in Melissa McCarthy and her husband Ben Falcon's comedy Tammy, which is due out next year. Needless to say, Duplass is keeping busy, and for those of us who appreciate his work, especially in comedy, that's a great thing.

Elisabeth Moss, Mark Duplass and Ted Danson are all well known for their TV work, starring in Mad Men, The League and CSI (and many, many others), respectively, but now the three of them are set to join together for a feature effort. The three actors have all been cast in The One I Love, a new romantic indie directed by Charlie McDowell.

Deadline says that Duplass and Moss will be playing a young married couple experiencing problems. To help talk about their issues and try to solve them, they go to see a therapist, the character played by Danson. The film will be McDowell's directorial debut and he will be working from a script written by newcomer Justin Lader. Strangely, the site doesn't mention the tone of the film, whether it be a comedy or a drama. It's a credit to the actors, but with this cast it could go either way.

Just last year Duplass and Moss had roles in Lawrence Kasdan's lost dog dramedy Darling Companion, and strangely enough both Danson and Moss were featured in 1999's Mumford - also written and directed by Lawrence Kasdan.

Moss will be back on Mad Men when the sixth season starts up next month, while Danson continues his run starring on CSI. Duplass, meanwhile has been keeping incredibly busy, recently doing a stretch on The Mindy Project and filming parts in the Kennedy drama Parkland and the Stephen King adaptation Mercy. He's also completed production on Peachfuzz, a horror comedy he co-wrote and is starring in with co-writer/director Patrick Brice.

Safety Not Guaranteed screened at the Sundance Film Festival last January, and those fortunate enough to attend the South by Southwest Film Festival may have gotten the opportunity to see it there. Our own Sean O'Connell had good things to say about the film at SXSW, saying that it had a "great spirit about it," and talking about the good chemistry among the cast. The rest of us will have to wait for its limited release next month and hope that the movie makes its way into a theater near us.

If you caught the trailer for Safety Not Guaranteed, then you know the general premise. It follows a group of magazine reporters who seek out a story when discovering an unusual classified ad from someone looking for a time travel companion. Specifically, the ad states, "Wanted: Somebody to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You'll get paid after we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before." Who wouldn't respond to an ad like that?

The cast includes Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation), Jake Johnson (New Girl), and The League's Mark Duplass. iTunes shared the video below, which not only gives us a look at the film, but also digs into the back-story, as the film was inspired by an actual ad placed back in 1997.

The featurette doesn't show us much more from the movie than what we've seen in the trailer, but given a story like this, I'm sort of ok with that if it means avoiding spoilers or giving up too many of the better moments. What it does do is bring to light the inspiration for the movie, which leaves me even more curious to know if this will be a story with a truly satisfying ending, whether that involves actual time travel or not.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow and written by Derek Connolly, Safety Not Guaranteed arrives in theaters with a limited release June 8, 2012. More information can be found in our Blend Film Database.

Emily Blunt is at the start of an incredible year. The charming British actress who first drew notice Stateside as the sneering assistant in The Devil Wears Prada has three intriguing features hitting in 2012, including the much-anticipated Looper, and the enchanting indie Your Sister's Sister. This follow-up to mumblecore filmmaker Lynn Shelton's surprisingly perceptive sex-comedy Humpday made its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall, where Katey called it "a quiet and well-told movie that wears its big beating heart on its sleeve."

Tomorrow Your Sister's Sister will begin its run at the Tribeca Film Festival, where another Blunt-fronted dramedy, The Five-Year Engagement, is making its world premiere. Both films showcase Blunt's deft ability to balance comedy and drama, but Your Sister's Sister offered her the unique opportunity to improvise in way she hadn't since the little-known My Summer of Love. Shelton, who developed the story idea with Blunt's co-star Mark Duplass, encourages her actors to collaboratively build their characters and relationships in a way that greatly influences the dialogue and atmosphere of her films, creating something distinct and personal.

Check out Your Sister's Sister's trailer—courtesy of Yahoo—to get a glimpse at this compelling indie:

While the trailer does layout this dramedy's tricky premise, it doesn't quite capture the tone. Shelton and her cast handle the story—which on the surface sounds like the start of an '80s sitcom—with a thoughtful care that elevates it into something profound. It's a bit of movie magic that is difficult to express in the fast-paced nature of a trailer. So, if you're not impressed by what you've seen here, take heart in its cast, and seek out Your Sister's Sister when it opens in limited release June 15th.

I’m a huge fan of Colin Trevorrow’s Safety Not Guaranteed. A time-travel romance comedy (of sorts), it stars Parks and Rec comedian Aubrey Plaza as a magazine intern following up a story lead about an offbeat loner (Mark Duplass) who placed a classified ad seeking a partner for a time-travel mission. FilmDistrict picked up the rights to Safety, and is prepping audiences with a perfectly balanced trailer, which we are sharing below (via Apple):

The trick of Safety is not revealing too much of the story’s direction, though that teaser really manages to convey the different emotional swings Trevorrow and screenwriter Derek Connolly strive for (and achieve). As I wrote from the South By Southwest Film Festival, Safety becomes more of a movie about why people would bother time traveling, rather than the science-fiction behind time travel, itself.

But the film has been charming audiences since the Sundance Film Festival in January, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize and took home the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. It should continue building its fan base once FilmDistrict releases Safety in theaters on June 8. And be on the lookout for New Girl co-star Jake Johnson as Plaza’s boss. Though Guaranteed hangs its hat on the strong bond between Plaza and Duplass, it’s Johnson who emerges from the picture as a red-hot talent on the rise, and he does so by stealing every scene that he’s in.

After making their names in the world of small-scale indie features, like their first two films The Puffy Chair and Baghead, brothers Jay and Mark Duplass have been slowly making their way into more mainstream filmmaking, first with the Fox Searchlight-backed Cyrus and now with Jeff Who Lives At Home, the largest film the directors have made to date, but a pretty tiny one by the standards of their studio, Paramount. Jeff, starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms as an estranged pair of brothers caught up in a rambling adventure one day, opened last weekend to strong reviews-- it's not just that Helms and Segel create a believable brotherly bond, but that the Duplasses bringing their naturalistic filmmaking to a studio film creates a nice contrast, an honest movie with small stakes but the budget and stars to get attention.

Though it was already set for a spring release at the time, Jeff Who Lives At Home premiered at the Toronto Film Festival last September; a few days after that premiere, I caught up with the Duplasses to ask if they really had cried their way through the entire premiere, how Segel and Helms worked with their improvisational style, and why they had to keep the Jeff script in a years until the time was right. Check out our conversation below, and see Jeff Who Lives At Home in theaters now.

Did you guys really cry through the entire premiere?

Jay and Mark: Both of us.

Is that a common thing?

Jay: Oh yeah. At the first public screening in particular. First it's crying because the Paramount logo comes up and you're like, "Oh God, we made a Paramount movie." It doesn't occur to you until you're sitting in an audience. Even when you're preparing, it, it feels glued together in your edit suite, and our edit suite is a dumpy little building in Glendale, California.

Mark: It's a shithole.

Jay: So it doesn't feel real and its own entity until you've gone away for a while, and you show up at the festival, and you didn't show up schlepping the tape and a backup tape in your pocket.

Mark: Try to imagine, if you can, walking into a theater of 2,000 people who have come to see your movie that has that Paramount logo rolling in front of it, of all those beautiful experiences you had in a movie theater where that logo rolled in front of it. As much as we have slowly gotten to that point in our career, and it is a natural progression, and I do kind of feel like, "Yeah, we do belong here," that's an intellectual concept. When you sit in the theater and you feel that, it just hits us. And we're wimps and we cry all the time.

Does it have anything to do with the extent to which the story is personal for you guys? I assume this isn't your relationship, but you must feel personally connected to the story of brothers.

Mark: We do. Someone said to us, and we just realized it, they could feel how much we love our characters in our movie. That was a really good point for us. These are quirky people and they do odd things, but we're not here to make fun of them. The laughs we have are with them, and so besides our own personal connections and the things in our own lives that we've put into the characters, they kind of take on a life of their own. Someone after the movie was like, "I want to hang out with Jeff. I would watch a whole other movie with just Jeff hanging out." I kind of feel that way too!

Did Jason and Ed have anything to do with developing the characters? You've said this is one of the more written scripts you've done.

Jay:: It left a little less room than I would say normally happens with our movies, because yeah, this movie is a little more on the rails in terms of scripting.

Mark: There's no pre-development or rehearsals or anything like that. But in the moment…

Because they're still improvising in the moment?

Jay: Absolutely. And we want them to bring what they love to the character. We feel like not only with our actors, but with our crew members too, the more that we can find that spark in them that just inspires them to do something special, to do something really specific that they love, that greatly outweighs any preconceived notion we might have had. We're not interested in extracting some preconceived notion. We want to create a space where lightning can strike and hopefully the most inspired version of our original thought can happen. That's tricky, because you need inspired, almost writer-minded people like Jason and Ed and Susan.

Mark: They help manage their character for you while they're improvising. That process you're talking about is especially true in the 4 or 5 scenes in our movie where it's two people having it out with each other. Those happen, and inevitably the dialogue we've written tends to go away, and we just start banging away, a camera on each of them trying to dig in and find the most personal stuff we can find. In our movies that's where the improvisation pays off.

This is so much more plot based than the movies you've made before. Is that a transition in the way you think about putting the movie together?

Mark: It's such a logistical thing. Even our careers, I always felt confident that we could write a script like this, and in fact it was written four years ago, before we wrote Baghead or Cyrus. When we were writing those early scripts, they were written very specifically so they could be made cheaply. If you look at the structure of Puffy Chair or Cyrus, there are less scenes, and they are big, long scenes. Which makes them easier to shoot. The reason Jeff sat around in a drawer for a while is because we knew it would be expensive to shoot. When you shoot a movie with this many scenes and it's a lot of bigger scenes-- dare we say setpieces-- we knew it would require more money. There was definitely a part of our brain that was like, OK, this is going to be a true hybrid for us, maintaining everything we've done up to this point, the organic improvisation, finding great stuff in the moment. But at the same time, part of this movie is Jeff being a little bit of a detective. That is a much more silent, cinematic filming process.

Jay: It's something that you can't improvise, because it's going somewhere very specifics. But this is kind of unprecedented because it is the first movie we've ever made that we could not have made without a lot of money. There's no way we could have done it. Cyrus we could have made that movie for $100,000 in our neighborhood. We would't have been able to have movie stars and a marketing team behind us, but….

Without talking too much about the ending of the movie, it is big, and it escalates the stakes in a way you haven't done before. How did you decide to raise the stakes in the final act so significantly?

Mark: Jeff is a movie with a really big idea in it. It's bigger than any idea we've tackled. Is there a hand guiding us in our destiny? Or are we just like, as Forrest Gump would say, floating around gentle like on a breeze? So to a certain extent the movie demands that we rise up to that at a certain point. But at the same time we love the idea of starting a movie very, very small inside of the big idea. You could almost look at Jeff as like a modern-day update of the quest movie. This is not Camelot, this is the suburbs and strip malls of Baton Rouge, and he's not pulling the sword from the stone, he's trying to pull the wood glue from the shelf of Home Depot. I guess what we have maintained from our previous filmmaking style is that lower dramatic bar, starting the movie small, but we knew that as the movie progressed we wanted to high jump that bar and take it to a new place.

And at the end, he finds meaning in something that also has bigger dramatic stakes that we can all understand.

Mark: That's a fun question for us. If you spent 10 years of your life looking for signs for your destiny, and you got that sign. Is that because it was your destiny the whole time, or because you were so obsessed for so long, you're clearly going to find something. Was that coincidence? Was that fate? We love that question.

Jay: And also, people in our lives who we know who are like that. They're telling me "You know, this was just meant to be." I find that half the time people are telling me that, I'm like "You are out of your fucking mind." You actually think that was meant to be because the Coke rolled down the ramp and hit your foot? And then half the time, I have chills-- it's all been leading to this moment. And that duality that we experience, watching people, either way we love those people because they're dreamers and they're hopeful and they're trying to make that connection.

Mark: And for Jeff in particular, Jeff has not an ounce of cynicism in his body. It should be fun to follow Jeff. The way that we love Jeff is, we're not like that-- we're a little jaded, a little cynical. It takes a lot in our lives to get a reaction. And what's so beautiful about Jeff is I think we've lost something that Jeff still has. Is Jeff an idiot? Is Jeff a genius? Probably a little bit of both, but it's still fun to watch him.

Safety Not Guaranteed, which remains my personal favorite of the 2012 South By Southwest film festival, faces a marketing challenge. The sci-fi hook of it being a time-traveling drama certainly is what piqued my interest in director Colin Trevorrow’s Sundance hit. Yet once you’ve seen it, you kind of figure out that time travel – while important to the story – is secondary to various explorations of life’s little failures and the strange need to connect with individuals who have been through similar emotional pains. It’s also pretty damn funny.

Yet the questions at the post-screening Q&A still harped on time travel, which could be misleading for those who’ve yet to see it and are looking for the next Back to the Future (which Safety is not). When I sat down with Safety stars Mark Duplass and Aubrey Plaza here in Austin, one of the things we talked was whether the attention being paid to the time-travel angle was disappointing, as it sort of undercuts the more human message of Trevorrow’s delightful film.

“To a certain extent, you understand that,” Duplass told me. “People like to do that stuff. But I think you do bring up a good point in that this is not a time travel film. This is a relationship movie seen through the prism of time travel, and the metaphor that time travel is, which is, ‘I’m a little bit fucked up, and I want to go somewhere else to be happy.’ But I think that’s what makes the movie special, to me at least. I’d never seen a sensitive, relationship-oriented time travel film before.”

FilmDistrict picked up distribution rights to Safety Not Guaranteed, and plans to release it in theaters on June 8. While there have been a number of films that have resonated with the SXSW audiences, from the rousing action of The Raid to the genre love letter that is The Cabin In the Woods, the one I’m most anxious to share with others is Safety. Thankfully I’ll be able to do so soon. Check back with us closer to release date for our full conversation with Plaza and Duplass. (Red carpet images courtesy of Tim Alden Grant)

Buying a brand new car is never a good investment. Sure, the smell is nice and there's definitely something special about being the first ass that's been put down in the driver's seat, but the damn thing depreciates in value the second you drive off the lot and unless you're lucky enough to have your particular model become a "classic car" that resell value is only going to drop more. But do you want to know how the investment gets even worse? If you buy a car that is worth way more than you can afford and then crash it into a tree.

The first clip from Jeff, Who Lives At Home has arrive online and you can watch Ed Helms go through that exact situation with Jason Segel riding shotgun. Check it out below, courtesy of Yahoo!

Directed by the Duplass brothers, who previously brought us Cyrus and The Puffy Chair, the new film stars Segel as Jeff, a man stuck in arrested development living in his mother's basement. When she finally gets him to get off his duff and run an errand, he runs into his brother (Helms) and the two discover that the brother's wife may be cheating on him. Jeff, Who Lives At Home also stars Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer. Look for it when it arrives in theaters on March 16th and to see more from the film head over to our Blend Film Database.

There are so many great elements going for Jeff, Who Lives At Home. First, it's the new movie from writing/directing brothers Jay and Mark Duplass, the amazing indie directors behind films like Cyrus and The Puffy Chair. Next there's the cast, which includes the always likable Jason Segel, the hilarious Ed Helms, the terrific Judy Greer, and the legendary Susan Sarandon. Then there's the review by our own Katey Rich from last year's Toronto International Film Festival, where she called the film "a lovely, nicely paced and completely heartfelt look at a complicated relationship between brothers." And that's only the tip of the iceberg. Still not convinced that this is one movie you should see in 2012? Check out the new trailer that just debuted over on Apple (head over there to see it in HD)

Jason Segel plays the titular Jeff, a man stuck in arrested development and waiting for fate to show him his way through life. When his mother (Sarandon) sends him on an errand, things start falling into place as he runs into his brother, Pat (Helms). When they discover that Pat's wife (Greer) may be cheating on him, the brothers work together to get to the bottom of the mystery. Jeff, Who Lives At Home arrives in theaters on March 16 and you can read more about it in our Blend Film Database.

A handful of the most anticipated films in the upcoming Toronto Film Festival lineup, like Steve McQueen's Michael Fassbender reunion Shame and Sarah Polley's Take This Waltz, don't yet have distributors in the United States, though of course we can expect that to change once they have their festival premieres. But one of the smallest films at this year's festival is actually going to be coming from the biggest studio in Hollywood-- Jeff Who Lives At Home. It's the new comedy starring Jason Segel and Ed Helms from the Duplass Brothers, who previously made indies like Baghead and The Puffy Chair for virtually no money, and whose last film Cyrus came from Fox Searchlight.

This time around they're teaming up with Paramount-- technically it's Paramount Vantage that will be releasing Jeff Who Lives At Home on March 2 next year, according to Deadline, but since that specialty arm of the studio doesn't really exist anymore I think it's fair to call this a studio picture. That spring release date sets Jeff apart from all the Oscar hopefuls who will premiere at Toronto and then rush into theaters in the following months, but I think we all knew all along that this isn't really Oscar's kind of movie. I mean, take a look at the synopsis provided by TIFF:

When the film first went into production we had a few more details on the plot, such as the fact that Segel and Helms are playing brothers, Segel as the slacker who lives at home with their mom (Susan Sarandon) and Helms the overbearing type-A guy. Apparently there's a whole lot of other stuff going on, including wood glue, that I can't wait to find out about. Jeff Who Lives At Home is going to wind up as one of those festival movies that I write about months and months before anyone else can see it-- and yes, I know that's irritating-- but it's worth it for a release date that seems perfectly suited to it.

When the world finally becomes a just place everyone will know the name Mark Duplass. The actor and director has been inching his way toward pop culture ubiquity in the last few years, both through small-scale indie projects (acting in Humpday, directing Baghead and The Puffy Chair with his brother Jay) and more high-profile stuff (directing Cyrus, also with Jay, and acting in TV's The League and Noah Baumbach's Greenberg). Now it's time for Duplass to take on what could be his most-seen acting role yet, in Alex Kurtzman's directorial debut Welcome to People, a drama that already stars Chris Pine, Elizabeth Banks, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Olivia Wilde.

According to Variety he'll be playing a neighbor of Banks's character, who is a newly discovered sister to the main character played by Chris Pine. The film's action sets off when Pine's father dies, instructing him to bring $150,000 to the hidden sister. Pfeiffer will play Pine's mother, while Wilde plays his girlfriend.

In the further adventures of Mark Duplass endearing himself to America, his next directorial effort Jeff Who Lives At Home stars Jason Segel, Ed Helms, Susan Sarandon and Judy Greer, and will be released by Paramount later this year. if you don't yet know that you should be looking forward to this, do yourself a favor and check out Cyrus, a sterling example of how famous Hollywood actors can get into the indie groove through improvisational comedy and playing heartfelt, totally bizarre and unforgettable characters. Then when you see Welcome to People and are inevitably impressed by Duplass, you can realize he's a talented director to boot and hope, like I do, that he never, ever stops making movies.

And now, for the best news I've read in days: Jason Segel and Ed Helms have signed on to star for directing brothers Mark and Jay Duplass in the stoner comedy Jeff Who Lives At Home. Odds are you don't know why this is great news, unless you've happened to catch one of the Duplass Brothers' tiny indie collaborations like The Puffy Chair. But their latest film Cyrus, which comes out in July, will change all that; the film was one of the best to debut at this year's Sundance Film Festival, and was proof positive that the indie-bred directors know how to work with big stars-- John C. Reilly, Marisa Tomei and Jonah Hill lead that cast.

As for the new one, THR reports that Helms and Segel will play brothers, Segel the loser layabout and Helms the overbearing type-A one-- though you probably could have guessed who was playing who by watching five seconds of Forgetting Sarah Marshall or The Office. Also on board is Judy Greer, to play Helms's wife, and surprisingly enough, Jason Reitman as a producer. The key role of the mother, who Segel's character lives with, is in the process of being cast.

Ever sine Sundance I've been anxiously awaiting the moment I get to see Cyrus again, and I'm thrilled that the Duplass brothers see that film's success as incentive to keep working with major stars and challenging the very notion of the Hollywood comedy. They got amazing, natural performances out of all three leads in Cyrus, and will likely be able to do the same with Segel and Helms, who have gotten famous for broadly comic work but are beloved for the sensitivity they can show just below the surface. Seriously, there's nothing about this that isn't great news.

In the last few years a strange little genre called mumblecore has been starting up on the fringes of Hollywood, movies in which young, somewhat articulate people talk a lot (a lot) about their feelings and don't do much, but somehow manage to be both relatable and entertaining. At the same time, a strange little genre called the romantic comedy has been foundering, trapped in the same formulas and star vehicles and consistently failing to feel anything like love.

The notion of mixing mumblecore honesty with the traditional Hollywood rom-com format sounds disastrous, but indie stalwarts Mark and Jay Duplass have pulled it off beautifully in Cyrus, the most charming and hilarious and truthful romantic comedy I've seen in ages. Starring John C. Reilly as a loser improbably getting a chance at love with the likes of Marisa Tomei, Cyrus blends the verite reality of mumblecore films like Humpday with the heightened sensibilities of the rom-com, bringing a level of believability to the genre that Billy Wilder and Ernst Lubitsch-- hell, even Nora Ephron-- never could have imagined possible.

Though John (Reilly) is smitten and amazed when Molly (Tomei) comes home with him after a party, there's a catch and a good explanation as to why this beautiful woman would want him. His name is Cyrus (Jonah Hill), Molly's 21-year-old son still living at home, still needing Mom's help to get over his night terrors, and still so attached and protective of his mom that John immediately feels threatened, even if he's not quite sure why. John and Molly's connection is palpable, but she's seemingly unaware that her son is a bit of a nut with a vendetta to ruin her new relationship. It's never occurred to Molly before that loving her son this much could be counterproductive.

John and Cyrus's battle of the wills leads to some hilarious one-upmanship-- middle fingers behind their backs, glares over the breakfast table, all that-- but also some insightful reflection on how love can be suffocating, and how the best way to care for someone is often to let them go. The Duplass brothers tread very, very lightly on the emotional stuff-- Cyrus is primarily a comedy, and a tremendously funny one-- but their indie-bred gift for capturing humanity in just a few frames gives Cyrus a depth that truly sets it apart.

None of the three lead actors have exactly been known for their naturalism in the past, but all slip nicely into an acting style that straddles the line between ridiculous comedy and a story that could be happening down the street. The Duplasses play brilliantly with the sense of comfort that comes in a romantic comedy, that secret assurance that we know how things will play out. Because the movie bears that mumblecore label of realism, there's an actual suspense to this film's particular will-they-or-won't-they. By not changing the romantic comedy formula and instead bringing their own style to it, they create something wholly original, a skewed mirror on Hollywood that lovingly turns the old tropes around.

Cyrus is stellar and hilarious and by far one of the best things to come out of the festival so far-- and lucky for you, Fox Searchlight made it, so it'll be arriving in theaters Little Miss Sunshine-style before you know it. I'm just bummed that I have to wait until then to see it again.

For more of our Sundance 2010 coverage, click here.

This weekend is already pretty gay, with Bruno flashing his hotpants and arschloch on screens all over the country. But in two theaters, one in New York and one in Seattle, there is a much smaller movie that's self-described as "beyond gay," a story about straight friends who decide to make a gay porn for reasons that even they don't understand.

You may have already heard the substantial hype about Humpday, and if you read my review, you know it's funnier and more honest than virtually any other movie that's come out this year. And since the movie largely relies on the charms of its stars, Mark Duplass and Josh Leonard, to carry you through the narrative, how better to prepare for the film than to watch my video interview with the two of them?

We talked about the real-life experiences that helped them create their characters of Ben and Andrew, the imaginary $2 million deal they've signed for Humpday 2, and the fine line of homophobia that the film approaches but deftly avoids. Seriously guys, this movie is great. It might not be playing near you yet, but keep an eye out as it expands to more theaters across the country.