‘Paddleton’ Trailer: Mark Duplass And Ray Romano Laugh In The Face Of Death
In the mid-2000s,Mark Duplassmade a name for himself with a low-budget indie calledThe Puffy Chairand helped introduce the burgeoning “mumblecore” movement to cinephiles. Now, after a decade of near-constant movie appearances and starring on television shows likeTogethernessandThe League, Duplass is still embracing his low-budget roots by starring in a new movie calledPaddleton. The Netflix film stars Duplass andRay Romanoas neighbors who hang out and goof off together after one of them is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Check out the trailer below.
Paddleton Trailer
Duplass and directorAlex Lehmannwrote this screenplay together, and while I haven’t seen a physical copy of the script, I wouldn’t be surprised if this movie was largely improvised. This trailer makes the film seem like a throwback to the peak mumblecore era – it appears to be a series of loosely-connected scenes in which the actors have a general sense of what needs to happen, and they say whatever comes naturally in order to reach that goal. But either way, Duplass and Romano (who was excellent inThe Big Sicka couple of years ago) seem like solid scene partners and the type of veteran performers who can easily keep a story like this afloat.
In addition to co-writing the script, Lehmann also directedPaddleton(which seems to be the name of a game the two characters play, and not a sentient, marmalade-loving tennis racquet). Lehmann only has two previous directing credits: a documentary calledAsperger’s Are Usand the 2016 filmBlue Jay, a critically-acclaimed drama that starred the other Duplass brotherJayoppositeSarah Paulson. But he’s been working in the industry for years as a camera operator and cinematographer, shooting projects as varied asAmerica’s Next Top Model, Project X, Piranha 3DD, The League, and a really fun 2006 documentary calledAir Guitar Nation.Paddletonmarks his first writing credit.
Here’s the new film’s official synopsis:
An unlikely friendship between two misfit neighbors becomes an unexpectedly emotional journey when the younger man is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
Paddletonwill debut at this year’s Sundance Film Festival early next month and then quickly be available to stream on Netflix beginningFebruary 22, 2019.
