BEFORE: Well, one boss is in Brazil for the next two weeks, so I've got a bit of a break. I still work for him three days a week, but the pressure's off a bit - I can work at my own pace, get the payroll quarterlies paid, finish typing up the script for the co-writer, and just basically go into low-maintenance mode, keeping an eye on e-mails and making sure everyone knows that the Big Man is out of town, when he'll be back, and ask if anything needs to happen before that. I've been at the movie theater for events three days this week, which is a bit exhausting, since two of those three events were very crowded, and the third was "The Bad Guys", which only 10 people showed up for on a Sunday afternoon. Still, I'm worn down and looking forward to no screenings over the next four days. There's also my third gig, entering film festivals for a friend, but I've only put in 8 hours over the last 10 days, coming up with a festival entry strategy and plan. Next Tuesday I'll have to actually start filling out forms and entering her animated short into the bigger festivals.
Amanda Peet carries over from "Igby Goes Down".
THE PLOT: In an attempt to sign a Hollywood starlet, struggling talent agent and former child star Howard Holloway must contend with her volatile father, a scheming long-time rival, and a producer and casting director who despise him.
AFTER: Well, there's a bit of a loose theme developing for the week, "The Phenom", "Igby Goes Down" and "Trust Me" all feature alcoholic parents and their effects on screwed-up kids, that's not much to go on, but I'll take what I can get at this point. (Did Nikola Tesla have alcoholic parents? Was he screwed-up when he was a kid? I'm not sure. I think he went crazy much later in life.)
This film's got a pretty good cast - I like Sam Rockwell and William H. Macy in just about anything they're in - and Clark Gregg just doesn't make enough movies, either. I enjoyed him on "Agents of "S.H.I.E.L.D.", and in various "Avengers" movies - I feel like I just haven't seen him in enough movies, even though I have, does that make sense? He was in "Live by Night", "The To Do List", "The Human Stain", "Labor Day", "500 Days of Summer", "In Good Company" and "Choke", and I've SEEN all those movies in the past few years, but I'll be damned if I can remember his roles in those films. Does he just somehow blend into the background, or does he so often play the nice guy or bureaucrat so well that afterwards, he's barely memorable?
In "Trust Me", he's got the lead role - which itself feels a little weird, so yeah, I guess I'm used to Clark Gregg as the third banana, or the minor soldier or the guy sitting in the conference table in the board meeting. I'm hard-pressed to think of another movie where he got top billing. Ah, he also wrote and directed this film, thus casting himself in the lead role. That explains things somewhat. Well, who would understand the character better than the man who wrote the screenplay? Maybe this just saved a few steps.
Gregg plays Howard, a talent agent who deals mostly with child stars, getting them on TV shows and movies, taking his 10% and negotiating with producers and casting directors over three-picture deals, getting points of the gross rather than a share of the net, and so on. It's a tough gig, but somebody's got to do it, I suppose. His arch-rival, Aldo Stankiss, will do anything to undercut him or steal his clients, and he's spent months pursuing a relationship with his neighbor, Marcy. He meets a new client in a parking garage, having accidentally interrupted her audition before, and he's there for her when she gets an offer to headline a new series of big-budget films based on young adult vampire novels. (cough) "Twilight" (cough).
The situation gets complicated, however, when Howard starts to suspect that the teen's father might be abusing her, he catches her sobbing in their hotel room while he takes a shower, and fears the worst. Now he's faced with a difficult decision, because she's too young to file for emancipation, and going public with an accusation of abuse could scuttle the movie deal that he's just gotten for her. But if he keeps quiet, she could have enough money down the road to file for independence from her father later - but is that the moral thing to do? It's a definite conundrum, and possibly a no-win situation.
Also starring Clark Gregg (last seen in "Being the Ricardos"), Sam Rockwell (last seen in "The Best of Enemies"), Saxon Sharbino, Paul Sparks (last seen in "Human Capital"), Allison Janney (last seen in "Walking and Talking"), Felicity Huffman (last seen in "Otherhood"), William H. Macy (last seen in "Cellular"), Niecy Nash (last seen in "Walk of Shame"), Griffin Gluck, Molly Shannon (last seen in "Horse Girl"), Danielle MacDonald (last seen in "Paradise Hills"), Maxwell Smith, Stella Gregg, Gareth Williams (last seen in "Malcolm X"), Virginia Montero, Brian Gattas, Melissa Stetten, Randall Yarbrough, Sasha Jenson (last seen in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"), Ben Hernandez Bray, Brad Greiner, Jillian Armenante (last seen in "Vice" (2018)), Jack Merrill.
RATING: 5 out of 10 bodyguards
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