I was gonna write up a little blurb about my thoughts on the new trailer for Gus Van Sant’s latest flick, but hey, look at that—Gawker summed ’em up perfectly!

Here’s a trailer for Restless, a surprisingly sappy-looking teen romance about a girl dying of cancer who falls in love with a death-obssesed boy who hangs out with the ghost of a Kamikaze pilot. Yeah, it’s one of those.

So it’s basically a hybrid of the kind of whimsical indie fare that features strange, knowing young men who are slightly addled (think Hugh Dancy in Adam) mixed with Nicholas Sparksian saccharine about sad secret teen death (A Walk to Remember).

I know just about everybody in Portland starts frantically oohing and aaahhing whenever Van Sant’s name is even mentioned, but in times like these, it’s usually a good thing to remember that even though Van Sant gave us Drugstore Cowboy and To Die For, he’s also the guy who brought us that Psycho remake. And this. PUNCH THE KEYS, FOR GOD’S SAKE!

With honor and distinction, Erik Henriksen served as the executive editor of the Portland Mercury from 2004 to 2020. He can now be found at henriksenactual.com.

7 replies on “Trailer for Gus Van Sant’s <i>Restless</i>.”

  2. I don’t fawn over any of his announcements since Paranoid Park. I saw it opening week at Cin21 and I’m still trying to figure out what the hell that movie was about.

    But this actually kind of looks sweet. Not like I ever see any movies lately, though.

  3. People forget that early Van Sant was also hit or miss. Mala Noche, anyone? And I think it’s unfair to shit on Finding Forrester. It’s commercial, but it’s not bad.

  6. “People forget that early Van Sant was also hit or miss. Mala Noche, anyone?”

    Exactly. Ken Death Gets Out of Jail, brief yet remarkably poignant. His most underrated work in my opinion.

  7. Harold and Maude but with young and cancer. Once when I was in jr. high and wanting desperately to see Crazy Love starring one Chris O’Donnell my sister summed this shit up as, “He’s so fine and there’s something wrong with her so if we met he’d like me instead.”

    That said, I totally want to see this movie.

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