It’s not that often when a movie comes into the September festival season without any distribution but that’s the case with David Siegel and Scott McGehee’s The Friend, starring Naomi Watts, which debuted at the Toronto International Film Festival, then played at the 62nd New York Film Festival.
Based on the novel by Sigrid Nunez, it stars Watts as Iris, a book editor who author friend Walter, played by Bill Murray, commits suicide, leaving his large Great Dane, Apollo, to his friend even though she doesn’t really have the space to keep such an enormous pooch.
Film critic Edward Douglas talks about what he liked and didn’t like with the new movie from the duo behind Suture, The Deep End, and What Maisie Knew, which is much a vehicle for a giant dog named Bing, as it is for Oscar nominee Watts.
ED’s Rating: B
Edward Douglas has been writing about movies for over 20 years. 13 of those years were at ComingSoon.net, followed by writing for outlets such as Film Journal, Den of Geek, The New York Daily News, Gold Derby, Below the Line, and many more.
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Writer/Directors: David Siegel, Scott McGehee
Cast: Naomi Watts, Bing, Bill Murray, Sarah Pigeon, Ann Dowd, Constance Wu, Felix Solis, Carla Gugino, Owen Teague
Producer: Liza Chasin, Scott McGehee, David Siegel, Mike Spreter
Production Co: 3dot productions, Big Creek Projects
Distributor: N/A
Rating: N/A
Genre: Drama, Comedy
Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): N/A
Runtime: 2 hours
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