Sometimes I make the mistake of assuming everyone who attends Sundance knows their shit. At the world premiere screening of the Zellner Brothers’ comedy Damsel the people sitting around me were incredibly excited. Here was a movie with Robert Pattinson and Mia Wasikowska and clearly they were the reason these folks attended. But clearly they had no idea who the Zellners were, because Damsel is anything but your typical movie for a pair of A-list celebs.
The Zellners are the duo behind the oddball mystery film Kumiko the Treasure Hunter, which took the Coen Brothers’ Fargo and totally flipped that shit into something completely new. I loved it, but their humor takes some getting used to. They play around with genre again with Damsel, which stars Pattinson as a wannabe hero on a journey to save his lady love, only he isn’t what he seems and neither is she. There’s no “Hi-yo Silver!” or anything like that, either, but you do get a miniature horse named Butterscotch and a sketchy priest played by David Zellner.
Here’s the synopsis: “Samuel Alabaster (Pattinson), an affluent pioneer, ventures across the American Frontier to marry the love of his life, Penelope (Wasikowska). As Samuel traverses the Wild West with a drunkard named Parson Henry (David Zellner) and a miniature horse called Butterscotch, their once-simple journey grows treacherous, blurring the lines between hero, villain and damsel.”
Damsel opens June 22nd, but you can read my review here right now.
