‘The East’ Trailer #2: Brit Marling Fights, Falls For Eco-Terrorists
After turning heads at Sundance 2012 withThe Sound of My Voice, directorZal Batmanglijand starBrit Marlingfollowed up with the similarly themedThe Eastat this year’s festival. Now, as the film heads for a theatrical release, Fox Searchlight has unveiled a new trailer.
Marling plays a private intelligence operative who’s tasked with infiltratingThe East, an underground eco-terrorist group that’s been wreaking havoc on the lives of her powerful clientele. Once she’s in, however, she begins to fall for its leader (Alexander Skarsgard) and finds herself rethinking her own priorities. Watch the video after the jump.
Thefirst trailerfocused mostly on the shadowy collective that gives the film its name. This one reveals a bit more of the plot, as Marling’s Sarah prepares to go undercover and then finds herself caught up in ways she didn’t expect. Marling’s lead performance looks like a good one, and I’m also very curious to see howEllen Pagefares in a role that’s a far cry from her usual wisecracking characters.
Word from Sundance is thatThe Eastmore conventional thanThe Sound of My Voice, or most Sundance films for that matter, but it looks like an exciting, well-crafted thriller with a lot on its mind.The Easthas received strong reviews so far, including from our ownPeter Sciretta. He was particularly taken with the screenplay by Marling and Batmanglij:
This movie looks fantastic, but the screenplay by Brit and Zal is what impressed me the most. Almost every scene involves a twist which furthers the plot into a new direction. Exposition and set-up is accomplished cleverly with visuals, when other movies would have done so in dialogue. The tension builds to a point where you’ll be holding your breath on the edge of your seat.
