Despite wrapping production last summer, the gritty musical drama, Low Down, has traversed a long, hard road to theatres. After its debut last January at Sundance, director Jeff Priess’ first feature suffered a slew of bad-to-mixed reviews. Instead of shrugging it off and chalking it up to first time jitters, Priess took the movie back to the edit suite. Presenting a new full-length trailer, the recut version might do the trick and turn things around.
Starring one of the best character actors in the biz, John Hawkes, Low Down tells the story of jazz pianist Joe Albany (Hawkes) and his relationship with daughter Amy (Elle Fanning) throughout his two decades of musical enterprise and drug-fuelled days. The first trailer certainly delves into the narrative, beginning with the saccharine interactions between father and daughter – before things turn sour with Fanning getting the chance to do some heavy duty yelling. Hawkes looks like he’s fully absorbed in the lifestyle of Albany, who might not be a big household name, but his story looks compelling.
Low Down opens in New York on October 24th, and Los Angeles on October 31st.
Based on the memoir by Albany, the film is a compassionate, tender look at the complex relationship between Amy-Jo (Fanning) and her father Joe (Hawkes), a man torn between his musical ambition, his love for his daughter, and his suffocating heroin addiction. Set against a sensuously textured 1970s Hollywood, the film beautifully evokes a colorful, seedy world of struggling musicians, artists, and vagabonds, in which Joe and Amy-Jo strive to live the lives they want against seemingly insurmountable odds.
