I’m not sure whether an indie thriller like Glassland will have any luck in capitalizing on actor Jack Reynor’s starring role in Transformers: Age of Extinction. The vast majority of destructo-porn addicts who sat through all three hours of Michael Bay’s latest didn’t in all likelihood leave the theater desperate to seek out Reynor’s other work. Though our critic Matt Donato claimed that the actor “makes us forget all about Shia LaBeouf’s pissy Witwicky character,” there’s no use pretending Age of Extinction was in any way his show.
Still, Glassland‘s first teaser has just been released, highlighting both Reynor and star Toni Collette. And though there’s not much to go on from this look at the film, I’m liking what I see so far. Co-starring Michael Smiley and Will Poulter, the Gerard Barrett-written and directed film centers on a young taxi driver (Reynor) trying to keep himself and his family out of Ireland’s criminal underworld. A more complete synopsis reads as follows:
In a desperate bid to save his mother from a crippling alcohol addiction and reunite his broken family, John, a young taxi driver on the fringes of the criminal underworld is forced to take a job which will see him pushed further into Dublin’s dark underbelly. But will he be prepared to act when the time comes, knowing that whatever he decides to do, his and his family’s lives will be changed forever?
Featuring stunning performances from the multi-award winning Toni Collette (The Sixth Sense, Little Miss Sunshine), Jack Reynor (What Richard Did, Transformers 4), Michael Smiley (A Field in England) and Will Poulter (Son of Rambow, We’re the Millers) Glassland is an uncompromising and brilliantly executed portrayal of the grim reality of life for those forced to the edges of society in contemporary Ireland.
Glassland premieres at the Galway Film Fleadh later this month, so we’ll probably hear something one way or the other about its quality soon enough. No stateside release has yet been announced, and even a star like Collette probably won’t be enough to grant it a theatrical release, but hopefully VOD/iTunes will have it for us eventually. Check out the trailer below, and let us know what you think.
