Arizona

Director: Jonathan Watson
Screenwriters: Luke Del Tredici

Institute History

  • 2018 Sundance Film Festival

Description

Cassie, a single mom and realtor, hustles to sell increasingly worthless subdivision houses in the midst of the 2009 housing slump, even as she dodges collection calls on her own multiple past-due mortgage payments. When the unstable Sonny, a disgruntled buyer in danger of losing his home, turns up at Cassie’s office, things quickly spiral out of control. Despite Sonny’s assertion that he’s “a really good person,” he knocks Cassie out, kidnaps her, and drags her along on his impulsive spree of violence. An extensive game of cat-and-mouse between the two ensues, set within a sparsely inhabited housing development.

Danny McBride brings a twisted humor to his role as the dopey, desperate Sonny and reveals the character to be evermore calculating and unhinged, while Rosemarie DeWitt allows Cassie depth and complications of her own. Seth Rogen and Kaitlin Olson deliver memorable comedic turns as Cassie’s chauvinistic boss and Sonny’s henpecking ex, respectively. Director Jonathan Watson grounds the darkly funny thriller Arizona in the real-life economic turmoil of the period, then allows the craziness to blossom.

— H.Z.

Screening Details

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