It’s a ubiquitous feeling to want to rebel against your family, especially as a teenager, but a new psychological drama takes things to another level. Pascual Sisto’s John and the Hole, starring Charlie Shotwell, Michael C. Hall, and Jennifer Ehle, finds a son trapping his family in a hole nearby their house, unable to escape as he explores what newfound freedom is like. Following a Sundance premiere and ahead of a release early next month from IFC Films, the first trailer has arrive.
“So in a joke conversation, I think our screenwriter Nicolás Giacobone brought up that it’s like Michael Haneke’s Home Alone, but in a way that to some people that really struck through and they really understood it, because obviously, it’s none of both in a way, but it has the austerity of Michael Haneke, in some ways,” Sisto told us. “The one thing I can appreciate about Haneke is that he’s very economical, which comes all the way back to Bresson, he’s very economical in his choice of shots. He’s not going to give you more shots than you need, he’s not going to give you more things than you need, he’s gonna give you the essentials. In a way, it’s a form of minimalism.”
Michael Frank said in his review, “Sisto does create a stylish environment and gloss to John and the Hole, but without substance or motivation to be invested in the story, the film falls flat, existing as a dark comedy that somehow lacks the comedy needed to make it work. Sometimes, an allegory is better left on the page. “
See the trailer below.
John and the Hole arrives in theaters and VOD on August 6.