Following his Best Picture-winning Spotlight, Tom McCarthy has had a curious career, directing a few episodes of 13 Reasons Why and the family film Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made. He’s now back in dramatic mode with Stillwater, a drama starring Matt Damon as an American oil-rig roughneck from Oklahoma who travels to Marseille to visit his estranged daughter, in prison for a murder she claims she did not commit. Confronted with language barriers, cultural differences, and a complicated legal system, Bill builds a new life for himself in France as he makes it his personal mission to exonerate his daughter.
Once set for a fall release last year, it was delayed due to the pandemic and now will land in theaters on July 30, and the first trailer has arrived. “It can be a very intimate movie and a very character-driven story, but there’s also a lot of scope to it,” McCarthy tells EW. “It’s a beautiful film shot in a beautiful place, and I think [Focus Features] felt strongly that people should see it in movie theaters, and I was in agreement with that. I’m in no rush — the movie will play as well this year as it would have last year.”
Watch the trailer below for the film also starring Abigail Breslin and Camille Cottin.
Stillwater opens on July 30.