After his career-defining role in The Wire, Andre Royo‘s output has yet to slow down in front of the camera. His latest role, in Josh Locy‘s feature debut Hunter Gatherer, earned him a Best Actor award at South by Southwest Film Festival earlier this year, and it will arrive in theaters next week. Ahead of the debut, the first trailer has now debuted.
Executive produced by David Gordon Green, Variety said in their review it’s “a highly eccentric, funny-sad tale of friendship and failure that occupies a curious space between inner-city realism and almost childlike myth.” That certainly comes across in this trailer, which has a strong mix of comedy and drama, with a powerful-looking performance from Royo. Also starring George Sample III, Kellee Stewart and Ashley Wilkerson, check out the trailer below.
Ashley Douglas thinks everything should fall into place when he’s released after three years in prison. When that doesn’t happen, he restarts his life with next to nothing: no friends, no lovers, no connections. All he has is a bedroom in his mom’s house, a box of treasures buried in his backyard, and a deeply ingrained need to be with Linda — his one, true love — who has moved on without him.
Ashley sees an opportunity in the form of Jeremy, an eccentric loner. They start a two-man business of dumping unwanted refrigerators for cash, which Ashley hopes will get Linda back and Jeremy hopes will help his ailing grandfather. As their partnership takes hold, a friendship flourishes — though their fates are very much still up in the air.
With HUNTER GATHERER, filmmaker Josh Locy (making his feature-length debut) crafts a bittersweet, darkly comic tale of seeking out one’s destiny — but discovering an unexpected fate along the way. Peppered with elements of the surreal and anchored by a brazen, SXSW award winning central performance by Andre Royo (“The Wire,” “Empire”) as Ashley and a breakthrough turn from newcomer George Sample III as Jeremy, HUNTER GATHERER defies expectation and will leave audiences curious long after they leave the theater.
Hunter Gatherer opens in limited release on November 16th.