After last year’s Whiplash opened the Sundance Film Festival and went on to become one of 2014’s best films, hopes were high that the festival would continue the trend this year. 2015 brought The Bronze, a gymnast comedy from director Bryan Buckley and starring Melissa Rauch, Gary Cole, Thomas Middleditch, and Sebastian Stan. Following a former Olympian who is down on her luck, unfortunately it was far from measuring up.
We said in our review, “There simply aren’t enough female-led anti-hero stories. They’re always refreshing to see, because we’ve already witnessed plenty of tortured males trying to succeed. The Bronze attempts to be one of them, but, unfortunately, its flawed hero is hardly ever engaging.” We added, “As a character study, The Bronze doesn’t hit its mark — even worse, it fails as a comedy. Certain scenes and jokes are far too extended, killing the timing and delivery of most of these gags, written by the film’s star Melissa Rauch and Winston Rauch. The comedic beats that fail the most are the callbacks to jokes which weren’t particularly funny in the first place.”
The first red band trailer has now landed ahead of a spring release by Sony Pictures Classics and can be seen below.
The Bronze opens on March 11th, 2016.