''Meadowland'' is a 2015

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super ...

written by Chris Rossi and directed by

Reed Morano Reed Morano (born April 15, 1977) is an American film director and cinematographer. Morano was the first woman in history to win both the Emmy and Directors Guild Award for directing a drama series in the same year for the pilot episode of The H ...

in her feature debut. The film stars

Olivia Wilde Olivia Jane Cockburn ( ; born March 10, 1984), known professionally as Olivia Wilde, is an American actress and filmmaker. She played Remy "Thirteen" Hadley on the medical-drama television series ''House'' (2007–2012), and has appeared in the ...

, Luke Wilson, Juno Temple,

Elisabeth Moss Elisabeth Singleton Moss (born July 24, 1982) is an American actor. She is known for her work in several television dramas, earning such accolades as two Primetime Emmy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards, which led ''Vulture'' to name her the ...

Giovanni Ribisi Antonino Giovanni Ribisi (; born December 17, 1974) is an American actor known for his starring roles in the TV series ''Sneaky Pete'' and the films ''Avatar'' (2009), '' Lost in Translation'' (2003), '' Ted'' (2012) and its sequel '' Ted 2'' (2 ...

, John Leguizamo, and

Ty Simpkins Ty Keegan Simpkins (born August 6, 2001) is an American actor. His notable film credits include the supernatural horror '' Insidious'' (2011), its sequel '' Insidious: Chapter 2'' (2013) and ''Jurassic World'' (2015). He is also known for his ap ...

. The film had its world premiere at the

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. Tribeca was f ...

on April 17, 2015. The film was released in a limited release on October 16, 2015, prior to being released on

video on demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos without a traditional video playback device and the constraints of a typical static broadcasting schedule. In the 20th century, broadcasting in the form of ...

on October 23, 2015, by Cinedigm.

Plot

Sarah and Phil are on a roadtrip with their son, Jessie. They stop at a gas station to buy snacks and so their son can go to the bathroom; however, in the time it takes for them to make their purchases they find that their son is missing. Sarah, who is a teacher, deals with her grief by obsessing over one of her students, Adam, who has Asperger's. He is ostracized by the other kids and treated poorly by his foster mother, Shannon. Phil meanwhile begins to attend a support group for parents who have lost their children. Despite claiming that she knows their son is still alive, in the hazy aftermath of this loss, Sarah begins a downward spiral. Phil, a New York City cop, starts to lose sight of his morals as Sarah puts herself in increasingly dangerous situations.

Cast

Production

On February 11, 2014, it was announced that

would star in and executive-produce the dramatic film ''Meadowland'', which

would direct and shoot from a script by Chris Rossi. On July 30, Luke Wilson,

Natasha Lyonne Natasha Bianca Lyonne Braunstein ( ; born April 4, 1979) is an American actress, director, writer, and producer. She is known for playing Nicky Nichols on the Netflix comedy-drama series ''Orange Is the New Black'' (2013–2019), for which she ...

and Eden Duncan-Smith joined the cast. On August 18,

, Juno Temple,

Scott Mescudi Scott Ramon Seguro Mescudi (born January 30, 1984), also known by his stage name Kid Cudi ( ), is an American rapper, singer, songwriter, record producer, actor and fashion designer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, Cudi would move to New Yo ...

Mark Feuerstein Mark Feuerstein (; born June 8, 1971) is an American actor, writer, producer and director. He had an early, recurring role in several episodes of '' Caroline in the City'', playing the title character's new boyfriend, and later gained notice in a ...

, and Kevin Corrigan were added to the cast.

Filming

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as a ...

began on August 18, 2014, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

Release

The film had its world premiere at the

on April 17, 2015. On June 24, 2015 it was announced that Cinedigm had acquired distribution rights to the film and planned an October 2015 theatrical release. The film had a limited release on October 16, 2015, prior to being released through

on October 23, 2015.

Reception

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the film has a rating of 96%, based on reviews from 24 critics, with an average rating of 7/10. On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

, the film has a score of 67 out of 100, based on 11 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Jordan Hoffman of ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' gave the film four stars out of five, and said, "What Meadowland refuses to do, to its great credit, is conform to expectations." ''

Chicago Sun-Times The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago ...

'' critic

Richard Roeper Richard E. Roeper (born October 17, 1959) is an American columnist and film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times''. He co-hosted the television series '' At the Movies'' with Roger Ebert from 2000 to 2008, serving as the late Gene Siskel's success ...

gave the film three out of four stars, and wrote that "The filmmaking is sure-handed, the performances authentic." Chuck Bowen from '' Slant Magazine'' gave the film three out of four stars, and also praised the performances: "Both Olivia Wilde and Luke Wilson understand the greatest pain of loss to be rooted in its searing inexpressibility."

References

External links

* * {{Reed Morano 2015 films 2015 psychological thriller films Films shot in New York City Films set in New York City American psychological thriller films Canadian psychological thriller films Films about missing people Bron Studios films Films directed by Reed Morano 2015 directorial debut films 2010s English-language films 2010s American films 2010s Canadian films