#laff 2014

Potential suitors, take note: You won't be able to woo Emmy Rossum on the first date. The actress has an admirably practical take on love: "I believe in pheromones and hormones, and I believe you could be happy with a number of people," she told me matter-of-factly after I asked for her opinion on romance during a recent interview. "But, your life could look very different with those people. At 16 though? Back then, I definitely believed in stuff like fate."

You're probably wondering what business I have asking Emmy Rossum a personal question like this. No, we're not bosom buddies, and we weren't sharing life wisdom over mimosas. Instead, we were discussing her latest movie, Comet, an anti-rom-com of sorts that delves into all sorts of deep relationship questions. A more appropriate label would be breakup movie. The film — which debuted at the L.A. Film Festival this week — chronicles the whirlwind coupling and (not-so-conscious) uncoupling of Rossum's Kimberly and her polar opposite, Dell, played by Justin Long.

Comet

Narrative Competition

(USA, 2013, 90 mins, DCP)

World Premiere

Directed By: Sam Esmail

Screenwriter: Sam Esmail Producers: Farnaz Fahid, Chad Hamilton, Lee Clay Executive Producer: Steve Golin, Peter M. DeGeorge, Colin Bates Cinematographer: Eric Koretz Editor: Franklin Peterson Music: Daniel Hart Cast: Emmy Rossum, Justin Long

Hurtling back and forth in time over six years of a passionate, complicated relationship, this high-style love story crackles with brilliant repartee and simmers with true feeling.  Emmy Rossum is the bright, skeptical Kimberly, and Justin Long is the tightly wound Dell.  They first meet in a random encounter at Hollywood Forever, where they've both come to watch a meteor shower. It's the start of a romantic roller coaster ride that leaps from a Paris tryst to a squabble in New York to the Hollywood Hills, taking risky and unexpected emotional turns with daredevil aplomb.

First-time writer/director Sam Esmail controls the delicate balance between artifice and sincerity with a veteran's confidence, eliciting performances from Rossum and Long both sizzling and heartbreaking.   

Screening Schedule:

Fri, Jun 13th 9:25pm Regal Cinema L.A. Live- Theater 11