After lighting up Sundance last year with Boyhood, Ethan Hawke returned this year with another coming-of-age drama, this time going a few decades back and set in New York City. Coming from directors Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman (American Splendor), Ten Thousand Saints follows the tale of Hawke’s character bringing his son (Asa Butterfield) to the Big Apple from Vermont. Ahead of release later this summer, the first trailer has now arrived.
We said in our review, “Working in the tried-and-true coming-of-age drama with a focus on sex, drugs and rock-n-roll, Ten Thousands Saints, from directors Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman (American Splendor), is equal parts sensitive and overwrought, intelligent and preachy. When we open in Vermont it’s 1980 and Les (Ethan Hawke) has just been kicked out by his wife Harriet (Julianne Nicholson). When their son Jude asks Les what happened, he’s told two things: Les got a neighbor pregnant and Jude is adopted. It’s a complicated moment that’s sad, touching and very funny. Ultimately, a good tonal springboard for what’s to come.”
Check out the trailer and poster below for the film also starring Emily Mortimer, Julianne Nicholson, Hailee Steinfeld, and Emile Hirsch.
Adapted from the novel by Eleanor Henderson, TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is a coming-of-age story about three teenagers in late 1980s New York City—Jude (Asa Butterfield), new to the city from Vermont, “straight-edge” musician Johnny (Emile Hirsch), and troubled, rich uptown girl Eliza (Hailee Steinfeld)—who break away from their messed-up parents (Ethan Hawke and Emily Mortimer) to form their own surrogate family. Set in 1988, a time of great cultural upheaval—against the excesses of the decade, the AIDS epidemic and the gentrification of the city culminating in the infamous Tompkins Square Park riots—TEN THOUSAND SAINTS is a nostalgia trip to a bygone era of New York City.
Ten Thousand Saints opens on August 14th.