There’s been a considerable amount of preliminary backlash against Joel Schumacher‘s upcoming young-rich-people drug drama Twelve, starring Gossip Girl‘s Chace Crawford as a drug dealer with a heart of gold and an especially gravelly Kiefer Sutherland as the narrator.
It’s Sundance performance was not particularly flattering, and Mr. Schumacher will never fully survive Batman & Robin, giving any new film of his a critical uphill battle.
That said, this is the same visually-fused filmmaker who gave us The Lost Boys, Flatliners, The Client and A Time To Kill back in the day and, more recently, stripped-down dramas like Veronica Guerin, Tigerland (featuring one of Colin Farrell’s best turns) and Phone Booth (another Farrell gem).
In fairness, he has also offered the dull Phantom of the Opera adaptation, the Jim Carrey misstep The Number 23 and possibly his worst film next to Batman & Robin, Bad Company.
Here’s the new trailer for Twelve:
And here are Twelve reasons it might just work:
12. Roger Avary’s adaptation of Bret Easton Ellis’ The Rules of Attraction, though not initially well-received, has earned it’s rightful place as a strong, ambitious film in its own right. Schumacher’s film looks a lot like that, so here’s hoping.
11. At the end of the day, Schumacher knows how to visually frame a scene. Even The Number 23 offers more than a few inspiring, oddball moments of imagery.
10. Good music choice for the trailer, posing the ultimate question: Could the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Dull Life” save a film by itself?
9. Schumacher knows how to direct young actors (see Flatliners, The Client and Tigerland) which this movie’s full of.
8. Lately, the man’s best films have been independently financed, which Twelve is.
7. The Sundance cut was, in fairness, very rough. There’s still time for a turnaround.
6. Emma Roberts, Julia’s niece, who plays Crawford’s flame, is making a name for herself, doing good work in lat year’s Lymelife and the upcoming What’s Wrong With Virginia.
5. Good for Chace Crawford. The young man deserves some street cred for playing a drug dealer after doing crap like The Covenant. Then he’s also attached to Footloose so…
4. Joel Schumacher is not a hack. Sure, he’s made hack-worthy bad films, but always with a clear ambition behind it, a vision. As Roger Ebert says: “It takes a truly great director to make a truly bad film.” If Batman & Robin is not evidence of that, I don’t know what is.
3. Schumacher hasn’t made a solid film in a bit of time. He’s due.
2. Cinema Blend declared the film one of the “best comedies” at the fest. Though it be unintentional, and enjoyably bad movie is still enjoyable.
1. It can’t be as bad as Batman & Robin. Right? Right?
Are you excited for Twelve? What do you think of the new trailer?