Free Ride (2013 film)

Last updated
Free Ride
Free Ride film.jpg
Film poster
Directed byShana Betz
Written byShana Betz
Produced bySusan Dynner
Cerise Hallam Larkin
Anna Paquin
Stephen Moyer (executive) Wendy Williams
Starring Anna Paquin
Drea de Matteo
Cam Gigandet
Liana Liberato
CinematographyQuyen Tran
Edited byDanny Daneau
Music by Jeff Russo
Production
companies
Aberration Films
Casm Films
Pantry Films
Distributed by Phase 4 Films
Release dates
  • October 11, 2013 (2013-10-11)(HIFF)
  • January 10, 2014 (2014-01-10)(limited)
[1]
Running time
86 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Free Ride is a 2013 American crime drama film produced by and starring Anna Paquin. It was written and directed by Shana Betz (aka Shana Sosin) and is based on her childhood in Fort Lauderdale. The film premiered at the 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival. [2]

Contents

Synopsis

Set in the late 1970s, Christina (Paquin) is a single mother from Ohio who escapes her abusive partner, along with her two daughters; teenager MJ (Liberato) and seven-year-old Shell (Acres). She moves to the Florida coast where she meets up with a friend (De Matteo) who gets her a job in drug smuggling. But Christina must meet the challenges of protecting and providing for her children, with her oldest daughter being more defiant and the hazards of her occupation. [3]

Cast

Production

Filming locations for the film included various sites throughout Sarasota County, Florida (including Venice and Englewood). [5]

Release

Free Ride premiered at the 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival on 11 October 2013. [2]

Free Ride opened the 28th Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival (FLiFF) on 18 October 2013. [6]

Free Ride had a limited theatrical release on 10 January 2014. [7]

Reaction

Awards

For directing Free Ride, the inaugural Tangerine Entertainment Juice Award (honoring an outstanding female filmmaker) was given to Shana Betz at the 2013 Hamptons International Film Festival. [8] [9]

Critical response

Free Ride has received negative reviews. Film review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reports that 14% of critics gave the film a positive review based on 7 reviews, with an average score of 3.9/10. [1] On Metacritic, which assigns a rating out of 100 based on reviews from critics, the film has a score of 41 based on 9 reviews, considered to be "mixed or average". [10]

Writing for The Hollywood Reporter , John DeFore said the film was "[a] loving portrait of a mother many would say deserves a much more critical eye". [11]

Stephen Holden of The New York Times writes that "[f]rom top to bottom, [the story] feels authentic, and its laid-back, nonjudgmental tone evokes the easygoing world of Jimmy Buffett songs celebrating how changes in latitude bring changes in attitude. Much of the movie seems bathed in the pink-grapefruit haze of a Florida sunset. [...] Free Ride offers an unsettling vision of a demimonde whose inhabitants live with the reality that there may be no tomorrow." [12]

Diego Costa of Slant Magazine gave the film two out of four stars, and commented that "Paquin's believable performance keeps the all-too-neat narrative from completely surrendering to cheesy melodrama, and Betz's script is refreshingly devoid of embellishment or poetic ambition. But the filmmaker's too-insistent refusal to commit to the melodramatic or to the suspenseful only makes Free Ride seem like empty dramatization in the end." [13]

Elizabeth Weitzman of New York Daily News gave the film two out of five stars, commenting that Betz was "unable to do the story justice as either a writer or director. [...] While this true-life odyssey should be the basis for a compelling drama or even a taut thriller, slack direction and a weak screenplay undermine the plot’s inherent tension." Weitzman thought Paquin was miscast and "never settles into the role." [14]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anna Paquin</span> New Zealand actress (born 1982)

Anna Paquin is a New Zealand actress. She made her acting debut in the romantic drama film The Piano (1993), for which she won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress at age 11, becoming the second-youngest winner in Oscar history. As a child actress, she had roles in Fly Away Home (1996), Jane Eyre (1996), Amistad (1997), The Member of the Wedding (1997), and A Walk on the Moon (1999), as well as in Cameron Crowe's comedy drama film Almost Famous (2000).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hawaii International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival in Hawaii, U.S.

The Hawai'i International Film Festival (HIFF) is an annual film festival held in the United States state of Hawaii.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Susanne Bier</span> Danish film director

Susanne Bier is a Danish filmmaker. Bier is the first female director to receive an Academy Award, a Golden Globe Award, a Primetime Emmy Award, and a European Film Award, collectively.

<i>Shakugan no Shana</i> Japanese light novel series

Shakugan no Shana, also known simply as Shana (シャナ), is a Japanese light novel series written by Yashichiro Takahashi with illustrations by Noizi Ito. ASCII Media Works published 27 novels from November 2002 to November 2023 under their Dengeki Bunko imprint. The story focuses on Yuji Sakai, a high school boy who becomes involved in an age-old conflict between forces of balance and imbalance in existence; in the process, he befriends a fighter for the balancing force and names her "Shana". The series also incorporates fantasy and slice of life elements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hamptons International Film Festival</span> Annual film festival held in East Hampton, New York, US

The Hamptons International Film Festival (HIFF) is an international film festival founded in 1992, by Joyce Robinson. The festival has since taken place every year in East Hampton, New York. It is usually an annual five-day event in mid-October and is held in theatre venues located in the Long Island area of New York, United States. Approximately 18,000 visitors attend each festival and close to a hundred films are featured each year, including an annual representation of at least twenty countries and an awards package worth over $200,000. HIFF was founded as a celebration of independent film in a variety of forms, and to provide a forum for independent filmmakers with differing global perspectives. The festival places a particular emphasis upon new filmmakers with a diversity of ideas, as a means to not only provide public exposure for festival content and its creators, but to also inspire and enlighten audiences. The festival has presented films that have subsequently been considered highly successful productions; the 2008 event featured eventual winners of the Academy Award, Golden Globe Award, and Independent Spirit Award "Best Picture" accolades, and the 2011 season consisted of 24 Academy Award nominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Liana Liberato</span> American actress (born 1995)

Liana Daine Liberato is an American actress. She played the younger version of the female lead in the 2014 film The Best of Me and starred in the drama films The Last Sin Eater (2007) and Trust (2010), the thriller films Trespass (2011) and Erased (2012), and the horrors Haunt (2013) and The Beach House (2019). In 2017, she was part of the ensemble cast of the drama Novitiate and in 2018 she starred in the comedy Banana Split.

<i>An Invisible Sign</i> 2010 film} by Marilyn Agrelo

An Invisible Sign is a 2010 American drama film directed by Marilyn Agrelo and starring Jessica Alba, Chris Messina, John Shea and J. K. Simmons. Based on the 2001 novel An Invisible Sign of My Own by Aimee Bender, the film is about a painfully withdrawn young woman who, as a child, turned to math for comfort after her father became ill, and now as an adult, teaches the subject and must help her students through their own crises.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emily Browning</span> Australian actress

Emily Jane Browning is an Australian actress. She made her film debut in the television film The Echo of Thunder (1998), and subsequently appeared in television shows such as High Flyers (1999), Something in the Air (2000–2001), and Blue Heelers (2000–2002). Her breakthrough role was in the 2002 horror film Ghost Ship, which introduced her to a wider audience. In 2005, Browning won the Australian Film Institute International Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Violet Baudelaire in the film Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004).

<i>Trust</i> (2010 film) 2010 American film

Trust is a 2010 American drama thriller film directed by David Schwimmer and written by Andy Bellin and Robert Festinger based on an uncredited story by Schwimmer. Starring Clive Owen, Catherine Keener, Jason Clarke, Liana Liberato, and Viola Davis, the film follows a fourteen-year-old girl who becomes a victim of sexual abuse after meeting a man posing as a teenage boy on an online chat room.

<i>A Promise</i> (2013 film) 2013 French film

A Promise is a 2013 English-language French drama romance film directed by Patrice Leconte and written by Patrice Leconte and Jérôme Tonnerre. The story is based on Stefan Zweig's 1929 novel Widerstand der Wirklichkeit and stars Rebecca Hall, Alan Rickman, Richard Madden, and Maggie Steed. It was screened in the Special Presentation section at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.

Plot For Peace is a 2013 South African documentary directed by Carlos Agulló and Mandy Jacobson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dylan Penn</span> American model and actress

Dylan Frances Penn is an American model and actress. She is the daughter of Sean Penn and Robin Wright. Her early public roles included modeling campaigns for Gap Inc., a magazine cover for treats!, a music video appearance in Nick Jonas's "Chains" and an acting role in Elvis & Nixon.

<i>Human Capital</i> (2013 film) 2013 Italian film

Human Capital is a 2013 Italian film directed by Paolo Virzì. The film is based on the American novel Human Capital by Stephen Amidon. For her performance in the film, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi was awarded Best Actress at the 2014 Tribeca Film Festival. It was selected as the Italian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 87th Academy Awards, but was not nominated.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carlos Agulló</span> Spanish film director and editor awarded

Carlos Agulló is a Spanish film director and editor awarded in numerous festivals, such as the Palm Springs International Film Festival, the São Paulo International Film Festival and the Hamptons International Film Festival.

<i>The Duke of Burgundy</i> 2014 British film

The Duke of Burgundy is a 2014 British erotic romance drama film written and directed by Peter Strickland, and starring Sidse Babett Knudsen as Cynthia and Chiara D'Anna as Evelyn.

<i>The Damned</i> (2013 film) 2013 American film

The Damned, also known as Gallows Hill, is a 2013 American horror film directed by Víctor Garcia. The film stars Peter Facinelli, Sophia Myles, Nathalia Ramos and Carolina Guerra. It shows a family and group of friends stranded in a storm and looking to seek refuge in a house inhabited by an ancient evil presence. The film was produced by Peter Block, Andrea Chung, and David Higgins, and is a joint Colombian-American production. The film had its world premiere at the Sitges Film Festival on October 17, 2014. and was released on video on demand on July 25, 2014, before a limited release by IFC Midnight on August 29, 2014. The film received generally negative reviews.

<i>Glory</i> (2016 film) 2016 film

Glory is a 2016 Bulgarian drama film written and directed by Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov. The second film in the directors' "newspaper-clippings trilogy", the film is a social-realist parable exploring the themes of corruption, class differences, and the rural-urban divide, in contemporary Bulgarian society. It was selected as the Bulgarian entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 90th Academy Awards, but it was not nominated.

<i>Novitiate</i> (film) 2017 American drama film by Maggie Betts

Novitiate is a 2017 American drama film written and directed by Maggie Betts in her feature directorial debut. Starring Margaret Qualley, Melissa Leo, Morgan Saylor, Dianna Agron, Julianne Nicholson, Liana Liberato, Denis O'Hare, and Maddie Hasson, the film follows a young woman (Qualley) who starts to question her faith as she trains to become a nun.

<i>Mountain</i> (2017 film) 2017 Australian film

Mountain is a 2017 Australian documentary film, co-written, co-produced and directed by Jennifer Peedom. It premiered at the Sydney Opera House in June 2017. Mountain follows Peedom's 2015 documentary film Sherpa.

<i>Banana Split</i> (film) 2018 American comedy film

Banana Split is a 2018 American comedy film directed by Benjamin Kasulke and starring Hannah Marks, Liana Liberato and Dylan Sprouse. It is Kasulke's feature-length directorial debut.

References

  1. 1 2 "Free Ride (2013)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  2. 1 2 McCracken, Kristin (25 September 2013). "HIFF 2013 Spotlight, World Cinema and Special Screenings Announced". Hamptons International Film Festival. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  3. ↑ "Free Ride (2013)". MSN.com. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  4. ↑ "Free Ride – Trailer – Cast – Showtimes". Movies & TV Dept. The New York Times . 2013. Archived from the original on 21 September 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2013.
  5. ↑ "Free Ride (2013) Filming Locations". IMDb. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  6. ↑ "Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival Unveils 2013 Lineup; Open with FREE RIDE and Closes with WALKING WITH THE ENEMY". VIMOOZ.com. 19 September 2013. Archived from the original on 4 January 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  7. ↑ Lombardi, Ken (9 January 2014). "Anna Paquin on playing a drug-smuggling mom in "Free Ride"". CBS News . Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  8. ↑ "'Desert Runners' Take Audience Awards At Hamptons Film Festival". Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  9. ↑ "HIFF 2013 Awards Announced – Hamptons International Film Festival". Archived from the original on 5 March 2014. Retrieved 12 March 2014.
  10. ↑ "Free Ride". Metacritic. Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  11. ↑ DeFore, John (30 October 2013). "Free Ride: Film Review". The Hollywood Reporter . Archived from the original on 16 May 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  12. ↑ Holden, Stephen (9 January 2014). "I Remember Mama, the Pot Smuggler". The New York Times . Archived from the original on 28 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  13. ↑ Costa, Diego (8 January 2014). "Free Ride Film Review". Slant Magazine . Archived from the original on 4 September 2024. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
  14. ↑ Weitzman, Elizabeth (9 January 2014). "'Free Ride': Movie review". New York Daily News . Archived from the original on 13 March 2014. Retrieved 13 March 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.