Stay Cool Tagged Articles at Cinematical

After Manure quietly (and not-so-quietly) stunk up the scene at the Sundance Film Festival, the Polish Brothers (Mark and Michael) have returned to the festival circuit with Stay Cool -- a film that leaps into your lap with its perky, original concept, but then slowly but surely fails to deliver ... well, pretty much everything. What we have here is an on-the-verge-of-40 novelist (Mark Polish) who returns to his hometown only to find himself stuck in a really bad, cliched '80s movie -- complete with two bonehead best friends, mean teachers, a moronic high school principal and a hardcore crush on that girl whose meat-head boyfriend is named Brad. And I don't mean cliched '80s movie in a bad way -- that's kinda the point with Stay Cool; our lovable, somewhat-awkward novelist learns that he must overcome the fears and regrets he's had since graduating 20 years ago by living his worst moments all over again.

Some have said Stay Cool is like 17 Again in reverse, which it sorta is -- except there's no magical, supernatural element here. Our guy just somehow finds himself re-living those weird, painful high school moments (as an adult) until he finally comes to grips with his past and his present, and, of course, manages to stay cool.

The Tribeca Film Festival has been in the news lately for significant personnel changes, but what about the movies? This year's edition gets underway on April 22, and Cinematical has received a list of the first 38 of the 86 feature films that will be screened. A few titles that jumped out at me:

The Eclipse. The great Ciaran Hinds stars in an "atmospheric drama about a widower who sees and hears strange things in his house." Hinds was fairly magnificent in the TV series Rome and stood out in Steven Spielberg's Munich. Add to that Iben Hjejle and Aidan Quinn as writers the widower encounters at a literary festival, and this is a drama that I want to see.

The Fish Child. Lucia Puenzo made the well-regarded XXY and now comes a "a passionate love story in the arms of a pulsating thriller." I love the idea that for her sophomore feature, the director has made what is evidently a very different type of movie than her quieter debut drama.

Stay Cool. The Polish Brothers (Northfork) return with a "charming comedy" about a high school reunion of sorts, with Winona Ryder and Hilary Duff. Manure was sharply criticized at Sundance just a couple of months ago; could Stay Cool possibly be any good? Winona Ryder doesn't get seen enough, and Hilary Duff has made interesting choices, so this could be surprisingly good -- or another train wreck.

Outrage. Documentarian Kirby Dick, who made the terrific This Film is Not Yet Rated, turns to the subject of "the hypocrisy of closeted politicians who actively campaign against the LGBT community they covertly belong to." I'm hoping it's as sensational as it sounds.

After the jump: The complete announcement. Browse away, and tell us what looks good to you!

Hearing that an actor was going to play a former high school jock brings to mind a myriad of images. Perhaps he's the same guy, but bald and kind of dorky. Perhaps he's gained a lot of beer weight and drools lecherously at female passerby. Perhaps ... he dons a Pebbles ponytail, black wife beater, and is covered in tats?

The above is part of a selection of Josh Holloway shots that Just Jared has scored from the set of Stay Cool. This is the comedy starring Mark Polish as an author who heads back to high school to give a commencement address, and confronts an eager teen (Hilary Duff), as well as his big school crush (Winona Ryder) and her ex-boyfriend *Wino (Holloway), a tattoo artist.

Methinks Polish will have no problem seeming like the better of the two, at least while the dude sports that 'do and keeps that name.

*According to a unit publicist on the film: "Holloway will play Wino, Henry McCarthy's (MARK POLISH) ne'er-do-well high school buddy who encourages the visiting Henry to seek out his long lost high school flame, Scarlet Smith (WINONA RYDER)."

The guy is all sorts of recognizable due to his time as James 'Sawyer' Ford on Lost, but do you know that Josh Holloway is also the dude who got his start in Cryin'? Yes, he played the jerky guy who smiled and then stole Alicia Silverstone's bag, and she had to chase him down and give him a good kick. (Watch it above.) He's come a long way since purse stealing! Now The Hollywood Reporter posts that he's joined the cast of Stay Cool.

This is the Polish brothers feature that Hilary Duff joined recently -- where a successful author (Mark Polish) goes home to give a high school commencement address, gets hit on by a high school girl (Duff), and has to face his unrequited teen crush (Winona Ryder). But now Holloway has been added to the mix as a former jock who used to date Ryder's Scarlet Smith. Production should begin soon in California.

She might be headed back to high school, but Hilary Duff is certainly not headed back to high school men. The Hollywood Reporter posts that the actress has joined the ranks of Stay Cool -- one of those Polish brothers projects that Eugene discussed back in May.

By signing on to the feature, she's joining the strange yet irresistible cast which already includes Winona Ryder, Mark Polish, Sean Astin, Chevy Chase, and Jon Cryer. It's an '80s explosion across the board! I'm sold just on the combination of Ryder, Astin, Chase, and Cryer.

Anyhow, the film is being described as a "knowing-your-age comedy," which focuses on a successful author played by Polish. He returns home to give a commencement speech at his old high school, and has to confront his unrequited high school crush (Ryder). But while he's remembering past lust, he becomes the object of Duff's affections. She will play "Shasta O'Neil, a sexy high school senior who flirts with the visiting author and invites him to the prom."

The film will shoot in Santa Clarita, California next month.

Mark and Michael Polish may not be as well-known a fraternal filmmaking pair as Joel and Ethan Coen, but they could out-weird the Coens any day of the week. Their films range from virtually inscrutable (Northfork) to very strange (Twin Falls Idaho) to merely offbeat (The Astronaut Farmer), but it's clear they won't be getting hired to direct the sequel to Alvin and the Chipmunks. So instead, they've formed their own production company, Prohibition Films, and are shooting two new projects back-to-back.

The first is entitled Manure, a title they should reconsider if only to make lazy film critics' jobs a little harder. Starring Billy Bob Thornton, Tea Leoni, and my man Kyle MacLachlan, the movie will explore the world of manure salesmen in 1960's heartland America. Upon reading that I frowned for a moment, but then realized that had you asked me who would be most likely to write and direct a movie about manure salesmen in 1960's heartland America, I would unhesitatingly have said the Polish Brothers.