At last year’s Oscars Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield set the internet ablaze with their palpable chemistry when they presented Sarah Polley with the Best Adapted Screenplay award. They were immediately dubbed “FloField” by Lainey, and just as quickly we learned they were making a movie together. Well, that movie is coming this fall and it’s called We Live In Time and it has a trailer, and it looks INCREDIBLE.
Chemistry – CHECK
Meet cute – CHECK
Some kind of sad life event that is probably cancer – CHECK
This trailer is basically doing everything for me that the trailer for Blake Lively’s weepy romance, It Ends With Us, didn’t do, and I think it’s mainly down to tone. The It Ends With Us trailer starts out making the film look like a sexy romance, and then boom, we’re in a domestic abuse drama, and the transition is jarring and abrupt. This trailer for We Live In Time, though, starts by introducing FloField as parents awkwardly trying to tell their cute kid something “serious”, so right away there’s an expectation of drama undercutting the meet cute and rom-com vibes of the “past” stuff. There’s more tonal consistency through the trailer that sets expectations better.
We Live In Time comes from Brooklyn director John Crowley, and it’s written by Tony nominee Nick Payne. For music lovers, The National’s Bryce Dessner is composing the music, and the film is produced by Benedict Cumberbatch’s SunnyMarch shingle. It doesn’t have a specific release date yet, but the trailer teases “this fall”, and I wonder if we’re about to see it on some fall festival lineups. It has that homey slice-of-life feel British cinema does so well (heavily inspired by the work of Ken Loach), if a little heightened by the young love energy of the romantic aspect.
It is WAY too early to take this seriously, but Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield are early tips for Oscar contention with this film. IF, and at this point that is a big IF because 1) no one has seen this film and 2) there are a slew of “this fall” films we’re not entirely sure will actually be released this year to add to the competition, We Live In Time can go that far, it means Flo could be in the mix for a round of “icons and ingenues” in the Best Actress race. Saoirse Ronan is another early tip for Steve McQueen’s World War II drama Blitz, which will open the London Film Festival this year (she also has recovery drama The Outrun opening the Edinburgh Film Festival). Zendaya is a little further out at this point, but I won’t count her out for a Challengers run, she certainly has some momentum for it.
On top of that, June Squibb will get a push for Thelma, and Amy Adams has Nightbitch, which will premiere at TIFF, though I’m not sure yet how much of a hobble a film with “bitch” in the title will be (old guard Academy voters definitely won’t like it). Then there’s Lady Gaga in Joker 2, Cynthia Erivo if Wicked hits, Natasha Lyonne could make a run for His Three Daughters, and Tilda Swinton and Demi Moore have new movies this year, too. Kate Winslet is also coming in hot with Lee, a biopic of photographer Lee Miller (watch the trailer just to see how hot Andy Samberg is!). And, of course, Angelina Jolie has Maria awaiting an official release date, but it is expected this year, too. It’s shaping up to be a CRAZY competitive year, and it’s way too soon to count chickens, but at the very least, We Live In Time and FloField are probably coming to the fall festivals to make everyone cry.
