Jesse Eisenberg’s feature directorial debut, When You Finish Saving the World, hits theaters next week. There was a screening in New York last night, and people showed up, including stars Finn Wolfhard and Alisha Boe, as well as Emma Stone, who produced the film (along with her husband, Dave McCary).
Stone and Eisenberg are, of course, friends from way back with two Zombieland films under their belts. Mark Ruffalo was also there, with his wife Sunrise Coigny. Ruffalo and Eisenberg are in the Now You See Me movies together, which I still cannot believe there are TWO of those, and apparently have trauma-bonded over their shared experience. And Rachel Zegler was there, rocking an oversized coat and jeans, one of the only Nineties trends I will accept, bring the Eighties back all you want but let the Nineties die, it was a bad sartorial time.
Fleishman Is In Trouble wrapped up just before the new year, and even as overcrowded and impossible as the current television landscape is, I am little surprised that show didn’t pop more than it did. It’s REALLY good—all episodes are now streaming on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in Canada—but this is just another casualty of the overcrowded and impossible-to-keep-up television landscape. I am increasingly amazed anybody manages to finish anything. I don’t expect Eisenberg’s new movie will make much more noise, partly because it looks almost intolerably Eisenbergian, but a lot because January is a time when people want dumb-fun sh-t like Plane and M3GAN. Bitter family dramas don’t usually fare well, they usually go straight into the January boneyard, and do not pass go. But hey, at least Jesse Eisenberg got his friends out for a night.