Adult World is the latest film from Emma Roberts, and the new trailer has debuted. It's one of Roberts’ bigger roles as she takes center stage as Amy, an aspiring writer struggling to put a career together despite a combination of unemployment and post-millennial cluelessness, eventually swallowing her pride to work at an adult bookstore. The film, which premiered last year at the Tribeca Film Festival, is slated for a limited and VOD release next month, courtesy of IFC films, and the above trailer gives us our first look, offering a preview of the general vibe of the movie.
The phrase "we should have pity on Emma Roberts" shouldn’t really exist, given that she’s a beautiful young woman who is no-doubt financially set for life due to a busy, and prolific body of work and a star-studded heritage. But it hasn’t been easy moving from the kiddie pictures of her youth like Nancy Drew and Hotel For Dogs to adult fare. It’s hard enough to find a decent, well-written part for an actress at any age, and she’s still got to fight the inherent bias against her own lineage. To that end, her decisions have mostly revolved around working in the independent film world, taking on work from hungry young directors and avoiding the bubbleheaded girlfriend parts and empty-headed pilots her peers eagerly snap up.
And that too has backfired. Roberts’ CV is filled with movies like The Art Of Getting By and Lymelife, pictures with decent casts and solid indie pedigree that play to silent festival audiences before being dumped into a handful of theaters before an undistinguished DVD release. Roberts’ career may be on the upswing with last year’s double-whammy of a standout role in American Horror Story and We’re The Millers, but those are ensemble roles meant to stabilize her career, not boost it. She even bothered to swallow her pride and take one of those thankless girlfriend roles. Unfortunately, it was in Empire State, which, despite starring Liam Hemsworth and Dwayne Johnson, was literally in theaters for about five days, and probably nowhere near you.
Courtesy of Yahoo, the Adult World footage showcases John Cusack’s role as revered writer Rat Billings, who takes Amy under his wing, usually as he’s nursing a drink. It also reveals parts for Cloris Leachman as the porn clerk and Roberts’ American Horror Story co-star Evan Peters (soon to be seen in X-Men: Days Of Future Past) as her super-convenient love interest. Sadly, it leaves out Shannon Woodward as the sassy best friend, but "sassy best friend" is probably one indie cliché too many for this teaser. At times, the movie captures the dreadfulness of being an artist in a dead-end town, but, like the trailer, it too-often leans on sitcom humor and Roberts’ own flailing gawkiness. It also gives away quite a bit of the story, so if you’re a hardcore Emma Roberts fan, you might want to hold off on clicking play. You can visit Adult World this Valentine's Day in select theaters.
