Summer movies come and go and often you miss the best ones… even the sleeper hits unless someone tells you. I am telling you that you need to see this. Ask your parents to see this. Share it with your BFF’s. It’s a unique movie that is a one size fits all but if you give it some “breathing room” it will resonate with you. If you are looking for something to pop the kids into– this isn’t it! Land Ho debuts in theaters on July 11, 2014. It’s the perfect summer film for adults and teens. It’s not required for you to have gray hair to see the film but for some it might be funny and others it might be a touch uncomfortable as the flick strikes a bit close to home!
ABOUT THE FILM
Back when they were brothers-in-law, married to two sisters, MITCH (Earl Lynn Nelson) and COLIN (Paul Eenhorn) were close friends, but they drifted apart as Mitch and his wife divorced and Colin’s wife died. Now Mitch, a retired surgeon who can’t quite admit to being retired, recruits a reluctant Colin on a holiday to Iceland—just the ticket to perk up a pair who have endured their share of disappointments but still have a spirit of adventure in them.
Brassy, relentlessly cheery, and prone to colorfully profane language (“…this is so delicious it’s like angels pissin’ on your tongue!”) Southerner Mitch is the live wire of the duo. Colin, a more reserved Australian, is picking up the pieces after a second marriage gone sour. For both men, aging, loneliness, and disenchantment are silent adversaries to be countered with gumption.
Women are much on the radar during their travels: in upscale Reykjavik, they hit the nightclubs with Mitch’s much younger first-cousin-once-removed ELLEN (Karrie Crouse) and her friend JANET (Elizabeth McKee), who happen to be traveling through at the same time. Even though Mitch, who is something of a Dapper Dan, disapproves of the unrevealing outfits worn by the ladies (Ph.D candidates both), a good time, of sorts, is had by all.
As their rented SUV pilots them deeper into the Icelandic hinterlands, Colin and Mitch encounter fellow adventurers, get on each others’ nerves, play movie trivia games, get lost on the moonless moors, grouse about their sons, smoke pot, speak of regrets, and marvel at Iceland’s otherworldly beauty. The vast, haunting landscapes—moss-coated cliffs, fog-shrouded mountains, geothermal pools—form a primordial Eden, the perfect backdrop for the friends’ escapades.
And as Mitch exclaims when Colin’s spirits flag, “Don’t get that Sunday afternoon attitude—good times are still a-comin’!”—a testament to the fact that joie de vivre can replenish us at any age.
MARTHA STEPHENS | Writer/Director
Raised in the hills of Appalachian Kentucky, Martha Stephens longed to create films celebrating and investigating her native land and people. A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, Stephens’s first feature film, PASSENGER PIGEONS, premiered at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival, and won Chicken and Egg Pictures’ “We Believe In You” Award.
Stephens’s second feature film, PILGRIM SONG premiered at the 2012 SXSW Film Festival in the Narrative Competition. She won the Best Director Award at the Fantaspoa Film Festival in Porto Alegre, Brazil, and her film was awarded Best Southern Film of 2012 by Oxford American Magazine and Best Southern Film at the 2012 Indie Memphis Film Festival.
Stephens’s latest feature, LAND HO!, an Iceland-set buddy comedy which she co-wrote and co-directed with Aaron Katz, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to great critical acclaim. The film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and named on several “Best of Sundance” lists. It will be released on July 11, 2014.
Stephens is currently developing her latest script, PAPAW EASY. The script was selected for IFP’s Project Forum and the Sundance Creative Producing Lab, and won the Tribeca Film Institute’s Tribeca All-Access Grant.
AARON KATZ | Writer/Director/Editor
Critically acclaimed writer, director, and editor Aaron Katz was born and raised in Portland, Oregon, before crossing the country to study filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. Immediately following graduation, he returned with five friends to his hometown, where they filmed his feature debut, DANCE PARTY, USA, an Official Selection of the 2006 SXSW Film Festival.
QUIET CITY, his sophomore feature, premiered at the SXSW Film Festival in 2007. Following a successful festival run both home and abroad, the Brooklyn-set romance was selected by Stephen Holden as a New York Times Critics’ Pick and received an Independent Spirit Award nomination for the John Cassavetes Award.
Katz’s third feature, COLD WEATHER, opened as a Spotlight Premiere at the 2010 SXSW Film Festival and went on to play the Los Angeles Film Festival, Locarno International Film Festival, and BFI London Film Festival, among several others. Released theatrically by IFC Films and dubbed by Indiewire as “2011’s first great American indie,” the genre-bending mystery garnered widespread praise from critics, including Roger Ebert and Manohla Dargis, and ranked on several lists among the best films of the year.
Katz’s latest feature, LAND HO!, an Iceland-set buddy comedy which he co-wrote and co-directed with Martha Stephens, premiered at the 2014 Sundance Film Festival to great critical acclaim. The film was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics and named on several “Best of Sundance” lists. It will be released on July 11, 2014.
Katz currently resides in Los Angeles.
PAUL EENHOORN (Colin)
Australian native Paul Eenhoorn has worked in TV and film since his teenage years. He began his training in his hometown of Perth at the Mt. Lawley Academy of Performing Arts under Aarne Neeme. After moving to Sydney in the late 80’s, Paul continued to train at The Actors Centre. He currently resides in Seattle and has appeared in numerous independent feature films including ZOO, which premiered at the 2007 Sundance Film Festival, and more recently, 2013 Sundance Film Festival hit THIS IS MARTIN BONNER, which won the Audience Award: Best of Sundance NEXT as well as the John Cassavetes Award at the 2014 Independent Spirit Awards. His latest feature LAND HO! premiered at Sundance 2014, and was acquired by Sony Pictures Classics.
EARL LYNN NELSON (Mitch)
Oculoplastic surgeon and Kentucky native Earl Lynn Nelson graduated from the University of Kentucky College of Medicine in the swinging nineteen-sixties. Living most of his adult life in New Orleans, Earl Lynn mastered the art of partying and good living. When his cousin, Martha Stephens, asked him to star in her debut feature, PASSENGER PIGEONS (SXSW 2010), he thought “Why the hell not?” and inevitably stole the show. Director David Gordon Green hailed Nelson’s performance as the best of 2010 and cast him in an episode of EASTBOUND AND DOWN. Earl Lynn then appeared in Stephens’s subsequent features PILGRIM SONG (SXSW 2012) and LAND HO!, which was co-directed by Aaron Katz (Sundance 2014). When he isn’t on a float on Bourbon Street, Nelson enjoys kicking back with a Hallmark movie and spoiling his wife, Ann.
Follow LAND HO the Movie on these social media platforms:
https://www.facebook.com/landhofilm
https://twitter.com/LandHoMovie
Stevie Wilson,
LA-Story.com
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