Walter Tevis was removed from his family aged 10 and spent a year recovering from an indeterminate illness in a convalescent home, leaving him weak and something of a social outcast. His 1963 novel 'The Man Who Fell To Earth' taps into this autobiography, as well as the writer's alcoholism, and you can also see echoes of it in this, adapted from his 1983 novel by Scott Frank (Get Shorty, Out of Sight), who also directed.
(Tevis also wrote 'The Hustler' (1959) and 'The Color of Money' (1984)).
Everything comes together perfectly - Frank's a great writer, the script is beautifully visual, the acting convincing. There's a marvellous team at work here who all collaborated on Frank's 2017 western series Godless - Steven Meizler photography, Michelle Tesuro editing and Carlos Rafael Rivera music. Only production designer Uli Hanisch is new to the group.
Anya Taylor-Joy (Peaky Blinders, The Miniaturist, Thoroughbreds, Endeavour) is eerily right for the lead, but she's surrounded by a great cast. Her character reminds me slightly of Sofia Helin's in The Bridge - almost slightly autistic, finds human behaviour puzzling. We worry that she will burn out or end up unhappy. It's such a convincing story and production that at one point I found myself thinking it was a true story.
With Isla Johnston (young Beth), Thomas Brodie-Sangster (from Love Actually), Harry Melling (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs), Jacob Fortune-Lloyd, Moses Ingram (young and older Jolene), Chloe Pirrie (mother), Bill Camp (caretaker), Marielle Heller (stepmother; writer-director of Diary of a Teenage Girl, directed A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood), Marcin Dorocinski (Borgov).
Haven't see such a good chess thing since Searching For Bobby Fischer.
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