Bozeman Magazine

This is Academy Award-winner Warren Beatty’s first film as an actor since 2001’s Town and Country, and his first as a director since 1998’s Bulworth. Forty years in the making, Beatty’s passion project is a lovingly-filmed study of the blossoming romance between two fictional show-business newbies. Small town beauty queen and devout Baptist virgin Marla Mabrey (Lily Collins), under contract to the infamous Howard Hughes (Warren Beatty), arrives in Los Angeles. At the airport, she meets her driver Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich), who is engaged to be married to his 7th grade sweetheart and is a deeply religious Methodist. Their instant attraction not only puts their religious convictions to the test, but also defies Hughes’ #1 rule: no employee is allowed to have any relationship whatsoever with a contract actress. Hughes’ behavior intersects with Marla and Frank in very separate and unexpected ways, and as they are drawn deeper into his bizarre world, their values are challenged and their lives are changed. Wall Street Journal film critic Joe Morgenstern calls the film; “…gleefully reckless—with the kind of sizzling crosstalk that hasn’t been heard since Robert Altman.” The film features a stellar ensemble cast that includes Annette Benning, Matthew Broderick, Alec Baldwin, Martin Sheen, Oliver Platt, Ed Harris, Dabney Coleman and Candace Bergen. Rated PG-13, running time is 127 minutes. Closed caption/Descriptive narration is available.