Brian Helgeland’s closing credits read like a history of Hollywood over the past quarter century, with entries spanning genres, including slasher movies (A Nightmare at 4 Elm Street: The Dream Master), post-apocalyptic melodrama (The mailman), action movies (The Conquest of Pelham 123), sports dramas (42), medieval folly (a knight’s tale), and of course, LA Confidentialthe taut 1997 crime thriller that earned the writer an Academy Award.
Helgeland’s directorial work is also varied. His latest video, Best kindcomes eight years after his last stay behind the camera, the 2015 Tom Hardy vehicle Legend, about the infamous gangland bosses the Kray twins. Like that video Best kind delves into the criminal underworld, but in a different way Legend, which takes place in 1960s London and is set in the vicinity of a fishing community in Massachusetts. Here’s everything we know so far.
Dear child: the plot
Best kind treads familiar territory for Helgeland, whose interest in the crime genre has been around for a long time, and was inspired by the writer’s own experiences on a scallop. In Massachusetts, two commercial fishing brothers reunite one summer after years apart. Finding themselves in dire straits, they look to a notorious Boston crime syndicate for solutions and soon become entangled in a web of intrigue and illegality.
As the brothers’ situation grows more desperate, they discover a young woman caught in the crossfire. The film is set against a background of family dilemmas, personal sacrifices and difficult decisions.
Best child: the cast
Best kind benefits from a substantial cast of Hollywood veterans and relative newcomers. At the head of the cast is the star of The refugee, Batman forever, Men in blackand No country for old men, Tommy Lee Jones. His onscreen appearances have been sporadic since his memorable Academy Award-nominated performance as Senator Thaddeus Stevens in Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln (2012). Since then, he has acted in several films, including World War II dramas Emperor (2012) as General MacArthur; The Houseman, a 2014 Western (which he also directed and co-wrote); and opposite Brad Pitt in the underrated sci-fi epic Ad Astra (2019). Best kind will represent Jones’ first onscreen appearance in three years since his performance alongside Robert de Nero in 2020’s crime caper The comeback trail.
Also starring Ben Foster. After coming to prominence in the early 2000s with his work on HBOs Six feet underhigh-profile performances as the evil Charlie Prince in James Mangold’s critically acclaimed western 3:10 to Yuma (2007) and as Sergeant Montgomery in the film about the Iraq War The messenger (2009) established his Hollywood credentials. Since 2020, Foster has been particularly busy, with well-received turns as Harry Haft, a Jewish boxer and Auschwitz concentration camp survivor, in the biopic The survivoras well as performances last year in The contractor, Rushand Medieval. He also plays a white slave catcher on the trail of Will Smith’s escaped slave Peter Emancipation. He will appear opposite Ed Harris and Jessica Lange in what will be the third film adaptation of the 1956 Eugene O’Neill play. Long day’s journey into nightwhich was wrapped in November.
Jenna Ortega also appears, in the latest step of a meteoric rise that has propelled the actor into the spotlight for several months. She enjoyed great critical and rating success with Netflix Wednesday late last year, in which her work in the title role already earned a Golden Globe nomination. While Ortega got her breakthrough as a child actor, following a string of supporting roles in television and film, her five-year stint on The CW’s Jane the Virgin brought her to the attention of the general public, her film work of late has been almost exclusively in horror, starring in both leading and supporting roles in slasher films such as X, American carnageand Studio 666, all of which premiered last year. Another such appearance, in the sixth episode of the scream franchise, comes out in March and will see Ortega star Friends with Courteney Cox and Jasmin Savoy Brown.
Other cast members are the star of Hulu’s pistol miniseries, charting the lives of Sex Pistols guitarist Steve Jones, Toby Wallace, Tim Daly (Madam Secretary, The game), Clayne Crawford (Deadly weapon, The integrity of Joseph Chambers), Lolita Davidovich (Shades of blue, How to get away with murder) and Aaron Stanford (12 monkeys, Fear the walking dead).
Publication date
Film location on Best kind began in New Bedford, Massachusetts last spring, and wrapped in early summer. The film’s release date was originally set to be late 2022, but was pushed back due to production delays. A new release date has yet to be announced by Paramount+, which took over distribution rights to the film last year, according to deadline.