Jan 2012 - Graduate Simon Arthur feature Silver Tongues nominated for Independent Spirit Award
Screen Academy graduate Simon Arthur was nominated for the 2012 Film Independent Spirit Awards' 'Audi Someone to Watch' award for his first feature film Silver Tongues
http://www.spiritawards.com/nominee_category/audi-someone-to-watch-award/
The awards ceremony will take place on February 25th in Los Angeles.
Silver Tongues was also awarded the Telia Film Award at the Stockholm Int'l Film Festival in Nov 2011 saying in their press release that the film was "An elusive and deeply troubling study of the human mind – and, arguably, our need to defy the pettiness of daily life. Echoing some of the darker, early work from icons such as Martin Scorsese, Alfred Hitchcock and Claude Chabrol, Silver Tongues raises a series of non-trivial questions in the borderline between game theory and behavioural sciences."
http://www.stockholmfilmfestival.se/en/festival/2011/winners/
After its NYC cinema release in November Silver Tongues garnered reviews in both the Wall St. Journal and Indiewire, see below.
WALL STREET JOURNAL
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203611404577042504154424714.html
Nothing is what it seems to be in "Silver Tongues." An attractive, 40-ish couple, Gerry (Lee Tergesen) and Joan (Enid Graham), begin the movie as happily married mates who celebrate their 10th anniversary at a cozy hotel by picking up a pair of young newlyweds, who are shocked to discover their dining companions are two middle-aged swingers. Or are they? Writer-director Simon Arthur, whose affinities for sociopathic antics evoke the psychological mousetraps of Neil LaBute and David Mamet, maintains suspense with unyielding dramatic momentum.
Gerry and Joan change personalities and identities with each new day, engaging in ever-riskier (and crueler) mind games at the expense of guileless strangers—interrupted only by episodes of violent sex amid the bucolic splendor of the New England countryside. The film's mysteries are never revealed, although Mr. Arthur will entertain theories at the New York premiere Friday night.
http://blogs.indiewire.com/carynjames/4741d890-11a1-11e1-8472-123138165f92#
There are so many festival films that slip from sight, it’s great when one circles back and has a chance to find its audience. "Silver Tongues" is a sharp-edged psychological thriller, written and directed by Simon Arthur, that won the Audience Award for Narrative Feature at least year’s Slamdance and is having its New York premiere now.
Lee Tergesen (“Oz”) and Enid Graham (Michael Shannon’s wife on “Boardwalk Empire”) are a couple on a road trip who travel from one town to another, engage with a stranger, and casually, deliberately shatter that person emotionally before moving on. The twisted relationship between these two emotional sadists will keep you guessing to the end; you may not like them but you won’t be bored.
The film’s episodic structure may have minimized its commercial prospects, but the strong performances and taut direction make this sly, suspenseful festival hit worth catching.
http://silvertonguesmovie.com/
