We’ve talked before about adaptations of Pulitzer Prize winners and films that had disastrous premieres at the Toronto International Film Festival, but perhaps none as disappointing as this week’s film. From one of the most lauded novels of the modern era, American Pastoral had the heaviest burden of expectations and stop-and-start production history. With a pedigreed cast of Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly, and Dakota Fanning, the film was originally intended to be brought to the screen by Phillip Noyce, only to be replaced shortly before filming by none other than McGregor himself. Critics weren’t kind to McGregor’s directorial debut, and it died as soon as it world premiered at TIFF.

The film underwent a fast re-edit, but that didn’t help it from bombing when it opened in the same weekend as eventual Best Picture winner Moonlight, the film underwent a fast re-edit. This episode, we redicover the film’s poor attempt at adapting Phillip Roth, Jennifer Connelly’s post-Oscar career, and how using Buffalo Springfield in movies about the 1960s should no longer be allowed.

Topics also include a return to David Strathairn being hot, McGregor’s screen persona, and Fanning’s rise as a go-to child actor.

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