Shot in 2005 and entangled for the next six years in an epic editing-room imbroglio, writer-director Kenneth Lonergan’s follow-up to You Can Count on Me (2000) has finally received a small release and become a critical cause célèbre. A symphonic, Altmanesque panorama of life in post-9/11 New York City, Margaret radiates out from a fearless central performance by Anna Paquin as Lisa, a precocious Manhattan teen whose carefully ordered universe is violently upended when she becomes the primary witness to a fatal bus accident – an accident Lisa believes she may have inadvertently caused. Suddenly thrust into a maelstrom of grown-up responsibility, her youthful idealism tested against the messy compromises and uncertainties of everyday life, Lisa looks to the adults around her for guidance only to find that they are, by and large, as lost and confused as she is.

Featuring an extraordinary ensemble cast (Mark Ruffalo, Matt Damon, Matthew Broderick and Jeannie Berlin), Margaret emerges as a poetic, profoundly human account of the way we live now. (Notes by Scott Foundas.)

EXCLUSIVELY AT IFI 

TEENS:
Our IFI Teen Monthly Film Club screening will be at Margaret on Wednesday February 29th at 15.20.