Shortly before Amber Tamblyn became embroiled in a Twitter fight with conservative actor James Woods, she saw her directorial debut, “Paint It Black,” open in select theaters this summer. With their feud now making headlines, distributor Imagination Worldwide announced Thursday it will release the film on VOD Oct. 3. You can watch the trailer above.
Based on the cult novel by Janet Fitch, “Paint It Black” stars “Search Party’s” Alia Shawkat as hard-partying artist forced to confront her dead boyfriend’s caustic mother (Janet McTeer), after the bereaved woman blames her for his sudden death.
TheWrap’s Tricia Olszewslo praised Shawkat’s performance in the film, noting how the actress “breaks out subtleties that she’s never been able to show off in other roles.”
Tamblyn explained to Indiewire that we was drawn to adapting the book after having “a very instantaneous, cinematic, visceral reaction to the language” of it. “I really felt like, ‘Wow. Wouldn’t that make for a great movie, just about the tormented, grief-ridden, inside, interior minds of women?’”
Tamblyn spent much of this week taking down Woods on Twitter after the actor compared the gay coming-of-age film “Call Me By Your Name” to pedophilia.
She started by accusing Woods of making an inappropriate advance when she was 16 years old. He tweeted a denial, prompting her to pen an open letter for Teen Vogue that included the line: “Since you’ve now called me a liar, I will now call you a silencer.” You can read the full piece here.
Watch the trailer for “Paint It Black” above.