Here is a clip of Anna in her movie The Company You Keep.

Actors and directors often say that the script is king. Haven’t you seen movies that – despite rich potential – fly off the rails? The issues often can be traced back to a script issue, a plot hole that swallows all effort and can doom even the most noble of projects.

Joe Swanberg swears by a different philosophy. The grassroots writer-director behind Hannah Takes the Stairs, Uncle Kent and V/H/S prefers not to lock his cast into a fixed screenplay, opting to let them react to conversations and emotions, which allows his dramas to live in the moment. It’s the use of improvisation to search for the beating heart of a particular story helps Swanberg’s latest, Drinking Buddies – which held its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival on Saturday night – stand apart from traditional romantic comedies.

The movie boasts Swanberg’s most recognizable cast, exploring one of his most accessible character studies. It tells the universal story of an endearing yet mismatched couple, played by Anna Kendrick and Jake Johnson, who are tested by the temptations of infidelity when they begin interacting with a second couple, played by Olivia Wilde and Ron Livingston. Though Swanberg puts his foursome in familiar scenarios – a joint vacation at a secluded beachfront cabin; work events at the brewery that employs Wilde and Johnson – his reluctance to put words in his characters mouths allows Drinking Buddies to go down unexpected avenues as it searches for its truths.

Following the screening on Saturday night, I attended a private meet-and-greet with Swanberg and his cast and learning how liberating the director’s unconventional approach was to the actors helped me better appreciate the magic that’s captured in the loose, free-flowing but authentic film . “Putting dialogue in somebody else’s mouth has always felt strange to me,” the director told us – though the cast was quick to point out that Swanberg always had a strong vision about where he needed his story to go. The performers just had more leeway than usual in how they arrived at their destination.

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Those who take the idea of the biblical Rapture seriously – a rather extreme take on the end of the world – probably won’t like Rapturepalooza, but for everyone else it looks a lot of fun.

In the movie, The Rapture has happened, taking the righteous to heaven and leaving everyone else to deal with the end of time, when the Anti-Christ emerges, plagues descend and everything goes to hell in a handbasket. However as this film shows, life goes on (at least as much as it can).

Anna Kendrick, John Francis Daley and Rob Corddry play those left behind, who have to deal with a very strange world and the son of Satan, in the form of Craig Robinson.

Paul Middlemitch’s film is due out later this year.

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Skylar Astin, Miles Teller, and Justin Chon balance cups on their head while promoting 21 & Over at Playwright Celtic Pub on Thursday afternoon (February 28) in New York City.

The three guys were busy promoting their flick and JustJaredJr.com sat down with them to ask the important questions – like what’s up with those Pitch Perfect sequel rumors?!

“I think any movie is a possibility, but what I’ve learned about sequels is that it’s just as hard to get it done as it is any movie,” Skylar shared with JJJ. “Now there’s a different set of responsibilities, trying to get the cast together, trying to get a good script. I don’t know, I’ve let it go just because I don’t want to be knocking down doors every day being like, ‘Hey, when do we start?!’ But if I get an email with a new script I would love to read it.”

“I want to talk to [Anna] Kendrick,” the actor continued. “I want to see if she would wanna do it, too. I can’t imagine doing it without the whole gang.”

EXCLUSIVE: Jeremy Jordan keeps finding ways to show off his vocal chops as he moves from stage to screen. The Tony nominee has been cast opposite Anna Kendrick in The Last 5 Years, adapted from Jason Robert Brown’s award-winning off-Broadway musical. Jordan will play Jamie, a rising novelist whose relationship with struggling actress Cathy (Kendrick) is explored through an unusual narrative device: His story unfolds in chronological order as the pair first meet, while hers unfolds in reverse starting at the end of their marriage. Richard LaGravenese (Beautiful Creatures) is directing from his own script and will produce with Lauren Versel, Kurt Deutsch, and Janet Brenner for Lucky Monkey Pictures.

Jordan won the 2012 Theatre World Award for Outstanding Debut for Bonnie & Clyde and nabbed Tony, Drama Desk, and Outer Critics Circle Award nominations for his breakout turn in Newsies last year. The singer-actor has since racked up music-oriented screen credits including Warner Bros’ Joyful Noise and NBC’s Smash, in which he appears this season as Brooklyn composer Jimmy Collins. He is repped by ICM Partners and Schachter Entertainment.

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In a recent interview with Collider.com, ‘Beautiful Creatures’ director Richard LaGravenese revealed that he is currently working on an indie film adaptation of the off-Broadway musical THE LAST FIVE YEARS. The show appeared off-Broadway in 2002 and will be revived at New York’s Second Stage Theatre this April.

The love story is all-sung and features just two characters. “[It's] about a young man and young woman in their 20′s who meet, fall in love, get married and break up, all in the span of five years,” explains the director. “All of her songs start at the end of their relationship and go to the beginning, and all of his songs start at the beginning and go to the end…It goes back and forth like that.”

Written by Jason Robert Brown, The Last Five Years explores a five-year relationship between Jamie Wellerstein, a rising novelist, and Cathy Hyatt, a struggling actress. The show uses a form of storytelling in which Cathy’s story is told in reverse chronological order (beginning the show at the end of the marriage), and Jamie’s is told in chronological order (starting just after the couple have first met). The characters do not directly interact except for a wedding song in the middle as their timelines intersect

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Here is the official trailer of Anna’s movie The Company You Keep, looks absolutely gripping!

Drinking Buddies (World Premiere)
Director/Screenwriter: Joe Swanberg

You know what makes the line between “Friends” and “More Than Friends” really blurry? Beer.
Cast: Olivia Wilde, Jake Johnson, Anna Kendrick, Ron Livingston, Joe Swanberg

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Oscar-nominated actresses Anna Kendrick and Anne Hathaway impact Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart this week. The music chart company released its songs tally on Thursday with the ladies’ tracks from films “Pitch Perfect” and “Les Miserables” marking their debut.

Kendrick is one of many singing actresses in “Pitch Perfect,” a musical comedy film about a struggling college a capella group looking to win a national competition. Among the performances, a standout is “Cups (When I’m Gone),” an endearing number Kendrick performs while shuffling cups. The song debuts at No. 93 while the film’s soundtrack enters the top 10 of Billboard’s albums chart.

Hathaway plays Fantine in the film adaption of the “Les Miserables” musical show. Fantine resorts to prostitution after she is left alone to support daughter Cosette, leaving her a broken and sorrowful woman. The self-pity she experiences culminates to the dramatic song, “I Dreamed A Dream,” which Hathaway sings in an emotional performance. Her rendition debuts at No. 69, the highest peak since Scottish singer Susan Boyle hit No. 62 with the same song back in 2009. The movie’s soundtrack jumps to No. 2 this week behind Taylor Swift’s mega-selling “Red” album.

“Pitch Perfect” was released to home media on December 18 and “Les Miserables” hit theaters on Christmas day.

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