Lily Rabe is a director now. The American Horror Story star added a hyphen to her career descriptor after taking on the script for Downtown Owl written by Hamish Linklater (Midnight Mass). A new trailer for Downtown Owl sees Rabe's character arrive in a small town and find that what she had deemed a place of escape might be where her heart is content. The film features a star cast including Finn Wittrock―whom Rabe starred on American Horror Story Season 10 with―Ed Harris, and Vanessa Hudgens.
The trailer opens with Rabe's character, Julia Rabia, arriving in the fictional quaint town of Owl, North Dakota. A narrator welcomes Rabia to Owl and makes all kinds of promises about what a great place the town is. The reality is much different because some people are unfriendly, like Horace (Ed Harris), a man in the diner who acts like being asked a question is a serious violation of personal space, the students are unmotivated, and some, like Eli (Jack Dylan Grazer), are tough to deal with. Her coworkers are an eclectic bunch, with Coach Laidlaw taking out his frustrations with his team on other people, while Naomi (Vanessa Hudgens, High School Musical) has serious boundary issues.
Naomi drags Rabia out to a bar and she meets some town residents. Owl can have really bad weather, but what disrupts Rabia's life is interacting with the townsfolk, including, Vance (Henry Golding), a former football star whose best days are behind him. Rabia gets into the town's rhythm, and before she knows it, she's accustomed to it. But questions about her life before the small town make it clear that she has been lying to herself about her reason for leaving the city. She thought she wanted to give her husband space to work on his Doctorate, but what if that was a ruse? What if she hated the life she led in the city? What if this small town was the home she never knew she wanted? As the trailer ends, a mundane question takes on an existential meaning. What was she going to do?
Who Is Behind Downtown Owl?
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Linklater adapted the film from a 2008 novel of the same name by Chuck Klosterman. Rabe directed the film with help from Linklater. She also stars alongside Hudgens, Wittrock, Linklater, Harris (Westworld), Golding, Dylan Glazer (We Are Who We Are), and August Blanco Rosenstein. T Bone Burnett was the music director.
The Sony Pictures Entertainment film will be available on digital to buy or rent on April 23. Watch the trailer below.
