Most people's gripe about trailers these days is that they blow too much info about a film's plot. But not Sarah Deming. This Michigan resident is suing the distributor of the critically acclaimed Ryan Gosling thriller Drive – as well as the cinema where she saw it – claiming it was publicised as a Fast and Furious style action piece but turned out to be nothing of the sort.
In her suit, which was filed at the sixth judicial circuit court in Oakland, Michigan, Deming says the Nicolas Winding Refn film "bore very little similarity to a chase, or race action film ... having very little driving in the motion picture".
The plaintiff goes on to attack Drive for what she perceives as antisemitic leanings. The film "substantially contained extreme, gratuitous, dehumanising racism directed at members of the Jewish faith, and thereby promoted criminal violence against members of the Jewish faith", her suit reads.
Deming hopes to turn her appeal into a class action suit, which would allow cinemagoers across the US to sue on similar grounds if they found themselves watching films on the basis of a misleading trailer. Both the Emagine cinema in Novi, Michigan, and distributor FilmDistrict are expected to vigorously contest. Emagine has already pointed out that it would have been happy to refund the cost of the ticket bought by Ms Deming, which is the suit's only demand.
Drive, about a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver, has been warmly received by most critics. The winner of the best director award at Cannes currently holds a 93% "fresh" rating on the reviews website rottentomatoes.com.
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