Vanessa Anne Hudgens (born December 14, 1988) is an American actress and singer. After making her feature film debut in Thirteen (2003), Hudgens rose to fame portraying Gabriella Montez in the High School Musical film series (2006–2008), which brought her significant mainstream success.
The success of the first film led to Hudgens' acquiring a recording contract with Hollywood Records, with whom she released two studio albums, V (2006) and Identified (2008).
‘Downtown Owl’ Review: Lily Rabe and Hamish Linklater’s Directorial Debut Is No Hoot
thewrap.comFor all involved, prolific author and cultural critic Chuck Klosterman’s 2008 book “Downtown Owl” sets the stage for a number of firsts.
For starters, it’s Klosterman’s earliest fiction novel and is the source at the heart of Lily Rabe (“The Tender Bar”) and Hamish Linklater’s (“Midnight Mass”) joint directorial debut which just premiered at the Tribeca Festival.If only the freshness associated with all these firsts was felt in the film by Rabe and Linklater, who are both creative collaborators and real-life partners.
Instead, something feels stale, strange and out-of-focus right at the start of “Downtown Owl,” a cold and aimless 91-minute feature that makes its compact runtime feel anything but, while broadly navigating its small town rural tale with little insight and even less purpose.The set-up of the script (penned by Linklater, often with perplexing dialogue) is promising enough, introducing us to the fictional town of Owl, North Dakota (Klosterman’s home state) through the eyes of one of its newest residents.
High school literature teacher Julia (Rabe) has just left her familial problems behind back in the big city to start, transformed and happy, elsewhere.
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