In Gus Van Sant’s biopic Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot, Joaquin Phoenix plays John Callahan, a cartoonist who became a quadriplegic after a drunken car accident and tries to give up drinking with the help of his friends, played by Rooney Mara, Jack Black, and Jonah Hill. If that sounds a little too heartwarming, the film takes a page from Callahan’s own work by combining sentimentality with dark humor; as our own A.A. Dowd put it in his review of the film our of this year’s Sundance Film Festival, “Phoenix anchors the film to an emotional reality, and there’s something to be said for how Van Sant collides his dueling affinities for cornball uplift and oddball experimentation.”
For anyone eager to join Phoenix and Van Sant on that journey, The A.V. Club is giving away free passes to an early screening of Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot to lucky readers in Chicago. The screening will be held at AMC River East on July 18, and all you have to do to get in is head on over to this link. Just remember: Advance screenings are often intentionally overbooked, so be sure to arrive early if you want to secure a seat.
For everyone else, Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far On Foot will open on July 20.