Entertainment

Brie Larson Has An Exciting New Gig

by Allie Gemmill

It would appear that the most unstoppable force in film right now is the endlessly talented Brie Larson. With an impressive and varied body of work spanning nearly 20 years, earning an Oscar for her performance in Room, and announcing her landmark lead role in the upcoming Captain Marvel , Larson is now adding the credit of "feature-length director" to her resume. Slated to take the helm of the delightful-sounding The Unicorn Store, this will be Larson's first feature length film she's directed. Per the Hollywood Reporter, Larson's film The Unicorn Store will be about "a woman named Kit, who, after moving back in with her parents, receives a mysterious invitation to a store that will test her ideas of what it really means to grow up." If there is one major endorsement for Larson as a director, it's her previous acting roles which spans genre, tone and style.

She has metamorphosed for nearly every role she's taken on; one could argue she is often one of the best things about any film she is in, too. Whether it's moodier indie films like Short Term 12 and Tanner Hall, outlandish comedies like Trainwreck and 21 Jump Street or emotionally-bound dramas like Room, Larson has proven herself more than adaptable. I can't imagine she would have any trouble mixing indie with comedy for The Unicorn Store. While The Unicorn Store sounds like yet another childish adult struggling to find their footing in the real world, for Larson, this could be a return to the kind of world Short Term 12's Grace inhabited. Grace was a young counselor at a foster care facility, guiding teenagers barely younger than herself to a level a stability that's tough to claim in that situation. Grace was tested daily, forced to mature for the sake of the work she loved but ultimately, she was as fragile as those in her care. The kind of sympathy that comes with young adults still unsure of what they're doing sounds like the kind of headspace Larson will tackle with Kit, just as she did with Grace.

But The Unicorn Store doesn't sounds nearly as dramatic as Short Term 12. Rather, it might veer closer towards Larson's comedic roles as 21 Jump Street's Molly or Scott Pilgrim vs. The World's Envy Adams. Molly and Envy, respectively, live in worlds where the something is just a bit off-kilter (adult cops assimilating with high schoolers and video game aesthetics invading modern-day Toronto), allowing both women room to showcase their humorous and sometimes wry humor. Both films and Larson's performances in them sound like they fall right in line with The Unicorn Store's premise.

As is almost a tradition with actors taking the director's chair, an indie film will be the perfect way to launch Larson to bigger projects in the future. Luckily, she's has already tested the directing waters. Larson has two short films under her belt: 2011's Weighting and 2012's The Arm. Returning to the director's chair should be like returning home. Peep her work in Weighting (below) and tell me she's not going to be an amazing indie director.

While she is currently juggling a full roster of film projects (Kong: Skull Island, The Glass Castle and Captain Marvel, to name a few), a woman as multi-faceted as Larson cannot be confined to just one aspect of film. If anything, The Unicorn Store will once again prove a showcase for Larson's depthless well of talent and, boy, I'm totally ready for it.

Image: Giphy