'Carousel,' partially shot in Medina and at Akron-Canton Airport last summer, is seeking a distribution deal at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
This image released by Sundance Institute shows Jenny Slate, left, and Chris Pine in a scene shot in Cleveland from "Carousel," an official selection of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival. CLEVELAND, Ohio -- “Carousel,” the independent film shot across Northeast Ohio last summer — including scenes in Medina’s historic square, Tremont and Akron-Canton Airport — premiered Thursday at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
The movie, written and directed by Rachel Lambert , stars Chris Pine and Jenny Slate. Pine plays Noah, a Cleveland doctor navigating life after a divorce while raising a teenage daughter struggling with anxiety and depression. His life takes an unexpected turn when his high school sweetheart, Rebecca , comes back to town, dealing with her own unresolved issues involving her parents and career. “There’s this mantra I have already: ‘Have you ever wanted something so much in life you do all you could not to get it? That’s what Noah is going through,” she said. “He wants so much to love this person, Rebecca, to feel love, to feel renewed. But there’s all these other repairs he must attend to and all these fears he must attend to. I wanted to take that seriously.” Pine, who also serves as a producer on the film, said “Carousel” stands out for its emotional sincerity. “There’s an earnest, heartfelt, non-jaded, non-cool investigation of the deepest fundamentals of what we humans do on the planet, which is, you know, how do we love?” he said. There’s no gimmick here. “There’s no holdup, no spaceship, no great effects. The metronome to this film is very paced and deliberate and it requires a patience to allow yourself to be drawn into the spectacle of human beings.”, “Chris Pine and Jenny Slate are so damn fine in ‘Carousel’ that you keep wondering why we seldom get to see these gifted actors bite into characters of such substance and complexity.”“‘Carousel’ is a flawed drama that can be disjointed, but by the end the movie feels worth it: mannered at times, touchingly real at others,” he wrote.Film production in Northeast Ohio, meanwhile, is already off to a strong start in 2026. Shooting has begun on a trio of Christmas-themed movies in Medina, Chardon and Chagrin Falls. Production is also underway in Medina and Burton on a pair of vertical films from Fox Entertainment Studios, Verticals are short-form “microdramas” released in episodes and meant to be watched on smartphones. The projects were brought to the region by the Greater Cleveland Film Commission, with the help of state tax credits.Joey Morona is an entertainment reporter and occasional film, TV and theater reviewer for cleveland.com and The Plain Dealer. Born and raised in Cleveland, Ohio, the University of Central...
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