Awards pundits raised their attenae recently when Focus gently placed Promised Land, a new Gus Van Sant drama, at the tail end of Oscar season in December. Certainly, the film’s got a great profile: Van Sant reunites with his Good Will Hunting star Matt Damon on another film co-scripted by Damon himself, this time with John Krasinski. (And based on a story by Dave Eggers, in case you needed more enticement.) Damon plays a slick businessman who entices economically devastated farm towns to embrace the controversial practice of fracking, but he runs into a wall with Krasinski, who opposes the practice and links arms with fellow townspeople Hal Holbrook and Rosemarie DeWitt. How do you like them apples, Damon?
