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It’s suddenly been, if not an embarrassment, then for sure a nice flush of riches in the indie film space as high-profile festival and well-reviewed fare continues releasing into awards season. This week we’ve got a return guest with wide re-release of Godzilla Minus One.
Emilia Perez is hitting 125 theaters, quite a few for Netflix. This weekend Apple opens Steve McQueen’s WWII-set Blitz, starring Saorsie Ronan on three screens in London, two in NYC and one in LA. Warner Bros. is launching an Academy run for Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 starring Nicholas Hoult and Zoey Deutch. Disney is doing the same for Laurent Bouzereau’s documentary Music by John Williams at the El Capitan in Hollywood and Regal Union Square in Manhattan.
La Cocina, Memoir Of A Snail and doc Black Box Diaries expand in week 2.
Jumping in with Searchlight Pictures’ Jesse Eisenberg written-directed comedy A Real Pain arriving in 4 theaters in New York today (Angelika, AMC Lincoln Square) and Los Angeles (AMC Century City, AMC Grove). The Sundance award-winner stars Eisenberg alongside Succession star Kieran Culkin as mismatched cousins David and Benji touring Poland to honor their grandmother. The adventure becomes complicated as old tensions resurface while exploring their family history. With Will Sharpe, Jennifer Gray, Kurt Egyiawan, Liza Sadovy and Daniel Oreskes.
Poland will be the first international territory to release on November 8 opening the Warsaw Jewish Film Festival this week. Expands Stateside next week then moves to about 600 screens Nov. 15.
Eisenberg took the Best Screenplay award at Sundance and the film has played Telluride, New York Film Festival, Beyond Fest, the Hamptons Film Festival, and the Busan, Rio, Zurich & Bergen international film festivals, Woodstock, BFI London Film and AFI.
Jumping to global phenomenon Godzilla Minus One and the remastered black and white rendition Godzilla Minus One/Minus Color — they’re back at 1,365 North American locations this weekend in celebration of the King of the Monsters 70th Anniversary, and Global Godzilla Day, celebrated annually on November 3, the day the original 1954 movie opened in theaters in Japan. Further marking the date, Toho International also announced earlier today plans for a new Godzilla film by writer, director, and VFX supervisor Takashi Yamazaki.
In moderate release, Blue Fox Entertainment opens Lost On A Mountain In Maine on 630 screens. Produced by Sylvester Stallone and his Balboa Productions, it Paul Sparks (Netflix’s House of Cards/ HBO’s Boardwalk Empire), Caitlin FitzGerald (Showtime’s Masters of Sex), Ethan Slater (Wicked), with a breakout performance from young lead Luke DaMvid Blumm (The King of Staten Island).
Directed by Andrew Boodhoo Kightlingerbased on the best-selling book of the same name by Donn Fendler that’s been fourth-grade required reading in Maine for decades, it tells the inspiring true story of 12-year-old Donn Fendler, who becomes separated from his family by a fast moving storm atop a treacherous mountain. For nine days Donn fights to stay alive as he attempts to survive the unforgiving wilderness of northern Maine without food, proper clothing, or the knowledge of how bad his situation really is. His disappearance sparks a massive search effort that captures national headlines and attracts hundreds of volunteers.
Also moderate, faith-based Purdie Entertainment presents a heavy metal, MMA version of Jesus in The Carpenter on about 500 screens, calling it “a mixed martial arts story of biblical proportions.”
The story of Oren, a young man whose journey as a paid fighter takes him to the city of Nazareth in Galilee, where he is befriended by Yeshua, a carpenter, who shares his craft and wisdom. Produced by the Hawaii-based Krebs family, he film was shot in Cape Town, South Africa with over 200 extras required for the extensive MMA and parkour action scenes. Directed by Garrett Batty, it stars brothers Kameron Krebs and Kaulin Krebs.
Circling back to Netflix’ award contender Emilia Perez by Jacques Audiard. It’s playing at 125 theaters in about 50 markets in a rather expansive theatrical debut for the musical crime drama. The largely Spanish-language film about a Mexican drug lord having a sex change premiered to a massive ovation at Cannes, where its quartet of stars, Karla Sofía Gascón, Zoe Saldaña, Selena Gomez, and Adriana Paz, received the Best Actress award. Audiard took the Jury Award. “Of course it’s crazy, but Audiard has set up his impossible conjuring trick and made it work,” says Deadline’s review. Streaming on Netflix Nov. 13.
Magnolia Pictures’ bowling comedy The Gutter, acquired out of SXSW, opens on 44 screens day and date. Stars Susan Sarandon, Shameik Moore, D’Arcy Carden, its directed by Yassir Lester (The Carmichael Show) & Isaiah Lester (Black-ish).
Frequently fired Walt (Moore) lands a position tending bar and de-roaching shoes at his local bowling alley AlleyCatz, feeling like he’s finally found a home. When money issues threaten AlleyCatz, Walt is pressured by former pro-bowler and current champion drinker Skunk (Carden) to accept his role as the greatest bowler ever put on this earth. While Walt’s love of big checks and in-your-face style of play dominates the pro tour, his detractors, including ratings-obsessed news anchor Angelo Powers (Paul Reiser) and fresh-out-of-retirement bowling-legend Linda “The Crusher” Curson (Sarandon), furiously attempt to snuff out Walt’s flame before it burns too bright.
LA Theaters: Laemmle Glendale & Alamo Drafthouse DTLA; NY Theaters Look Dine-In Cinemas 57 WEST and Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan.
The Graduates, the directorial debut from writer-director Hannah Peterson, marks the first distribution partnership for founder Caryn Coleman’s distributor The Future of Film is Female. The coming-of-age drama stars Mina Sundwall, Alex Hibbert, Yasmeen Fletcher, Ewan Manley, John Cho, Maria Dizzia and Kelly O’Sullivan. Follows a young woman, Genevieve (Sundwall), as she prepares to graduate high school after a tragic event. As she navigates an uncertain future alongside a community searching for ways to heal, they turn to each other to find hope and a way forward.
Executive produced by Academy award-winning filmmaker Chloé Zhao alongside John Cho.
Opens at the Metrograph for a one-week run. Will play in LA at Vidiots on 11/11 moderated by Sean Baker and then Los Feliz on 11/15 and other one-off screenings. Premiered at Tribeca Festival. At 95% on Rotten Tomatoes with 20 reviews.
Documentaries: Icarus films presents Youth (Hard Times) and Youth (Homecoming) – parts 2 & 3 of Wang Bing’s iconic verité trilogy – at the Metrograph in NYC on November 1 and November 8, respectively.
Shot between 2015 and 2019 in the textile factories of Zhili, a district of Huzhou City in northern Zhejiang province, which rely on the grueling labor of hundreds of thousands of young migrant workers drawn from the provincial countryside, Wang’s saga explores the individual toll of contemporary China’s relentless economic expansion, depicting the rising tensions and disparities between rank-and-file laborers and their management, and the moving endurance of solidarity and aspiration in the face of a system that sows division. Premiered at Venice, see Deadline review. Sit at 92% and 93%, respectively, with RT critics.
Kino Lorber’ Soundtrack To A Coup d’Etat by Johan Grimonprez’s opens at Film Forum in New York. AddsLA next week, Chicago Nov. 22). The doc won the Special Jury Award for Cinematic Innovation at Sundance and was recently nominated for four Critics Choice Doc Awards and the European Film Award for Best Documentary as well as shortlisted for Best Feature by the Int’l Documentary Association. The exhilarating fusion of jazz and geopolitics tells the story of a CIA-backed cold war coup in Congo and the Black American jazz musicians weaponized in its cause.
Level 33’s Tribeca-premiering doc Chasing Chasing Amy opens in limited release. Directed by Sav Rodgers and featuring Kevin Smith, Joey Lauren Adams, Jason Lee, Guinevere Turner, Scott Mosier, Andrew Ahn, Robert Hawk, Princess Weekes, Academy Award-winner Kevin Willmott and more the doc explores the complex legacy of Kevin Smith’s 1997 cult classic, Chasing Amy, its polarizing reputation among LGBTQ+ people. It follows a touching journey of self discovery as a young filmmaker sets out to understand the ’90s LGBTQ+ rom-com that saved his life.
Smith’s film chronicles the impact on the long-term friendship of two New Jersey comic book artists when they are joined by a third artist, who turns out to be lesbian. The fallout includes heartbreak and jealousy. It starred Ben Affleck, Jason Lee and Joey Lauren Adams.