Specialty Preview

Sasquatch Sunset directors Nathan and David Zellner (Kumiko, The Treasure Hunter) always wondered what these hairy giants do when they’re not walking – the only Bigfoot footage available has been a minute of a supposed Sasquatch wandering in the northern California woods. They decided to flesh that out in unique dialogue-free comedic imagining of the
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Vera Drew’s The People’s Joker – which was pulled from TIFF in 2022 over “rights issues” — starts a theatrical debut today at the IFC Center, moving to LA’s Landmark’s Nuart next weekend and expanding thereafter with about 85 booking so far — a nice outcome for the mixed-media coming-of-age dark superhero parody that “had
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Q&A’s are a staple of indie opening weekends since they tend to sell tickets but Bob and Jeanne Berney’s Picturehouse has raised that bar, offering audiences seven-minute live burlesque revues before selected screenings of documentary Carol Doda Topless At The Condor. The ode to the woman, and to 1960s San Francisco where she broke out
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A trio of moderate releases – One Life, The American Society Of Magical Negroes and Knox Goes Away join Janus Films’ celebration of master musician Ryuichi Sakamoto, and César award winning The Animal Kingdom as the next wave of 2024 indie films rolls out post-Oscars. Focus Features’ American Society Of Magical Negroes, the feature directorial
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A24’s psychological thriller Love Lies Bleeding by director Rose Glass starring Kristen Stewart, Katy O’Brian, Jena Malone and Anna Baryshnikov, with Dave Franco and Ed Harris, opens in limited release on five screens in New York and LA , expanding next week. A reclusive gym manager Lou (Steward) falls hard for Jackie (O’Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder headed
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Two well-reviewed indies are taking a bow in limited release in the shadow of Dune, A24’s Problemista by Julio Torres, and Shayda from Sony Pictures Classics, the feature debut of Noora Niasari. Torres, the comedian, actor and writer, in his directorial debut, stars with Tilda Swinton as Problemista gets its release at last after being
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Italy’s Best International Feature Oscar-nominated Io Capitano starts its U.S. run today in ten market on 21 screens, a bit wider than usual for Cohen Media Group but with Academy final voting just started, reviews are gold for the odyssey that director Matteo Garrone calls “a movie about human rights. About the rights of everybody
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It’s a weekend of well-reviewed indie openings with Bleecker Street’s Out Of Darkness, The Monk And The Gun (from the directors of Lunana: A Yak In The Classroom) and limited openings for The Taste Of Things, Perfect Days (Best International Feature nominated), Anthony Chen’s Drift, Bas Devos’ Here and Ennio by Giuseppe Tornatore, which premiered
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A handful of indies bow or expand this weekend as Oscar hopefuls from Poor Things to The Holdovers and American Fiction crowd theaters after nominations earlier this week. Anatomy Of A Fall is getting a big bump. Oppenheimer is back on Imax. New specialty releases include Daisy Ridley-starring Sometimes I Think About Dying by Rachel
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In a lull for specialty openings early in the new year, three foreign-language films are taking a shot. The Settlers, winner of the Cannes Un Certain Regard FIPRESCI Prize, and Inshallah A Boy are Cannes alumns and Oscar submissions from, respectively, Chile and Jordan (neither short-listed in a competitive field). Driving Madeleine is a crowd
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It’s quiet for specialty openings after the holidays, in the thick of awards season. But one film needed this weekend — Abramorama documentary A Storm Foretold by Danish director Christoffer Guldbrandsen about the MAGA movement and the Jan. 6 insurrection. The filmmaker captured footage over years of on-and-off access to Roger Stone. It’s booked for
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Salaar: Part 1 – Ceasefire saw $2.5 million in Thursday previews as the Telugu action thriller opens in about 800 locations in North America. Bollywood superstar Shah Ruhk Kan toplines drama Dunki, his third film of the year after Pathaan and Jawan, both in the top ten of India’s highest-grossing films. Presented by Moksha Movies/Pathyangira
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Jonathan Glazer’s unusual Holocaust film The Zone Of Interest opens in four theaters in New York and LA today as Cord Jefferson’s satirical comedy American Fiction debuts in seven, the latest trenchant specialty offerings in a fall market full of strong titles as year-end approaches and the awards season clicks into high gear after Golden
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Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice Golden Lion Winner Poor Things is here with Searchlight Pictures sewing up nine theaters in four major markets for leg one of the Emma Stone-starring surreal-period-comedy-horror. The film debuts in NYC (AMC Lincoln Square, Regal Union Square, Alamo Drafthouse, Brooklyn) and LA (AMC Century City, AMC The Grove, AMC Burbank 16) as
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Animal, with Thursday previews of just over $1.25 million, looks set for the biggest North American Bollywood opening day since Brahmastra Part 1: Shiva last year. Both star Ranbir Kapoor. The Hindi revenge thriller by Sandeep Reddy Vanga about a son’s toxic relationship with a father he idolizes opens on 700 screens (nearly 100 in
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Emerald Fennell’s dark comedy Saltburn takes a massive jump from to over 1,500 screens today as Bradley Cooper’s Maestro, Hayao Miyazaki’s latest The Boy and the Heron, animated They Shot The Piano Player and other festival favorites launch awards season runs this Thanksgiving specialty weekend. Apple, opening Napoleon wide with Sony, is also planting a
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It’s a cool indie weekend when the new album by André 3000, New Blue Sun, has morphed into a “cinematic listening experience.” Variance Films is putting the experience, directed by Terence Nance, into three theaters in NYC (IFC Center), LA (Cinepolis Inglewood) and Atlanta (Tara). Right now, it’s just those locations but after this weekend,
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A24 continues its stream of special runs opening dark comedy Dream Scenario in limited release on six screens in New York and LA. Written and directed by Kristoffer Borgli’s (Sick Of Myself) and produced by Ari Aster, it stars Nicolas Cage as a hapless family man whose life is turned upside down when millions of
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A24’s Priscilla by Sofia Coppola catapults from four screens to 1,300, Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers from Focus Features expands to 60 from six and two new indies have wide debuts — What Happens Later from Bleecker Street, directed by and starring Meg Ryan, opens at 1,400 locations and Daisy Ridley-starring The Marsh King’s Daughter from Roadside
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Independents are out in force with high-profile fall festival fare from Pricilla to The Holdovers, a big Viva Pictures push with Inspector Sun (voiced by Ronny Chieng), Cannes documentary winner Four Daughters and Waikiki, the debut feature by Hawaiian filmmaker Christopher Kahunahana. the first homegrown feature to be shown there. Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla from A24
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An Iranian American woman navigating culture clash, an Argentine bank heist and an animated ghost story voiced by Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie debut this weekend with a handful of docs and some notable expansion, vying with Apple wide release Killers Of The Flower Moon. Sony Pictures Classics The Persian Version opens on eight screens
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Two experimental films executive produced by Steven Soderbergh — Eddie Alcazar’s Divinity and Godfrey Reggio’s Once Within A Time – join Neon’s anticipated Anatomy Of A Fall, Cannes Palme d’Or winner, in theaters today, a bit of counter-programming on a weekend dominated by Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour.  Divinity, in a dark and creepy future populated by bodybuilders hooked on an
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A wacky film based on a stage show by comedians Aaron Jackson and Josh Sharp, Dicks: The Musical – a riff on The Parent Trap with two adult men as the starring twins — opens in seven theaters in New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco on a crowded specialty weekend as theatrical releases of fall film festival titles accelerates.    
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A really wet Friday in New York – National Weather Service flash flood warning wet – is likely to take a bite out of specialty film in one of its biggest markets this weekend. Alamo Drafthouse shut its NYC locations in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Staten Island until further notice due to “severe flooding in and
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Stop Making Sense, the remastered concert film that sowed delight at TIFF, opens on 300 Imax screens in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Ireland. Locations Stateside number 260 ahead of a nationwide release next week.   The 1984 Talking Heads extravaganza from Jonathan Demme is presented in its new iteration by A24 — meaning the
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Craig Gillespie’s comedy-drama Dumb Money starts its three-step platform release this weekend courtesy of Sony, opening in eight theaters in LA, NY, Chicago, DC, Boston and San Francisco ahead of an expansion next week and a Sept. 29 wide release. Gillespie (I, Tonya, Lars and the Real Girl) saw lots of love in Toronto for the premiere of his
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Jawan, a Hindi action thriller with Bollywood royalty Shah Rukh Khan set opening day records in India that are echoing Stateside. The Yash Raj Films release grossed more than $1.36 million on Thursday at 764 locations, meaning it was the no. 2 movie across North America behind wide release The Eoqualizer 3 with Denzel Washington.
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MGM’s raunchy high school comedy Bottoms by Emma Seligman, a surprising teen girl version of Fight Club, is punching into a lot more theaters this week, expanding from ten to 715 nationwide. The numbers so far look solid and MGM might be hoping for anything in the $2.5+ million range over the three days. It had an
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