Coming Soon
Growing up is hard. Growing up as a minority is even harder. I’ve only had a taste of this experience, as the things that set me apart aren’t as obvious as my accent or the color of my skin, but most of us have experienced the feelings of isolation that come from being different than everyone around them, just not to the extent that Morris feels in Morris from America.
Blair Witch is 2016’s second hidden horror sequel, joining 10 Cloverfield Lane in utilizing a late-game title reveal to cause a swarm of free internet buzz. Both film franchises are known for their unusual marketing strategies, which makes the tactic a bit less off-putting, but it still elicits fear that the flashy move is a cover for sub-par material. By the time 10 Cloverfield Lane was actually released, most viewers were genuinely surprised by its quality, and I’ve got a feeling that Blair Witch might become a similar shocker.
We like to remind ourselves that people stood up to the Nazi party. That’s why we get movies like Anthropoid, Valkyrie, and Schindler’s List rather routinely, showing us the brave few who put their lives on the line to stop a massacre. The problem with these movies is that the flip side of history always lingers in the background, with people who put their heads down or actively participated in the genocide filling the screen.
Film Inquiry compiles a list of the movies that are opening in cinemas every Tuesday. Opening this week: Suicide Squad, Nine Lives, Little Men, Five Nights In Maine and Front Cover.
It’s hard not to wince when you see Matt Damon striding down the Great Wall of China. The attempts by American companies to break into China’s growing film market has been a mess so far, plagued by lawsuits, awkward plot detours to the country, and flat-out whitewashing. So while it’s not surprising to see a white actor fighting monsters from the Great Wall, the image still makes people cringe.
Get ready for a division, because King Arthur: Legend of the Sword is directed by Guy Ritchie. I’m sure some of you have already left, siting the modernist spin and frantic energy that Ritchie injects into his films as turnoffs, while others are sitting there gleefully awaiting a good time at the theaters.
We’ve seen Robert De Niro in a boxing film before, right? Yeah, it was just a little movie called Raging Bull, so there’s no way his return to the cinematic ring will overshadow what Hands of Stone is actually about. Okay, so everyone’s focusing on De Niro’s return as legendary trainer Ray Arcel, but the film is really about Edgar Ramírez’s Roberto Duran, a Panamanian boxer who was part of the dominant Fabulous Four during the 1980s.
In this era of cinematic universes, branding is key. The goal is for audiences to recognize and become invested in the world being built, not necessarily the individual movies. Think about it this way:
Film Inquiry publishes a list of the movies that are opening in cinemas every Tuesday. Opening this week: Jason Bourne, Equity, Tallulah, Gleason, Nerve, Bad Moms, Indignation and The Tenth Man.
A man and his dog come to the wrong town in writer/director Ti West’s In a Valley of Violence, but not because there’s ghosts or goblins running amok. The low-budget horror darling is leaving all the scary stuff behind for his western, providing him with brand new genre conventions to play with. The most obvious twist here is that the valley has some weird humor mixed in with its deadly reputation, which just might slow down the adversaries played by Ethan Hawke and John Travolta.
When a man exposes government programs that sound more like conspiracy theories than reality, you can bet that someone will make a movie about it. It only took three years for the story of NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden to hit theaters, but that doesn’t mean that it was easy to do. Co-writer and director Oliver Stone has spoken very publicly about the struggle to get financing for Snowden, which he claims was turned down by every major studio in Hollywood.
The Space Between Us is the classic boy meets girl story, except the boy and girl are on different planets and the boy doesn’t know who his father is. It’s science fiction, romance, mystery, and medical drama all rolled up into one hopefully neat package. Admit it, if the film can pull off all these threads, it’ll be a pretty great movie.
I suppose the title A Monster Calls has a double meaning. It certainly refers to the tree-like monster that appears to young Connor, but it could also refer to the monstrous situation before him: the impending death of his mother.
Film Inquiry publishes a list of the movies that are opening in cinemas every Tuesday. Opening this week: Star Trek Beyond, Ice Age:
Whistling in on a plaintive melody is La La Land, a musical so out of left field that it needs a gentle introduction for you to acclimate to. And so LA wipes in, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling make their entrances, and it’s not until the trailer is over that you realize how far you’ve gone. Sure, it’s just a teaser, but it’s transportive in a way that cuts through the cliché of that word.