“Unicorn Store”
Director: Brie Larson (“Room”, “Short Term 12”)
Cast: Brie Larson, Samuel L. Jackson, Joan Cusack
Synopsis: A woman named Kit receives a mysterious invitation that would fulfill her childhood dreams.
Verdict: Having been long time fans of the winsome Brie Larson who wowed us with her turns in the exceptional “Short Term 12” and “Room,” which landed her first Oscar win, we were expectedly curious about how her first turn in the director’s chair would go. Actors turned directors have a mixed history, from the catastrophe that was Ryan Gosling’s “Lost River” or any of John Krasinski’s irritating outputs, to successes such as Angelina Jolie’s “First They Killed My Father.” Larson, for what it’s worth, fell somewhere in the middle with a film that didn’t completely win us over but did leave us still supportive of her taking on the director role once more. The film may not have ultimately “hanged together,” but the bright spots hinted to a promising future. Centering on a woman in the throes of arrested development, the result was something whimsical, if also a touch too affected. Regardless of what we started as tonal inconsistencies, the film did showcase some delightful and engaging turns from the extended supporting cast as well as the assurance of the talented star behind the camera.
Our Review: Kevin gave it a C+ at Toronto
Release Date: There’s no distributor for this film yet, but here’s hoping somebody steps up.
“Golden Exits”
Director: Alex Ross Perry
Cast: Emily Browning, Adam Horovitz, Mary-Louise Parker, Lily Rabe, Jason Schwartzman, Chloë Sevigny, and Analeigh Tipton
Synopsis: An intersectional narrative of two families in Brooklyn and the unraveling of unspoken unhappiness that occurs when a young foreign girl spending time abroad upsets the balance on both sides.
Verdict: It’s a big ensemble, Woody Allen/Noah Baumbach-esque piece about relationships in Brooklyn and the shifty men who are never quite happy with what they have. What’s interesting about it is its minor key. Perry is really known for caustic characters and scenarios, but this one seemingly has a lot of compassion for its variously flawed characters. It’s low on plot and a little aimless, but it’s easy to become engrossed by the authentic-feeling, lived-in characters.
Our Review: Noel Murray didn’t exactly love it and gave it a C- out of Sundance last year. I can’t really blame him, but I personally thought it was really involving, warts and all, and with no review to like to, you’ll just have to trust me on that.
Release Date: Vertical Entertainment & Stage 6 will release the film February 9th in New York and it goes limited and on digital channels, February 16
“First Reformed”
Director: Paul Schrader
Cast: Ethan Hawke, Amanda Seyfried, Cedric the Entertainer
Synopsis: Wracked with grief over the death of his son, a former military chaplain turned priest begins to lose faith. His life is further complicated when a vulnerable, pregnant woman and her troubled, radical environmentalist husband come to him for counseling.
Verdict: Paul Schrader‘s had such patchy career of extreme highs and lows (and boy it’s been bad in recent years), but he comes back with a furious vengeance in what might be his ultimate manifesto. It’s “almost a statement of intent: not only is ‘First Reformed’ a cinematic return to form, but a career-defining homecoming centered on a troubled clergyman with a load of bad ideas swirling around his head, delivered in a stark model of rigorous camerawork and observationally distant ascetic tendencies.”
Our Review: I gave it a B+ out of Venice, and it would have been an A- if it weren’t for one unfortunately poor CGI scene.
Release Date: A24 acquired the North American rights to the film already and presumably we’ll see it in the spring.
“Western”
Director: Valeska Grisebach
Cast: Meinhard Neumann. Reinhardt Wetrek, Syuleyman Alilov Letifov
Synopsis: Cultural difference, masculine bravado and national pride lead to high tensions in a drama group of German construction workers laboring in the Bulgarian countryside.
Verdict: Our TIFF review said “Western” takes up the “thematic resonance of John Wayne’s Ethan Edwards, immortalized in the doorframe that separates society and the frontier. For those reading the film through a genre lens, it’s a satisfying note to end on.”
Our Review: A solid B from Bradley Warren out of TIFF.
Release Date: February 16th via The Cinema Guild.
“Death Of Stalin”
Director: Armando Iannucci
Cast: An all star troupe starring Steve Buscemi, Simon Russell Beale, Paddy Considine, Rupert Friend, Jason Isaacs, Michael Palin, Andrea Riseborough, Jeffrey Tambor
Synopsis: Chronicling the Soviet power struggles precipitated by the death of dictator Joseph Stalin in 1953.
Verdict: Writer/director Armando Iannucci — “Veep,” “The Thick Of It,” and “In The Loop” — loves himself some rife, relevant political satire and he chews this one up with aplomb once again. Our review wrote, “Iannucci has always been sharply observant of the complex motivations that fuel political behavior and he doesn’t miss a beat here.”
Our Review: Kevin Jagernauth gave it a B+ from the Toronto International Film Festival
Release Date: March 9th via IFC Films
“Zama”
Director: Lucrecia Martel (“The Headless Woman”, “The Holy War”)
Cast: Daniel Giménez Cacho, Matheus Nachtergaele , Lola Dueñas
Synopsis: In the 18th century, a highly-placed servant of the Spanish crown obsessed with petty grudges and fantasies plots his transfer to Buenos Aires.
Verdict: While it may have failed to make the cut of the 2018 Oscar shortlist for the foreign films category, director Lucrecia Martel has created a film of immense poeticism and tragedy, leaving us gutted. As our critic said, it’s a difficult film, but if you are able to overcome the visceral imagery of pain and the worst human nature has to offer, there’s something morbidly beautiful at its core. Purposefully placed, pleurisy without being stagnant, it allows the audience ample time to digest the visuals and storyline. Literary by nature, with our reviewer stating that there is some Quixote present in the makeup, the film is a gorgeously rendered ride. It is summed up perfectly in the review by Jessica Kiang who said, “ ‘Zama’ is neither of the past nor of the present, but belongs to some half-lit eternity instead… “
Our Review: Jessia gave it a B+ at Venice
Release Date: April 18th via Strand Releasing
