Sam Taylor-Wood’s “Nowhere Boy,” the young John Lennon, biopic, has had a rough go of things.
The film stars the very respectable cast of Aaron Johnson, Thomas Brodie Sangster, Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott Thomas. The Weinstein Company snatched up distribution to it just as it was commencing shooting in the spring of 2009, but the film wasn’t unveiled until last year at the London Film Festival, where critics pummeled it. To wit: our generally amiable and measured U.K. writer doesn’t usually trash films and if he has to, does so with that classic English politeness, with which he described the film as an “abject failure” that was riddled with painful cliches. Youch.
The film is arriving in theaters on October 8, 2010 (announced earlier this year), coinciding with that weekend’s celebrations of the 70th anniversary of Lennon’s birth (October 9, 1940), however a press release we just received tells us the film will be debuting at Film Forum in New York.
No disrespect to that amazing film house, but it’s a repertory theater for classic films and generally, the type of new releases they debut tend to be very small and limited. Great films, mind you, like Claire Denis’ “35 Shots of Rum,” which we put near the top of our Best of 2009 list, but not exactly commercial endeavors and certainly not films released by a relatively big company like the Weinstein Company and based on the life of a Beatle.
Frankly, what felt like a major release like this, never debuts at Film Forum. Limited release films will start at the Angelika, BAM or the Landmark Sunshine Cinema, but it’s practically unheard of for a film such as this to open at Film Forum. Its an odd move and one we also flag because of TWC’s money issues. Their first major release this year was “Piranha 3D” and “”Youth In Revolt” doesn’t count because it was scheduled to come out in 2009 (yes, TWC released “The Tillman Story” and “The Concert,” but even those two small films started at bigger theaters! The latter film is playing where “Inception” is playing if that gives you some kind of indication). Something smells amiss here for sure. Is it really that bad?