This is a nifty indie weekend with a busier and higher profile limited release schedule than we’ve seen in some time. The Ballad of Wallis Island, The Friend, Grand Tour, Viet And Nam, Holy Cow and documentaries The Encampments, which is super timely, and Secret Mall Apartment are peppering theaters in major markets.
Many have festival imprimaturs from Cannes on down and great Rotten Tomatoes critics scores. In moderate release, Sony Pictures Classics is out with Steve Coogan in The Penguin Lessons.
Limited openings: Watermelon Pictures debuts Macklemore-produced The Encampments at the Angelika, which has been adding shows, and the doc looks like it’s heading to a super opening of $70+k at one location. The distributor moved up the release date given the timeliness of the film, which follows students at Columbia University who launched a movement protesting the war in Gaza. It features detained student activist Mahmoud Khalil who has been in the headlines for weeks.
“The Encampments takes viewers inside America’s student uprising with incredible intimacy and urgency. Professors, whistleblowers, and student activists shed light on a moment that captivated the nation’s attention and continues to make headlines today,” reads the synopsis.
Heavy hitter Focus Features presents comedy-drama The Ballad of Wallis Island by James Griffiths starring Carey Mulligan at four locations in New York and Los Angeles ahead of further expansions over the next three weeks. Played well at Sundance when it premiered and at SXSW as well. Also stars Tom Basden, Tim Key, Akemnji Ndifornyen and Sian Clifford. Written by Basden and Key.
Follows Charles (Key), an eccentric lottery winner who lives alone on a remote island and dreams of getting his favorite musicians, McGwyer Mortimer (Mulligan & Basden) back together. His fantasy turns into reality when the bandmates and former lovers accept his invitation to play a private show at his home on Wallis Island. Old tensions resurface as Charles tries desperately to salvage his dream gig.
Bleecker Street presents The Friend starring Naomi Watts and Bill Murray at the Angelika Film Center and AMC Lincoln Square ahead of a nationwide rollout April 4. Directed by Scott McGehee and David Siegel, also stars Ann Dowd, Constance Wu and Bing the Great Dane.
Based on the eponymous 2018 bestselling and National Book Award-winning novel by Sigrid Nunez, the Telluride-premiering film follows writer and teacher Iris (Watts) as she finds her comfortable, solitary New York life thrown into disarray after her closest friend and mentor (Murray) bequeaths her his beloved 150 lb. Great Dane. The regal yet intractable beast, named Apollo, immediately creates practical problems for Iris, from furniture destruction to eviction notices, as well as more existential ones. Yet as Iris finds herself unexpectedly bonding with Apollo, she begins to come to terms with her past, and her own creative inner life in this story of healing, love, and friendship.
Mubi presents Grand Tour by Miguel Gomes, who swept the Best Director Award at Cannes last year, limited at Film at Lincoln Center in New York and LA’s Laemmle Royal before expanding nationwide throughout April.
Gomes’ (Tabu, Arabian Nights) globe-trotting tale of unrequited love is set in 1917 colonial Burma. Edward, a civil servant for the British Empire, jilts his lovestruck fiancée Molly the day she arrives to be married. As he escapes into an unexpected odyssey across Asia, she quickly follows suit amused by his moves. Rendered in stunning black-and-white period visuals interspersed with modern-day documentary footage. Portugal’s Best International Feature Oscar entry.
Louise Courvoisier’s Holy Cow from Kino Lorber and Zeitgeist hits Film Forum in New York. Reveling in his youth in the gorgeous rural Jura region of Eastern France, Totone has few worries and is content to party with his friends as the family dairy business hums along. But when calamity strikes, the under-disciplined 18-year-old finds himself in charge of the farm and his 7-year-old sister. A sun-drenched coming-of-age story cast with non-professionals from Jura (Courvoisier’s home), the film follows Totone’s determination to win a local Comté cheesemaking competition (cash prize: €30,000), while he romantically pursues a competing farmer — whose bullying brothers are none-too-pleased — and clumsily steps up to adult responsibilities. Premiere at Cannes 2024 n the Un Certain Regard section, where it was awarded the festival’s Youth Prize.
Cannes-premiering Viet And Nam from Strand Releasing by Vietnamese director Trương Minh Quý. Synoposis: Nam and Việt, both young miners, cherish fleeting moments, knowing that one of them will soon leave for a new life across the sea. But the departure cannot happen as, lying in a far-off forest is Nam’s father, a soldier, whose remains they’re compelled to find. Together, following the mysteries of memories and dreams, they retrace the path to the past.”
Opens at the IFC Center in New York, Tiff Bell Lightbox Toronto, adding theaters next week including AFI Silver Theatre DC Area, the Gene Siskel in Chicago, Laemmle Glendale, Pacific Cinematheque Vancouver and Film Scene Iowa City.
Documentary Art For Everybody debuts at DCTV Firehouse in New York. The SXSW-premiering Laemmle theaters in LA in April.
You’ve seen his cozy cottages, idyllic gardens, and welcoming village streets on everything from canvas to commemorative plates. Both celebrated and disparaged for his kitschy signature settings, the so-called Painter of Light Thomas Kinkade rocketed to popularity in the ’90s by marketing himself to American evangelicals and pitting himself against the elite art establishment. Yet beneath the pristine public persona were demons that would drive him to alcoholism, scandal, and death from an overdose in 2012. After his passing, Kinkade’s daughters uncovered a trove of unseen, unexpectedly dark paintings, a discovery that launched an investigation into their father’s true personality. Miranda Yousef’s directorial debut. Produced by Morgan Neville and Tim Runnel. Distributed by Fourth Act Film.
In week 2 is Secret Mall Apartment, which debuted at SXSW last year and continues a buzzy run at the Providence Hall Mall where it killed last weekend with $42k at that on location. This weekend adds the IFC Center in NY – Saturday/Sunday Q&As with director Jeremy Workman and producer Jesse Eisenberg are sold out – and going wide across — Rhode Island. Adds LA, San Francisco and Austin next week and continues into new markets through May.
Moderate/wide: Sony Pictures Classics is out with The Penguin Lessons on 1,017 screens. Directed by Peter Cattanei, written by Jeff Pope, it stars Steve Coogan as a disillusioned Englishman who went to work in a school in Argentina in 1976. Expecting an easy ride, Tom discovers a divided nation and a class of unteachable students. However, after he rescues a penguin from an oil-slicked beach, his life is turned upside-down. The TIFF-premiering film is inspired by the true story.