Another busy weekend at the movies is upon us, with three new wide releases and a handful of prestige Oscar hopefuls making their nationwide expansions.
Opening in the highest number of theatres is 12 Strong, a war drama about the U.S. “horse soldiers” sent to fight in Afghanistan immediately following the September 11 attacks. This appears to me to be a film that colours very much inside the lines — though I am intrigued by the fact that this is the directorial debut of Nicolai Fuglsig, a Danish war photojournalist making his transition to cinema; his fascinating background might make this a more special experience than a typical war movie produced by the Hollywood machine tends to be. Then again, early reviews are very mixed, so who knows? The film does boast an intriguing cast, however — Chris Hemsworth is boring when he’s not doing comedy, but he shares the screen here with the great Michael Shannon, Michael Peña, and Trevante Rhodes (Moonlight).
Also arriving in theatres this weekend is Den of Thieves, a heist action-thriller starring Gerard Butler and 50 Cent abou — and I’ve already dozed off. Seriously, don’t they make three or four versions of this film every year? Also starring the erstwhile “Pornstache” Pablo Schreiber and O’Shea Jackson Jr. (who was so great playing his dad Ice Cube in Straight Outta Compton), this film is the directorial debut of screenwriter Christian Gudegast (London Has Fallen, A Man Apart) — who, interestingly, is the real-life of soap opera star Eric Braeden (the iconic Victor Newman on The Young and the Restless). Early reviews are unsurprisingly rather negative.
The final new wide release this week is Forever My Girl, a romantic drama about a famous country singer (Alex Roe, Rings) who returns to his hometown for a funeral and encounters his ex-fiancé (Jessica Rothe, Happy Death Day), whom he’d abandoned at the altar years earlier in pursuit of stardom. You probably already know if this is a film for you; writer-director Bethany Ashton Wolf is clearly going after the Nicholas Sparks demographic with this one. Reviews have been atrocious, but that probably won’t matter for its target audience.
Opening in limited release this weekend are Mary and the Witch’s Flower, a Japanese animated film from the brand-new production company Studio Ponoc, an off-shoot of the now-defunct Studio Ghibli and A Ciambra, an Italian drama that premiered last year at Cannes.
The biggest developments this weekend, though, are the wide expansions of three awards-season titles hoping to find new nationwide audiences — Phantom Thread, the latest Paul Thomas Anderson film starring Daniel Day-Lewis as a fashion designer in 1950s London; Call Me by Your Name, the indie drama about same-sex first love in the Italian countryside starring Timothée Chalamet and Armie Hammer, which is finally going wide over two months after it was first released back in November; and I, Tonya, starring Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding, which is getting massive buzz and winning many awards for co-star Allison Janney.
All in all, there is no shortage of good films out there. What are you planning to see this weekend?
