October is here, the season of horror and fall blockbusters and in many cases the first real Oscar contenders of the fall. I'm going to try to catch up with two posts a week for the next couple of weeks (knock on wood).
One Year Ago--October 4, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Joker--1/$96.2 million/$335.5 million/9/68%/59--Arguably the most famous comic book villain (give or take a Lex Luthor), The Joker has been Batman's #1 nemesis since 1940. Having previously been memorably brought to life by Jack Nicholson and Heath Ledger in prior Batman movies, the character gets his own origin story in this gritty drama. Joaquin Phoenix played Arthur, a failed comedian whose shootings of three businessmen who were attacking him starts a class war, just as his grip on sanity begins permanently slipping away. Robert De Niro played a talk show host who makes fun of Arthur, Francis Conroy played Arthur's mother, and Brett Cullin played Thomas Wayne, billionaire mayoral candidate and father of young Bruce. While expected to be a hit, no one was expecting it to be as huge of a smash as it turned out to be, being both the year's highest-grossing R-rated movie and the highest-grossing film that was neither a Disney release nor part of the MCU. And despite a mixed critical reaction (with naysayers negatively comparing it to The King of Comedy, which also starred De Niro), the film led the year's Oscar nominations, earning 11, including for Picture, Director for Todd Phillips (who had previously been primarily known for goofy, low-brow comedies), Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costumes, Makeup, Editing, Sound Mixing, and Sound Editing. It would win two, for Score, and Phoenix for Actor, becoming the second actor (after Ledger) to win an Oscar for playing The Joker.
Director: Todd Phillips
War--9/$1.6 million/$4.7 million/145/69%/NA--This hit action movie, the highest grossing Indian film of the year worldwide, starred Hrithik Roshan as an special forces solder who had gone rogue, being pursued by his protégé (Tiger Shroff). Critics were largely mixed, some praising the action setpieces, others complaining about the thinness of the story.
Director: Siddharth Anand
New Limited Releases:
Pain and Glory--$4.6 million/148/97%/87--Legendary director Pedro Almodovar reunited with one of his favorite actors, Antonio Banderas, in this autobiographical drama. Banderas played an aging director who fears his best days are behind him, as he reminisces about his life and career. In addition to Banderas, Almodovar recruited several actresses who had also starred for him in the past, including Penelope Cruz (who played Banderas's mother in flashbacks), Julieta Serrano, and Cecilla Roth. If Almodovar was worried about losing his touch, this film demonstrated he still had it, as it won widespread acclaim. It would earn two Oscar nominations, for International Film and Best Actor for Banderas, his first career nomination.
Director: Pedro Almodovar
Dolemite is My Name--NA/NA/97%/76--Eddie Murphy, whose career had been floundering since deciding that Norbit would be the perfect follow-up to Dreamgirls, staged yet another career comeback with his starring role in this well-received Netflix comedic biopic of actor-comedian-musician Rudy Ray Moore, who rose to fame first with a comedy album and then with a Blaxploitation kung fu comedy called Dolemite, in which he played the title character. Joining Murphy was a starry cast including Keegan-Michael Key as the film's screenwriter, Wesley Snipes as the director, and Chris Rock, Mike Epps, Craig Robinson, Snoop Dog, and T.I. play supporting roles.
Director: Craig Brewer
Five Years Ago--October 2, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
The Martian--1/$54.3 million/$228.4 million/8/91%/80--For the third fall in a row, Americans flocked to a outer-space set drama. Matt Damon starred as an astronaut who is accidently left behind on Mars when the rest of the team (believing him to be dead) has to emergency evacuate the planet. Left alone, he has to figure out how to survive on a hostile environment while trying to figure out how to communicate back to Earth that he is alive. While largely a showcase for Damon, the film also featured an impressive supporting cast, including Jeff Daniels as the head of NASA, Jessica Chastain as the mission commander, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the head of the mission, Sean Bean as the flight director, Kristin Wiig as the head of NASA publicity, and Donald Glover as an engineer. The film would earn seven Oscar nominations, including Picture, Actor for Damon, Adapted Screenplay, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, Visual Effects, and Production Design, though it would not win any of them. It also broke an extended slump by director Ridley Scott, who hadn't had a critical or commercial hit since American Gangster in 2007.
Director: Ridley Scott
New Limited Releases:
The Walk--$10.1 million/127/83%/70--Only two weeks after Everest had an early release into IMAX theaters ahead of a wide national release, this drama, which like the mountain-climbing film, was based on a true story involving great heights, did the same. However, despite much better reviews, it ended up having considerably more mediocre box office. In 1974, a French street performer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) decides he wants to cross between the twin towers of the World Trade Center on a wire, and, with his team in place (including Ben Kingsley as his mentor) figures out how to do just that. Unlike Scott with The Martian, this broke a long winning streak for director Robert Zemeckis, and marked arguably his first out-and-out box office flop as a director since his very first movie, I Wanna Hold Your Hand in 1978.
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Ten Years Ago--October 1, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
The Social Network--1/$22.5 million/$96.7 million/32/96%/95--In a mere seven years, Facebook went from being an idea of a couple of Harvard undergrads to a multi-billion dollar business, one that made its 26-year-old founder rich and famous and incredibly influential. The growing pains behind the birth of the world's most popular social media platform were chronicled in this drama, which starred Jesse Eisenberg as Mark Zuckerberg, who ironically alienated most of his friends and associates. Among them were Andrew Garfield as Zuckerberg's co-founder, Armie Hammer in a duel role as twins who think Zuckerberg stole their idea, Justin Timberlake as the entrepreneur who helps Facebook become a worldwide phenomenon, Rooney Mara as Zuckerberg's ex-girlfriend, Rashida Jones as Zuckerberg's lawyer, and Dakota Johnson as the Stanford student who first introduces Timberlake to Facebook. The film would receive 8 Oscar nominations, including Picture, Director for David Fincher, Actor for Eisenberg, Cinematography, and Sound Mixing, and would win three, for Aaron Sorkin's Adapted Screenplay, Film Editing, and Original Score.
Director: David Fincher
Case 39--7/$5.4 million/$13.3 million/127/21%/25--This supernatural horror movie, which had been filmed in 2006, and then left on the shelf, finally opened to indifference over a year after opening in the rest of the world. Renee Zellweger played a social worker who agrees to take custody of a troubled young girl (Jodelle Ferland) after her parents attempt to murder her, only to discover that the child might not be so innocent after all. Bradley Cooper played a psychiatrist, and Ian McShane a cop.
Director: Christian Alvart
Let Me In--8/$5.2 million/$12.1 million/128/88%/79--In this little-seen remake of the cult hit Scandinavian vampire movie Let the Right One In, a young boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) befriends the new girl next door (Chloe Grace Moretz, in the second movie of the year, after Kick-Ass, where she kills a sizable portion of the cast), only to gradually realize that she's a vampire responsible for the recent spate of deaths in their neighborhood. This does not bother him. Richard Jenkins played Moretz's companion, who has been with her since he was a child, Elias Koteas played a detective investigating the string of deaths, and a young Dylan Minnette played a bully that frequently picked on Smit-McPhee.
Director: Matt Reeves
Fifteen Years Ago--October 7, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit--1/$16 million/$56.1 million/47/95%/87--The second feature film from Aardman Animation, it was the first (and to date, only) to star the studio's (and director Nick Park's) signature characters, a friendly, though completely oblivious inventor, and his far more intelligent, but silent, dog, whose three 90s shorts had won two Animated Short Oscars (the other one lost to another Nick Park Aardman short). It was also the fall's second family-friendly stop-motion horror-comedy featuring the voice of Helena Bonham Carter. She played a local noble who hires the titular duo to humanly remove the rabbits from her garden ahead of a local fair. However, one of Wallace's inventions goes haywire, creating the titular were-rabbit. Ralph Finnes voiced a a hunter determined to take down the were-rabbit, while also scheming to get Carter's money. Critics were delighted by the film, though its box office was probably limited by Corpse Bride, as there was likely not a huge audience for family-friendly stop-motion horror comedies to begin with. It would beat the Bride for Animated Feature at the Oscars.
Director: Steve Box and Nick Park
In Her Shoes--3/$10 million/$32.9 million/81/75%/60--This dramady, a change of pace for director Curtis Hanson, starred Cameron Diaz as an immature freeloader who eventually alienates her older sister (Toni Collette). When Diaz discovers the existence of their long-lost grandmother (Shirley MacLaine), she moves in with her in Florida, where she finally begins to grow up. Meanwhile, Collette decides she's dissatisfied with her life as well, and starts making changes herself. The film was well-received by critics, but was largely ignored by audiences, as it proved to be a disappointment.
Director: Curtis Hanson
Two for the Money-4/$8.7 million/$23 million/107/22%/50--This poorly received drama starred Matthew McConaughey as a former college football player-turned-sports handicapper, whose skill impresses the head of a business catering to sports gamblers (Al Pacino), and soon their partnership proves very lucrative. But then, as things always must in movies like this, things fall apart. Rene Russo played Pacino's wife, Jeremy Piven played another handicapper jealous of McConaughey's success, and Armand Assante played a very rich client. Gamblers who bet on movie performances would have done well in taking the under on how much a Pacino/McConaughey match-up would make.
Director: D.J. Caruso
The Gospel--5/$7.5 million/$15.8 million/131/32%/46--This drama, catering to the underserved African-American Christian community, starred Boris Kodjoe as a successful R&B singer who had turned his back on his father, a pastor. Upon learning that his dad was dying, Kodjoe comes home and finds himself wanting to reject his secular lifestyle and succeed his father, much to the annoyance of his dad's protégé (Idris Elba, in his first major role since achieving American success with The Wire). This retelling of the parable of the Prodigal Son burned out fast, but proved to be profitable.
Director: Rob Hardy
Waiting...--7/$6 million/$16.1 million/130/30%/30--This low-brow comedy about the aimless staff of a mediocre chain restaurant probably has a much better cast than it deserves. Justin Long starred as a longtime waiter at the restaurant who begins to despair the direction his life is going. Ryan Reynolds played his best friend, who was fine with being a restaurant lifer, Anna Faris played a waitress who is Reynolds's ex-girlfriend, while other restaurant employees were played by David Koechner, Luis Guzman, Chi McBride, John Francis Daley, and Dane Cook. While the film was critically reviled, and wasn't a big hit, it was low-budged enough that it turned a profit. A straight-to-video sequel came out in 2009.
Director: Rob McKittrick
New Limited Releases:
Good Night, and Good Luck--$31.6 million/89/93%/80--George Clooney's second film as a director starred longtime character actor David Strathairn as groundbreaking broadcast journalist Edward R. Murrow, whose decision to go after Senator Joseph McCarthy, who was leading the witch hunt for anyone suspected of being a Communist, would bring both high acclaim and professional setbacks. Clooney recruited an all-star cast, including Jeff Daniels as the head of CBS News, Robert Downey, Jr. and Patricia Clarkson as secretly married journalists, Frank Langella as the CEO of CBS, and Clooney himself as Murrow's longtime producer. The drama, released in black and white, proved to be a major critical success and did quite well box office wise as well. It would receive six Oscar nominations, including Picture, Director for Clooney, Actor of Strathairn, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, and Art Direction.
Director: George Clooney
The Squid and the Whale--$7.4 million/155/92%/82--When their parents (Laura Linney and Jeff Daniels, in his second limited release of the weekend) get divorced, a teenager (Jessie Eisenberg) and his pre-teen brother find their lives turned upside down. This escalates as both his parents start dating rather inappropriate people, her a tennis coach (William Baldwin) and him a college student (Anna Paquin). While writer-director Noah Baumbach had had some success a decade prior with his comedy Kicking and Screaming (not to be confused with the Will Ferrell soccer comedy), this semi-autobiographical dark comedy would prove to be his true breakthrough. The film would be nominated for its Original Screenplay.
Director: Noah Baumbach
Twenty Years Ago--October 6, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Meet the Parents--1/$28.3 million/$166.2 million/7/84%/73--Given what has followed, it might not have been a wise idea to make both this and 1999's Analyze This big hits. Like in the previous year's film, noted comedian Robert De Niro sends up his own dramatic persona, this time playing the impossibly stern father of Teri Polo, who has bought her boyfriend (Ben Stiller) home to meet him and her mother (Blythe Danner). Unfortunately, the nervous Stiller immediately gets on the wrong side of De Niro, a former CIA agent, and every attempt that he makes to correct what's already gone wrong during the long weekend only seems to make things worse. Both critics and audiences responded positively to the film, which became the biggest hit of the pre-holiday fall and would spawn two sequels, 2004's Meet the Fockers and 2010's Little Fockers (they oh so loved Stiller's character's last name). De Niro also went on to star in numerous comedies, most of which were much worse than this one. Stiller's longtime friend Owen Wilson had a supporting role as Polo's ex-fiancée, who De Niro still liked very much, and Tom McCarthy, three years before making his directorial debut with The Station Agent, played the fiancée of Polo's sister. The film received an Oscar nomination for the Randy Newman-written Original Song, "A Fool in Love".
Director: Jay Roach.
Get Carter--3/$6.6 million/$15 million/118/11%/24--The 1971 British crime flick Get Carter, starring Michael Caine, didn't get much notice when it was initially released, but over time became a cult hit. This remake, in which Caine played a supporting role, was refashioned into a vehicle for Sylvester Stallone. He played a mob hitman who travels to his hometown to investigate the mysterious death of his brother, and naturally uncovers a massive conspiracy. Caine played a loan shark who might know more than he is letting on, Rachel Leigh Cook played Stallone's niece, Miranda Richardson his widowed sister-in-law, Alan Cumming a computer expert, and Mickey Rourke as the local mob boss. Both critics and audiences decided they were better off sticking with the original.
Director: Stephen Kay
Digimon: The Movie--5/$4.2 million/$9.6 million/135/24%/20--Even though it appears to involve young kids staging elaborate battles using animal-like creatures as surrogates, Digimon is not Pokemon. I can't even tell if Digimon was intended to be an out-and-out rip-off of Pokemon, or if the two concepts developed independently of each other. What I can tell is that the reason that Digimon: The Movie got a U.S. theatrical release in the fall of 2000 is because Pokemon: The First Movie made over $85 million at the U.S. box office the previous fall. The U.S. version stitched together three short films made for the Japanese market, which involved a corrupted Digimon attempting to start World War III. The third-string critics assigned to review this mostly panned the film, and relatively few Digimon fans showed up to see this on the big screen.
Director: Mamoru Hosoda and Shigeyasu Yamauchi
New Limited Releases:
Requiem for a Dream--$3.6 million/160/79%/68--For his follow-up to his breakthrough art-house hit Pi, director Darren Aronofsky chose this harrowing look at how drug addiction destroys four lives. Jared Leto and girlfriend Jennifer Connelly traffic heroin in order to raise enough money to get Connelly's fashions into stores, but, along with their friend Marlon Waynes, become hooked themselves. Meanwhile, Leto's widowed mother (Ellen Burstyn) gets hooked on diet pills while trying to lose weight for what she believes will be an upcoming TV appearance. Despite the horrific and depressing imagery, critics liked the film, and it became an art-house hit. Burstyn in particular was singled out for praise, and she would receive a Best Actress nomination at the Oscars.
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Twenty-Five Years Ago--October 6, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Se7en--$10.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Assassins--2/$9.4 million/$30.3 million/59/16%/NA--This disposable thriller starred Sylvester Stallone as a professional hitman who is targeted by an up-and-comer (Antonio Bandaras) who wants to be the #1 contract killer (there are rankings?). The two are separately hired to take out a computer hacker (Julianne Moore) who has a MacGuffin on a floppy disk, but Stallone falls in love with her instead and decides to protect her from Bandaras. Critics scoffed at the thriller (the first produced screenplay for the then-Wachowski Brothers, though both have disowned it), and audiences were mostly indifferent.
Director: Richard Donner
Dead Presidents--3/$7.9 million/$24.1 million/69/44%/NA--In this downbeat heist thriller, a Vietnam vet in 1973 (Larenz Tate) who can't find a job decides to recruit several of his friends and fellow vets, including Chris Tucker and Freddy Rodriguez, to rob an armored truck, only to have everything go wrong. The follow-up film by the Hughes Brothers to their highly acclaimed 1993 drama Menace II Society, this one got decidedly worse reviews. Terrance Howard makes an early appearance as a friend of Tate's, and there is a cameo by Martin Sheen.
Director: The Hughes Brothers (Albert & Allen)
How to Make an American Quilt--5/$5.8 million/$23.6 million/72/61%/NA--Another fall 1995 drama focusing on a large female ensemble, this one starred Winona Ryder as a grad student who, while deciding whether to accept her boyfriend's (Dermot Mulroney) marriage proposal, stays with her grandmother (Ellen Burstyn). There, she is regaled by the members of the local quilting circle (including Anne Bancroft, Lois Smith, Jean Simmons, Kate Nelligan, Maya Angelou, and Alfre Woodward) with stories of their own lives to help Ryder make a decision. Claire Danes, Samantha Mathis, Rip Torn, Richard Jenkins, and Jared Leto appear in the flashbacks as younger versions of the characters or as the men in their lives. Critics liked the film OK, but despite the strong ensemble, it didn't find much traction at the box office.
New Limited Releases:
Strange Days--$8 million/126/62%/66--At the very end of the far-off year of 1999, riots are erupting all over L.A., and the hottest new drug is mini-CD-ROMs that allow the user to experience the sensations of the disc's recorder. When dealer Ralph Fiennes come into possession of one that appears to show the brutal murder of a hooker, he finds himself being chased by numerous interested parties. This sci-fi epic got solid reviews, but audiences completely rejected it, making it one of the biggest flops of the year. Angela Bassett played Fiennes's friend who gets drawn into the action, Juliette Lewis was Fiennes's ex, who knew the victim, Tom Sizemore as another friend of Fiennes, and Vincent D'Onofrio and William Fichtner played corrupt cops. Kathryn Bigelow directed the script by her ex-husband, James Cameron.
Director: Kathryn Bigelow
Expanding:
To Die For--4/$6.2 million
Thirty Years Ago--October 5, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Marked for Death--1/$11.8 million/$46 million/27/20%/49--Steven Seagal continued his habit of only making moves with three-word titles with this actioner, in which he plays a retired DEA agent who has to come back when he is targeted by a ridiculously powerful Jamaican drug cartel. Keith David played Seagal's former army buddy, and Danny Trejo had a minor role. Despite awful reviews, this did about as much business as Hard to Kill had done in the spring (and what the infinitely superior Goodfellas was doing in the next auditorium over), showing that Seagal was a legitimate action star.
Director: Dwight H. Little
Fantasia--2/$6.1 million/$25.4 million/49/95%/96--Disney gave its classical music masterpiece a 50th anniversary re-release, after spending two years meticulously restoring it using the original negative. In addition, the studio required theaters showing the film to install special sound equipment. The result was perhaps the best the film had ever looked or sounded. Removed from the counterculture days of its late 60s re-release, this wasn't a major hit (the summer re-release of The Jungle Book did nearly twice as much business), but for a film that might confuse kids as much as entertain them, it was a solid performer. This is, to date, the film's final theatrical re-release. A sequel would follow in 2000.
Director: Uncredited (James Algar ("The Sorcerer's Apprentice"), Samuel Armstrong ("Toccata and Fugue in D Minor" and "The Nutcracker Suite"), Ford Beebe ("The Pastoral Symphony"), Norm Ferguson ("Dance of the Hours"), David Hand ("Meet the Soundtrack"), Jim Handley ("The Pastoral Symphony"), T. Hee ("Dance of the Hours"), Wilfred Jackson ("Night on Bald Mountain"), Hamilton Luske ("The Pastoral Symphony"), Bill Roberts ("Rite of Spring"), Paul Satterfield ("Rite of Spring"), and Ben Sharpsteen ("Meet the Soundtrack"))
Desperate Hours--9/$1.4 million/$2.7 million/139/36%/NA--Mickey Rourke was very much on his way down in 1990, while Anthony Hopkins was mere months away from the role that would become his most famous and revitalize his career (not to mention win him an Oscar). The two trajectories met in this remake of the 1955 Humphrey Bogart vehicle, in which Rourke played an escaped psychopath who takes Hopkins and his seemingly wholesome family (including wife Mimi Rogers) hostage. The drama was well-cast, with David Morse and Elias Koteas playing the other members of Rourke's gang, Kelly Lynch Rourke's lawyer and accomplice, and Lindsey Crouse as an FBI agent. Despite that, audiences ignored the film. This essentially ended the career of director Michael Cimino (working with Rourke for the third time), who would only direct one independent film in 1996 afterward.
Director: Michael Cimino
New Limited Releases:
Henry & June--$11.6 million/91/62%/NA--From the time the X rating became synonymous with porn in the mid-70s, filmmakers and critics insisted on an adults-only rating that would not immediately bring to mind Debbie Does Dallas. The MPAA finally granted that wish in 1990, creating the NC-17 and bestowing it for the first time on Henry & June, a biopic about controversial author Henry Miller (Fred Ward), his wife, June (Uma Thurman), and their relationship with bisexual writer Anais Nin (Maria de Medeiros), who ultimately helped Miller finish his most well-known book, Tropic of Cancer. Richard E. Grant played Nin's husband, and Kevin Spacey played a friend of Miller's. Critics who had praised director Phillip Kaufman's previous two films, The Right Stuff and The Unbearable Lightness of Being, were much cooler toward this one, and while it did OK business, it certainly didn't break out. Its Cinematography would be Oscar-nominated. As for the NC-17, hopes that it would be a more respectable alternative to the X were dashed when many theater chains announced that they wouldn't run movies with that rating and studios continued to require filmmakers to deliver R-rated cuts.
Director: Phillip Kaufman
Avalon--$15.7 million/76/85%/NA--After the huge successes of Good Morning, Vietnam and Rain Man, director Barry Levinson, who had previously chronicled life in 50s/60s Baltimore in Diner and Tin Men, returned to the era and the city with the semi-autobiographical Avalon. Armin Mueller-Stahl and Joan Plowright played Polish immigrants who don't understand the changing ways of the early 1950s, as their son Aiden Quinn tries to establish his own fortune. Elizabeth Perkins played Quinn's wife, Kevin Pollock his cousin and business partner, and Elijah Wood had his first major role as Quinn's young son. Critics loved the film, though audiences didn't really show up. It would be nominated for four Oscars, for Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Costumes, and Score.
Director: Barry Levinson
Thirty-Five Years Ago--October 4, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Commando--1/$7.7 million/$35.1 million/25/71%/51--Worries that the success of Conan the Barbarian or The Terminator were flukes were largely erased with the success of this film, a cartoonish action flick in which Arnold Schwarzenegger played a former special forces officer whose young daughter (Alyssa Milano) is kidnapped by the former dictator (Dan Hedaya) of a third-world South American country in order to force Schwarzenegger to assassinate his political rivals. Instead, he escapes and decides to just kill everyone standing in between him and his child. Rae Dawn Chong played a stewardess who Schwarzenegger essentially kidnaps himself, before becoming an enthusiastic participant in his quest. At the time, critics scoffed at the ridiculousness, but the film was a moderate hit, and it is today regarded as a cult classic and one of Schwarzenegger's best of the 80s.
Director: Mark L. Lester
Jagged Edge--2/$4.1 million/$40.5 million/22/81%/60--Glenn Close, whose first attempt at a leading role in the ghost comedy Maxie had crashed and burned, bounced back very quickly--like the next week quickly--in this hit thriller. She played an attorney hired to defend a wealthy newspaper publisher (Jeff Bridges) who is accused of murdering his wife. Against her better judgement, she falls for him, only to realize that he might be guilty of the murder after all. Robert Loggia played the private detective Close hired for the case, and Peter Coyote played the District Attorney, with whom Close has a contentious history. Loggia would be nominated for Supporting Actor at the Oscars.
Director: Richard Marquand
New Limited Releases:
Sweet Dreams--$9.1 million/90/90%/65--5 years after legendary country music singer Patsy Cline was a prominent supporting character (played by Beverly D'Angelo) in the Loretta Lynn biopic Coal Miner's Daughter, she got her own biopic, in which she's played by Jessica Lange. Trapped in an unhappy marriage, Cline meets the exciting Ed Harris, and eventually divorces her first husband and marries him. However, as she becomes more successful on the country music scene, he proves to be anything but supportive. John Goodman had a small role as one of Harris's friends. Unlike Daughter, which was one of the biggest hits of 1980, Dreams fizzled at the box office, despite strong reviews. Lange, who lip-synced to the real Cline's recordings, would be Oscar nominated for Best Actress.
Director: Karel Reisz
Colonel Redl--$0.002 million/180/NA/NA--This Hungarian drama told the (fictionalized) story of Alfred Redl (Klaus Maria Brandauer, who would earn an Oscar nomination that year for Out of Africa), whose hopes of rising through the ranks of the Austrian military in the late 19th and early 20th century depended on him suppressing both his poor background and his homosexuality, neither of which he was completely able to do. Armin Mueller-Stahl played the Archduke Franz Ferdinand--yes, that Archduke Franz Ferdinand. It seems unlikely that this film made only a bit more than $2,000 in American theaters, but information as how it actually did is unavailable. The film would be nominated for Foreign Language Film at the Oscars.
Director: Istvan Szabo
Expanding:
Plenty--8/$0.8 million
Forty Years Ago--October 3, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Coast to Coast--$4.5 million/84/NA/NA--Robert Blake is no one's idea of a romantic comedy leading man, with the notable exception of Robert Blake, who eagerly signed on to this film, playing a broke truck driver who discovers that a wealthy escaped mental patient (Dyan Cannon) has snuck aboard his big rig. Of course, she's not actually crazy, but merely a Manic Pixie Dream Girl who was committed by her husband so she wouldn't clean him out in the divorce. Together, despite their mutual dislike, they head from New York to California, trying to outrun her husband's henchmen and the repo agent trying to take Blake's truck. Future Oscar nominee Michael Lerner played one of Cannon's shrinks. This comedy owed a big debt to Smokey and the Bandit, and with Bandit II still in theaters, audiences preferred the genuine article.
Director: Joseph Sargent
Oh, God! Book II--$14.5 million/51/50%/35--George Burns continued his unexpected late-in-life movie stardom with this sequel to his biggest hit, in which he played the Almighty. Unfortunately, he was the only person returning from the first film, as Burns recruits a young girl (Louanne Sirota, billed by just her first name) to help Him spread His word. Naturally, her parents (Suzanne Pleshette and David Birney) think she's going crazy. Critics, who had mostly liked the first film, were much less impressed with this one, and it ended up making less than half of it at the box office. Nevertheless, a third film, Oh God! You Devil, with Burns playing both roles, came out in 1984.
Director: Gilbert Cates
Somewhere in Time--$9.7 million/63/61%/29--In his first film since shooting to stardom in Superman, Christopher Reeve played a playwright in 1980 who becomes obsessed with a picture of an actress (Jane Seymour) taken in 1912. Discovering that he can will himself back in time, he is able to succeed, and the two fall in love, but complications, from the time travel and other sources, threaten to rip them apart. Christopher Plummer played Seymour's manager and an unknown William H. Macy, in only his second film, briefly appears in an early scene. Critics at the time were fairly cool toward the movie, and audiences made it clear they'd prefer Reeve flying around in blue tights, but its reputation has grown over the years. The Costumes would be Oscar-nominated.
Director: Jeannot Szwarc
Terror Train--NA/NA/36%/NA--Yet another slasher film, this one, as the title suggests, takes place during a costume party aboard a train on New Year's Eve, where a killer is stalking various fraternity and sorority members, perhaps in revenge for a prank that had gone very wrong a few years before. Patron saint of the genre Jamie Lee Curtis (in her third horror movie and second slasher film of the year, after The Fog and Prom Night), played one of the participants of the original prank who realizes who may be behind the mayhem, Ben Johnson played the train's conductor, who, unlike many authority figures in movies like this, is fully aware of what's going on, and magician David Copperfield played a magician. Critics, who had already sat through Friday the 13th and Prom Night and He Knows You're Alone and several others in the last few months, weren't in the mood to cut the film some slack, and audiences largely ignored this train ride. This marked the directorial debut of journeyman director Roger Spottiswoode.
Director: Roger Spottiswoode
New Limited Releases:
The Elephant Man--$26 million/25/92%/78--After making his feature film debut with the bizarre Eraserhead, director David Lynch moved right into the mainstream (or at least as mainstream as his movies could be) with this highly acclaimed adaption of the Broadway smash about John Merrick (John Hurt), who was born with severe facial and bodily deformities, who was kept as a circus freak. Rescued by a kindly doctor (Anthony Hopkins), he takes up residence at his hospital, where he is revealed to have above-average intelligence. While many treat him with kindness and respect, others continue to treat him as a freak show attraction, making Hopkins question his own motives. Wendy Hiller played the hospital's head nurse, John Gielgud played the head of the hospital who is won over by Merrick, and Anne Bancroft (whose husband, Mel Brooks, was an uncredited producer on the film) played an actress who befriends him, and future Rocketman director Dexter Fletcher, then 14, played a circus worker. Shot in black and white, the film became a surprise hit, and would earn eight Oscar nominations, including Picture, Actor for Hurt, Director for Lynch, Adapted Screenplay, Art Direction, Costumes, Editing, and Score. When the Academy chose not to honor the film's makeup effects with a special award, the outcry led them to create the Makeup Oscar, which began to be presented the next year.
Director: David Lynch
Stardust Memories--$10.4 million/60/68%/NA--Woody Allen aped Fellini in this black-and-white dramady, in which he played a filmmaker whose works have turned more serious, though fans were wanting him to return to comedies (Allen swore this wasn't autobiographical). While attending a film festival, he thinks back to the women in his life and their influence on him, including his ex Charlotte Rampling, while also trying to decide between Jessica Harper and Marie-Christine Barrault. Tony Roberts more or less reprises his role from Annie Hall as Allen's best friend, Daniel Stern appeared early in his career as an actor, Sharon Stone made her film debut, appearing briefly, if prominently, in the opening scene as a woman who catches Allen's eye, future Star Trek: The Next Generation star Brent Spiner made his film debut as a fan, and there were cameos by Lorranie Newman and Allen's ex-wife Louise Lasser. While the film's reputation has grown, at the time, it was considered by critics to be a letdown, and the box-office was roughly a fourth of what Manhattan had earned the year before (though it was largely in line with how most of Allen's films would do throughout the 80s).
Director: Woody Allen
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