The second weekend of October, even when they were three-day weekends, rarely produced blockbusters. Indeed, this seems to be an excellent weekend to release films that end up being financial and critical disappointments, though a few Oscar films abound. Except the next entry early next week as we attempt to get caught back up.
One Year Ago--October 11, 2019:
#1 Movie:
Joker--$55.9 million
New Wide Releases:
The Addams Family--2/$30.3 million/$100 million/31/44%/46--Easily the longest-running media franchise that originated as single panel cartoons in a literary magazine, this latest animated incarnation of everyone's favorite creepy and kooky family sees Gomez and Morticia (Oscar Isaac and Charlize Theron) trying to defend their way of life from an obnoxious home makeover host (Allison Janney) who is determine the gentrify the family right out of town. The movie attracted an impressive cast, including Chloe Grace Moretz as Wednesday, Better Midler as Grandma Addams, Snoop Dogg as Cousin It, and Martin Short and Catherine O'Hara s Morticia's parents. Critics were underwhelmed by the latest adventure of the mysterious, spooky, and altogether ooky clan, but audiences turned it into a Halloween season hit. A sequel is scheduled for release next October.
Director: Greg Tiernan and Conrad Vernon
Gemini Man--3/$20.6 million/$48.6 million/58/26%/38--Appropriate for a movie with this title, director Ang Lee used two different cutting edge technologies for this film. Like his previous film, 2016's Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, Lee shot this at 120 frames per second, five times that of most movies. This was also one of two fall films that made extensive use of digital de-aging technology, all in pursuit of a rather standard storyline. Government assassin Will Smith is targeted for elimination by a former colleague (Clive Owen), who sends his best agent after him--Smith's 24-year-old clone. The de-aging process was used to put Smith's face circa The Fresh Prince of Bel Air era onto his modern-day body. While most moviegoers saw the film projected at the conventional speed, some got to see the film at the high frame rate, and reviewers who did see it in that format had much the same complaints that they had with Billy Lynn, namely that the frame rate made it much less movie-like and much more like high definition video (even though the action sequences were praised). Their other complaint was that the high frame rate format made it all too obvious that the young Smith's face was a special effect. It was universally agreed on that that script was fairly mediocre. In addition to the bad reviews, the film greatly underperformed at the box office.
Director: Ang Lee
Jexi--9/$3.1 million/$6.6 million/131/17%/39--Having Siri or Alexa always there to help run your life can seem awfully creepy to some, who would probably be the target audience for Jexi, a comedy about a hapless schlub (Adam Devine) whose life is taken over by his way-too-obtrusive phone's AI (Rose Byrne), who is determined to make him a better person, whether he wants to be or not. Alexandra Shipp played the woman Jexi pushes Devine toward, Michael Pena played his boss, and Wanda Sykes played an employee at a cell phone store. Critics compared it unfavorably with 2013's Her, and audiences completely ignored it.
Director: Jon Lucas and Scott Moore
New Limited Releases:
Parasite--$53.4 million/54/99%/96--A poor South Korean family cons their way into the lives of a wealthy family by pretending to be unrelated servants, helping each other get hired in an attempt for a better life. That's just the start of this darkly comic thriller, the most acclaimed film of 2019. The movie would win the Palme d'Or at Cannes and go on to unexpectedly sweep the Oscars, being nominated for six, including Production Design and Editing, and winning four, International Film (the first film from South Korea to do so), Original Screenplay, Director for Bong Joon Ho, and Picture, becoming the first winner of the Palme to also win the top Oscar since Marty, and the first non-English language film to win Picture. It would also become a sizable box office hit in North America, ending as the fourth-highest-grossing foreign language film in the US and Canada of all time.
Director: Bong Joon Ho
Five Years Ago--October 9, 2005
#1 Movie:
The Martian--$37 million
New Wide Releases:
Pan--3/$15.3 million/$35.1 million/73/27%/36--Have you ever wondered about Peter Pan's origins? For most people, the answer was a resounding "No", as this prequel to J.M. Barrie's much-loved (and much-filmed) fantasy proved to be one of the biggest disasters of 2015. 12-year-old Australian actor Levi Miller played Peter, who lived at a London orphanage until he was kidnapped by pirates working for Blackbeard (Hugh Jackman) who intends to use him as a slave to mine fairy dust. In captivity, he meets James Hook (Garrett Hedlund), and together, they escape and rally the forces to beat Blackbeard. The casting of Rooney Mara as Indian princess Tiger Lily was controversial, since Mara is white, but critics felt that was just one of the film's many problems, as it relied more on CGI and effects and large dollops of the backstories of Superman and Harry Potter than anything original.
Director: Joe Wright
New Limited Releases:
Ladrones--$3.1 million/166/60%/NA--This Texas-set, Spanish-language heist comedy, a sequel to 2007's Ladron Que Roba a Ladron, starred Mexican actor Fernando Colunga, reprising his role from the first film as a Robin Hood-inspired thief, who agrees to try to steal the original land deeds that prove a poor Hispanic family, not a rich, white developer, actually owns the property the developer's newest resort sits on. It did well on the Spanish-language cinema circuit.
Director: Joe Menendez
Steve Jobs--$17.8 million/105/85%/82--The second, and by all accounts vastly superior, biopic of the Apple Computers founder, it ended up making almost exactly what the Aston Kutcher-starring Jobs had done two years earlier. The film checked in on Jobs (Michael Fassbender) at three pivotal times in his life, at the presentation of the first Macintosh in 1984, when Jobs had been forced out of Apple and had started a new company in 1988, and when he was about to present the first iMac in 1998, all of which is tied together with his often-rocky relationship with his illegitimate young daughter. Kate Winslet played a marketing executive and friend of Jobs's, Seth Rogan played Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, who had a falling out with Jobs, Jeff Daniels (who was also in The Martian) played Apple's CEO, and Michael Stuhlbarg played an Apple engineer. The script was by Aaron Sorkin, who knew a thing or two about biopics of famous, controversial founders of wildly successful technology companies. Despite its box office failure, it was still nominated for two Oscars, Fassbender for Actor and Winslet for Supporting Actress.
Director: Danny Boyle
Winter on Fire: Ukraine's Fight for Freedom--NA/NA/88%/79--The relationship between Russia and Ukraine is long and complicated, but most Ukrainians appear to want closer ties with the European Union, even if that means sacrificing their ties to Russia. This did not sit well with Russia, who was able to convince Ukraine's corrupt president, Viktor Yanukovych, to suspend talks with the EU in favor of Russian influence. This, in turn, did not sit well with the citizenry, who in November of 2013 began a protest that eventually came to be known as Euromaiden, and by February of 2014, had driven Yanukovych out of office and into exile in Russia. Winter on Fire, released by Netflix simultaneously into a limited number of theaters as well as on it streaming platform, chronicled the protests from a pro-protester point of view, showcasing the righteousness of their cause and the brutality of the pro-government forces. The film would be Oscar-nominated for Documentary.
Director: Evegny Afineevsky
Expanding:
The Walk--7/$3.7 million
Ten Years Ago--October 8, 2010:
#1 Movie:
The Social Network--$15.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Life as We Know It--2/$14.5 million/$53.4 million/62/29%/39--In this dramady, Katherine Heigl and Josh Duhamel can't stand each other, even though their best friends are married. When said friends are killed in a car accident, the two discover they've been named the guardians of their friends' baby daughter, and have to put aside their differences to figure out how to live as a family. Josh Lucas played the baby's pediatrician and Heigl's love interest, and Christina Hendricks, Melissa McCarthy, and Kumail Nanjiani played friends. Despite largely negative reviews, the film proved to be a minor, and profitable hit.
Director: Greg Berlanti
Secretariat--3/$12.7 million/$59.7 million/58/63%/61--After Seabiscut proved to be a big hit in the summer of 2003, its a bit surprising that it took over 7 years for a biopic of the other most famous race horse of all time to hit theaters. Diane Lane played Secretariat's owner, who takes over running the horse farm of her father (Scott Glenn), and with the help of new trainer John Malkovich, realizes that there's something special in a young foal and refuses to sell him, even after she needs to raise $6 million to cover inheritance taxes after her father dies. James Cromwell played a rival farm owner, Beloved Character Actress Margo Martindale played a colleague of Lane's, Fred Dalton Thompson a family friend, Dylan Walsh her husband, and Dylan Baker her brother. While not a blockbuster, it did decent business.
Director: Randall Wallace
My Soul to Take--5/$6.8 million/$14.7 million/125/10%/25--In this mediocre horror flick, a group of seven teenagers, all born the same night, begin to be picked off one by one by a long-thought-dead serial killer, and their souls seem to take up residence in the body of one of them (Max Thieriot). Could the soul of the serial killer also be in there? Despite being directed by Wes Craven, critics found the film more boring than scary, and it only did marginally better than the two flop horror movies that had opened the week before, Case 39 and Let Me In.
Director: Wes Craven.
New Limited Releases:
It's Kind of a Funny Story--$6.4 million/146/57%/63--In this dramady, Keir Gilchirst played a suicidal teenager under immense academic pressure, who decides on the advice of his psychiatrist (Aasif Mandvi) to spend a week in a psyche ward, where he befriends an older patient (Zach Galifianakis) and a girl his age (Emma Roberts) and comes to understand more about what he wants to do with his life. Viola Davis played the department head, Lauren Graham and Jim Gaffigan his parents, Jeremy Davies a hospital employee, and Laverne Cox, several years before her breakthrough on Orange is the New Black, as a patient. Critics were so-so on the film, which had entered the season as a potential awards movie, and despite the presence of Galifianakis, was largely ignored outside of art houses.
Director: Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck
Inside Job--$4.3 million/153/98%/88--The economic collapse of 2008, which ushered in The Great Recession (which had actually started in 2007) was the consequences of numerous poor decisions in both the government and at leading financial institutions. This highly acclaimed documentary, which was narrated by Matt Damon, showed, step by step, how these decisions ultimately destroyed the economy. The timely film would win the Oscar for Documentary.
Director: Charles Ferguson
Fifteen Years Ago--October 14, 2005:
New Wide Releases:
The Fog--1/$11.8 million/$29.6 million/92/4%/27--John Carpenter's supernatural horror film The Fog received decidedly mixed reviews upon its 1980 release, but over the years, its reputation has considerably grown. No such re-evaluation seems to be forthcoming for its remake, which starred Tom Welling as a resident of a small island town and decedent of one of the town's founders. When a mysterious fog rolls into town one night, weird things began to happen to the townspeople as the vengeful spirits of people murdered by the founders seek their revenge. With no other horror movies out (unless you count the two stop-motion horror comedies), this drew an OK audience opening weekend, but faded quickly.
Director: Rupert Wainwright
Elizabethtown--3/$10.6 million/$26.9 million/98/28%/45--Cameron Crowe burned through whatever goodwill he had left from Almost Famous, and Orlando Bloom burned through whatever was left of his attempts to be a leading man with this dramady about a suicidal man who recently lost his father, and the flight attendant (Kristen Dunst) who helps him find his way. Dunst's character was the actual inspiration for the term "Manic Pixie Dream Girl", coined, of course, by Nathan Rabin, formerly of the Old Country. Susan Sarandon played Bloom's mother, Judy Greer his sister, Alec Baldwin his former boss, Jessica Beal his ex-girlfriend, musician Loudon Wainwright III as his uncle, and celebrity chef Paula Deen his aunt. This ended up as one of the most notorious flops of 2005, and it would be six years before Crowe directed another movie.
Director: Cameron Crowe
Domino--7/$4.7 million/$10.2 million/145/18%/36--Apparently tired of having to wear a corset for nearly every role, Kiera Knightly did a 180 degree turn by starring in this action biopic of Domino Harvey, a former model who becomes a bounty hunter, telling a largely fictionalized story involving her, her colleague (Mickey Rourke and Edgar Ramirez), her boss (Delroy Lindo), his girlfriend (Mo'Nique), rival mobsters (including Dabney Coleman), and the FBI. Director Tony Scott apparently called in every favor he could, as the cast also boasts Christopher Walkin, Mena Suvari, Macy Gray, Jacqueline Bisset, Lucy Liu, Jerry Springer, and Tom Waits. Despite the loaded cast, the film was both a critical and financial flop. The real Domino Harvey passed away about four months before the film opened.
Director: Tony Scott
Twenty Years Ago--October 13, 2000:
#1 Movie:
Meet the Parents--$21.2 million
New Wide Releases:
Lost Souls--3/$8 million/$16.8 million/107/8%/16--This horror movie was originally due out in late 1999, but got delayed an entire year due to the onslaught of religious apocalypse films tied into the turn of the millennium that fall and winter. It probably could have just stayed on the shelf. Winona Ryder starred as a former victim of demonic possession who becomes convinced that Satan has targeted Ben Chaplin to be the vessel of his return to Earth. He, of course, thinks she's crazy, until events start happening to make him believe. The film boasts a solid supporting cast, including John Hurt, Phillip Baker Hall, and Elias Koteas, all playing priests. However, negative comparisons to the previous year's Schwarzenegger thriller End of Days (which was no great shakes itself), along with the recently re-released The Exorcist (which very much was) helped sink this one without a trace. This marks the directorial debut of Oscar-winning cinematographer Janusz Kaminski.
Director: Janusz Kaminski
The Ladies Man--4/$5.4 million/$13.7 million/120/11%/22--After the success of Wayne's World in 1992, Saturday Night Live producer Lorne Michaels began churning out numerous films based on recurring sketches hoping to capture lightning in a bottle again. No other movie came anywhere near the impact Wayne's World had, and after this feature, Michaels gave up (at least until MacGruber in 2010). Tim Meadows, SNL's consummate supporting player, got a rare chance to headline a movie playing late night radio show host Leon Phelps, who spends the hours not on the air seducing numerous women, which lands him in trouble with an organization made up of the cuckoled husbands of his conquests. Meanwhile, he is searching for the former lover who anonymously offered to put him up in style. Will Ferrell, still 2 1/2 years away from his breakout role in Old School, played the head of the organization, Eugene Levy and Chris Parnell are two of the jealous husbands, former Kids in the Hall Mark McKinney and Kevin McDonald have cameos, as does Julianne Moore, in full clown getup, and the whole thing is narrated by Billy Dee Williams.
Director: Reginald Hudson
The Contender--5/$5.4 million/$17.9 million/102/76%/59--After the death of the vice president, the president (Jeff Bridges) picks fellow Democrat Joan Allen to be his replacement. However, during her confirmation hearings, a video from her college days supposedly showing her having sex with multiple frat boys surfaces, which she refuses to address, believing that her sex life in college is no one's business and has nothing to do with the job. Gary Oldman played a Republican Congressman who is adamantly opposed to Allen's nomination and works to discredit her, Christian Slater played another Congressman, Sam Elliott Bridges chief of staff, William Peterson the governor of Virginia who was the front-runner for the position before Bridges chose Allen, Saul Rubinek as the president's press secretary, Phillip Baker Hall (in his second new film of the weekend) as Allen's father, and Mariel Hemingway as her husband's ex-wife. While the film underperformed (people who wanted political drama could see the Bush Vs. Gore Show for free on CNN), it got solid reviews, and Allen and Bridges would both be Oscar nominated, for Actress and Supporting Actor, respectively.
Director: Rod Lurie
Dr. T & the Women--7/$5 million/$13.1 million/123/57%/64--The titular doctor (Richard Gere) is a prominent Dallas gynecologist whose perfectly ordered life begins to spiral out of control when his wife (Farrah Fawcett) has to be institutionalized after she reverts to an infantile state. Meanwhile, his oldest daughter (Kate Hudson), who is about to get married, is secretly having an affair with her best friend (Liv Tyler), his office manager (Shelley Long) is plotting to seduce him, and he finds himself falling for the new golf pro (Helen Hunt, in the first of four movies she'd appear in during the last three months of the year) at his club. Laura Dern played his sister-in-law, Tara Reid his younger daughter, Lee Grant his wife's psychiatrist, Janine Turner a wealthy patient, and Andy Richter and Robert Hays Gere's golfing buddies. This would be the final film in a streak of poorly received films directed by Robert Altman, as his next movie would be the Best Picture nominee Gosford Park.
Director: Robert Altman
New Limited Releases:
Billy Elliot--$22 million/93/85%/74--In 1984, in the midst of the devastating UK coal miner's strike, miner's son Billy (13-year-old Jamie Bell, in his film debut) is signed up for boxing lessons. However, he is more intrigued by the ballet classes also being held at the gym, and switches to them. His teacher (Julie Walters) realizes he has real talent, and encourages him to apply to a prestigious ballet school in London, but he has to overcome the resistance of his father (Gary Lewis) first. This would end up being one of the sleeper hits of the year, and would eventually earn three Oscar nominations, Walters for Supporting Actress, Director for Stephen Daldry (making his feature film directing debut), and Original Screenplay. Elton John and the movie's screenwriter, Lee Hall would adapt the movie into a musical, which would have long runs in both New York and London (in 2019, Bell would co-star in the John biopic Rocketman).
Director: Stephen Daldry
Expanding:
Best in Show--10/$2.1 million
Twenty-Five Years Ago--October 13, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Se7en--$8.7 million
New Wide Releases:
Jade--5/$4.3 million/$9.9 million/119/14%/NA--One of the more disastrous movies of the mid-90s, this rather sleazy thriller managed to kill the career of both star David Caruso (who, after this and the spring flop Kiss of Death, promptly went right back to television) and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas (though, to be fair, his screenplay for Showgirls also helped in that regard). Caruso played an assistant DA whose latest murder investigation uncovers a prostitution ring and blackmail scheme that goes all the way to the office of the governor (Richard Crenna) and also involves his ex-girlfriend (Linda Fiorentino) and her husband, his best friend (Chazz Palminteri). Michael Biehn played a police detective and Angie Everhart a hooker. Other than one car chase up and down the streets of San Francisco, critics found little else to like, considering it a warmed-over redo of Basic Instinct (which itself was a warmed-over redo of Jagged Edge).
Director: William Friedkin
The Scarlet Letter--6/$4.1 million/$10.4 million/116/13%/NA--Speaking of disasters, this adaption of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 staple of 11th grade English starred Demi Moore as a weirdly contemporary Hester Pyrnne, who seemed to wander into 1667 Puritan New England by way of 1995 Hollywood. When Hester, whose husband is presumed dead, becomes pregnant, she is sentenced to wear the titular letter on all of her clothing. Gary Oldman played the Reverend Dimmsdale, the secret father of her baby, and Robert Duvall played her not-dead husband, who is living under an assumed identity while trying to figure out who his wife cheated with. Joan Plowright played a villager. Critics scoffed loud and long at the adaption, which changed the finale of the book considerably, including a battle between the colonists and Native Americans and a happy ending where Moore and Oldman sail off together. The career of the three leads survived, but director Roland Joffe's didn't. While he would continue to direct, he, to date, has never helmed anything on the scale of his work prior to this again.
Director: Roland Joffe.
Expanding:
Strange Days--8/$3.7 million
Thirty Years Ago--October 12, 1990:
#1 Movie:
Marked for Death--$7.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Memphis Belle--2/$5 million/$27.4 million/45/67%/NA--This WWII drama, which seems likely to have been greenlit to be Oscar bait, is about the 25th and final bombing run over Germany of the titular plane, which was real, though the events chronicled in the film were fictional. Matthew Modine played the film's pilot, with the crew made up of Tate Donivan, D.B. Sweeney, Billy Zane, Eric Stoltz, Sean Astin, and Harry Connick, Jr., in his first major acting role. On the ground, David Strathairn played their commanding officer, and John Lithgow played a military publicist. If it had been planned to be an Oscar movie, the mixed reviews ended that hope, and it proved to be only a minor hit at the box office.
Director: Michael Caton-Jones
Mr. Destiny--7/$3 million/$15.4 million/80/38%/NA--This standard issue "be careful what you wish for" fantasy starred Jim Belushi as a middle-aged guy who still obsesses over ending his championship game in high school by striking out. When a mysterious bartender (Michael Caine) grants him his wish of hitting the game-winning home run instead, he discovers that he's now rich and powerful and married to his boss's daughter (Rene Russo). But he soon realizes how much he misses his original wife (Linda Hamilton), his old best friend (Jon Lovitz) and his old life. Courtney Cox played a friend of his who, in the alternate reality, is his mistress, and Maury Chaykin played a contractor. Critics wished they were just watching It's a Wonderful Life instead, and having already largely skipped Belushi's first comedy of the year where he played a poor schlub who gets a taste of the high life (Taking Care of Business), audiences didn't show up to see this one, either.
Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael--9/$1.8 million/$4 million/135/44%/44--This little-seen dramady starred Winona Ryder as an unpopular goth girl who becomes convinced that the titular Roxy, a movie star from her hometown, is actually her birth mother. Jeff Daniels played Roxy's ex-boyfriend, who stayed behind when she went to California, whom Ryder becomes convinced is her birth father. Francis Fisher played Ryder's adoptive mother, Stephen Tobolowsky played the local mayor, and Dinah Manoff played another former friend of Roxy's. This slipped in out of theaters with critics or audiences barely noticing.
Director: Jim Abrahams
Expanding:
Henry & June--10/$1.4 million
Thirty-Five Years Ago--October 11, 1985:
#1 Movie:
Commando--$6.5 million
New Wide Releases:
Silver Bullet--3/$4 million/$12.4 million/69/45%/26--Based on one of Stephen King's less-remembered books, this horror thriller starred 13-year-old Corey Haim, in his first lead role, as a paraplegic teenager who discovers that the mysterious killings in his small town, which included his best friend, were being caused by a werewolf. He sets out to take it down, with the help of his uncle (Gary Busey). Terry O'Quinn played the town's sheriff, and Lawrence Tierney played a townsperson. As one of the few horror movies in wide release in mid-October, it did OK, though the box office fell off very quickly after Halloween.
Director: Daniel Attias
Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins--4/$3.4 million/$14.4 million/58/39%/46--Despite the overly optimistic title, the adventure ended with this one movie. Fred Ward played a NYPD cop who finds himself forcibly recruited by a secret government agency to become an assassin, though first he has to undergo training with a Korean martial arts master (the decidedly not Korean Joel Grey). Wilfred Brimley played his new boss, and Kate Mulgrew played an Army officer. Even though the film flopped, ABC made an attempt to revive the character in 1988, though the pilot was not picked up. The Makeup would earn an Oscar nomination.
Director: Guy Hamilton
New Limited Releases:
When Father Was Away on Business--$0.02 million/179/100%/NA--This Yugoslavian family drama, set in 1950 during a time when the country's communist dictator, Tito, was on the outs with Stalin, shows the impact that the Cold War had on one individual family, seem through the eyes of a 10-year-old (the "business" his father is away at is actually a forced labor camp). Despite the limited box office, this received raves across the board, and would become the sixth and final Yugoslavian film Oscar nominated for Foreign Language Film (though films from the countries that occupy the former Yugoslavian territory have been nominated since). In the US, this was distributed by, of all companies, Cannon.
Director: Emir Kusturica
Expanding:
Better Off Dead--7/$2.6 million
Sweet Dreams--8/$2.2 million
After Hours--9/$2.1 million
Forty Years Ago--October 10, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Private Benjamin--$69.9 million/6/82%/59--One of two feminist comedies to become huge hits in late 1980, this starred Goldie Hawn, in possibly her best-known role, as recent widow Judy Benjamin, who fooled by the lies of a recruiter (Harry Dean Stanton) enlists in the Army, only to discover that it is considerably less like the European vacation that the recruiter promised. In the military, she runs afoul of her drill sergeant (Hal Williams) and captain (Eileen Brennan), but slowly discovers her place and triumphs. The less-remembered second half has her stationed in Europe, where she falls for a handsome French doctor (Armand Assante) and has to make a choice between her career and love. Mary Kay Place played another soldier, Craig T. Nelson and future Oscar nominee Sally Kirkland had small roles, and Albert Brooks cameoed as Hawn's quickly-deceased husband. Amid the box office success and the critical approval, the film earned three Oscar nominations: Actress for Hawn, Supporting Actress for Brennan, and Original Screenplay. It would be followed only six months later by a short-lived sitcom, in which Brennan and Williams reprised their roles.
Director: Howard Zieff
Why Would I Lie?--$1.2 million/106/NA/NA--Making a mistake opening against Private Benjamin was this quickly forgotten comedy in which Treat Williams played a constantly lying social worker who decides to help a young boy (8-year-old Gabriel Macht, billed as Gabriel Swann) reunite with his mother, as he begins a relationship with Lisa Eichhorn, who is a counselor at a halfway house. The few critics who reviewed it didn't care for it much, and audiences utterly ignored it.
Director: Larry Peerce
New Limited Releases:
Gloria--$4.1 million/87/93%/68--The teamings of director John Cassavetes and his wife, actress Gena Rowlands were usually art house affairs, but they decided to try for a mainstream hit in this action thriller, in which Rowlands played a former moll of a gangster who is forced to go on the run when she rescues the son of her neighbor, a mob accountant who had been whacked. With the mob now after both of them, she has to figure out how to survive and get both of them out of New York to safety. Buck Henry had a cameo as the boy's doomed father, with Tom Noonan and Lawrence Tierney in small roles. Reviewers generally liked the film, but not as much as Cassavetes's 70s work, and the film ended up not being a particularly big hit. Rowlands, though, did get an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. Sidney Lumet remade this in 1999 with Sharon Stone in the title role.
Director: John Cassavetes
Expanding:
Ordinary People
Stardust Memories
No comments:
Post a Comment