We're still a week behind, but hopefully, we'll get caught up with two more of these in the next week or so. In the meantime, it's the end of September, which means the movies--and in many cases their box offices--are about to get much better.
One Year Ago--September 27, 2019:
New Wide Releases:
Abominable--1/$20.6 million/$60.7 million/47/81%/61--For the second consecutive year, the last weekend of September brought an animated movie about human-yeti relations. Despite the surface similarities, there were a number of differences between Abominable and the previous year's Smallfoot. Smallfoot was a musical comedy with some action and adventure, while Abominable, while also having its share of comedy, was more of a road trip film. Three Chinese teenagers discover the titular yeti on the roof of their Shanghai apartment building, and attempt to help it get back to his home on Mt. Everest, while being pursued by a billionaire (Eddie Izzard) who was the one who brought him to the city in the first place, along with a zoologist (Sarah Paulson). Unlike Smallfoot, which was entirely American-made, Abominable was a co-production with a Chinese animation studio. While the two films opened to similar numbers, Abominable ended up making nearly $25 million less than Smallfoot's disappointing total, which, along with the failure of Missing Link, an animated movie about human-sasquatch relations that opened almost exactly halfway between these two movies, probably means we won't be seeing any more movies about abominable snowmen for quite a while.
Director: Jill Culton and Todd Wilderman
Judy--7/$2.9 million/$24.3 million/90/82%/66--From 2001-2003, Renee Zellweger was nominated three straight years for an Oscar, culminating with her winning for Cold Mountain. Then, her career fell off a cliff. It's appropriate, then, that her comeback role was as the legendary Judy Garland, who had more comebacks than just about anyone in Hollywood history. Picking up in the last year of her life, Judy focuses on the singer as she goes to London for a series of concerts, which are in danger of being derailed by her pill and alcohol use. Finn Wittrock and Rufus Sewell played two of her husbands, and Michael Gambon played the promoter who hired her for the concerts. While critics highly acclaimed Zellweger's performance, they were more mixed about the film itself, as this was not the first movie to explore Garland's demons. Still, thanks to Zellweger, the film became a modest hit. The film would be nominated for its Makeup, and Zellweger would win Actress, her second Oscar.
Director: Rupert Goold
Friends 25th: The One With the Anniversary--12/$1.2 million/$2.9 million/167/78%/NA--How popular is Friends? So popular that, 25 years after its premiere and 15 years after its final episode, thousands of people paid cash money to sit in a theater and watch the same episodes that many of them undoubtedly owned on DVD, had seen numerous times in syndication, and could have streamed at any time on Netflix (at least through the end of that year). The episodes that ran over the weekend were "The One With the Prom Video" (the second season episode where Ross and Rachel finally began dating), "The One Where No One's Ready" (the third season bottle episode where Joey ends up wearing Chandler's entire wardrobe), "The One the Morning After" (the third season episode where Ross and Rachel break up), and "The One With the Embryos" (the fourth season episode where Phoebe becomes her brother's surrogate while the rest of the gang plays a trivia contest about each other).
Director: James Burrows ("Prom Video", "Morning After"), Gail Mancuso ("No One's Ready"), Kevin S. Bright ("Embryos")
Five Years Ago--September 25, 2015:
New Wide Releases:
Hotel Transylvania 2--1/$48.5 million/$169.7 million/16/56%/44--Even as Adam Sandler's box office prowess was drying up in live action films, this animated franchise was pulling in the money like it was still his prime. Sandler reprises his role as Dracula, in this one, adjusting to his role as a grandfather to a half-human, half-vampire toddler, whom he is concerned might end up taking after his human side more. As usual with a Sandler movie, much of the cast is made up of his usual reparatory company, including Andy Samberg as his human son-in-law, Kevin James as Frankenstein, Steve Buscemi as a werewolf, and David Spade as the Invisible Man. Other SNL alumni in the cast include Rob Riggle, Dana Carvey, Molly Shannon, Chris Kattan, Jon Lovitz, and Chris Parnell. Also in the overstuffed cast is Keegan-Michael Key, Megan Mullally, Nick Offerman, Fran Drescher, Mel Brooks as Dracula's ancient father, and Selena Gomez as his daughter. A third sequel would follow in 2018.
Director: Genndy Tartakovsky
The Intern--2/$17.7 million/$75.8 million/41/60%/51--In this gentle comedy, the last film to date directed by Nancy Meyers, Robert De Niro played a recently retired, recently widowed businessman who decides to get back into the workplace by being hired as an intern at a fashion start-up, working with the company's founder and CEO Anne Hathaway. Rene Russo played a masseuse that De Niro becomes interested in, with Adam Devine, Andrew Rannells, and Nat Wolff as some of the company employees. The film ended up being a modest critical success and a modest hit.
Director: Nancy Meyers
The Green Inferno--9/$3.5 million/$7.2 million/138/38%/38--In this rather controversial and gory horror movie, a group of do-gooder college kids find themselves lost in the Amazon and captured by cannibals, who proceed to devour most of the cast (former Spy Kid Daryl Sabara being the only member most people had even remotely heard of). The film was shot in 2012 and premiered at the 2013 Toronto Film Festival before sitting on the shelf for two years.
Director: Eli Roth
New Limited Releases:
99 Homes--$1.4 million/200/93%/76--This drama, set during the housing crash, starred Andrew Garfield as a young father who, after being evicted from his foreclosed home, goes to work for the unscrupulous real estate agent (Michael Shannon) who took over Garfield's old home, eventually helping with evictions himself. Laura Dern played Garfield's mother. This earned strong reviews, but received little attention from moviegoers.
Director: Ramin Bahrani
Expanding:
Sicario--10/$1.7 million
Ten Years Ago--September 24, 2010:
New Wide Releases:
Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps--1/$19 million/$52.5 million/65/55%/59--Twenty-three years after the success of 1987's Wall Street, which earned Michael Douglas an Oscar, he reunited with director Oliver Stone for this sequel, which sees Douglas advising his the fiancée (Shia LeBeouf) of his estranged daughter (Carrie Mulligan) as they both seek revenge against the head of a Wall Street firm (Josh Brolin) who they have a grudge against. Frank Langella played LeBeouf's original mentor, Susan Sarandon his mother, Eli Wallach, in his final role, played Brolin's chairman, Sylvia Miles played a real estate agent, and there were cameos from Charlie Sheen, briefly reprising his role from the first film, Warren Buffet, and Oliver Stone himself. Future Covid-19 sufferer Donald Trump had a cameo, but it was cut.
Director Oliver Stone
Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole--2/$16.1 million/$55.7 million/61/52%/53--Zack Snyder, whose previous films relied heavily on CGI, directed his first (and to date, only) fully animated feature with this drama about a war among various owls. Jim Stugress voiced the leading role of a young owl who escapes from a group of evil owls to join up with the titular Owls of Ga'Hoole. The film has an impressive, mostly Australian voice cast, including Anthony LaPaglia, Geoffrey Rush, Joel Edgerton, Hugo Weaving, Sam Neill, and Helen Mirren. Despite praise for the animation, critics felt the story was rather slight, and it proved to be a disappointment at the box office. This shouldn't be confused with another, unrelated, animated flop, Rise of the Guardians, which would come out two years later.
Director: Zack Snyder
You Again--5/$8.4 million/$25.7 million/103/19%/28--Touchstone Pictures, Disney's long-time division for making and releasing PG-13 and R-rated movies, more or less went out with this forgettable comedy (Disney would subsequently merge the division with DreamWorks). Kristen Bell is horrified to discover that her brother's fiancée is her high school bully (Odette Yustman), and tries everything she can to break up the wedding. Meanwhile, Bell's mother (Jamie Lee Curtis) discovers that Yustman's aunt (Sigourney Weaver) is her old high school rival, and their amimosity resurfaces. Despite a solid cast, including Betty White as Bell's grandmother, Victor Garber as her father, and cameos from Cloris Leachman, Dwayne Johnson, and musicians, Hall and Oates, and for some reason, three cast members of Step By Step (Patrick Duffy, Staci Keanan, and Christine Lakin), the film fell flat with critics and quickly disappeared from theaters.
Director: Andy Fickman
Fifteen Years Ago--September 30, 2005:
#1 Movie:
Flightplan--$14.8 million
New Wide Releases:
Serenity--2/$10.1 million/$25.5 million/100/82%/74--The Joss Whedon-created "Space western" Firefly, starring Nathan Fillion as the captain of a spaceship whose crew gets by using frequently less-than legal methods, was a flop on Fox's Fall 2002 schedule, and was pulled at the end of the year. A funny thing happened on the way to obscurity, though. The show developed a huge cult following, who made the Complete Series DVD set a bestseller, making the network think they might have been just a tad too hasty at cancelling the show. So the series got something exceedingly rare for a quickly cancelled series--a big screen sequel. Serenity brought back the entire cast from the series, including Fillion, Gina Torres, Alan Tudyk, and Adam Baldwin, and featured supporting performances from newcomers to the franchise, including Chiwetel Ejiofor, David Krumholtz, and Sarah Paulson. Despite good reviews, the grosses proved to be as disappointing as the ratings were during the show's original run, and no further sequels were made.
Director: Joss Whedon
Into the Blue--5/$7.1 million/$18.8 million/118/21%/45--Three years after the surfing drama Blue Crush, director John Stockwell returns to the ocean in this similarly-titled thriller. A usually shirtless Paul Walker starred as a professional diver and a frequently bikinied Jessica Alba as his girlfriend, who while diving with Walker's childhood friend (an also usually shirtless Scott Caan) discover a crashed drug plane filled with bricks of coke. This gets them embroiled with the local drug kingpin who demands that they recover the drugs. Josh Brolin played another diver. Despite being a flop in theaters, it did well enough on DVD that a straight-to-DVD sequel, featuring none of the original cast, was released in 2009.
Director: John Stockwell
The Greatest Game Ever Played--9/$3.7 million/$15.3 million/132/63%/55--Bill Paxton's second and final film as a director was a far cry from his directorial debut four years earlier with the supernatural thriller Frailty. Instead, his follow-up was a Disney-produced period drama about golf. Shia LaBeouf, in only his second starring role in a major movie, played Francis Ouimet, a poor boy from an immigrant family who, at the age of 20, stunned the golfing world in 1913 by winning the US Open. This dramatization of that victory also starred Elias Koteas as his father and Peter Firth as a snobby British noble who refuses to believe that anyone other than British gentlemen could succeed at golf. Understandably, a golf period piece starring the kid from Holes didn't attract much box office attention.
Director: Bill Paxton
New Limited Releases:
Capote--$28.8 million/95/90%/88--In 1959, author Truman Capote (Phillip Seymour Hoffman) arrived in Kansas in order to research an article for The New Yorker about the brutal murders of a farm family. His research would eventually result in the "non-fiction novel" In Cold Blood, which many consider to be his masterpiece. This biopic recreates the seven-year period between the murders and the publication of the book, with Capote battling his personal demons and his alcoholism, as well as his relationship with one of the murderers (Clifton Collins, Jr.), as he was tried and eventually executed for the crime. Catherine Keener played Capote's childhood friend Harper Lee, who assists Capote even as her own novel, To Kill a Mockingbird, becomes a sensation. Chris Cooper played the investigating sheriff, and Amy Ryan his wife. The film proved to be one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2005, ultimately earning five Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, Best Supporting Actress for Keener, Best Director for Bennett Miller (making his first narrative feature film), and Best Adapted Screenplay (the screenwriter, Dan Futterman, is best known for his performance as Robin Williams's son in The Birdcage). Hoffman would win Best Actor.
Director: Bennett Miller
Expanding:
A History of Violence--4/$8.2 million
Twenty Years Ago--September 29, 2000:
New Wide Releases:
Remember the Titans--1/$20.9 million/$115.7 million/18/73%/48--In 1971, integration had come to the schools of Alexandra, Virginia, as the town's black high school and white high school were combined into one large school. This also affected the football team, as the newly merged team was coached by Denzel Washington as opposed to the longtime coach of the white high school, Will Patton. Despite some early conflict between the black and white players, the team eventually jells and completes an undefeated season. Among the actors playing team members were Donald Faison (a year before he would start playing a doctor on Scrubs), Ethan Suplee, and Ryan Gosling, whose only previous feature film role had been in a low-budget Canadian family-friendly horror comedy. Kate Bosworth, in only her second film role, played the girlfriend of a team member, Nicole Ari Parker played Washington's wife, and ten-year-old Hayden Panettie played Patton's daughter. The film would prove to be a huge hit.
Director: Boaz Yakin
Beautiful--10/$1.4 million/$3.2 million/165/16%/23--Sally Field, who had previously directed a couple of TV projects, tried her hand at feature film directing for the first and, so far, only time, with this poorly received dramady about a obsessive beauty pageant contestant (Minnie Driver) who is determined to become Miss America, even if it means having to pretend her daughter (Hallie Eisenberg, who was fairly ubiquitous at that time for being the then-current spokesperson for Pepsi) was not her daughter. Joey Lauren Adams played Driver's best friend, who agrees to pretend to be Eisenberg's daughter. There are cameos from Kathleen Turner and Michael McKean (who was also in a much better comedy opening in limited release that day), as well as from real-life former beauty queen Bridgette Wilson. Critics were aghast, and audiences gave this one a wide berth.
Director: Sally Field
New Limited Releases:
Best in Show--$18.7 million/99/94%/78--After the critical success of the largely improvised comedy Waiting for Guffman in 1996, director Christopher Guest largely reassembled that film's cast, as well as several newcomers, for what many consider to be an even funnier movie. Best in Show follows several contestants who are competing at a prestigious dog show, including white trash Florida couple Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy, uptight yuppies Parker Posey and Michael Hitchcock, flamboyantly gay couple Michael McKean and John Michael Higgins, rich trophy wife Jennifer Coolidge and her hard-edged trainer Jane Lynch, and Guest as a backwoods hunter and aspiring ventriloquist Also appearing are Fred Willard as a clueless commentator, Ed Begley, Jr. as a helpful hotel manager, Larry Miller as a former boyfriend of O'Hara's, and Bob Balaban as the head of the dog show. The film received fantastic reviews, and this would be Guest's highest grosser as a director.
Director: Christopher Guest
Twenty-Five Years Ago--September 29, 1995:
#1 Movie:
Se7en--$12.4 million
New Wide Releases:
Halloween: The Curse of Michael Myers--2/$7.3 million/$15.1 million/96/9%/10--Like its titular character, the Halloween franchise could seemingly not be killed, as it returned after a six-year hiatus. Picking up from the cliffhanger at the end of Halloween 5, the new one sees series mainstay Donald Pleasence, in his final major movie (he had died earlier in the year), once again trying to hunt down Michael, who is revealed to be controlled by an evil Druid cult (which, if nothing else, at least helps tie in the otherwise unrelated Halloween III to the rest of the series). Paul Rudd, who had come to prominence earlier in the year in Clueless, played the now-grown up kid who Jamie Lee Curtis was babysitting in the first film, who also tries to stop Michael's latest rampage. The behind-the-scenes stuff is more interesting than the film itself--there's a "producer's cut" which a much different climax that floated around as a bootleg before finally getting a proper release, and early on in the production process, Quentin Tarantino was approached about writing the script. This one also ended on a cliffhanger, but this one never got resolved, as the next entry, 1998's Halloween H20, retconned everything after Halloween II out of the timeline.
Director: Joe Chappelle
Devil in a Blue Dress--3/$5.4 million/$16.1 million/91/88%/78--One of the more puzzling flops of the fall of 1995 was this thriller, which not only scored great reviews, but starred Denzel Washington. He played a unemployed WWII vet in 1948 LA, who gets hired to track down the missing fiancée (Jennifer Beals) of a mayoral candidate, and finds himself uncovering a much larger conspiracy. Tom Sizemore played the man who hired Washington to find Beals, and Maury Chaykin, in a very different role than in Unstrung Heroes, played another mayoral candidate, who has a very dark secret. Don Cheadle, who prior to this was mostly known for supporting roles on TV shows, put himself on the map thanks to his highly acclaimed performance as Washington's trigger-happy best friend. Even with Washington, audiences chose to gave the neo-noir a pass, and no other books in Walter Mosley's series have yet to be adapted.
Director: Carl Franklin
The Big Green--4/$4.7 million/$17.7 million/86/0%/NA--Disney tried to replicate the formula that made The Mighty Ducks an unexpected hit three years earlier (which, of course, was simply the formula that made The Bad News Bears a hit in 1976), to considerably lesser results. The sport in this case is soccer, as a British teacher (Olivia d'Abo) decides to demonstrate her favorite sport to the kids in the small Texas town where she works. Naturally, they're terrible at first, but then they come together and...well, it's not exactly difficult to figure out. Steve Guttenberg, in the first of three movies he'd star in that fall, played the town sheriff who becomes the assistant coach, and character actor Jay O. Sanders, playing the mean coach of the league's top team, appeared as the bad guy in a Disney sports comedy for the second year in a row, after Angels in the Outfield. The film also co-starred Patrick Renna and Chauncey Leopardi from The Sandlot and Bug Hall from The Little Rascals as members of the team. It's not nearly as bad as that 0% Rotten Tomatoes score suggests, but it's not remotely memorable, either.
Director: Holly Goldberg Sloan
Steal Big Steal Little--8/$1.8 million/$3.2 million/167/15%/NA--Director Andrew Davis earned a lot of goodwill after directing Under Siege and The Fugitive. He more or less blew through all of it with this flop comedy, in which Andy Garcia played twin brothers, one good and one evil. The good Garcia has inherited a large California ranch, while the evil one hopes to get the land for himself. Alan Arkin played the good Garcia's friend, who attempts to help him foil evil Garcia's schemes, while Holland Taylor played the Garcias' adopted mother and Joe Pantoliano played the good Garcia's lawyer.
Director: Andrew Davis
New Limited Releases:
Moonlight and Valentino--$2.5 million/177/15%/NA--Despite a decent cast, audiences mostly ignored this dramady about a recent widow (Elizabeth Perkins) who finds love--or at least lust--again when she takes a shine to the handsome house painter (Jon Bon Jovi) she hired. Kathleen Turner played Perkins's stepmother, Whoopi Goldberg her best friend, and Gwyneth Paltrow (in a very different role than she had in Se7en) as her sister. This was the first of several dramedies with large female ensembles that came out that fall that failed to make much of a box office impact.
Director: David Anspaugh
To Die For--$21.3 million/78/88%/86--Despite critical acclaim in several movies, Nicole Kidman went into the fall of 1995 still mostly known as Mrs. Tom Cruise. That permanently changed with her performance in this pitch black comedy, in which she played an aspiring television journalist whose ambition does not sit well with her husband (Matt Dillon) who wants her to settle down and start a family. She decides, instead, to have him killed, and recruits some high school students, including future Oscar winners Joaquin Phoenix and Casey Affleck (in one of his first major roles) to do the deed. Dan Hedaya played Dillon's suspicious father, Illeana Douglas his sister, Wayne Knight Kidman's boss, and Kurtwood Smith and Holland Taylor (in her second movie of the weekend) as Kidman's parents. Director Gus Van Sant, who had had a career setback with Even Cowgirls Get the Blues, redeemed himself, and also befriended Affleck's older brother Ben, who had this script he had written with his best friend.
Director: Gus Van Sant
Thirty Years Ago--September 28, 1990:
New Wide Releases:
Pacific Heights--1/$6.9 million/$29.4 million/40/50%/55--Michael Keaton decided to follow up the sensational success of Batman with his first serious villain role, playing the new tenant of Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine, who immediately turns into the tenant from hell, one who seems to know exactly how far to push the law in order to avoid being evicted. Mako played Griffith and Modine's other tenant, Laurie Metcalf their attorney, an uncredited Beverly D'Angelo Keaton's former girlfriend, and Griffith's real life mother Tippi Hedren had a cameo. The film got mixed reviews and did moderate business.
Director: John Schlesinger
I Come in Peace--6/$1.9 million/$4.4 million/127/33%/NA--Dolph Lundgren played a tough cop trying to take down a vicious drug gang when a new combatant enters the field--an alien, who intends to use humans to create a powerful drug to take back to his home planet. Yes, the War on Drugs becomes intergalactic in this sci-fi thriller. Brian Benben, who was then the star of HBO's raunchy sitcom Dream On, played his by-the-book FBI partner, and Michael J. Pollard had a cameo. This has been mostly forgotten, but does retain a bit of a cult.
Director: Craig R. Baxley
New Limited Releases:
Berkeley in the Sixties--NA/NA/100%/NA--As the title describes, this documentary focuses on the turbulent decade in the city that is the home of the University of California, as the school became one of the foremost centers of the counterculture movement, and culminating with the 1969 battle pitting students and other activists against state and city police over control of a small vacant lot owned by the university. The documentary would be highly acclaimed, and would be nominated for an Oscar.
Director: Mark Kitchell
Thirty-Five Years Ago--September 27, 1985:
New Wide Releases:
Invasion U.S.A.--1/$6.9 million/$17.5 million/50/18%/29--Chuck Norris himself co-wrote the screenplay for this silly action flick, in which Communist guerillas invade Florida in an attempt to destabilize the United States, and only Norris's retired CIA agent can stop them. This would prove to be the biggest hit of the year for Cannon, easily outgrossing Norris's other 1985 movie with them, Missing in Action 2, as well as their August release American Ninja, which Norris chose not to do in favor of this. Despite its moderate success, Norris chose not to make a sequel, and the script was repurposed into a vehicle for American Ninja star Michael Dudikoff.
Director: Joseph Zito
Maxie--6/$1.1 million/$2.6 million/134/0%/NA--Glenn Close, who had been nominated for three straight Supporting Actress Oscars, finally got a lead role in this comedy. Too bad it was wildly reviled. Close and Mandy Patikin play a couple whose new house is haunted by the titular Maxie (also Close), a ghost who was a flapper in the 1920s and who decides to possess the living Close, whose personality is completely the opposite. Ruth Gordon plays the landlady who knew Maxie when she was much younger, and Bernard Hughes plays a bishop who attempts to exorcise the ghost out of Close's body. Luckily for Close, her next starring role, which got both much better reviews and box office, would open just a week later.
Director: Paul Aaron
New Limited Releases:
The Journey of Natty Gann--$9.7 million/87/91%/66--At least box-office wise, Disney's awful year continued with this well-received but underperforming period drama, in which Meredith Salenger plays the titular Natty, a tomboy in Depression-era Chicago who undertakes a perilous journey to Washington State to reunite with her father (Ray Wise) who is working as a lumberjack. John Cusack played a fellow traveler who befriends Natty, Lainie Kazan played Natty's first, neglectful, guardian, Scatman Crothers played a friend of Wise's, and a young Grant Heslov, who would eventually become George Clooney's producing partner, made his film debut as a gang member. The Costumes would receive an Oscar nomination.
Director: Jeremy Kagen
Expanding:
Agnes of God--2/$4.2 million
Forty Years Ago--September 26, 1980:
New Wide Releases:
Divine Madness--$5.3 million/81/NA/NA--Bette Midler's first starring role in a movie, The Rose, had scored her an Oscar nomination and a hit soundtrack album, but what the film, in which shed played a self-destructive rock star, didn't feature was her crack comic timing. Her second film, a concert movie edited from a series of shows she performed in 1979, took care of that. Her frequently raunchy comic routines were intersected with a whopping 16 musical performances. Despite Midler's popularity, the film wasn't a particularly big hit, though it did end up as the year's highest grossing concert movie.
Director: Michael Ritchie
Hopscotch--NA/NA/73%/NA--Walter Matthau is a veteran CIA agent who, despite his sterling record, is stuck on a desk job by boss Ned Beatty. Annoyed, he decides to write a memoir exposing all the agency's secrets, which makes him a wanted man in both the US and Europe. Of course, when you're a veteran CIA agent, you might have some tricks up your sleeve. This globe-trotting comedy (based on a considerably darker novel) co-starred Glenda Jackson as Matthau's girlfriend, a talented spy herself, Sam Waterson as Matthau's former protégé, who is tasked with bringing him in, and Herbert Lom as a KGB agent. It proved to be a modest success at the box office.
Director: Ronald Neame
In God We Trust--$5.2 million/82/NA/NA--Comedian Marty Feldman, whose distinctive appearance helped him land numerous supporting roles in comedies during the 1970s, apparently decided if he was going to get a lead role, he'd just have to write and direct his own movie. This religious satire cast Feldman as a humble monk who travels to Los Angeles to raise the money needed to save his monastery. There, he runs into numerous colorful characters, including a con man (Peter Boyle) and a prostitute (Louise Lasser), and becomes disgusted at the antics of a popular televangelist (Andy Kaufman). Richard Pryor, who also appeared in the year's other religious satire, Wholly Moses, has an extended cameo. Despite the comic talent involved, this didn't attract much critical support or business.
Director: Marty Feldman
Willie & Phil--NA/NA/NA/NA--This homage to/remake of Truffant's Jules et Jim starred Michael Ontkean and Ray Sharkey as the titular Willie and Phil, respectively, who after seeing the Truffant film in 1970, find themselves drawn to the same woman (Margot Kidder), and they all find themselves in a decade-long love triangle. Despite being directed by Paul Mazursky, who was coming off An Unmarried Woman, this film attracted little attention.
Director: Paul Mazursky
New Limited Releases:
Ordinary People--$54.8 million/11/89%/86--Robert Redford made a triumphant directorial debut with this family drama about a family trying to recover after duel tragedies. Timothy Hutton, making his feature film debut after several TV projects, played a teenage boy who attempted suicide in the aftermath of his older brother's death. Returning home after a stay at a psychiatric hospital, he is able to reestablish a relationship with his father (Donald Sutherland), but can't connect with his mother (Mary Tyler Moore) who deals with her grief by going deep into denial. Judd Hirsch played Hutton's psychiatrist, with Elizabeth McGovern (also making her film debut) as his girlfriend, M. Emmitt Walsh as a coach, and My Bodyguard's Adam Baldwin as a fellow student. Critics raved about the film, particularly the performances of Moore, whose character was the polar opposite of her sitcom characters, fellow sitcom star Hirsch, and Hutton. The acclaim helped it become a sizable hit, despite the downbeat material. The film would receive six Oscar nominations, including Moore for Best Actress and Hirsch for Supporting Actor, and would win four, for Hutton, beating his co-star for Supporting Actor, the Adapted Screenplay, Director for Redford, and Best Picture.
Director: Robert Redford
Resurrection--$3.9 million/90/NA/NA--After surviving a car accident, albeit with serious injuries, a widow (Ellen Burstyn) discovers she has the power to heal others with just a touch. While she is happy to share her gift, she refuses to attribute it to God or any kind of religion, which causes her fundamentalist new boyfriend (Sam Shepard) distress. Veteran stage actress Eva Le Gallienne played her grandmother, and Robert Farnsworth played a friendly gas station attendant. The film got mixed reviews and didn't attract much box office, but it was remembered at Oscar time, as Burstyn was nominated for Actress and La Gallienne for Supporting Actress.
Director: Daniel Petrie
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