Two very different indies circling a cantor and slasher debut in moderate to wide release along with a handful of limited openings from Close Your Eyes to Paradise Is Burning on this late summer weekend with the fall festival season about to kick off.
Sony Pictures Classics launches Jason Schwartzman and Carol Kane-starring Between The Temples on 576 screens. Directed by Nathan Silver, written by Silver and C. Mason Wells with Schwartzman as a cantor losing his voice, and maybe his faith. His world turns upside down when his grade school music teacher (Kane) re-enters his life as his new adult Bat Mitzvah student. SPC acquired the thoughtful comedy out of Sundance. Also stars Robert Smigel (Leo), Madeline Weinstein (Beach Rats), and Matthew Shear (Mistress America). It played Sundance and Berlin to strong reviews (sits at 87% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes) and made its New York debut at Tribeca.
Veteran producer Bob Yari’s new production and distribution company Magenta Light Studios opens the very well reviewed slasher horror Strange Darling from writer-director J.T. Mollnerin on 1,133 screens. Stars Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner in standout performances amid a glut of horror as genre, when it’s good, can really clean up. Nothing is what it seems in this slasher when a twisted one-night stand spirals into a serial killer’s vicious murder spree.
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Limited openings: Film Movement debuts Victor Erice’s Close Your Eyes at the Film Forum in NYC, the Gene Siskel (Chicago) and the Lightbox (Toronto).
The first feature in 30 years from the celebrated Spanish director of The Spirit of the Beehive is a semi-autobiographical journey through memory, identity and absence. Stars Manolo Solo (Pan’s Labyrinth), Jose Coronado, and Anna Torrent (The Spirit of the Beehive).
Set in contemporary Madrid, an aging filmmaker named Miguel Garay is called upon to recount his memories of working on his final and still unfinished film, The Farewell Gaze. During production, the lead actor and Miguel’s close friend, Julio Arenas, disappeared without a trace, leaving in his wake a mystery that would haunt the lives of everyone associated with the film. Miguel never directed again, instead living a quiet life as a writer by the coast. He remained reluctant to unravel the mystery surrounding Julio until approached by an investigative television program reviving the case decades later. With careful reflection, he reconnects with the film’s crew, former lovers, and Julio’s daughter, seeking closure for the disappearance and what it meant for all of their lives.
Close Your Eyes – 93% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes — premiered in Cannes before playing Toronto and NYFF. It was awarded best film awaiting distribution from the National Society of Film Critics before it was picked up.
Mika Gustafson’s debut feature Paradise Is Burning from Room 8 Films opens at IFC Center in New York, adding Laemmle Royal and Glendale in LA September 6 followed by other markets. At 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, it won the Best Director and Best Screenwriter awards in Horizons at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival and Best First Feature award at the BFI Film Festival last year. The emotional drama navigates the complexities of society and family in working-class Swedish suburbia through the lens of three sisters – sixteen-year-old Laura (Bianca Delbravo), twelve-year-old Mira (Dilvin Asaad), and seven-year-old Steffi (Safira Mossberg), left to their own devices by their absent mother.
Belgian noir comedy The Other Laurens from Yellow Veil Pictures opens in NYC (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Lower Manhattan) LA (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Downtown Los Angeles) and Austin (Alamo Drafthouse Cinema South Lamar).
World premiered at Cannes Directors’ Fortnight 2023 and had its North American premiere at Fantastic Fest 2023. Took the Grand Prix at the Brussels International Film Festival 2023 as well as Best Actor for Olivier Rabourdin. He plays a shaggy dog private investigator eking out an existence one seedy adultery case at a time until turning his attention to the cause of his estranged twin brother’s death in a ruthless shady world steeped in vibrant neon imagery on the Franco-Spanish border.
Paramount+ in partnership with Iconic Events Releasing is releasing Yariv Mozer’s We Will Dance Again, examining Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, at LA’s Laemmle Encino for a week-long Oscar qualifying run, ahead of advanced event screenings on Friday, August 29 and Sunday, September 1, in select theaters nationwide. The documentary focuses on the Nova Music Festival where thousands of young people became one of the first targets of Hamas’ deadly terror attack.
I like It Here, a documentary by Ralph Arlyck (Following Sean), opens at the Firehouse: DCTV in New York with additional cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Boston to follow in the fall. Argot Entertainment is distributing the film, winner of the International Critics Prize at the Thessaloniki Documentary Festival, and official selection at Palm Springs, Santa Barbara, True/Falls, San Francisco and New York Jewish festivals and numerous other international fests.
Arlyck, who spent a lifetime filming the people he’s close to and the things he sees, wanders through his upstate New York neighborhood and his own past, taking stock of where he’s been and where he’s going as he approaches 80, pulling together decades of footage into this eloquent personal essay.
Alien romantic comedy The Becomers from Dark Star Pictures about body-snatching alien lovers trying to find their way in modern America, opens at Cinema Village. The latest film from indie filmmaker Zach Clark (Little Sister, White Reindeer), it premiered at last year’s Fantasia International Film Festival and currently sits at 100% on Rotten Tomatoes. Stars Molly Plunk, Keith Kelly, Isabel Alamin and Frank V. Ross with narration by Russell Mael, lead singer of the renowned musical duo Sparks.
Adds LA’s Lumiere Music Hall next week, and Chicago (Music Box Theaters) Sep 13.
Strand Releasing opens Japanese drama I’ll Be Your Mirror at New York’s IFC Center, adding Laemmle Glendale in LA next week. Written and directed by Bradley Rust Grey, stars Carla Juri, Takashi Ueno, Issey Ogata, Gustaf Skarsgärd, and Sachiko Ohshima. Premiered at Sundance 2022 and has floated in release limbo for a bit. After the death of her husband, a young woman travels to Japan where she finds solace in an old friend. But when his comforting turns to affection, she realizes she must give herself permission before she can fall in love again. Rust Gray will be in New York this weekend to intro and Q&A the film.
Dark Sky Films low-budget Beyond Fest-premiering twisty horror Hostile Dimensions from writer-director (and star) Graham Hughes (Death Of A Vlogger), opens in limited release. Two documentary filmmakers are investigating the disappearance of a graffiti artist who seemingly vanished. As they delve deeper into their research, they encounter an ominous freestanding door which leads them on a dark journey through the dimensions behind it. With Stephen Beavis, Cedric Gall, Paddy Kondracki, Annabel Logan, Josie Rogers, Andy Stewart and Joma West.