Julianne Moore is saddled with protecting her troubled daughter Sydney Sweeney in the crime thriller Echo Valley from director Michael Pearce. It begins showing on Apple TV+ tomorrow after a limited theatrical bow last weekend. Costars include Domhnall Gleeson, Kyle MacLachlan, and Fiona Shaw.
Critics are mostly not high on Valley with a 50% Rotten Tomatoes rating and 55 Metacritic. Despite the presence of five-time nominee and one-time Academy recipient Moore and the popular Ms. Sweeney, this is receiving scant buzz. Nevertheless it could do just fine via its streaming route, but this is not an awards pic. My Oscar Predictions posts will continue…
Netflix looks for family audiences to be in the holiday spirit when That Christmas begins streaming on December 4th. This is Locksmith Animation’s second animated feature after 2021’s Ron’s Gone Wrong. Simon Otto directs with a screenplay cowritten by Richard Curtis, the rom com guru behind Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, and Love Actually. Voiceover work is provided by Brian Cox, Fiona Shaw, Jodie Whittaker, and Bill Nighy.
The Yuletide comedy premiered at the London Film Festival and reaction is split at 50% on Rotten Tomatoes. With that kind of response, I doubt Netflix will mount much of an attempt at an Animated Feature campaign. They stand a much stronger chance with Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
After massive box office success with the two A Quiet Place horror pics, John Krasinski is in family mode when IF debuts Friday. Combining live-action with animation, Ryan Reynolds headlines the human cast with a ginormous list of familiar faces voicing imaginary friends from Steve Carell to Emily Blunt to George Clooney to Matt Damon and Bradley Cooper and many more.
The review embargo is up and reaction is mixed. With a 59% RT score, any awards prospects are shaky. The one exception could be Visual Effects, but I don’t even think it’s guaranteed to make the shortlist (let alone the final five). In other words, putting this anywhere in your Academy forecast represents a big… well, you know. My Oscar Prediction posts will continue…
Paramount is banking on John Krasinski’s latest directorial project to make lots of noise at multiplexes when IF debuts on May 17th. Mixing live-action with animation, the comedy’s real-life cast consists of Ryan Reynolds, Cailey Fleming, Fiona Shaw, Alan Kim, Liza Colón-Zayas, Bobby Moynihan, and Krasinski himself. The sprawling list of performers providing voiceover work includes the filmmaker’s Office costar Steve Carell, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Krasinski’s spouse Emily Blunt, the late Louis Gossett Jr., Matt Damon, Maya Rudolph, Jon Stewart, Sam Rockwell, Sebastian Maniscalco, Christopher Meloni, Richard Jenkins, Awkwafina, Blake Lively, George Clooney, Matthew Rhys, Bradley Cooper, Amy Schumer, Keegan-Michael Key, and Vince Vaughn.
Handling screenplay duties as well, this is a far cry from the director’s A Quiet Place pics. The summer’s first feature geared toward families, this should capitalize on the absence of genre material in the marketplace (it’s been two months since Kung Fu Panda 4). The title, by the way, stands for Imaginary Friend.
The chance for this to rise above expectations seems real. I think it could make $50 million for starters. It could also start out slowly and hope for decent legs in subsequent weekends. A worst case scenario could be $25-30 million. I’m giving it $35-40 million out of the gate.
IF opening weekend prediction: $38.3 million
For my The Strangers: Chapter 1 prediction, click here:
Mille Bobby Brown has battled plenty of otherworldly creatures on Netflix’s smash Stranger Things or Godzilla, King of the Monsters. In Enola Holmes, she fights with her wits inherited from her revolutionary minded mum and world famous brother. I suspect she’ll solve plenty more mysteries for the streaming pleasure of its young and female target audience.
Based on a series of novels from Nancy Springer, Brown’s title character is the youngest in her family. Dad has passed and her two older brothers are long gone. Mom Eudoria (Helena Bonham Carter) spends her days teaching Enola skills including martial arts and decoding. They come in handy when Eudoria vanishes on her daughter’s 16th birthday. The disappearance is not sweetened when it seems the matriarch has left on purpose.
This puts Enola back in contact with her siblings. Mycroft (Sam Claflin) is a stuffy politico now serving as her ward. He wants to send her to finishing school to sand down the rough edges. The middle child is the superstar of the clan (no Jan Brady issues here). That would be Sherlock Holmes (Henry Cavill) who’s distant from the brood due to all his investigative commitments.
Enola isn’t about to spend her days learning how to be a “proper” lady so she hits the road in search of Eudoria. Leaving some breadcrumbs as to her whereabouts, the trail leads to London where she may be part of a rogue women’s suffrage group. It’s the late 19th century and this is the center of political upheaval.
It turns out Enola has more capers to consider. She’s introduced to Viscount Tewkesbury (Louis Partridge) on the journey. The teenage British royal is on the run as someone is trying to kill him. He’s introduced to Enola hiding in an overhead bag on a train as he nearly falls on her. They soon fall for each other.
The dual cases of the Missing Mother and Tewkesbury becoming a Missing Person fill an overstuffed two hours. Brown carries the material even though neither mystery is particularly absorbing. She also talks to and mugs for the camera… a lot. As in probably too much. Sherlock is relegated to the sideline in this tale of his little sister harnessing her girl power. This might be an elementary introduction to her, but it’s got appeal.
The first major distribution deal at the Sundance Film Festival transpired this weekend when Bleecker Street and 30WEST acquired the rights to Colette. The biopic focuses on acclaimed French novelist Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette, played by Keira Knightley in a performance that has critics raving. Costars include Dominic West and Fiona Shaw. The pic is directed by Wash Westmoreland, who last helped guide Julianne Moore to a Best Actress Oscar in StillAlice.
It’s safe to assume the studios who payed for Colette will be making a push for Knightley to nab her second nomination after PrideandPrejudice in 2005. Her inclusion will depend on the competition over the next year and how well the film is marketed to audiences.
Bottom line: there’s enough buzz out of Utah to justify Knightley as one to watch in 2018.
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