Magazine Dreams, which premiered at Sundance in 2023, had a long road to the big screen but arrived this weekend, along with Sami Raimi-produced Locked, sci-fi horror Ash, SXSW 2024 Audience and Grand Jury Award-winner Bob Trevino Likes It and Being Maria, a biopic of Last Tango In Paris actress Maria Schneider.
We’ll see. Last weekend was a box office dud and this one looks quiet too as audiences seems to have forgotten they really liked going to movies last fall.
Magazine Dreams, by writer-director Elijah Bynum, after months in the wilderness found a home with Briarcliff Entertainment, which is opening the film at 815 theaters. This will test the Jonathan Majors bodybuilding psychodrama that debuted at Sundance in 2023 but was derailed by abuse accusations against its star after winning the U.S. Dramatic Special Jury Award for Creative Vision and a distribution deal with Searchlight Pictures, which dropped it. The actor was ultimately found guilty of two misdemeanor counts of assault and harassment against his ex-girlfriend Grace Jabbari, who said Majors attacker her in the back of an SUV. He was ordered to undergo a year-long counseling program but avoided jail time.
The Creed III actor also played the villain Kang the Conqueror in the Loki TV series and the 2023 movie Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania and had beenb expected to appear in more films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) but he was dropped from the role after his conviction.
Last fall, Jabbari withdrew a civil suit accusing the Marvel actor of assault and defamation.
Briarcliff, which is becoming known for taking on hard cases after releasing the Sebastian Stan-starring Donald Trump biopic The Apprentice last year — picked up the film in December.
Majors has been on a press tour to promote it, including an appearance on The Sherri Shepherd Show that moved the host to tears. Stars like Whoopi Goldberg, Matthew McConaughey and Michael B. Jordan have expressed their support for him publicly.
Majors stars as lonely, regimented bodybuilder Killian Maddox, who is consumed by his dream of becoming world famous. But his drive for perfection pushes him towards self-destruction as he battles both the limits of his physical body and his own inner demons The film — co-starring Haley Bennett, Taylour Paige and four-time Mr. Universe Mike O’Hearn — explores the lengths one man will go in his haunting quest for recognition in a world that often overlooks him.
Days before the release, Rolling Stone posted an audio leak of an alleged conversation between the actor his ex where Majors appears to admit to being physically abusive to Jabbari.
The Avenue opens suspense-horror Locked by David Yaroveski with Anthony Hopkins and Bill Skarsgaard on 971 screens. From producer Sam Raimi (Evil Dead, Drag Me to Hell). Luxury becomes deadly when Eddie (Skarsgård) breaks into an classy SUV and steps into a deadly trap set by William (Hopkins), a self-proclaimed vigilante delivering his own brand of twisted justice. “With no means of escape, Eddie must fight to survive in a ride where escape is an illusion, survival is a nightmare, and justice shifts into high gear,” as per the press notes Deadline review here.
The Avenue’s last major release was actioner Land Of Bad, which surprised in the top 10 and went on to become one of the biggest independent VOD and streaming hits of the 2024.
IFC Films opens sci-fi horror Ash by director Flying Lotus, written by John Remmler, in wide release on 1,136 screens. On the mysterious planet of Ash, Riya (Eliza González) awakens to find the crew of her space station brutally slaughtered. When a man named Brion (Aaron Paul) arrives to rescue her, an ordeal of psychological and physical terror ensues while Riya and Brion must decide if they can trust one another to survive.
Just premiered at SXSW, see Deadline review.
Magnolia Pictures debuts sci-fi The Assessment by Fleur Fortune in 250 theaters. With Alicia Vikander, Elizabeth Olsen, Himesh Patel and Minnie Driver. Set in the near future where parenthood is strictly controlled, a couple’s seven-day assessment for the right to have a child unravels into a psychological nightmare, forcing them to question the very foundations of their society and what it truly means to be human.
Screenplay by Mrs & Mr Thomas, John Donnelly. Premiered at TIFF in 2024, Deadline review here.
Roadside Attractions is out with SXSW 2024 Audience and Grand Jury Award-winner Bob Trevino Likes in limited release. Directed by Tracie Laymon, with Euphoria’s Barbie Ferreira and John Leguizamo. Playing at two NY and LA locations each, as well as TIFF Lightbox in Toronto. Expands next week.
Inspired by the true story of a friendship Laymon struck when looking for her father online, the film centers on Lily (Ferreira), who longs for a familial connection, having been abandoned by her mother as a child and then by her father in her 20s. A Facebook message to a stranger named Bob (Leguizamo) turns into a friendship that becomes a source of healing for both.
Alain Guiraudie’s Cannes-premiering crime drama-comedy Misericordia in New York and LA, the start of a five city tour by Sideshow/Janus Films.
Guiraudie’s (Stranger by the Lake) latest, set in a woodsy village in his native region of Occitanie, follows the meandering exploits of Jérémie (Félix Kysyl), an out-of-work baker who has drifted back to his hometown after the death of his beloved former boss, a bakery owner. Staying long after the funeral, the seemingly benign Jérémie begins to casually insinuate himself into his mentor’s family, including his kind-hearted widow (Catherine Frot) and venomously angry son (Jean-Baptiste Durand), while befriending an oddly cheerful local priest (Jacques Develay).
Nominated for 8 César Awards, named as the best of 2024 by Cahiers du Cinema, and a finalist for France’s entry to the Academy Awards.
Kino Lorber drama Being Maria, a biopic of Last Tango In Paris actress Maria Schneider, opens at the Quad in NY. Adds the Nuart in LA next week. Stars Anamaria Vartolomei (Happening) as Schneider and Matt Dillon as Marlon Brando.
Directed by Jessica Palud, who co-wrote the screenplay with Laurette Polmanss. The film is inspired by Schneider’s cousin Vanessa Schneider’s 2018 book on the life of the actress, who, at 19, was cast in the notorious 1973 sexual drama by Bernardo Bertolucci
Premiered at Cannes. Deadline’s review notes that “Long before MeToo and the focus on treatment of women in Hollywood, Schneider became an advocate for actresses caught up in similar situations like she was: a newcomer who was exploited by the powerful males in charge, in this case by both Brando and particularly Bertolucci, who deviated from the script without telling Schneider, resulting in at least one improvised scene that bordered on rape, as seen in retrospect by the young and inexperienced female lead.”
The film — which had its New York premiere last week at Rendez-Vous with French Cinema — begins shortly before unknown Schneider is cast opposite Brando. It follows the collaboration between the three artists closely, a collaboration which seems to be one of trust and experimentation before the now-infamous assault scene in the movie crosses a line.
