Iain Glen, Ser Jorah Mormont in Game Of Thrones, is feisty as ever as a family man facing down the tumultuous start of World War I in The Last Front by Belgian filmmaker Julien Hayet-Kerknawi, the first release by his new indie label Enigma. It opens on 250 screens.
Metrograph Pictures is out with Good One, its first title since expanding into theatrical releasing under the leadership of former A24 executive David Laub. The debut feature by India Donaldson has great reviews at 96% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes and starts in limited release on three screens in New York and LA.
The theatrical market is pretty complicated right now and original independent films have fewer champions. These new indie distributors — and there are others — see a necessity and a business proposition in nurturing them.
“There is still very much an audience for these movies when they are really good,” Laub tells MyRumors.
He and his team have been busy, picking up seven titles this year, six announced including Santosh, Gazer and The Kingdom out of Cannes, The Black Sea from SXSW and the Berlinale’s Meanwhile On Earth.
“All are movies that we are very passionate about and believe that given the right campaign and right release strategy, and put in front of the right people, can have success,” Laub says. “There is still very much an audience for these movies when they are really good.”
Good One world premiered at Sundance in the U.S. Narrative Competition and stars newcomer Lily Collias alongside James Le Gros (Showing Up, Drugstore Cowboy) and Danny McCarthy (The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, HBO’s Somebody, Somewhere). Written and directed by Donaldson, who also served as producer.
Collias is 17-year-old Sam setting out on a backpacking trip in the Catskills with her dad and his oldest friend. As the two men settle into a gently quarrelsome brotherly dynamic, airing long-held grievances, Sam, wise beyond her years, attempts to mediate. But when lines are crossed and her trust is betrayed, tensions reach a fever pitch. Sam struggles with her dad’s emotional limitations and experiences the universal moment when the parental bond is tested.
“It’s a remarkable debut for a new filmmaker, not flashy but extremely confident and well done,” Laub say, calling it “a personal, intimate film, which manages to say a lot about many bigger ideas and themes.”
The Last Front, playing at Regals, AMCs and Cinemarks as well arthouse theaters, making it the widest live action opening for a Belgium film in the U.S. Lucas Dhont’s Oscar-nominated Close ended up close to that.
Director Hayet-Kerknawi convinced the big chains by promising by promising “that we would go into a pretty intense social media campaign and really focus on getting the movie out there,” he tells MyRumors. He also booked 90 outdoor billboards this week.
The film is positioned as a smart action thriller and “I emphasized that [Iain] Glen is such a legend it would resonate with American audiences and it might be worth a shot.” He hopes enough tickets will sell to support it “for multiple weeks”.
Enigma’s mission is to send European indies Stateside although most will be in English like The Last Front, or in Spanish, or both, said Hayet-Kerknawi.
Glen stars as patriarch Leonard Lambert, a devoted husband and father who grapples with protecting his family amidst the chaos of war as German forces advance to their village. Also stars James Downie, Sasha Luss, Joe Anderson, Emma Dupont, David Calder and Julian Kostove.
Written by Hayet-Kerknawi and Kate Wood.
Other limited releases: Gabriel Byrne stars as iconic Irish writer Samuel Beckett in the biopic Dance First from Magnolia Pictures, opening on 20 screens. The film by UK director James March closed the San Sebastian Film Festival. With French actress Sandrine Bonnaire as Beckett’s wife. Titled after Beckett’s famous ethos “dance first, think later,” this is a sweeping account of the literary icon, resistance fighter, bon vivant and recluse, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1969.
MORE to come…