I shall honestly try not to complain about the studios weird habit of shoving everything into one month of the year this year. I shall honestly try! I know the complaint is as tired as their inability to think outside of the Christmas Box. This post is brought to you by tonight's news that Sony Pictures Classic will open Foxcatcher, the true crime story of Olympic wrestler brothers and the schizophrenic who murdered one of them, the same day as their other Oscar hopeful The Past (December 20th) from Oscar winning Iranian director Asghar Farhadi. This post was also brought to you by the sorry news that Spike Jonze's fascinating looking Her was recently pushed back to December, too, despite looking like a perfect fall title... like a Lost in Translation kind of moodpiece that could really use some air on both sides of it to breathe a little in the imagination.
Herewith the current schedule for the last month of the year so save up your pennies and let your friends and family know you won't be available for their parties and reunions because Hollywood is greedy-greedy-greedy and Scrooge-like. They want ALL your money and your time at the tail end of the year. Unless you wanna just wait until February and try to catch up after the Oscar nominations. That's so much less fun, damnit! See, I'm not a velvet rope kind of person. I don't believe in exclusivity when it comes to the movies. I want everyone invited to the Oscar discussion party. Not just people who do showbiz as their work or have lots of free time in December and happen to live in New York or Los Angeles. (sigh)
two musicals kick off holiday movie season: Black Nativity and Frozen
Thanksgiving Weekend
BLACK NATIVITY
FROZEN
GRACE OF MONACO - expanding in December
MANDELA: LONG WALK TO FREEDOM - expanding in December
December 6th
DALLAS BUYERS CLUB
INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS -- expanding for Christmas
OUT OF THE FURNACE
Dave and Mark Schultz... to be played by Mark Ruffalo & Channing Tatum in "Foxcatcher"December 13th
AMERICAN HUSTLE --expanding for Christmas
THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SEMI-COLON FILM TITLES
SAVING MR BANKS -- expanding for Christmas
December 18th-20th
HER -- going wide in January
THE MONUMENTS MEN
THE PAST -- expanding in January
FOXCATCHER -- expanding in January
December 25th
AUGUST: OSAGE COUNTY
LABOR DAY -- expanding in January
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN (Ralph Fiennes directing) -- expanding in January
THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY
That's it. That was my last ever rant this year about December glutting!
The point is to really embrace and enjoy the serious movies that open before the holidays. They are rare beasts that deserve your love. In fact, go pledge yourself to Blue Jasmine again!