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A female soldier with a stern look in her face makes up this sparse poster for Kirby Dick's The Invisible War
The American military has a colossal problem with rapes inside its institutions, which are not addressed appropriately.
The Invisible War is written and directed by great Arizonian filmmaker Kirby Dick(Men Who Are Men (1981)), with additional writing by Douglas Blush (The S Word (2017, documentary)) and Amy Ziering (The Hunting Ground (2015, documentary)).
Strongly focused on the many victims of rape in the US military, The Invisible War is a truly horrible experience. Strong subjects show how idealistic young women may suffer hard fates in the officer-dictated system of hush hush and male privilege. Male victims and the perpetrators are almost completely missing.
The Invisible War is an instructive, activist documentary, which managed to inspire a real legislative change for the benefit of millions of privates after it.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 450k $
Box office: 71k $
= Box office disaster (returned 0.15 times its cost)
[The Invisible War premiered 20 January (Sundance Film Festival) and runs 97 minutes. The film opened #55 to a 16k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it did not achieve a higher rank although it widened to 7 theaters, grossing 71k $. The film did not get general releases in other markets. It was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to Searching for Sugar Man. The film also won an Independent Spirit award and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Roger Ebert gave it a 3/4 star review, translating to a notch under this one. It inspired changes in the American defense in how it deals with rape charges. Dick returned with The Hunting Ground (2015, documentary). The Invisible War is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A huge-sized title and James Baldwin's human stare resting atop makes up this poster for Raoul Peck's I Am Not Your Negro
African-American activist and writer James Baldwin was a sensitive, intelligent, enormously eloquent man, whose expressions on racism in America still resound today.
I Am Not Your Negro is written, co-produced and directed by Raoul Peck (Haitian Corner (1987)). It is based on Baldwin's unfinished, 30-page novel manuscript entitled Remember This House.
Presented as a documentary essay, the film shows us three central friends of Baldwin; Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Medgar Evers, who were all assassinated for their racial and civil rights activism. Sharply and with a ripe sense of grief their time is portrayed, and straight lines are drawn from this era to the current police murders and Black Lives Matter movement. It is a bitter, bordering on hatefully poisonous image of the US as a morally bankrupt wonderland of the white, which is painted here.
Many aspects are missing in the personal perspective on Baldwin, due to racism being the defining trait in everything in I Am Not Your Negro.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 1 mil. $
Box office: 9.6 mil. $
= Mega-hit (returned 9.6 times its cost)
[I Am Not Your Negro premiered 10 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 95 minutes. The film opened #24 to a 686k $ first weekend in 43 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #15 and in 313 theaters (different weekends), grossing 7.1 mil. $ (74 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were France with 480k $ (5 %) and the Netherlands with 214k $ (2.2 %). The film was nominated for the Best Documentary Oscar, lost to O.J.: Made in America. It also won a BAFTA, a César award and was nominated for an Independent Spirit award, among many other honors. The-Numbers.com assert that the film additionally made in excess of 2.6 mil. $ on the domestic home video market alone. Peck returned with The Young Karl Marx (2017). I Am Not Your Negro is certified fresh at 99 % with an 8.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
An intimate couple in love make up this neat poster for Barry Jenkins' If Beale Street Could Talk
Tish and Fonny are just about to start a family, when he gets arrested for a rape that another man is really guilty of at a time in America (the 1970s) when having black skin was suspicious in itself.
If Beale Street Could Talk is written, co-produced and directed by great Floridian filmmaker Barry Jenkins (Medicine for Melancholy (2008)), adapting the same-titled 1974 novel by James Baldwin (Another Country (1962)).
Jenkins follows up his triumphant breakthrough Moonlight (2016) with a more down-toned, good film, which especially lives on its vivid photography (by James Laxton (Mufasa: The Lion King (2024))) and an exceptional score (by Nicholas Britell (Cruella (2021))), which adds sensual and poetic force to the narrative.
KiKi Layne (Coming 2 America (2021)) is excellent, while Stephan James (Babes (2024)) is slightly mannered and insecure in his acting, but the two look fabulous on each other and are enormously sexy. Regina King (Pariah (2015, TV movie)) is terrific as Tish's movingly caring, warm mother.
Although If Beale Street Could Talk ends up feeling slighter than one had hoped, it pulses with love and affection for its material.
[If Beale Street Could Talk premiered 9 September (Toronto International Film Festival) and runs 117 minutes. Shooting took place around October 2017 in New York and the Dominican Republic. The film opened #23 to a 224k $ first weekend in 4 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #12 and in 1,018 theaters, grossing 14.9 mil. $ (72.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were the UK with 2 mil. $ (9.8 %) and France with 815k $ (4 %). The film was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning Best Supporting Actress (King). It lost Best Adapted Screenplay to Charlie Wachtel, Spike Lee, Kevin Willmott and David Rabinowitz for BlacKkKlansman and Score to Ludwig Göransson for Black Panther. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs, won 1/3 Golden Globe nominations, 3 Independent Spirit awards, 3 National Board of Review awards and an AFI award, among dozens of other honors. Jenkins returned with The Gaze (2021, video), The Underground Railroad (2021, miniseries) and theatrically with Mufasa: The Lion King (2024). Layne returned in Native Son (2019); James in 21 Bridges (2019). If Beale Street Could Talk is certified fresh at 95 % with an 8.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
Militant-looking but spiffily dressed young men against dramatic scenes inserted into the alarming nexus of a hand grenade makes up this effective poster for Lindsay Anderson's If....
We follow the strictly disciplined, odd life in a English public boarding school, where three older students resist the teachings of the institution, led by the rebel Travis.
If.... is written by David Sherwin (Wet Gold (1984, TV movie)), with John Howlett (Touch and Die (1992, TV movie)) contributing story elements, and co-produced and directed by great Indian-born British filmmaker Lindsay Anderson (This Sporting Life (1963)).
The film sparkles with freshness to this day in lovely images (cinematography by Miroslav Ondrícek (Amadeus (1984))), with an abundance of funny and striking scenes. It is a powerful and provocative and violently revolutionary, subversive film. It idolizes Mick Travis, the leading character which Malcolm McDowell (Moving On (2022)) portrays with an awards-worthy turn.
SPOILER Despite the temptation to mostly shake one's head at the perverse school traditions of the English, this film presents contradicting 'heroes' that are just as, - if not a lot more, - terrible, because they finally arrive to the dubious conclusion that the systems faults are sufficient grounds to justify shooting every one in it!
If.... may be the strongest youth revolt film of all, which however also clearly shows the wave's unsympathetic, anarchisticly violent backside. It is odd that Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver mass murderer nearly a decade later, in another pivotal cinematic examination of violence in young males, is also named Travis. Perhaps the lack of a heroic glow around the later Travis character reflects a development towards a more critical stance in the general perception of the societal revolt, led by the young, in the intermediate years.
Watch a trailer for the movie here
Cost: 500k $
Box office: In excess of 5.75 mil. $
= Uncertain but surely a mega-hit (projected return of 14 times its cost)
[If.... was released 19 December (UK) and runs 111 minutes. McDowell was paid 90 £ a week for his performance. Shooting took place from January - March 1968 in England, including in London. For the North American release, male nudity was cut out in order for the film to receive an R rating. Variety reported in January 1970 that the film had earned rentals of 2.3 mil. $, likely from North America alone, which suggests a gross of 5.75 mil. $. The film is described as a hit in the UK, but its actual gross and numbers from other markets are not recorded online regrettably: It didn't attract audiences in Denmark (just 825 tickets sold). A cautious projected total gross of 7 mil. $ is not unlikely. The film was nominated for 2 BAFTAs, won the Palme d'Or in Cannes and was nominated for a Golden Globe. Anderson brought McDowell's Travis character back in two later films, again portrayed by McDowell: O Lucky Man! (1973), - he only directed an episode of Play for Today (1972) in the years between, - and Britannia Hospital (1982). McDowell first returned in The Wednesday Play (1969, TV-series) and theatrically in Figures in a Landscape (1970). If.... is certified fresh at 90 % with a 7.90/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
A dangerous holdup in what appears a criminal underworld environment is presented on this murky poster for Mervyn LeRoy's I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang
After having served military duty in WWI, James Allen returns to civilian status but does not want factory work; he wants to build something new up as an engineer! But following an unfortunate arrest, he is sentenced to 10 years in a chain gang. - He manages to escape! - But his past finds him ...
I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is written by Howard J. Green (The Millionaire (1957, TV-series)) and Brown Holmes (Castle on the Hudson (1940)), with Sheridan Gibney (The Locket (1946)) contributing uncredited work, adapting the autobiographical I Am a Fugitive from a Georgia Chain Gang! (1932) by Robert Elliott Burns, and directed by great Californian filmmaker Mervyn LeRoy (No Place to Go (1927)).
Thoroughly suspenseful, fast-paced, I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang relies on a thrilling story for its success. The woman, who forces a lucrative marriage through by blackmailing our protagonist, is one of the film's exciting, credibly played (by Glenda Farrell (Bonanza (1964, TV-series))), memorable characters. All of it rings 100 % true.
SPOILER A very exciting climax ends up in a shockingly tragic, stirring ending: 'The system can crush a good man' is the icy lesson here. Paul Muni (Hudson's Bay (1940)) is beautiful and outstanding as the hero in this electrical, indignant film.
[I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang premiered 9 November (Washington D.C.) and runs 93 minutes. LeRoy was paid 13.2k $ for his direction of the film. Shooting took place from July - September 1932 in California, including in Los Angeles, with stock footage of Chicago, Illinois also used. The film grossed 650k $ in North America, 40.7 % of the total gross. It was nominated for 3 Oscars, winning none: It lost Best Actor (Muni) to Charles Laughton in The Private Life of Henry VIII, Picture to Cavalcade and Sound to A Farewell to Arms. The film also won 2 National Board of Review awards. It was instrumental in the appeal and release of Burns and "several other chain gang prisoners nationwide in the U.S." in 1933. LeRoy returned with Hard to Handle (1933). Muni returned in The World Changes (1933). I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang is fresh at 96 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang?
A multifaceted and highly exciting poster for Don Siegel's Invasion of the Body Snatchers
A little California town's treasured doctor comes to the neighboring town, apparently psychotic. In his town aliens have overtaken everyone's bodies and made unfeeling pod people out of them!
Invasion of the Body Snatchers is written by Daniel Mainwaring (Convict Stage (1965)), with uncredited contributions by Richard Collins (Spanish Affair (1957)), adapting Jack Finney's (The Night People (1977)) 1955 novel The Body Snatchers, and directed by Illinoisan master filmmaker Don Siegel (The Verdict (1946)), whose 11th feature it was.
A strangely effective and intensely frightening film, masterfully scored (by Carmen Dragon (The Strange Woman (1946))) and with good effects and acting. Is it deliberately (anti-Communist) political? Academic debate about this has persisted. The filmmakers denied for decades, but poignant political meanings have been read into the film for even longer. In any case Invasion of the Body Snatchers is a blood-curdling classic. Paranoia lives in this chiller.
Box office: In excess of 3 mil. $ (North America and the UK alone)
= Mega-hit (projected return of 9.61 times its cost)
[Invasion of the Body Snatchers was released 5 February (North America) and runs 80 minutes. Shooting took place from March - April 1955 in California, including in Los Angeles. The filmmakers fought with the studio over the budget, narration, ending, humor in the film and its aspect ratio. The film made "more than 2.5 mil. $" in North America and 500k $ in the UK. The world gross is not known, but a guess could be that the film made at least 4 mil. $. Siegel returned with Crime in the Streets (1956). Kevin McCarthy (The Misfits (1961)) returned in Star Stage (1956, TV-series), Front Row Center (1956, TV-series) and theatrically in Nightmare (1956); Dana Wynter (Fantasy Island (1979, TV-series)) in Colonel March of Scotland Yard (1956, TV-series) and theatrically in D-Day the Sixth of June (1956). Invasion of the Body Snatchers is certified fresh at 97 % with a 9.00/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Invasion of the Body Snatchers?
The Danish and American flags melt together on this tension-establishing poster for Christina Rosendahl's The Idealist
A radio journalist in Eastern Jutland, Denmark in 1988 latches himself onto a story, which will henceforth define his career: The crash of a US B52 airplane carrying four thermonuclear bombs in Greenland back in 1968, - at a time in which the enormous Northern territory was supposed to be free of nuclear weapons, and the secret aftermath of the affair, in which a large groups of Danes cleaned up the mess and got seriously ill.
The Idealist is written by Lars Kristian Andersen (Flame & Citron/Flammen & Citronen (2008)), Simon Pasternak (Sex, Drugs & Taxation/Spies & Glistrup (2013)), Birgitte Stærmose (Camino (2023)) and great Danish filmmaker, co-writer/director Christina Rosendahl (Supervoksen (2006)). It is based on the actual Thule base scandal.
Rosendahl and Co. have weaved together a surprisingly good and very debate-opening Cold War film here, a journalistic drama with grand political and principal perspectives more so than a thriller perhaps, but it is terrifically thrilling nevertheless, especially for Danes and Greenlanders. But really the conflict here with a giant allied super power in a bind in relation to basically a lilliput nation has much wider relevance, and the lies and weapons race during the Cold War has frightening perspectives and consequences the world over.
Peter Plaugborg (Ditte & Louise (2015-16)) is excellent as Brink, the energetic, idealistic and naive journalist protagonist; and so is Søren Malling (The Promised Land/Bastarden (2023)) as the leader of the clean-up workers, who collaborates with him. Smaller parts are also handled with the foremost professionalism by both Danes and Americans. The story is very large, and it goes around the Greenlanders' position in the matter. In the same way, it remains unclear how Brink in the first case gets onto the scandalous story. The Idealist is still impressively made and exceedingly well edited.
= Box office disaster (returned 0.12 times its cost)
[The Idealist premiered 19 March (Nuuk, Greenland) and runs 114 minutes. The film disappointed at the Danish box office, selling only 39,661 tickets, coming to 372k $. The film was also released in Norway, Brazil and Argentina, likely with tiny results, as these are not reported at Box Office Mojo, where the Danish result figures. The film won 1/10 Robert award nominations, (Denmark's Oscar). Rosendahl returned with Vold i Kærlighedens Navn (2017, documentary) and theatrically with Vores Mand i Amerika (2020). Plaugborg and Malling both returned in The Shamer's Daughter/Skammerens Datter (2015). 1.6k+ IMDb users have given The Idealist a 6.9/10 average rating.]
A grotesque mountain of cash with a suit-wearing man atop, fingers crossed eerily on his back, surrounded by praise, makes up this poster for Charles Ferguson's Inside Job
In five chapters, the film explores and explains the systemic flaws and corruption that led to the 2008 financial crisis in the US, and also how the catastrophic ailments were subsequently (mis)treated.
Inside Job is written by co-writer/co-editor Chad Beck (Time to Choose (2015)), co-writer/co-editor Adam Bolt (Human Nature (2019)) and Californian master filmmaker, co-writer/co-producer/director Charles Ferguson (No End in Sight (2007, documentary)), whose second feature it is.
It is the silver-lined film on the financial crisis to watch, in which Ferguson and Co. coolly and educationally lays bare what happened in the years prior to the debacle, what its results were, and why the guilty parties still roam free. Inside Job holds a strict focus on the main perpetrators and achieves an impressive amount of statements, some of which makes the rotten villains stand out with clarity in their varied sinful natures.
Inside Job is a role-model documentary, rage-inducing and simply a must watch.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 2 mil. $
Box office: 7.8 mil. $
= Big hit (returned 3.9 times its cost)
[Inside Job premiered 2 February (Belgium) and runs 108 minutes. Shooting took place in Iceland, France, England, China, Singapore, Florida, New York and Washington DC. The film opened #50 to a 39k $ first weekend in 2 theaters in North America, where it peaked at #18 and in 250 theaters, grossing 4.3 mil. $ (55.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Spain with 862k $ (11.1 %) and France with 669k $ (8.6 %). The film won the Best Documentary Oscar and a National Board of Review award, among other honors. Ferguson returned with Time to Choose (2015, documentary). Inside Job is certified fresh at 98 % with an 8.20/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
+ Best Action Comedy of the Year + Best American Movie of the Year + Best Mega-flop Movie of the Year + Best Satire of the Year
With a hilarious top center tag-line, this USSR propaganda styled poster for Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogen's The Interview sells the movie brilliantly
One of America's most popular, - but fairly unintelligent, - talk show hosts manages to secure an interview with North Korea's fabled Communist dictator, who is a fan. But the CIA feel that the opportunity needs to result in the demise of the notorious villain!
The Interview is written by Dan Sterling (South Park (1997-98)), with great British Columbian filmmakers, co-writer/co-producer/co-director Evan Goldberg and co-writer/co-producer/co-director/co-star Seth Rogen (This Is the End (2013), both) contributing story elements.
The Interview is a Dr. Strangelove (1964) reminiscent adventure that's closer to reality than most would care to admit. It is not only a party to watch, it is also a very unique film, and one whose like you'll never see again, due to the dire ramifications for Sony it incurred, (read about those in the section under the trailer.)
This is an extremely ludicrous and insane comedy, - and you can argue that the enormous controversy it caused makes it less foolish. Because it obviously hit a tender nerve, (in North Korea), and hit it bull's eye.
James Franco (The Disaster Artist (2017)) is permanently keyed up, and Rogen is also a bowl of fun as the odd team heading to the normally hermetically sealed dictatorship. Diana Bang's (Fast Layne (2019, TV-series)) performance as the North Korean Sook, whom Rogen's TV producer falls for, is off the charts. The Interview is a patriotic, freedom-loving kick in the nuts for Kim Jong Un and mad dictators everywhere. It is a howl, and you need to watch it!
= Mega-flop theatrically but may have become profitable in the end
[The Interview premiered 11 December (Los Angeles) and runs 112 minutes. The original script centered on Kim Jong Il, but the project only gained traction after his 2011 death, at which point it was rewritten to focus on his son, the current president of North Korea. Rogen was paid 8.4 mil. $ for his work on the film; Franco got 6.5 mil. $. Shooting took place from October - December 2013 in New York and British Columbia, including in Vancouver. The script was obtained by the North Korean regime, who began sending threats to distributor Sony, who made minor alterations of the film in response. But the threats got worse and were followed up by a massive hack of Sony Entertainment on 24 November, leaking personal e-mails, films and sensitive records to the public, while threats of terrorist attacks against cinemas screening the film increased the pressure further, to the point that cinema chains backed away from distributing the film and Sony eventually pulled the plug on their wide release plan. Marketing was already advanced, and around 30 mil. $ were apparently spent for this purpose. The (North Korean) hackers now switched focus more to the White House and President Barack Obama, who were against Sony's curtailed release. They eventually released the film in a few hundred cinemas (3,000+ had been the original plan), and it opened #16, its peak position, to a 1.7 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 6.1 mil. $ (52.1 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Germany with 1.8 mil. $ (15.4) and Australia with 935k $ (8 %). The derailed distribution was improved by almost 6 mil. online rentals within less than a month, netting 40 mil. $. The film also made in excess of 7.6 mil. $ on North American home video releases. It was also licensed to Netflix, and Sony may likely have been collecting insurance compensation for the shelved wide release, so it is likely that it has made Sony money by now. Goldberg and Rogen returned with many short, video and TV credits but has not released a feature as directors since The Interview. Rogen returned as an actor in Broad City (2015, TV-series), Kroll Show (2013-15) and theatrically in Steve Jobs (2015); Franco in I Think You're Totally Wrong: A Quarrel (2014), which he also directed. The Interview is rotten at 51 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
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