Supersized "Nomadland"... what will Searchlight do for a follow up?
Thursday, January 21, 2021 at 10:00PM by Nathaniel R
Click for the full illustrated new poster
The prolongued 2020 Oscar season is going to make 2021 weird, isn't it. Take Nomadland, for instance, which is just a smidge over HALFWAY through its long trek to Oscar night after its September bow). Hopefully the Biden Administration can figure out a way to speed up vaccine distribution and we can all get back to our favourite pasttime -- MOVIEGOING -- by summer 2021 when the new stuff starts arriving. Alas, that's too late to enjoy Nomadland on IMAX screens, beginning January 29th, which frankly sounds like heaven to us after watching it on a bad streaming link with a watermark across it.
Though Nomadland is not my #1 film of the year -- top ten list coming in a few days! -- there isn't a single film from 2020 that I'd rather see on the most gigantic screen possible. Joshua James Richards' cinematography and the beautifully aged resilient face of Frances McDormand deserve it.
After Nomadland's Oscar run, whether or not it wins the biggest prize in Hollywood, here's what Searchlight (now owned by Disney) will be releasing in 2021...
We hope it goes well because it will be doubly sad if Disney shutters erases Searchlight in the way they seem to be intent on disappearing 20th Century Fox (except for the IP they really wanted in the first place like the franchises and The Sound of Music).
JULY 16th
The Night House
Rebecca Hall plays a widow uncovering secrets about her husband. This was a horror hit at Sundance a full year ago and Searchlight bought it for a hefty $12 million.
SEPTEMBER 24th
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
Andrew Garfield and Jessica Chastain play the famous televangelist couple Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker in this true story from Michael Showalter (The Big Sick). It shot in the fall of 2019 as you can see in the report from North Carolina above (with a couple of glimpses of Jessica and Andrew... who look like thy're filming scenes prior to the couple's massive fame since Jessica isn't it recognizable Tammy Faye drag)
OCTOBER 29TH
Antlers
Scott Cooper is back with a creature feature thriller starring Kerri Russell, Jesse Plemons, and Jeremy T Thomas. (For as long as we've been alive we've never understood scary movies opening just a couple of days before Halloween or worse, ON Halloween itself. Wouldn't you want more time to earn money during the brief window when people are thinking about scary movies constantly and going to haunted houses and being festive and such?)
DECEMBER 3RD
Nightmare Alley
Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Toni Collette, and Rooney Mara star in Guillermo del Toro's remake of the terrific 1947 noir starring Tyrone Power, Helen Walker, and Joan Blondell. Those are sensational roles for some very good actors so we cross our fingers that del Toro makes it work.
Are you excited for these pictures? Do you have high Oscar hopes for Tammy Faye or Nightmare Alley?
Reader Comments (12)
I'm praying that whenever movie theaters re-open, they show nomadland and minari, even if its post-oscars. Really want to big-screen those 2.
Mike: I'm sure they will. They'd be crazy not to make an event out of all those films you didn't get to see on the big screen...
They just pushed No Time to Die to October. Fucking pandemic.
I think bathhouses are my most missed and favorite past time, but moviegoing is a close second.
CAROL 2 looks amazing!
NOMADLAND is stunning on a big screen, it's true. However, this IMAX thing? It wasn't filmed on IMAX. They're just going to be projecting it a little bigger, yeah? These fake IMAX screens that America have make no damn sense to me. I know people hated it, but the sheer experience of TENET in IMAX was incredible (as all Nolan's films are in that regard).
I know it won't happen, but I would love to hear your feedback about my #1 film of the year (so far), "Unfortunate Stories" (Historias Lamentables) by Spanish genius Javier Fesser, it's on Amazon Prime Video (included). It has been outrageously ignored by the Spanish Goyas (only 3 noms: New Actor, Original Screenplay and Visual Effects) but that is kind of expected after Fesser winning last year with his worst film (Campeones) and being normally ignored when he goes to his full personal comedic style. I still consider Fesser superior to Spielberg on almost every field, and Historias Lamentables I find it so well constructed, so deep in themes and basically, maybe, the film "Crash" (2005) should have been.
Can not wait to watch!
I've been avoiding watching a lot of the latest releases, naively hoping that if theaters re-open, they will be given some sort of special theatrical release. It would be a great gift to filmmakers, and to movie lovers. I'm not confident it will happen, but perhaps in NYC it might.
I still struggle with the absence of theaters, and the fact that so many potentially great movie experiences this year were missed. I can't bring myself to watch a lot of these new releases at home in my apartment. To borrow from Manohla Dargis, I treat my television like just another appliance in my home. Like the blender. It's on in the background, but it's not the movie theater experience.
Also here for Carol 2 !
I predict that Minari is your #1 film of the year.
I, too, hope my local arthouse shows Nomadland once it reopens. And I hope I get to see Tammy Faye and Nightmare Alley on a big screen (if we can't safely go to movies next December... oof).
Antlers why probably not an acting showcase is 1 of my most anticipated as the short story is so scary and plus Jesse Plemons is in it.