Opening This Week: 1917, Just Mercy, Like a Boss, Underwater
BY SCOTTIE KNOLLIN
Fresh off of its Golden Globe win for Best Picture, Drama, Sam Mendes’ 1917 opens wide across the country. Featuring impressive cinematography from Roger Deakins, the film takes audiences into the trenches of World War I, complete with a style that makes the film look and feel as if it is one single shot.
George MacKay stars as one of two young British soldiers who are given the mission to cross enemy territory to deliver a message that will hopefully stop a deadly attack on hundreds of British soldiers. Mendes and Deakins elevates the typical war genre by infusing state-of-the-art technology into the filmmaking. With clever editing, the young soldiers’ adventure takes place without the camera ever seeming to break.
Critics have praised the film as a technical achievement, while some have brought MacKay’s performance into the forefront.
The film premiered in December before playing a limited release in New York and Los Angeles for the holiday season (and to qualify for the Academy Awards). Earlier this week, it triumphed at the Golden Globe Awards by winning both the Best Director award and the Best Picture, Drama, award. It expected to earn a number of Oscar nominations (set to be announced on Monday, January 13, 2020). The film has also appeared on several end of the year Top Ten lists, including those from publications like Associated Press, The Guardian, Rolling Stone, and The Hollywood Reporter.
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Destin Daniel Cretton’s legal drama, Just Mercy, tells the true-life story of how young attorney Bryan Stevenson (Michael B, Jordan) helped overturn the murder conviction of Walter McMillian (Jamie Foxx). Stevenson’s memoir, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption, serves as the material for the film’s screenplay.
Warner Bros. produced the film, which has received generally positive reviews. Multiple critics called out the performances by the lead cast, which also includes Academy Award winner Brie Larson, as the film’s highlights. When considering today’s current socio political climate, films like Just Mercy not only serve to present lessons learned in the past but hope to continue inspire.
The film premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival last fall before opening in a few cities for the holiday season. Its wide release comes on the heels of Foxx earning a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role.
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Similar to last week’s introduction of The Grudge, Paramount Pictures is choosing the lackluster January release model to distribute its middling comedy Like a Boss. Starring Tiffany Haddish and Rose Byrne as two friends who turn entrepreneurial, the film was originally set to release last summer. Now, with its January 2020 release, the studio is hoping it will fill a void or a niche and become somewhat financially lucrative. Currently, prognosticators are expecting the comedy to earn around $10 million its opening weekend.
So far, few critics have seen the film or written reviews. Chances are, this is a title you can wait to see later, if at all.
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Kristen Stewart stars in William Eubank’s Underwater, a thriller following an underwater research crew who must escape after an earthquake destroys their laboratory. Vincent Cassel and T.J. Miller costar.
This is another film that was produced and slated to be released much earlier. While the studio releasing the film, 20th Century Fox, has acknowledged its delayed release, many assume it’s due to allegations of sexual assault against Miller in late 2017. Miller was also accused, in 2018, of filing a fake bomb threat in New York City. Due to these legal troubles, he was actually removed from last year’s How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World.
Critics, so far, have been pretty mediocre in their reviews, noting that the film never quite finds its stride or knows what it's trying to do.
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January is always a quiet time when it comes to film releases, as studios are calibrating for the upcoming year, watching Sundance for potential purchases, and juggling the final weeks of awards season.
Perhaps use this weekend as the chance to catch up on 2019 titles you’ve missed. View our Cabin Fever guide for where to stream some of the best films of 2019.
