For those of us who love movies, the math is grim. There’s just not enough time to see all the good films in the world. And if you’re the old-fashioned type who still likes to see newly released feature films in their natural habitat, the theater, then the time crunch gets even worse.
That’s why it’s useful to have a sense of the elusive industry commodity known as buzz, that abstract accretion of excitement that sometimes attaches itself to upcoming films. With art-house and indie movies especially, buzz tends to be genuine and loud and come from early festival showings. Authentic buzz like this can help you find the new movie you really need to see.
As it happens, we have an excellent case in point this month with the independent film Anora, which is generating the kind of buzz you can safely rely on: effusive, specific, and pretty much unanimous.
Winner of the coveted Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival in May, Anora tells the story of a Manhattan sex worker and the wealthy scion of a powerful and dangerous Russian crime family. It’s a love story, essentially, with elements of slapstick, high drama, screwball sex comedy, modern fairy tale, and transactional romance.
The writer/director is Sean Baker (Red Rocket), who specializes in stories about marginalized people. The female lead is played by this season’s nuclear-grade It Girl, Mikey Madison (FX’s Better Things), whose performance is said to be amazing. Check out the excellent red-band trailer (NSFW) for a sense of it all.
Another buzzy indie making the rounds in local theaters is Rumours, a Canadian production that lands at the perfect moment, down here, in what’s left of America. It’s a dark comedy with a rather stimulating premise: What if the world’s vapid and corrupt leaders, at the annual G7 summit, were menaced by a supernatural fog, a giant disembodied brain, and masturbating bog zombies?
Clearly, this is the single best movie premise of the year. The mix of comedy, horror, and hallucinatory events dovetails nicely with the zeitgeist just now.
Rumours is being hawked as Night of the Living Dead meets Dr. Strangelove—a zombie movie with elements of political satire and some romantic farce dynamics. Cate Blanchett leads the international ensemble cast, with Charles Dance, Nikki Amuka-Bird, and Alicia Vikander as secretary-general of the European Commission.
Anora and Rumours are slated to play locally in art-house theaters, but if you need a multiplex option, this season’s big movie musical is a safe bet. Wicked is the first of a two-part adaptation of the famous stage musical, which is in turn based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel, which is itself a riff on the famous 1939 film The Wizard of Oz. Full circle!
Anyway, the early reviews are glowing. This is the kind of full-spectrum extravaganza that traditional Hollywood can do so well. Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande star as Elphaba and Glinda, respectively, and critics say both are likely to get Oscar nominations.
Quick Picks
Luther Vandross, generally considered the greatest R&B vocalist of all time, gets the full-length documentary treatment with Luther: Never Too Much, a big hit at this year’s Full Frame festival in Durham.
British director Steve McQueen returns with Blitz, a historical war drama set in London circa 1941. Saoirse Ronan plays a desperate mother looking for her son as the bombs fall. McQueen + Ronan = pretty much a sure thing.
Memoir of a Snail is an Australian stop-motion animated film that’s getting great reviews overseas. It looks weird and funny and heavy and lovely—find the trailer online. Note: not for kids!
Jesse Eisenberg writes, directs, and stars in the independent comedy-drama A Real Pain, concerning two cousins on a family quest in Poland. Support your local multihyphenate!
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