2018 Nominee Watch – August 31st

As we head into the Labor Day weekend and kids get ready to head back to school next week (if they haven't already) we're staring down the barrel of slim offerings at the box office. Kin is the only wide release this weekend but we do have a decent list of limited releases including several with actors including Jeremy Irons, Bruce Willis, and Orlando Bloom.

Any Oscar potential will definitely come from the limited releases this week, if at all.

Happy Labor Day and happy back-to-school!

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Kin
There is an interesting premise for this film which will hopefully be explained by the opening of the film itself. The young boy (Myles Truitt) in the film comes into possession of a powerful alien weapon after apparently witnessing a battle in an abandoned warehouse. He uses the weapon to save his older brother (Jack Reynor) who, fresh out of prison, falls back in with his same friends who are up to no good.

What is not clear from the trailers is the backstory about why the weapon is so powerful, where it came from and who might be looking for it. These are questions that I hope will be answered throughout the film. No doubt there is some twist about the weapon in question that will involve time travel or some other plot device .

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The cast list here includes stars like Dennis Quaid (The Parent Trap, The Day After Tomorrow), James Franco (Spider Man, Milk), and Zoë Kravitz (Divergent, Mad Max: Fury Road), but don't expect any of these performances to earn Oscar nods. This is also the feature directorial debut for directors Jonathan and Josh Baker.

Lastly, if you're interested in a little insight into the feature film, check out the short film that the Bakers made with this same premise four years ago, called "Bag Man." It is available in full on the website www.bagmanshortfilm.com. At only 14 minutes long, it might help you decide if you want to see the feature film this weekend.

Limited Releases

• Active Measures – A documentary look at Russian involvement in destabilizing the world's democracies well beyond the alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.
• An Actor Prepares – A man must take his aging actor father (Jeremy Irons) on a cross-country road trip to make sure he gets to his daughters.
• Alt-Right: Age of Rage – Documentary look at race relations following the massacre in Charlottesville, VA in 2017.
• Big Brother – Donnie Yen (Ip Man, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story) plays a soldier turned high school teacher who can't escape his martial arts past.
• Blood Fest – A group of friends find themselves in a real life horror film when they attend a "horror festival."
• Boarding School – Horror film about a group of children sent to a school for special youths but find something much more sinister.
• Cynthia – A woman gives birth to twins, but one baby turns out to be a killer monster.
• Destination Wedding – Apparently last week was NOT the opening of this film as it is now listed everywhere I can find it with an August 31st opening date. 
• Inventing Tomorrow – Documentary about student scientists from around the world coming together to tackle difficult problems plaguing the environments around them.

• Let the Corpses Tan – French crime drama/western where everyone tries to steal 500 pounds of gold.
• The Little Stranger – Domhnall Gleeson (Harry Potter, Star Wars) stars as a doctor returning to a manor home he visited as a young boy, only to find new secrets and mysteries.
• Pick of the Litter – A look into the world of guide dog training that follows five puppies through the rigorous training with hopes that they will ultimately be selected as guide dogs for the blind.
• Prototype – Surrealist 3D arthouse film.
• Reprisal – Bruce Willis (Die Hard, The Sixth Sense) stars as an ex-cop helping a bank manager friend find the criminal who robbed his bank at gunpoint.
• S.M.A.R.T. Chase – Orlando Bloom (Lord of the Rings, Pirates of the Caribbean) leads a team trying to recover a priceless Chinese Vase stolen from them in transit from Shanghai to London.
• Snow Queen 3: Fire and Ice – Import of a Russian(?) animated film about a snow queen and her friends. Apparently there have been two others before this too!
• Ya Veremos (We’ll See) – Mexican film about a young boy who needs surgery to not lose his eyesight but creates a bucket list of things to do with his divorced parents before the surgery.
• Bisbee '17 (September 5th) – An Arizona border town deals with ghosts of their history when hundreds of migrant workers were deported 100 years ago.
• Perfect Blue (September 6th) - Special Engagement – A special showing of a 1997 anime film about a pop-star deals with her loss of innocence as a result of her fame.