2019 Nominee Watch – July 12th

Spider-Man dominated the box office last weekend. This weekend seems to be the weekend for new horror films.

From the wide release Crawl to several limited release films, if you're a horror fan, this will be your week to get to the theater and check out the new releases.

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Crawl
It's been a while since we had a disaster film centered around what happens when the storm of the century hits land. I'm thinking back to the 2004 film The Day After Tomorrow as the most recent big example.

While that film focused on things getting super cold across the entire world, this film stays a little closer to home. When a massive hurricane hits Florida, Haley Keller (Kaya Scodelario) is trapped in her home with her father (Barry Pepper) as the water levels rise. The story quickly turns from disaster to horror as their home is taken over by man eating crocodiles.

The trailer has a moment where Haley finds some eggs which lead me to believe they're going for a little of the Jurassic Park feel (book, not the film) where life has found a way. Unfortunately, timing seems a little off with this and, well, crocodiles lay eggs in Florida all the time.

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As we are already one month into the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, it seems like the perfect time to release a movie like this. It hasn't been a super active season so far (that I'm aware of) so I don't think there is much threat of this film coming true anytime soon. But you might be tempted to check twice when going down to your basement next time, especially if there is any standing water...

This is basic summer fair, but don't look for it to make a splash at the Oscars next year.

Stuber
Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy) takes a break from his Marvel role as Drax the Destroyer to star as an L.A. cop who enlists his Uber driver Stu (Kumail Nanjiani) to help him deal with some official business.

In what is sure to be an overly acted, over the top film that tries to be an updated look at the buddy cop genre, I hope that Bautista holds his own in a comedy. I know Drax has a humorous side to him in a very dry way, but I'm curious to see if Bautista can expand on that sort of humor in this role. Nanjiani was superb in 2017's The Big Sick and I know he can hold his own with the laughs.

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I can't help feeling that this is what Lethal Weapon might have been like in the days of Lyft, Uber, GrubHub, and other similar apps.

​In the end, this one will be good for some sillies, but don't look for it to garner any Academy attention like The Big Sick did.

Limited Releases

• American Heretics: The Politics of the Gospel – A critical look at various Christian faiths through the lens of churches in Oklahoma.
• Armstrong – As we near the 50th anniversary of his first steps on the moon, this film looks back at the words of space pioneer Neil Armstrong as narrated by Harrison Ford.
• The Art of Self-Defense – Jesse Eisenberg stars as a man afraid of many things in life who searches out karate as a means of self-defense and ends up learning much more about himself.
• Bethany Hamilton: Unstoppable – Documentary look at the the story of Bethany Hamilton, a surfer who was attacked by a shark, lost an arm and returned to compete again.
• Better Than Love – John reaches out to a rehab center for help when he reaches extreme depths.
• Darlin' – Horror film with a mysterious feral woman appears in a local hospital and a priest attempts to bring her around.
• The Farewell – A Chinese girl deals with her dying grandmother who doesn't know that she's dying.
• Firecrackers – A young delinquent girl rebels against her family and authority.
• I Got the Hook-up 2 – A woman and a "baby" steal a shipment of cell phones that need to be recovered by the cops, the robbers, and everyone else.
• Loqueesha – A white man rejected from a radio show adopts a persona as a black woman and ends up getting the job.
• Lying and Stealing – An art consultant tries to clean up his father's debts with the help of a mysterious woman.
• One Bedroom – A funny thing happened when I searched for "one bedroom trailer" in researching this film. Let's just say I didn't get the trailer right away. But this film gets right to the heart of relationships gone wrong.
• Rojo – A man's life starts to fall apart when he becomes entangled in a mystery.
• Saving Zoë – High school drama about a girl trying to deal with the murder of her sister.
• Sea of Shadows – National Geographic documentary about the impacts of Mexican drug cartels and Chinese mafia on the few remaining totoaba fish. 
• Shelter – A woman is being protected in a remote apartment after receiving a new identity.
• Summer Night – A man goes off on an adventure across the country.
• Super 30 – Indian film juxtaposing the highly successful Indian individuals running large companies around the world with those stuck in squalor.
• Sword of Trust – A civil war relic surfaces that makes people think the South won the war.
• Trespassers – A group arrives in a fancy rental property only to find that there may be more than they bargained for.
• The Cure: Anniversary 1978-2018 Live in Hyde Park – Special presentation of a concert recorded in 2018 from the classic band.
• Easy Rider – A special re-release of the classic 1969 Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper film. (July 14th Special Engagement)
• Scary Stories – A town discovers new fears from the book of Sarah Bellows. (July 16th)
• She's Just a Shadow – A Japanese woman reflects on how she built up a successful underground scene over the course of many years. (July 16th)
• Between Me and My Mind – Documentary look into Phish frontman Trey Anastasio. (July 17th)