There’s a nice trio of specialty films to highlight this weekend from Joanna Arnow, Uberto Pasolini and Caitlin Cronenberg’s feature directorial debut.
Joanna Arnow’s micro-budget comedy The feeling that the time to do something is over World premiere as part of the Directors’ Fortnight in Cannes. The film follows a 30-year-old New York woman through her long-term casual BDSM relationship, her insignificant corporate job, and her contentious Jewish family. Arnow is an author, director and leading actor. And that is BDSM, i.e. bondage and discipline, dominance and submission, sadism and masochism.
The helper is excited to see her feature (post 2017). I hate myself :), and a handful of well-received short films) start a theatrical run, Magnolia distributed. “That’s how I dream about my films being seen,” Arnow tells Deadline. “It’s also so important to see comedies (on the big screen). Laughing together with strangers is very beautiful and, in a way, healing.”
The film has strong reviews. Millennial, raw and scary are words that come to mind. When asked about it, she says that she finds it “kind of reductive and belittling” – and not that unusual for female filmmakers.
“I think there’s a kind of coded language that is sometimes used, perhaps unintentionally, when describing films that make women about sexuality,” she says. “There are a lot of words like ‘raw’ and ‘terrifying’… whereas for a male director, ‘raw’ might mean ‘powerful’ instead, or ‘outsider art’ instead of ‘terrifying’.”
She is compared to Lena Dunham (Girl), “a director I admire very much.” But “it’s often the case, you know, that we have to compare women with each other.” Her work is “groundbreaking. But yeah, I imagine she would agree that the comparisons can be, you know, reductive.”
Arnow lives in Brooklyn and works as a cameraman and editor. She has a few film projects in development that she is overseeing. The feeling that the time to do something is over Co-stars Scott Cohen (Gilmore Girls), Babak Tafti (billion), Alysia Reiner (Orange is the new black) and Michael Cyril Creighton (Just murders in the building). Executive Producer: Sean Baker. The opening will take place at the IFC Center (Q&A throughout the weekend), with a limited introduction to follow.
More limited openings: Uberto Pasolinis Nothing special anywhere receives a long-awaited U.S. release from Cohen Media Group. The full Monty Producer and director of Still life explores key questions about parenthood, children and family with BAFTA-nominated British actor James Norton (Bob Marley: One Love, Little Women, Happy Valley) in a breakout role. The film, which premiered in Venice in 2020, scores an impressive 100% from critics and 99% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. See Deadline Check.
Norton is a working-class single father to an adoring four-year-old named Michael, BIFA nominee Daniel Lamont. When John only has a few months to live, he sets out to find a new, perfect family for his son. At first John is sure of what he is looking for, but gradually he abandons his initial beliefs, overwhelmed by doubt. How can he judge a family based on a brief encounter? Does he know his own child well enough to make this decision for him? As he struggles for answers, he accepts the help of a young social worker and opens himself to solutions he never thought of.
Much of the film’s power lies in the incredible chemistry between the two leads, the man and the boy.
Opening in four theaters in NY and LA, it will expand to 30 locations in top ten markets next week.
CMG takes over No Specia anywhereI left Venice and had to postpone the theatrical release twice because of Covid and the Hollywood strikes last year.
Pasolini, who lives in London, tells Deadline that the idea came from a newspaper article he read about a young father looking for a home for his son. He conducted months of interviews with adoption agencies, social services, families and the people who help them make critical decisions. And: “I brought in my memories of raising three little girls,” he tells Deadline.
He is so happy to finally bring it to the screens here. “It literally opened in the middle of Covid [in the UK]. And the same applies to Italy. I think these guys had the right idea to wait,” he said of CMG.
IFC Films presents Caitlin Cronenberg’s directorial debut, a sci-fi environmental mystery thriller Human, in 56 theaters, including Alamo Drafthouse Lower Manhattan and Alamo Drafthouse Downtown LA. The film unfolds on a single day, months after a global ecological collapse forced world leaders to take extreme measures to reduce the Earth’s population. In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired journalist has invited his adult children to dinner to announce his intention to join the country’s new euthanasia program. But the plan goes terribly wrong.
Begins Jay Baruchel (This is the end), Emily Hampshire (Schitt’s Creek), Peter Gallagher (Grace and Frankie), Sebastian Chacon (Emergency), Alanna Bale (Somehow, cardinal) and Sirena Gulamgaus (Transplantation). Written by Michael Sparaga.
The director, a prominent portraitist, grew up on the set of Canada’s most famous filmmaker – her father David Cronenberg – and began directing music videos and short films The ends (2018) and The death of David Cronenberg (2021).