Can ‘A Thousand And One’ With Teyana Taylor Spin Sundance Grand Jury Prize Into Field Workplace Bucks? – Specialty Preview

As the brand new crop of 2023 competition favorites roll out, Focus Options presents A Thousand And One in over 900 fastidiously curated theaters, testing the urge for food for specialty fare at a difficult second.

Quick movie and video director A.V. Rockwell’s feature-length debut stars Teyana Taylor as free-spirited Inez, who kidnaps her six-year-old son Terry from the foster care system. Holding onto their secret and one another, mom and son got down to reclaim their sense of house, id, and stability in a quickly altering New York Metropolis. Critiques are stellar, see Deadline’s. The winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize is at 97% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes, 82% with auds. The fest known as it “a sublime ode to the terribly stunning energy of household as an anchor in an ever-changing world, making us into who we’re in methods we are able to solely haltingly perceive.”

This movie, like Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight in 2016 (additionally from Focus) wants robust phrase of mouth for theatrical. The distributor amped up screenings forward of launch, together with sneak peeks from ladies’s teams to loyalty membership members at AMC and Regal. The concept is that publicity and opinions popping out of Sundance ought to assist the broader variety of runs. Rockwell, who additionally wrote the movie, is up and coming. Taylor, an R&B singer, dancer, choreographer, video producer and clothier has an enthusiastic following.

Producers are Eddie Vaisman, Julia Lebedev, Lena Waithe and Rishi Rajani, Brad Weston. Govt Producers: Oren Moverman and Rachel Jacobs.

Additionally opening: Neon presents horror Enys Men, written and directed by Mark Jenkin (Bait), starring Mary Woodvine, in 62 theaters. A wildlife volunteer on an uninhabited island off the Cornish coast descends right into a insanity that challenges her grip on actuality and pushes her right into a residing nightmare. Opening week Q&As in New York and Los Angeles with director Jenkin. Premiered on the Cannes Directors’ Fortnight final 12 months, Deadline evaluation here. 

Magnolia/Magnet Releasing has two opening: In Viaggio: The Travels Of Pope Francis in New York and LA, and Quentin Dupieux’s goofy, gory Energy Rangers sendup Smoking Causes Coughing. Magnolia launched the absurdist director’s Mandibles (2021) and Rubber (2010).

In Viaggio by Gianfranco Rosi (Fireplace at Sea, Notturno) is a decade-long chronicling of the pinnacle of the Catholic church. Within the first 9 years of his preach, Pope Francis traveled to 53 nations, specializing in his key points: poverty, migration, setting, solidarity and conflict. Composed principally of archival footage, the documentary grants uncommon entry to the general public lifetime of the pontifical, not solely from the elevated safety of a pulpit however from the extra democratic grounds of unpaved streets and huge public avenues. The movie by the earlier Golden Lion winner premiered on the Venice Movie Competition. Deadline evaluation here.

Smoking Causes Coughing, a parody a few group of vigilante superheroes in tights and helmets known as the Tobacco Pressure, stars Gilles Lellouche, Vincent Lacoste, Anaïs Demoustier, Jean-Pascal Zadi. It debuted at Cannes, see Deadline review.

Strand Releasing presents Ursula Meier’s French drama The Line opens for a one-week NY theatrical engagement on the Metrograph. Written by Stéphanie Blanchoud, Meier, Antoine Jaccoud. After a violent argument along with her mom, Margaret (Stéphanie Blanchoud), 35 years outdated, is topic to a strict restraining order. Now not allowed to contact her mom (Valeria Bruni Tedeschi) or strategy the household house, she returns day by day to the invisible and impassable frontier. Premiered at Berlin. Deadline evaluation here.

The Ciesla Basis presents Aviva Keppner’s newest documentary Imagining The Indian: The Combat Towards Native American Mascoting, directed with Ben West, at NYC’s Quad Cinema. Q&A’s with Keppner (The Life and Occasions of Hank Greenberg, Yoo-Hoo Mrs. Goldberg, The Spy Behind Dwelling Plate) Fri/Sat/Solar). It strikes to LA and different markets –Washington, DC, Atlanta, Chicago, Kansas Metropolis, San Francisco, Phoenix — by April. The movie addresses misrepresentation and offensive imagery of native peoples in sports activities, TV, films, pop-culture and past.

Brainstorm Media presents Acidman, written and directed by Alex Lehmann and starring Thomas Haden Church Dianna Agron and Sameerah Luqmaan-Harris, in 10 theaters. A daughter tracks down her estranged father, now residing within the Oregon wilderness obsessive about UFOs, and collectively they try to make first contact.

The Horror Collective presents Summoning Sylvia opening on about 25 screens in LA, NY, Dallas, Chicago, Santa Barbara, Memphis, Columbus, Cincinnati, Phoenix and Detroit. Written and directed by Wesley Taylor and Alex Wyse. A homosexual bachelor social gathering takes a spooky flip when sinister spirits are instantly summoned and the groom’s straight ex-military brother crashes the proceedings.

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