DECEMBER 28
The year comes to a close with a pair of Oscar-qualifying runs for the Dustin Hoffman-directed Quartet and Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land from a script written by Matt Damon and John Krasinski.
Quartet was written by Ronald Harwood (The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Being Julia and The Pianist), based on his own play, and features an impressive cast that includes Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon, Billy Connolly and Sheridan Smith. The story follows Cecily (Collins), Reggie (Courtenay) and Wilfred (Connolly) who are in a home for retired opera singers. Every year, on October 10, there is a concert to celebrate Verdi’s birthday and they take part. Jean (Smith), who used to be married to Reggie, arrives at the home and disrupts their equilibrium. She still acts like a diva, but she refuses to sing. Still, the show must go on… and it does.
It’s clearly targeting an older audience, but if The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel taught us anything earlier this year, there is clearly an audience out there.
As for Promised Land, it was originally going to serve as Damon’s directorial debut, but in pre-production he just didn’t have the time and Van Sant took over. Damon will still star in the feature, a second time with Van Sant who directed Good Will Hunting of which Damon wrote with Ben Affleck and won an Oscar for, as Steve Butler, a corporate salesman who arrives in a rural town with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Frances McDormand). With the town having been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, the two outsiders see the local citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer, for drilling rights to their properties, as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job for the duo becomes complicated by the objection of a respected schoolteacher (Hal Holbrook) with support from a grassroots campaign led by another man (Krasinski) who counters Steve both personally and professionally.
Focus added the pic to the end of the year specifically for an Oscar-qualifying run so it will be interesting to see what we’re working with here.
And with that… we’re done. Four months previewed and something like 75 films highlighted. If you missed any of the previous month previews just use the navigation below to explore whatever you may have missed and be sure to leave your thoughts on what you’re looking forward to seeing in the comments below.
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Nov. | Dec.
