Well-reviewed limited releases including psycho-sexual drama Blue Film, Ildikó Enyed’s Silent Friend and documentaries about Linda Perry (timed to her first solo album in over 25 years), python hunting in the Everglades and gun control are new at the indie film box office this weekend as studio giants The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Mortal Kombat II face off overhead.
The Silent Friend from 1-2 Special, written and directed by Ildikó Enyedi ((My Twentieth Century, On Body and Soul) opens in New York (Angelika, Lincoln Center, BAM) with Los Angeles and a handful of other markets next week, rolling out out through June. Stars Tony Leung, newcomer Luna Wedler. Enzo Brumm, and Léa Seydoux. Premiered at Venice, Deadline review here. At 97% on Rotten Tomatoes (32 reviews).
In the heart of an old German university grows a centuries-old, majestic ginkgo tree. As the years pass, the distinguished plant bears witness to the private lives of those who seek shade under its boundless branches. In 2020, a visiting neuroscientist conducts a series of experiments into the possibilities of botanical consciousness. In 1972, a young student is profoundly changed by studying the behavior of a simple geranium. And in 1908, the university’s first female student’s photographic inquiries reveal sacred patterns of the universe hidden within the humblest of plants. Over time, each is transformed by the quiet, enduring power of nature.
Obscured Releasing’s buzzy, sexually charged thriller Blue Film, the feature debut of Elliott Tuttle, opens at the IFC Center in NYC and Landmark Sunset. Q&As with Tuttle and stars Reed Birney and Kieron Moore with moderators including Todd Verow. Hari Nef and Mark Duplass. Expands next week to BAM and Laemmle Glendale as well as Baltimore and San Francisco. Premiered at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. See Deadline review. Moore stars as Aaron Eagle, a fetish camboy (online male escort) who agrees to spend the night with an anonymous client (Birney) and discovers a disturbing tie to his past. It’s at 92% (24 reviews) on Rotten Tomatoes.
Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, from Mercury Studios starts a run in select theaters at Regal Union Square in NYC with a special appearance and Q&A by Perry and director Don Hardy, including a live acoustic performance. The doc, which debuted at Tribeca Festival 2024, adds Los Angeles next weekend with screenings in Denver and London in June 21 and additional cities to be announced. The lineup so far all have live performances planned.
The film’s release coincides with Perry’s first solo album in over 25 years, titled Let It Die Here.
Perry is one of the most outspoken and recognizable artists of the past 30 years. The hat, tattoos and massive hit single “What’s Up” with her band 4 Non Blondes made her an icon. In the decades since that 1993 song topped the charts, Perry reinvented herself as a songwriter and producer, penning hits for Dolly Parton, Christina Aguilera, Celine Dion, Pink and others as she navigates life-altering personal circumstances and big philosophical questions.
Brainstorm Media and Menemsha Films’ Influenced opens at The Quad in NYC, expanding next week. Directed by Rachel Israel, written by Jill Kargman based on the character she created during the pandemic. Kargman, author and creator of Bravo’s Odd Mom Out (based on her novel Momzilla) stars as renowned social media influencer Dzanielle, who navigates fake friends in the Ozempic-sharing, workout-addicted Upper East Side of New York City in a comedic quest for a million followers. With David Krumholtz, Justin Bartha, Christine Taylor, Laura Bell Bundy, Jessica Capshaw, Eugene Cordero and Dan Hedaya, and cameos by Drew Barrymore, Jason Biggs, Gwyneth Paltrow and Matt Damon.
Oscilloscope’s The Python Hunt from SXSW 2025 slides into the Angelika in NCY. Directed by Xander Robin. In an attempt to save the threatened ecosystem, the Florida government hosts an annual competition to remove invasive pythons from the Everglades. For 10 grueling nights it’s python-mania as an eclectic group of amateur hunters contends with unforgiving terrain, aggressive nocturnal creatures and their own desires and demons that push them into the swamp, searching for glory.
Black Rabbit, White Rabbit, the latest from Iranian director Shahram Mokri (Careless Crime, Fish and Cat) opens May 8 at Laemmle Glendale. From DreamLabs Fillm, it stars Babak Karimi, Hasti Mohammai and Kibriyo Dilyobova and follows a director who is remaking a classic Iranian film in Tadjikistan. The studio armorer is worried that the gun they intend to use is not a prop gun and fears the consequences. A young woman arrives at the location insisting that she be given an audition. At the same time, in another part of town, Sara, recently recovered from a car crash, suddenly realizes that her accident was all part of a conspiracy as the lives of all intertwine. Opens at the Laemmle LA next weekend with screenings in Philadelphia, Chicago at UCLA.
Abramorama is releasing doc Louder Than Guns in NYC. From executive producers Ketch Secor, Grammy-winning founding member and lead singer of Old Crow Medicine Show, who lives in Nashville, and David Greene, former NPR Morning Edition host, Louder Than Guns seeks to move the heated conversation around gun violence and firearm safety in America away from political divisiveness and toward dialogue. The impetus for the film was the 2023 shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville that killed three children and three adults. Immediately afterward, Secor penned an op-ed in The New York Times entitled, “Country Music Can Lead America Out of Its Obsession with Guns.”
Special screening at the Belcourt Theatre in Nashville on May 11 with conversation with Secor, Katy Dieckhaus (mother of Covenant student Evelyn Dieckhaus) and Clay Stauffer (senior minister at Woodmont Christian Church) moderated by Blake Farmer (host of Nashville Public Radio’s This is Nashville).