Labor Day, the informal end of summer box, is an eclectic indie mix. A Sara Bareilles documentary is timed to her latest album release. A24 thriller Onslaught opens wide. Roadside Attractions’ Buddy expands to 1,771 screens after a terrific opening last weekend.
Independent Film Company is rolling out Joe Swanberg’s The Sun Never Sets from a limited footprint to 375 screens. The Alaska-set romantic drama follows Wendy (Dakota Fanning), who finds her life upended when her boyfriend Jack (Jake Johnson), older, divorced, and with children, asks for space and she reconnects with her ex, Chuck (Corey Michael Smith). Premiered out of SXSW and has garnered some critical momentum, especially around Fanning’s performance.
Music doc Sara Bareilles: Good Grief by Josh Alexander launches one-week engagements in New York (AMC Empire 25) and L.A. (Laemmle Santa Monica) after a successful Wednesday night special engagement across 116 theaters grossed $132k. That screen count started at 45 initially but nearly tripled after 90% of tickets sold out within hours.
It’s set seven years after her Grammy Award-winning Amidst the Chaos as the singer-songwriter reunites with her closest collaborators to record a new album. Amidst The Chaos (2019) was followed by a the Covid pandemic and a period of personal hardship that she explores in the album, Good Grief. The doc, which world premiered at Tribeca and played DC/DOX, was timed to the release and tour. Along with Bareilles, it features Butterfly Boucher, Misty Boyce, Solomon Dorsey, Charley Drayton, Jonathan Low, Rob Moose.
P!NK, Abby Wambach, and Glennon Doyle are executive producers.
A24 is going wide with slasher Onslaught on 1,900 screens. Directed by Adam Wingard reuniting with longtime writing partner Simon Barrett for their first collaboration since You’re Next and The Guest. Ensemble cast includes Adria Arjona, Rebecca Hall, Dan Stevens, Drew Starkey, Michael Biehn, Reginald VelJohnson, Eric Wareheim, and UFC star Alex Pereira. Premiered in L.A. August 28.
Retired Army sniper Celeste (Arjona) must defend her trailer park home and her young daughter, Daisy (Blake Kennedy), after rogue genetically engineered super-soldiers escape from a secret military research facility. A24 is targeting under-35, genre/horror diehards, Wingard’s cult following dating back to You’re Next, and UFC/combat fans.
GKids debuts Cocoon — One Summer Of Girlhood on 250 screens. Based on the manga by Machiko Kyo, it’s the debut feature of Yukimitsu Ina with animation studio Sasayuri, founded by former Studio Ghibli animator Hitomi Tateno.
The story follows San and Mayu, who attend an all-girls school on a warm and tranquil island. When war reaches their shores, they are ordered to help nurse the wounded in a military hospital hidden away in a cave. Amidst escalating death and brutality, the friends struggle to find solace in their fragile lives.
The project brings together legendary veteran animators Akihiko Yamashita and Shinji Otsuka, known for their work on Princess Mononoke and The Boy And The Heron, with a new, young generation of animation talent. Score by kensuke ushio (A Silent Voice, Chainsaw Man). The film includes a bonus behind-the-scenes look at the composer’s process developing the score. Out in Japanese, English subtitles, and English dub.
Well Go USA Entertainment opens Chinese breakout Dear You by Lan Hongchun on 160 screens. Searching Thailand for his lost grandfather, a grandson uncovers hidden letters revealing a remarkable story of family, sacrifice, and devotion. The Closing Night selection at the New York Asian Film Festival in July, the small family drama, filmed in the Chaoshan dialect, known across much of Southeast Asia as Teochew, is built around qiaopi, the letters sent home by overseas Chinese families that connected loved ones across generations. It’s been a massive hit at the Chinese box office, grossing $265 million. Starring newcomers Li Sitong and Wang Yantong.
Strand Releasing debuts documentary Barbara Forever on the pioneering queer avant-garde filmmaker at the Film Forum in NYC. Directed by Brydie O’Connor, executive produced by Kristen Stewart, winner of the Teddy Award for Best Documentary at the Berlin Film Festival. Hammer (1939–2019) broke barriers by centering frank lesbian sexuality in her expansive body of work. The doc is constructed largely from Hammer’s own archive spanning five decades, alongside audio diaries and present-day conversations with her longtime partner, Florrie Burke.
American Summer from Blue Harbour Entertainment is out in 54 theaters. Written and directed by Michael W. Gray, starring Steve Guttenberg, Christie Brinkley, Dan Lauria, Logan Gray, Mia Talerico, Cullen Moss, Erinn Ruth, Maximus Virgili, Callie Reese, and MLB legends Lee Mazzilli and Luis Soj. The coming-of-age story follows a reflective Mikey (Guttenberg) as he looks back fondly on one amazing summer from his youth — the summer he met “the” girl, scored a spot on the travel baseball team, and dealt with uncertainty as his US Army dad went missing overseas.
More to come