It’s nearly the beginning of oscar season as multiple small budget and artistic crafts are going from limited to nationwide releases to connect with not just critics but mainstream audiences. There have been many films on the academy award radar, and here are just a couple that have yet to get a wide release and have certaintly grabbed my attention.
The Killing of a Sacred Deer:
Yorgos Lanthimos returns after his previous work being the hypnotically strange, hilarious and masterful The Lobster and this film promises to be his most shocking and best work yet. With critics calling the film a Kubrickian vibe-masterpiece and an unsettling revenge tale, it is certain that this film is not for the faint of heart. The story is of a surgeon who befriends a young patient who slowly reveals himself to be something truly terrifying and threatening to the surgeon and the surgeon’s family. Expecting a strange, scary, and artistic look at revenge, The Killing of a Sacred Deer looks promising.
The Florida Project:
The Florida Project is director Sean Baker’s follow up to Tangerine, his feature film that was filmed entirely on an iphone. With a much bigger budget at the healm of A24, the studio that distributed last year’s Best Picture winner Moonlight, Baker tells the story of children who venture in the outskirts of Florida and their adventures in a world that struck with poverty. The protagonist, who’s mother is never present and is a bad parental figure, is watched over along with her two friends by a motel owner with a heart of gold played by Willem Dafoe. The film is being praised for it’s funny and heartbreaking screenplay, direction, and performances, specifically that of newcomer Brooklyn Prince, and Willem Dafoe, who supposedly gives the best performance of his career.
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri:
From the director of In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths, Martin Mcdonagh returns to tell the story of a mother who is fed up with her town’s police department, who she feels has done nothing to solve the murder of her daughter, as the case has gone on with no answer for six months. Frances McDormand’s performance is being praised as the best of her career, but the real story here is Sam Rockwell, who critics say gives an oscar-caliber turn as an officer who gets the biggest arc in the film. It’s a promising dark comedy that looks to entertain and sweep the floor with its story as well as its all star cast that also includes Woody Harrelson, Peter Dinklage, John Hawkes, and Lucas Hedges.