Will Superhero Hiatus power the Arthouse? ‘Emily The Criminal’, ‘Summering’ and ‘Fall’ Test Market – Specialty preview

Some smaller films will start testing audience enthusiasm in theaters without big deals. It’s been a rocky summer for special releases and an uphill climb as art houses emerge from Covid jitters, with franchise films running out of oxygen and screens. But the superheroes are on hiatus.

“There is no gigantic competition from the tent poles,” said Howard Cohen, co-president of Roadside Attractions. “On balance, it’s fine. obviously if you have it top GunIt takes air from the market. It’s even better for the niche market to have three or four indies than a giant version. Exhibitors are nervous about the sudden lack of new releases this month and next, but are also demanding more breadth at the box office. (“We can’t live off dinner alone. We need breakfast and lunch,” Marcus CEO Greg Marcus recently told Deadline.)

“We have seen signs of life in our industry,” Cohen said. Great recent performance: A24 blast all everywhere at once ($ 70 million), his Marcel Shell with his shoes on ($ 5.1 million) and Focus Features’ Mrs. Harris is on her way to Paris. ($ 8.4 million). A24 bodies bodies bodies It topped six screens last weekend (now over $ 300,000) and has expanded to more than 1,200 locations. RRR ($ 11.2 million) was a crossover.

But many others “have come and gone,” noted another trader. “Who knows?”

This weekend, Cohen’s Roadside and Vertical Entertainment open Aubrey Plaza’s main thriller. Emilia the criminal 473 in the theater. “I’m really optimistic. He’s a great cast of stars from an actor loved by television and indie films, “she said. He’s younger than many road movies. Young demos are back with a bang.

Plaza plays Emily, a former art student ruined by college loans and locked out of the job market due to a small criminal record. Desperate, he accepts a shady job as a “fraudulent buyer”, buying products with stolen credit cards provided by a handsome middleman named Youssef (Theo Ross). Attracted by the fast money and illicit emotions of black market capitalism, and increasingly attracted to Yusef, they take their business to the next level. Writer and director John Patton Ford. In the cast also Megalyn Echikunwok, Gina Gershon. (This is Mubi’s pick of the week, which never hurts.) Deadline review here.

More specialties: by Lionsgate Fall It opens in 1548 locations. Directed by Scott Mann. Written by Manny and Jonathan Franks. It will open in the $ 1.5 million range, according to sources, and will cost around $ 3 million. Best friends Becky (Grace Caroline Currie) and Hunter (Virginia Gardner) love to push their limits. They stop after climbing 2,000 feet to the top of an abandoned radio tower without descending, testing their expert climbing skills. With Mason Gooding and Jeffrey Dean Morgan.

Fall There’s also the first test for director Mann Flawless’s artificial intelligence company, which took an R-rated movie and used its TrueSync “vubbing” technology to cut down on bad words, turning it into a PG-13 movie without. actually turn anything.

Gravitas Ventures opens the comedy by Diane Keaton mac and rita 1930 on display. Directed by Katie Aselton. Written by Paul Wells, Madeline Walter. With Taylor Page, Elizabeth Lail, Loretta Devine, Simon Rex, Dustin Milligan, Martin Short.

When self-proclaimed 30-year-old native Mack Martin (Layli) reluctantly joins a bachelor party trip to Palm Springs for his best friend Carla (Paige), his 70-year-old inner woman literally goes wild. A disillusioned writer and influencer magically transforms into her future self, Aunt Rita (Keaton). Freed from the constraints of others’ expectations, Rita becomes a rare social media sensation and starts a timid romance with Mac’s beloved dog, Jack (Milligan).

Blacker Street opens James Pondsoldt Summer 259 on the screen. Joining Leah Barnett, Lake Bell, Sarah Cooper, Ashley Madekewe, Madalen Mills, Megan Mallall, Eden Grace Redfield and Sanai Victoria, in billing order. Four best friends face the uncertainty of growing up and being found dead in the last days of summer before starting high school. such Stay close to him Filmed in Utah with a great young cast, it made its Sundance debut and has been a huge festival hit ever since. It is aimed at millennial and generation X mothers and their children. Check the deadlines here.

Gkids presents the animated film by Masaaki Yuasa inu oh In about 350 places. The film follows protagonist Inu-Oh, a legendary 14th-century Noh artist born with unique physical characteristics that prompt terrified adults to cover their bodies with clothing, including a mask. He meets Tomona, a blind biwa artist, and discovers an incredible ability to dance. They become inseparable business associates and friends, survive behind the scenes as song after song gains notoriety and propels them to stardom.

Well Go USA presents the Korean hit of Han Jae-rim emergency alert 42 on the screen. Investigating a terrorist threat circulating on the Internet, Korean authorities discover that a suspect has just boarded an international flight to the United States. When a healthy passenger on the same flight suddenly dies from a horrific death of unknown cause, panic breaks out on both the flight and inside. on board. on site. With Song Kang-ho (parasite), Lee Byung Hoon (Squid game, GI Joe), Jeon Do-yeon (Waitress, Secret Sun), Kim Nam Gil (He who reads the hearts of evil), Kim Soo Jin (the king), yo si-wan (run away from Misaeng). Presented in Cannes out of competition in 2021.

Moob presents a documentary on Sundance Chol Soo Lee for freeAbout a 20-year-old Korean immigrant accused of a gang-related murder in a San Francisco Chinatown in 1973 and unjustly imprisoned, inspiring a pan-Asian-American social justice movement to free him. Directors Julie Ha and Eugene Yee delve into this largely unknown but essential story five decades later, with the portrait of a complex man at the center. Premiere today in New York at the IFC Center, it will open in more than 150 theaters across the country starting August 17, the week of Chol Soo Lee’s 70th birthday.

Greenwich Entertainment Presentations we are like gods, a documentary on Stewart Brand by David Alvarado and Jason Susberg. (“We are gods, and we better be good at it,” Brand wrote in 1968.) fight extinction. Revival of lost species, but its former allies in the environmental movement promise to thwart it. It opens at San Francisco’s Roxie and Marin’s Smith Raphaelle Film Center. Premiere in Los Angeles cinemas at the Laemmle Monica Film Center on September 2. On request on 6 September.

Presented by IFC Films rogue agent By Declan Lowney and Adam Patterson on nine screens. Written by Michael Bronner. With Gemma Arterton, Sarah Goldberg, James Norton. The harrowing story of the career of con artist Robert Freegard (Norton) and Gemma Arterton (Sagittarius), the woman who shot him down. Nine screenshots and AMC + Deadline review here.

Thread throwing gifts A photo of a girl, with expansion to New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Francisco and Chicago to follow. by Finnish director Ali Hapasalo. Questions and answers Fri.-Sat. at the IFC. Amu Milonoff, Linnea Leino and Eleonora play three young women whose lives take new directions when they meet. Sundance Audience Award at the World Cinema Drama Competition.

Juno Films presents Antonio Tibaldi we are living beings With Jorge Antonio Guerrero (Rome) and at the Xingchen Lyu Quad Cinema before the national release. After a chance encounter, the two residents find themselves searching for intelligent life in the universe. Solomon (Guerrero) lives in the back of a Brooklyn refinery, obsessed with aliens he believes abducted his mother years ago. A fugitive from China, Chuao (Liu) believes he was kidnapped as a child. When Solomon discovers that Chuao is being controlled by a cruel pimp, he takes drastic measures.