The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Megalopolis get the documentary treatment as does the inner world of Ye in this end of summer indie weekend with a sprinkling of dramas and comedies.
Dark Sky Films opens Chain Reactions by Alexandre O. Philippe, the acclaimed documentary examining the profound impact and lasting influence of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre through discussions with five artists, Stephen King, Patton Oswalt, Takashi Miike, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Karyn Kusama. Debuts in NY and LA (Regal Union Square & Laemmle NoHo) today, San Francisco (Roxie), next week and expands throughout October. Dark Sky has the rights to Tobe Hooper’s original 1974 shocker film and is having theaters pair the two.
See Deadline’s interview with Philippe when Chain Reactions premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, winning the Venice Classics Award for Best Documentary on Cinema. It’s at 100% with critics on Rotten Tomatoes off 27 reviews.
Following Venice and Telluride premieres, Utopia is opening Megadoc, the Mike Figgis-directed documentary on the making of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis, on 100+ screens including Angelika in NYC, Landmark Sunset in LA, Roxie in San Francisco and AFI Silver in DC/MD. This is a fly-on-the-wall doc about Francis Ford Coppola’s decades-long journey in creating the self-financed passion project that debuted at Cannes in 2024 and was released theatrically that fall. Figgis’ real time portrait of Coppola’s creative process weaves together archival material, unfiltered cast interviews and a close-up view of how the legendary filmmaker drew from Roman history, political allegory, and his own singular vision to shape the world of Megalopolis.
Documentary In Whose Name? by Nicolas Ballesteros opens on about 1,000 screens in partnership with AMC, Regal, and Cinemark. At 18 and just out of high school, Ballesteros began filming Kanye West, now known as Ye. Over six years and thousands of hours of material, he followed West through a storm of music, fashion and faith from his coming to terms with being bipolar, collapsing marriage to Kim Kardashian, vanishing sponsorships and growing public backlash to his polarizing, billion-dollar brand and persona. By ASMI Entertainment. Produced by Simran A Singh. EPs Nick Jarjour and Amy A. Singh.
Magnolia opens Plainclothes — Special Jury Award winner for Ensemble Cast at its Sundance premiere — at IFC Center in NYC with writer-director Carmen Emmi and cast Tom Blyth and Russel Tovey doing Q&As through the weekend. Set in Syracuse in the ‘90s, Blyth plays a police officer tasked with arresting men in public bathrooms when he becomes entangled with one of his targets (Tovey) in a film that’s part love story, part self-discovery and grounded in a nostalgic time before smartphones and dating apps. It’s at 83% with RT critics off 46 reviews, see Deadline’s here.
Face Off 8: Embrace of Light by Vietnamese director Ly Hai opens on 162 screens in North America via 3388, the specialized distributor for Asian and Southeast Asian films. Original title Lat Mat 8: Vong Tay Nang, it’s one of the top five highest grossing films of the year in Vietnam at $8.8 million after record-breaking advance ticket sales and opened no. 1 at the local box office. Against the backdrop of the golden sand dunes in Ninh Thuan province, family strife boils over when a son’s dream to dance to the beat of his own heart pits him against his father’s wishes. This is the 8th installment and 10-year anniversary of the successful Vietnam film franchise. Ly Hai’s previous film, Face Off 7: One Wish, is Vietnam’s third highest grossing film of all time.
Blue Fox Entertainment opens sci-fi family adventure Xeno on 306 screens. Written and directed by Matthew Loren, produced by Kevin Hart and his company Hartbeat in association with Tabooma. A teenage outsider and a terrifying alien form a powerful bond after a chance encounter in the desert, sending them on an adventure that questions the nature of good and evil. Stars Lulu Wilson, Omari Hardwick, Trae Romano, Wrenn Schmidt, Paul Schneider and Garrett van der Leun.
Film Movement opens coming of age drama My Sunshine, written and directed by Hiroshi Okuyama, at the Quad Cinema in NYC. Premiered at Cannes 2024, see Deadline review. One winter on the Japanese island of Hokkaido, a young boy named Takuya has resigned himself to the fact that he’s the worst player on his ice hockey team. While practicing, he becomes transfixed by the figure skaters who share the ice rink, particularly Sakura, a rising star from Tokyo.
Music Box Films opens The Summer Book, director Charlie McDowell’s film adaptation of Tove Jansson’s novel of the same name, starring Glenn Close, at the Angelika Film Center in NYC. The meditative and sensitive portrayal of grief and intergenerational bonds between nine-year-old Sophia and her grandmother premiered last year at BFI London (see Deadline review) and continued screening at AFI Film Festival, Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Miami Film Festival.
Doin’ It by Sara Zandiehm starring Lilly Singh, opens in limited release via Aura Entertainment. The distributor’s second release following recent Code 3, it follows Maya (Singh), a 30-year-old software engineer from a conservative Indian family who moonlights as a high school substitute teacher while working on a teen-focused app. When she’s unexpectedly assigned to teach sex education—despite never having had sex herself—chaos and comedy ensue. Premiered at SXSW 2024, see Deadline Studio.
Another End opens day and date in limited release via Sunrise Films/Vertigo Releasing. The film by Piero Messina stars Gael García Bernal, Renate Reinsve, Bérénice Bejo and Olivia Williams. A melancholic, genre-bending sci-fi romance, the film premiered in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival 2024, see Deadline review. Messina, who previously collaborated with Paolo Sorrentino on Oscar-winning The Great Beauty, directs.
Queen of Manhattan, the biopic on legendary Latin adult film icon Vanessa Del Rio from Level 33, opens at 20+ AMC theaters. Written and directed by Thomas Mignone, it’s set against the backdrop of organized crime-controlled Times Square during the 70’s and 80’s. The film starring Esai Morales explores Del Rio’s groundbreaking career, which spanned over 21 years and over 200 films. Beyond her on-screen legacy, she emerged as a passionate advocate for sex workers’ rights. With Drea de Matteo, Shane West, Taryn Manning, Jesse Metcalfe and Vivian Lamolli. The film premiered in 2022 at the Dances With Films festival.
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