Fathom Events and Warner Bros.’ DC Studios are blasting off documentary Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, a favorite from Sundance, and Music Box has the festival’s Grand Jury Prize-winner In The Summers among a handful of solid new release including The Featherweight about boxer Willie Pep, and Who’s Afraid Of Nathan Law? a doc following the heroic Hong Kong student activist.
DC, HBO Documentary Films and CNN Films acquired Super/Man out of the festival. It will debut in cinemas across the U.S. on Saturday with an encore presentation Sept. 25, Reeve’s birthday. Reeve’s definitive portrayal of Clark Kent/Superman over four films set the benchmark for the superhero cinematic universes that dominate cinema today. Warner is the home of Superman and the films that shot the unknown actor to stardom before a tragic horseback riding accident left him a quadriplegic dependent on a ventilator to breathe.
Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui directed and co-wrote Super/Man with Otto Burnham, focusing on how Reeve found strength and purpose through disability activism. See Deadline’s Sundance Studio.
Music Box Films opens Alessandra Lacorazza’s In The Summers — winner of the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and the Sundance Director Award — at the IFC Center in New York and LA’s Laemmle Royal. The emotional semi-autobiographical story follows siblings Violeta and Eva, who live with their mother but travel to New Mexico every summer to spend time with their loving but unpredictable father, navigating the messy, complex relationship from adolescence to adulthood.
The story takes place over four different summers across many years, with multiple actors playing each of the characters. For the main stretch, they’re played by Sasha Calle (The Flash) and Lío Mehiel (Mutt). Their father is played by Rene Perez Joglar, a Puerto Rican Grammy award winning artist professionally known as Residente. Cast also includes Leslie Grace (In The Heights) and Gabriella Surodjawan (Stranger Things).
A24 opens A Different Man on four screens this weekend in Los Angeles (Grove/Burbank) and NY (Angelika/Lincoln Square). The darkly comedic psychological thriller from writer-director Aaron Schimberg stars Sebastian Stan (The Apprentice), The Worst Person in the World‘s Renate Reinsve, and Adam Pearson. Stan plays Edward, an aspiring actor who undergoes a radical medical procedure to drastically transform his appearance. Edward’s new dream face quickly turns into a nightmare, as he loses out on the role he was born to play and becomes obsessed with reclaiming what was lost. Premiered at Sundance.
All Shall Be Well from Strand Releasing from director Ray Yeung opens at the Film Forum in NYC followed by a limited release.
Lesbian couple Angie and Pat have been living together and well for decades in a queer-friendly Hong Kong community After Pat’s unexpected death, Angie finds herself at the mercy of her extended family as she struggles to retain both her dignity and the home she shared for over thirty years. Premiered in Berlin, where it won the Teddy Award for best LGBTQ-themed feature film and the Panorama Audience Award, going on to open the Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The Featherweight bows in New York and Connecticut — the hometown of the doc’s main character, two-time Featherweight boxing champion Willie Pep (played by James Madio). In LA next week.
Directed by Robert Kolodny, written by Steve Loff, the film, which premiered in Venice last year is garnering some great reviews.
Set in the mid-1960s, it presents a gripping chapter in the true-life story of iconic Italian-American boxer Willie Pep. Down and out in his mid-40s and with his personal life in shambles, Pep decides to make a return to the ring, at which point a documentary camera crew enters his life. Painstakingly researched and constructed, the film is a visceral portrait of the discontents of twentieth-century American masculinity, fame and self-perception.
Distributed by mTuckman Media.
Documentary Who’s Afraid Of Nathan Law? opens in New York at Firehouse DCTV and LA’s Laemmle Monica Film Center, from Cargo Film & Releasing. Director Joe Piscatella follows shy college freshman Nathan Law as he discovers an identity in activism as one of the organizers of a student strike demanding that Hong Kong be allowed to elect their own leader. Law leads five days of student boycotts with a message of peaceful civil disobedience. When the strike suddenly becomes The Umbrella Revolution, he is unexpectedly thrust into a leadership role that shuts down Hong Kong for 79 days and captures the attention of the world in this look at the forces that create heroes.
Film Movement presents F. Javier Gutierrez’ Spanish Western The Wait (La Espera) in Los Angeles, Miami, San Antonio and Houston ahead of North American VOD Release October 4.
Deep in the Andalusian countryside, Eladio (Victor Clavijo) has been hired to watch over the hunting grounds of Don Francisco’s estate, somewhere in rural Spain. The estate is divided into ten hunting stands, spaced far enough apart to avoid incidents — but unfortunately doesn’t. With Ruth Diaz, Manuel Moron, and Luis Callejo.
Magnolia Pictures presents Bernardo Britto’s sci-fi comedy drama Omni Loop in 65 theaters day and date. Stars Mary-Louise Parker as quantum physicist who finds herself stuck in a time loop, with a black hole growing in her chest and only a week to live. When she meets a gifted student, played by Ayo Edebiri, they team up to save her life and to unlock the mysteries of time travel. Premiered at SXSW, see Deadline review.
Elfar Adalteins’ Summerlight… And Then Comes The Night from Juno Films follows the ups and downs of residents of a small Icelandic fishing village. Opens at IFC Center for a one week run, followed by LA’s Laemmle Monica next week.
Characters include a successful manager who, after dreaming in Latin, decides to ditch his career and glamorous wife in exchange for books and stargazing; beautiful seamstress Elisabet, who cuts a surprisingly svelte path; farmers Kristin and Kjartan, whose lives are swell until an explosive passion that bewilders even them ignites his wife’s fury and a spectacular revenge.
Based on the book of the same name by Icelandic author Jon Kalman Stefanssonline. Stars Ólafur Darri Ólafsson, Heida Reed, Sara Dögg Ásgeirsdóttir, Svandis Dora Einarsdottir, Siggi Ingvarsson, María Dögg Nelson, Jóhann Sigurðarson, Atli Óskar Fjalarsson and Þorsteinn Bachmann.