With awards season in full swing, several films, including major contenders, are hitting U.S. theaters this Friday. RaMell Ross’ Golden Globe-nominated drama Nickel Boys tells the story of two Black teenagers confronting racism and segregation in 1960s Jim Crow-era Florida. Tim Fehlbaum’s September 5 recounts the real-life tragedy of the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics through the perspective of a sports broadcasting team. Also opening is the latest installment in Sony’s Spider-Man villain universe, Kraven the Hunter, and the animated prequel The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim.
Nickel Boys
Directed by: RaMell Ross
Starring: Ethan Herisse, Brandon Wilson, Hamish Linklater, Fred Hechinger, Daveed Diggs, and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor
Elwood Curtis’s college dream shatters alongside a two-lane Florida highway. Bearing the brunt of an innocent misstep, he’s sentenced to the netherworld of Nickel Academy, a brutal reformatory sunk deep in the Jim Crow South. He encounters another ward, the seen-it-all Turner. The two Black teens strike up an alliance: Turner dispensing fundamental tips for survival, Elwood, clinging to his optimistic worldview. Backdropped by the burgeoning Civil Rights Movement, Elwood and Turner’s existence appear worlds away from Rev. Martin Luther King’s burnished oratory. Despite Nickel’s brutality, Elwood strives to hold onto his humanity, awakening a new vision for Turner.
Review Summary:
Rotten Tomatoes: 85%. IndieWire: A, Guardian: 5/5.
Official Trailer:
September 5
Directed by: Tim Fehlbaum
Starring: Peter Sarsgaard, John Magaro, Ben Chaplin, Leonie Benesch, Zinedine Soualem, Georgina Rich, Corey Johnson, Marcus Rutherford, Daniel Adeosun, Benjamin Walker, and Ferdinand Dörfler
“September 5” unveils the decisive moment that forever changed media coverage and continues to impact live news today. Set during the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, the film follows an American Sports broadcasting team that quickly adapted from sports reporting to live coverage of the Israeli athletes taken hostage. Through this lens, “September 5” provides a fresh perspective on the live broadcast seen globally by an estimated one billion people at the time.
Review Summary:
Rotten Tomatoes: 88%. Next Best Picture: 8/10, IndieWire: B.
Official Trailer:
Kraven the Hunter
Directed by: J.C. Chandor
Starring: Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger, Alessandro Nivola, Christopher Abbott, and Russell Crowe
Kraven the Hunter is the action-packed, R-rated, standalone story of how one of Marvel’s most iconic villains came to be. Aaron Taylor-Johnson plays Kraven, a man whose complex relationship with his ruthless gangster father, Nikolai Kravinoff (Russell Crowe), starts him down a path of vengeance with brutal consequences, motivating him to become not only the greatest hunter in the world, but also one of its most feared.
Review Summary:
Rotten Tomatoes: 14%. Guardian: 2/5, IndieWire: C-.
Official Trailer:
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
Directed by: Kenji Kamiyama
Starring: Brian Cox, Miranda Otto, Gaia Wise, Luke Pasqualino, Laurence Ubong Williams, Shaun Dooley, and Lorraine Ashbourne
Set 183 years before the events chronicled in the original trilogy of films, “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” tells the fate of the House of Helm Hammerhand, the legendary King of Rohan. A sudden attack by Wulf, a clever and ruthless Dunlending lord seeking vengeance for the death of his father, forces Helm and his people to make a daring last stand in the ancient stronghold of the Hornburg–a mighty fortress that will later come to be known as Helm’s Deep. Finding herself in an increasingly desperate situation, Héra, the daughter of Helm, must summon the will to lead the resistance against a deadly enemy intent on their total destruction.
Review Summary:
Rotten Tomatoes: 57%. Slant Magazine: 3/4, Empire Magazine: 3/5.
Official Trailer:
Related posts:
