By Erin Free
Boxing Day is traditionally one of the biggest and most diverse movie release days of the year, and usually hosts a something-for-everyone slate of pictures. The arthouse distributors historically drop their major titles on this day, while the Oscar buzzed flicks from the Hollywood studios often start to raise their heads too. With school holidays in full swing, the kids are often catered for too. So here, in preparation for the biggest cinematic dogfight of the year, we give you a run-down on the various opposing forces in The Battle For Boxing Day.
ALLIED Initially hued as the film that destroyed Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s marriage, the loud and in-no-uncertain-terms protestations of Pitt’s co-star, Marion Cotillard, have since absolved Robert Zemeckis’ WW2 drama of any form of guilt…merely by association or otherwise. Penned by Steven Knight (Peaky Blinders, Eastern Promises), this tale of an American operative (Pitt) and a French Resistance fighter (Cotillard) is absolutely blue ribbon from top to bottom, so expect big – if not exactly all conquering – numbers at the box office.
LA LA LAND Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone sing up a storm in this musical from Damien Chazelle, the young director of the indie fave, Whiplash. With its two appealing stars and strong behind-the-camera pedigree, La La Land – which follows a swooning jazz pianist and aspiring actress in a heightened, fantastical version of Los Angeles – is already being spoken about as a possible Oscar contender…by people that probably haven’t seen it. The ultimate arthouse date movie, La La Land should hit the right notes at the box office.
MOANA The latest animated effort from Disney features voice work from Dwayne Johnson and one of the studio’s most diverse set-ups yet. Ker-ching! This will be absolutely massive. A musical adventure (Nicole Scherzinger is in the voice cast; Hamilton‘s Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote the songs!), Moana is the Hawaiian themed tale of the eponymous brave young woman (Auli’i Cravalho), who uses her navigational talents to set sail for a fabled island, with the aid of her slightly disappointing hero, the legendary demi-god Maui, voiced by The Rock, who will be cooking up another hit with this one.
SING A surprise pick from director, Garth Jennings (The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Son Of Rambow), Sing is the latest from Universal Pictures and Illumination Entertainment, who smashed it out of the park with Despicable Me, Minions, and The Secret Life Of Pets. Boasting a stellar voice cast (Reese Weatherspoon, Seth MacFarlane, John C. Reilly, Scarlett Johansson), Sing follows a koala named Buster Moon (he’s voiced by Matthew McConaughey, so we’ll presume that he’s not an Australian koala), who has one final chance to restore his theatre to its former glory by producing the world’s greatest singing competition. Animals singing pop hits? Start counting the money now…
RED DOG: TRUE BLUE A double rarity for an Australian film – a kids’ show, and a sequel – Red Dog: True Blue is a bit of an unknown quantity. That said, the enormous popularity and cultural impact of 2011’s much loved Red Dog, and the recent success of local family films like Paper Planes and Oddball, bode well for this potential winner. Locating this even more specifically as a family-friendly effort (the titular canine’s principal companion is an eleven-year-old boy – played by star on the rise, Levi Miller – this time out) could mean even greater numbers at the box office. Either way, you can count on Red Dog: True Blue to give the metaphorical leg of cinemas a good ol’ humping come Boxing Day.
A UNITED KINGDOM From Amma Asante – the director of the acclaimed, racially-themed drama, Belle – A United Kingdom is another provocative drama floating on the issue of race, telling the true story of Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana (Selma’s David Oyelowo), who caused an international stir when he married white Londoner, Ruth Williams (Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike), in the late 1940s. Already receiving solid reviews internationally, and bolstered by the three aforementioned rising talents, A United Kingdom is a safe bet to perform well on the arthouse scene (particularly amongst slightly older audiences), though will unlikely be a major breakout success.
ROSALIE BLOOM There’s nearly always a majorly-successful-at-home, foreign language, feel-good flick programmed for Boxing Day (2001’s Amelie was pretty much the blueprint), and this year’s box-ticker is France’s Rosalie Bloom. Based on the graphic novel by Camille Jourdy, this heartwarming comedy drama follows normal, everyday guy, Vincent Machot (Kyan Khojandi), whose life spins off in an unusual direction when he meets the mysterious Rosalie Bloom (Noémie Lvovsky). Convinced that he’s already met her, the deeply intrigued Vincent decides to follow Rosalie everywhere, hoping to learn more, sending him on a curious and surprising adventure indeed. Again, expect solid arthouse box office for this one.
PATERSON The hipsters are catered to as well on Boxing Day, with the latest effort from white-haired king of cool, Jim Jarmusch, getting a berth on the busiest movie day of the year. Buzzed about at its various festival fixtures (playing everywhere from Cannes and Toronto to Sydney, Melbourne, and Brisbane), Paterson stars the also too-cool-for-school Adam Driver, who goes from killing to Han Solo to driving a bus in New Jersey. In this film of fine details and small moments writ large, Driver’s eponymous bussie quietly observes the world around him and writes poetry on the side, while dealing with the big dreams of his wife (Golshifteh Farahani). Expect this to go down well with the craft-beers-afterwards crowd.
GIMME DANGER Whoa, it’s Jarmusch versus Jarmusch! The battle within The Battle For Boxing Day sees the veteran New York filmmaker doubling down with this doco about Iggy Pop’s super influential, proto-punk barnstormers, The Stooges, who staged a small but felt-for-decades-to-come assault on the music industry in the late sixties and seventies with a series of primal, feel-it-in-your-blood albums and increasingly notorious live shows. A crowd pleaser at festivals around the world (including Cannes, Toronto, Sydney, and Melbourne), this won’t exactly be a box office titan, but it will certainly provide a little wild and woolly post-Christmas cheer for those that dig rock history and their music in analogue.
JANIS: LITTLE GIRL BLUE Providing some nice rock’n’roll gender balance on Boxing Day, is this doco about the late, great Janis Joplin, who, like Iggy Pop, lived hard, rocked harder, and liked to nude up on occasion. Directed by Amy Berg (a modern doco master who has created real life wonders in West Of Memphis, Deliver Us From Evil, An Open Secret, and Prophet’s Prey), Janis: Little Girl Blue uses letters written by the rock star (read by alt-rock figurehead, Cat Power) to form a complex portrait of this flawed but fascinating singer, whose voice remains one of the most staggeringly original in music history. Do your own double feature with Gimme Danger!
WHY HIM? Yes, we’re sure that you were starting to think, “Hey, where’s the raunchy Wedding Crashers-style comedy? Where’s the bad language?” Well, you just found it! Directed by John Hamburg (who penned Meet The Parents and helmed I Love You, Man, Along Came Polly, and Safe Men), this potential gut-buster stars Breaking Bad legend, Bryan Cranston, as a suburban dad none too happy when his daughter (Zoey Deutch, the daughter of Back To The Future’s Lea Thompson and Pretty In Pink director, Howard Deutch…now that’s a pedigree!) starts dating James Franco’s eccentric, overbearing young multimillionaire. Why Him? looks hilarious…and we’re tipping big numbers.
Let The Battle For Boxing Day begin…in a few weeks.
