A trailer was released for Florian Zeller’s “The Son.” The film is being released on November 25th.
Sony Pictures Classics can hold out on whatever amount of hope that is left for Zeller’s film, but fact of the matter is that the film crashed and burned at Venice and Toronto. It currently has a 60 on MC and sits at 47% on Rotten Tomatoes. The scores were slightly higher during the fall fests.
At least mixed-reviewed fall fare such as “The Whale,” “Bardo” and “White Noise” have had their fair share of ardent supporters, but nobody is going to bat for “The Son”. Jackman seems to be getting decent ink, but what looked like a shoo-in for Best Actor is turning into now a massive hurdle for a nom. I wrote at TIFF:
“In a way, the hate being directed at Zeller’s family drama is unwarranted; for 2/3 of the film you are mostly invested in the dynamics of this four-character piece. However, the ending irked me to no end and it will probably the deal-breaker for much of the hate being spewed towards this film.”
This means that, as of October 26th, Austin Butler (Elvis), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin) Bill Nighy (Living) and, yes, Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick) have had their stocks rise these last few weeks. Also, watch out for Diego Calva (Babylon) in the coming month.
Remember when, back in August, we learned “The Further Mis-Adventures of Cliff Booth” would be playing in only around 350 U.S. theaters, "maybe fewer"? Well, it's fewer. A lot fewer.