Movies in Theaters This Friday, December 28, 2012: Allegiance, Promised Land, and Tabu
Here we are, the last weekend of 2012. While it’s been an exciting year for film, this is our last chance to release movies that can be considered “2012.” Since a lot of the big releases were on Christmas Day, those are the more popular choices this weekend. The most notable are Django Unchained (read review here), Les Misérables (read review here), and Parental Guidance.
As for the “new” releases, everything is considered a limited release. One of the choices is Allegiance – which was formally titled Recalled – that I saw at SIFF earlier this year. It was also released earlier this month on VOD services.
The second choice is the “fracking” drama Promised Land, starring (and written by) Matt Damon and John Krasinski. This will be Gus Van Sant’s 15th feature film, and it looks to be a bigger critical success than last year’s Restless. Here is my review of it. For those not fortunate enough to see it this weekend, it’ll be expanding January 4th.
The final limited release is Tabu, a romantic drama that was released in New York on the 26th. There are more details below.
My guess is that most attention will be on the incumbents, but there are other options for some of you.
Have a Happy New Year!
After being granted a questionable transfer that will keep him stateside as his National Guard unit deploys for Iraq, a young Army officer becomes embroiled in a last minute AWOL attempt by one of his soldiers — forcing him to choose between his loyalties to the fleeing soldier, his unit and his fiancé.
In Promised Land, Matt Damon stars as Steve Butler, a corporate salesman whose journey from farm boy to big-time player takes an unexpected detour when he lands in a small town, where he grapples with a surprising array of both open hearts and closed doors. Gus Van Sant helms the film from an original screenplay written by John Krasinski & Matt Damon, from a story by Dave Eggers.
Steve has been dispatched to the rural town of McKinley with his sales partner, Sue Thomason (Academy Award winner Frances McDormand). The town has been hit hard by the economic decline of recent years, and the two consummate sales executives see McKinley’s citizens as likely to accept their company’s offer – for drilling rights to their properties – as much-needed relief. What seems like an easy job and a short stay for the duo becomes complicated – professionally by calls for community-wide consideration of the offer by respected schoolteacher Frank Yates (Academy Award nominee Hal Holbrook) and personally by Steve’s encounter with Alice (Rosemarie DeWitt). When Dustin Noble (John Krasinski), a slick environmental activist, arrives, suddenly the stakes, both personal and professional, rise to the boiling point.
A temperamental old woman, her Cape Verdean maid and a neighbour devoted to social causes live on the same floor of a Lisbon apartment building. When the old lady dies, the other two learn of an episode from her past: a tale of love and crime set in an Africa straight from the world of adventure films.
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