Small movies that could hit it big
Check out these under-the-radar offerings
HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE JUNE 24
A quirky adventure from director Taika Waititi (next year’s
Thor: Ragnarok), about a city kid (Julian Dennison) on the run with his foster uncle (Sam Neill) in the New Zealand wilderness. It has “the heart and humor people are hoping (Waititi) can take with him into the Marvel universe,” says David Ehrlich, Indiewire’s senior film critic. “It’s very much the kind of summer counterprogramming that could grab the
Little Miss Sunshine audience.” SWISS ARMY MAN JUNE 24 A castaway (Paul Dano) befriends a farting corpse (Daniel Radcliffe) in the most talked-about comedy to come out of this year’s Sundance Film Festival. “It’s the big mystery of the summer,” says Daniel Loria, editorial director at BoxOffice. Working in its favor is distributor A24, which has made modest hits out of unconventional indies including Under the Skin and Spring Breakers. “Never count those guys out. They get really tough-to-market films and deliver on every one.” TULIP FEVER JULY 15 Alicia Vikander stars in her first film since winning the supporting-actress Oscar for The Danish
Girl. Here, the Swedish starlet plays an unhappy woman who falls for the artist (Dane DeHaan) commissioned to paint her portrait by her husband (Christoph Waltz). Based on the Deborah Moggach novel of the same name, “it’s soapy and melodramatic, but because it’s a period movie, could find an (older) audience,” Ehrlich says. Plus, “Vikander is very much in the zeitgeist right now.” DON’T THINK TWICE JULY 22 Following up his 2012 comedy
Sleepwalk With Me, Mike Birbiglia writes, directs and co-stars with Keegan-Michael Key ( Key &
Peele) and Gillian Jacobs ( Love) as members of a struggling New York improv troupe. “It could build on the audience that he established with Sleepwalk,” Ehrlich says. Leading up to its release, Birbiglia will promote the dramatic comedy on a 20-city tour comprised of screenings and free improv workshops. “The attention that he gets from bringing it city-to-city could do well for him.” THE FOUNDER AUG. 5 After starring in consecutive Oscar best pictures Birdman and
Spotlight, Michael Keaton may be back in the awards fray with this biopic, which tracks the rise of Ray Kroc as he transforms McDonald’s into a fast-food empire. “With Keaton having this late-career resurgence, we expect that to be a drawing point,” Loria says. Also, there’s the recognizability of “the McDonald’s brand. It’s something that you can say, ‘Hey, this might be an interesting story to see how this evolved.’ ” FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS AUG. 12
Meryl Streep hams it up opposite Hugh Grant, playing a real-life New York heiress-turned-notoriously-dreadful opera singer. The period comedy comes on the heels of another music-based Streep movie, Ricki
and the Flash, which pulled $26.8 million last summer. “It did well and not on a huge budget,” says comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “She’s a brand unto herself. She can do whatever she wants and her fan base will follow.” SOUTHSIDE WITH YOU AUG. 26
A fictionalized account of the first date between a young Barack Obama (Parker Sawyers) and future wife Michelle (Tika Sumpter) in summer 1989. As the president wraps his last year in office, “people are only growing increasingly interested in Obama as a person and finding out more about his civilian side,” which could bode well for this “cute,
Before Sunrise- y type of movie,” Ehrlich says.