Several buzzy films are premiering in theatrical release beginning Friday, October 23, the start of a big weekend at the box office.
DC Studios’ Clayface starring Tom Rhys Harries as the Batman villain and shapeshifter will be on the big screen, as will Laika’s newest stop-motion animation feature Wildwood, based on the book by Colin Meloy, frontman of The Decemberists. And Lance Oppenheim and Nathan Fielder’s You Can See Everything starring Elizabeth Holmes meets its wide window this week after a wildly successful limited opening earlier in the month.
Other titles debuting this frame include Wicker, Possible Love, A Talent for Murder, Sacha Baron Cohen’s Ali G: Who IZ I? and more.
Scroll down to find Deadline’s reviews for this week’s openers.
Friday, October 23
Image Credit: Courtesy of Laika/Bleecker Street Media/Black Bear
Wide releases
Ali G: Who Iz I?
Clayface
Klara and the Sun
A Talent for Murder
Wicker
Wildwood
You Can See Everything
Limited releases
Love Language
Possible Love
‘Ali G: Who Iz I?’
Image Credit: Amazon MGM Studios / Everett Collection
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Amazon MGM Studios
Director: Sacha Baron Cohen
Screenwriters: Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Peter Baynham & Dan Swimer & Dan Mazer & Keisha Zollar
Cast: Sacha Baron Cohen, Morgana Robinson, Marion Robinson, Alphja Miknas, Clive Russell, Stewart Rodeheaver
Review date: October 22
Deadline’s takeaway: Sacha Baron Cohen obviously believes the moment is right to bring back his LOL OG as the world has only sunk further into the abyss since his last appearance. While the new film drifts from bit to bit, some straining for laughs, enough of it works to make this feel like vintage Baron Cohen daredevil comedy at the expense of the clueless. — PH
‘Clayface’
Image Credit: Warner Bros./Courtesy Everett Collection
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Warner Bros/DC Studios
Director: James Watkins
Screenwriters: Mike Flanagan & Hossein Amini
Cast: Tom Rhys Harries, Naomi Ackie, David Dencik, Max Minghella, Eddie Marsan
Original review date: October 21
Deadline’s takeaway: Whether you’re a comic book nerd or a horror junkie, Clayface is worth the price of admission for its genre-driven approach to a lesser-known character, hopefully serving as a roadmap for the DCU’s onscreen future. Just maybe brace yourself if you’re squeamish. — GG
RELATED: ‘Clayface’ Review: DCU Molds Batman Villain’s Origin Story Into Fun, Scary Body Horror
‘Klara And The Sun’
Image Credit: Sony / 3000 Pictures
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Sony Pictures
Director: Taika Waititi
Screenwriters: Taika Waititi and Dahvi Waller (based on the book by Kazuo Ishiguro)
Cast: Jenna Ortega, Amy Adams, Mia Tharia, Natasha Lyonne, Aran Murphy, Steve Buscemi, Rachel House, Jesse Griffin
Original review date: October 15 (London Film Festival)
Deadline’s takeaway: Taiki Waititi should be a snug-as-a-bug fit for Kazuo Ishiguro’s dystopian — or is it? — 2021 novel, given the director’s affinity for a very particular and peculiar kind of reality-based cringe comedy. But Klara just doesn’t deliver on any of the fronts it promises. — DW
‘A Talent For Murder’
Image Credit: Bleecker Street/LD Entertainment
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Bleecker Street
Director: Anton Corbijn
Writer: Joanna Murray-Smith
Cast: Helen Mirren, Alden Ehrenreich, Olivia Cooke, Juliet Stevenson, James Faulkner
Original review date: September 15 (Toronto Film Festival)
Deadline’s takeaway: Helen Mirren, playing wildly against type, is a revelation in this flawed but very entertaining two-hander, which belongs in the unique subgenre of literary biographies in which a cult author’s life is investigated through the highly specific prism of their work. — DW
‘Wicker’
Image Credit: Photo courtesy of Black Bear
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Black Bear
Director-screenwriters: Alex Huston and Eleanor Wilson
Cast: Olivia Colman, Alexander Skarsgård, Peter Dinklage, Elizabeth Debicki, Richard E. Grant, Marli Siu, Nabhaan Rizwan, Gustav Lindh, Ella Bruccoleri, Ben Ashenden, Kiell Smith Binoe
Original review date: October 22
Deadline’s takeaway: A hit at Sundance where it was picked up by Black Bear, this wry film from writer-directors Alex Huston and Eleanor Wilson is sexy and satirically funny, but also oddly haunting as a truly twisted fable that says its never too late to become your own best version of Cinderella. — PH
‘Wildwood’
Image Credit: Courtesy of Laika
Release: Wide (October 23)
Distributor: Fathom
Director: Travis Knight
Screenwriter: Chris Butler (based on the book by Colin Meloy)
Cast: Carey Mulligan, Peyton Elizabeth Lee, Jacob Tremblay, Angela Bassett, Mahershala Ali, Awkwafina, Maya Erskine, Jake Johnson, Charlie Day, Tom Waits, Richard E. Grant, Amanda Stenberg, Tantoo Cardinal, Len Cariou, Marc Evan Jackson
Original review date: October 11 (London Film Festival)
Deadline’s takeaway: The painstaking stop-motion animation process applied to a tale on a scale rarely seen on this level is a visual knockout, and the story is a compelling one focused on a scrappy young heroine determined to fight back and save her baby brother after he is harrowingly abducted from the streets of Portland by a murder of crows. — PH
‘You Can See Everything’
Image Credit: A24 / Everett Collection
‘Love Language’
Image Credit: SXSW
Release: Limited (October 23)
Distributor: Vertical
Director-screenwriter: Joey Power
Cast: Chloë Grace Moretz, Anthony Ramos, Manny Jacinto, Isabel May, Lukas Gage, Billie Lourd, Chloe Fineman, Zach Zucker, Morgan Jay, Bobbi Althoff, Marchánt Davis, Dan Perrault
Original review date: March 17 (SXSW)
Deadline’s takeaway: Love Language is a return to classic rom-com form, with heart and humor, as well as a talented ensemble cast that beautifully brings Joey Power’s script to life against a dreamy Chicago backdrop. — GG
‘Possible Love’
Image Credit: Joo Jae-bum/Netflix