In probably the biggest drop I’ve ever seen, I got one screener from Lionsgate and twenty from Magnet/Magnolia. And were yesterday not a holiday, I might have gotten them on my birthday! To hell with ya, federal postal holidays! Anyway, here’s the skinny…I’m going to start off with the Lionsgate screener (Warrior) and then go through the Magnolia Pictures screeners and finally the Magnet ones. It’s going to take awhile, so sit back and relax. And, as a note, since none of the packages were particularly decorative or interesting, there will be no pictures this time.

Lionsgate

Warrior

Genre: Sports Drama
Stars: Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy, Nick Nolte, Jennifer Morrison
Director: Gavin O’Connor
Premise: “The youngest son (Hardy) of an alcoholic former boxer (Nolte) returns home, where he’s trained by his father for competition in a mixed martial arts tournament — a path that puts the fighter on a collision corner with his older brother (Edgerton).”
Oscar Chances: Best Picture, Actor (Hardy), Supporting Actor (Nolte), Original Screenplay, Editing, Sound Mixing
Campaign-Proposed Categories:

• Best Picture (Gavin O’Connor, Greg O’Connor)
• Best Director (Gavin O’Connor)
• Best Actor (Joel Edgerton, Tom Hardy)
• Best Supporting Actor (Nick Nolte, Frank Grillo)
• Best Supporting Actress (Jennifer Morrison)
• Best Original Screenplay (Gavin O’Connor, Anthony Tambakis, Cliff Dorfman)
• Best Cinematography (Masanobu Takayanagi)
• Best Art Direction (Dan Leigh; Ron von Blomberg)
• Best Costume Design (Abigail Murray)
• Best Film Editing (John Gilroy ACE, Sean Albertson ACE, Matt Chessé ACE, Aaron Marshall)
• Best Make-Up (Felicity Bowring, Randy Westgate)
• Best Original Score (Mark Isham)
• Best Sound Editing (Mark Mangini, Glenn T. Morgan MPSE)
• Best Sound Mixing (Gary Summers, Christian P. Minkler, Peter J. Devlin)

Rotten Tomatoes:
84% (156 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
71 out of 100 (35 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Magnolia Pictures

Melancholia

Genre: Sci-Fi Drama
Stars: Kirsten Dunst, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Alexander Sarsgard, Brady Corbet, Cameron Spurr, Charlotte Rampling, John Hurt, Stellan Skarsgard, Udo Kier, Kiefer Sutherland
Director: Lars von Trier
Premise: “In this beautiful movie about the end of the world, Justin (Kirsten Dunst) and Michael (Alexander Sarsgard) are celebrating their marriage at a sumptuous party in the home of her sister Claire (Charlotte Gainsbourg) and brother-in-law John (Kiefer Sutherland). Despite Claire’s best efforts, the wedding is a fiasco, with family tensions mounting and relationships fraying. Meanwhile, a planet called Melancholia is heading directly towards Earth… Melancholia is a psychological disaster film from director Lars von Trier. An Official Selection in Competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where Kirsten Dunst won the award for Best Actress.”
Oscar Chances: Best Actress (Dunst)
Campaign-Proposed Categories:

• Best Actress

Rotten Tomatoes:
78% (120 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
81 out of 100 (32 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Angels Crest

Genre: Drama
Stars: Thomas Dekker, Lynn Collins, Colin A. Campbell, Ameko Eks Mass Carroll, Rachel Clenworth, Julian Domingues, Chris Ippolito, Greg Lawson, Emma Macgillivray
Director: Gaby Dellal
Premise: “In the working-class Rocky Mountain town of Angels Crest, young father Ethan (Thomas Dekker) is doing his best to raise his three-year-old son Nate. He has no choice – Nate’s mother (Lynn Collins) is an alcoholic. But one snowy day Ethan’s momentary lapse in judgment results in tragedy, catapulting the town’s tight-knit community into strange new directions as they try to decide where the blame lies.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
N/A (4 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
N/A (0 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Blackthorn

Genre: Western
Stars: Sam Shepard, Eduardo Noriega, Stephen Rea, Magaly Solier, Dominique McElligott, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Padraic Delaney
Director: Mateo Gil
Premise: “It’s been said (but unsubstantiated) that Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were killed in a standoff with the Bolivian military in 1908. In Blackthorn, Cassidy (Shepard) survived, and is quietly living out his years under the name James Blackthorn in a secluded Bolivian village. Tired of his long exile from the US and hoping to see his family again before he dies, Cassidy sets out on a long journey home. But when an unexpected encounter with an ambitious young criminal (Eduardo Noriega) derails his plans, he is thrust into one last adventure, the likes of which he hasn’t experienced since his glory days with the Sundance Kid.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
70% (46 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
61 out of 100 (19 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Ceremony

Genre: Romantic Comedy
Stars: Michael Angarano, Uma Thurman, Lee Pace, Jake M. Johnson, Rebecca Mader
Director: Max Winkler
Premise: “Sam Davis (Michael Angarano) convinces his former best friend to spend a weekend with him to rekindle their friendship at an elegant beachside estate owned by a famous documentary filmmaker (Lee Pace). But it soon becomes clear that Sam is secretly infatuated with the filmmaker’s financée, Zoe (Uma Thurman), and that his true intention is to thwart their impending nuptials. As Sam’s plan begins to unravel, he is forced to realize how complicated love and friendship can be.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
40% (30 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
40 out of 100 (13 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Happy Happy

Genre: Comedy/Drama
Stars: Agnes Kittelson, Henrik Rafaelsen, Joachim Rafaelsen, Maibritt Saerens, Oskar Hernaes Brandso, Ram Shihab Ebedy, Heine Totland
Director: Anne Sewitsky
Premise: “Family is the most important thing in the world to Kaja. She is an eternal optimist in spite of living with a man who would rather go hunting with the boys, and who refuses to have sex with her because she ‘isn’t particularly attractive’ anymore. But when ‘the perfect couple’ moves in next door, Kaja struggles to keep her emotions in check. These new neighbors open a new world to Kaja, with consequences for everyone involved. And when Christmas Comes around, it becomes evident that nothing will ever be like before – even if Kaja tries her very best.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
78% (32 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
59 out of 100 (16 critics; as of 11/13/11)

I Melt With You

Genre: Drama
Stars: Thomas Jane, Jeremy Piven, Christian McKay, Rob Lowe, Carla Gugino, Arielle Kebbel, Sasha Grey
Director: Mark Pellington
Premise: “Richard (Thomas Jane), Ron (Jeremy Piven), Tim (Christian McKay), and Jonathan (Rob Lowe) are friends from college who gather for a weekend each year to celebrate their friendship and catch up with each other. On the surface, they look like other men going through life: they have careers and families and responsibilities. But as with many people, there is more to them than meets the eye. As the weekend progresses, they go down the rabbit hole of excess. Fueled by sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll, their bacchanalian reunion drives them to an unexpected place where they are forced to confront themselves and the choices they’ve made.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
N/A (4 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
N/A (0 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Limelight

Genre: Documentary
Director: Billy Corben
Premise: “As the owner of legendary hotspots like Limelight, Tunnel, Palladium and Club USA, Peter Gatien was the king of the 1980’s NYC club scene. The eye-patch-sporting Ontario native built and oversaw a Manhattan empire that defined the image of an era in New York. Then years of legal battles and police pressure spearheaded by Mayor Guiliani’s determined crackdown on nightlife in the mid-’90s led to the shuttering of his glitzy kingdom. Billy Corben’s exuberant documentary aims to set the record straight about gatien’s life as it charts his rise and fall against the transofrmation of New York, offering a wild ride through a now-closed chapter in the history of the city’t nightlife.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
61% (18 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
57 out of 100 (11 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Magic Trip

Genre: Documentary
Director: Alex Gibney & Alison Ellwood
Premise: “In 1964, Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, set off on a legendary, LSD-fuelled cross-country road trip. He was joined by ‘The Merry Band of Pranksters,’ a group of counterculture truth-seekers. Kesey and the Pranksters intended to make a documentary but the film was never finished and the footage has remained virtually unseen. With Magic Trip, Oscar-winning director Alex Gibney and Alison Ellwood were given unprecedented access to the footage by the Kesey family. Working with the Film Foundation, HISTORY and the UCLA Film Archives to restore over 100 hours of film and audiotape, and shaped an invaluable document of this extraordinary piece of American history.”
Oscar Chances: Documentary Feature
Rotten Tomatoes:
62% (42 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
59 out of 100 (20 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Page One: Inside the New York Times

Genre: Documentary
Director: Andrew Rossi
Premise: “In the tradition of great fly-on-the-wall documentaries, Page One: Inside the New York Times gains unprecedented access to the New York Times newsroom. WIth the Internet surpassing print as our main news source and newspapers all over the country going bankrupt, Page One chronicles the transformation of the media industry at its time of greatest turmoil. Page One gives us an up-close look at the vibrant cross-cubicle debates and collaborations, tenacious jockeying for on-record quotes and skillful page-one pitching that brings the most venerable newspaper in America to fruition each and every day.”
Oscar Chances: Documentary Feature
Rotten Tomatoes:
79% (96 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
68 out of 100 (31 critics; as of 11/13/11)

The Perfect Host

Genre: Suspense
Stars: David Hyde Pierce, Clayne Crawford, Tyrees Allen, Annie Campbell, Cooper Barnes, Indira Gibson, Joseph Will, Helen Reddy, Nathaniel Parker, Megahn Perry
Director: Nick Tomnay
Premise: “Warwick Wilson is the consummate host. He carefully prepares for a dinner party, the table impeccably set and the duck perfectly timed for 8:30pm. John Taylor is a career criminal. He’s just robbed a bank and needs to get off the streets. He finds himself on Warwick’s doorstep posing as a friend of a friend, new to Los Angeles, who’s been mugged and lost his luggage. As the wine flows and the evening progresses, we bebcome deeply intertwined in the lives of these two men and discover just how deceiving appearances can be.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
36% (25 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
48 out of 100 (16 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Point Blank

Genre: Thriller
Stars: Gilles Lellouche, Roschady Zem, Gerard Lanvin, Elena Anaya
Director: Fred Cavaye
Premise: “Gilles Lellouche plays Samuel, a nurse working at a hospital when his pregnant wife (Elena Anaya) is kidnapped before his very eyes. Knocked unconscious, he comes to and discovers that a dangerous criminal named Sartet (Roschdy Zem) is responsible, and if he’s ever to see his wife again, he must do Sartet’s bidding. Samuel quickly finds himself pitted against rival ganggsters and trigger-happy police in a deadly race to save the lives of his wife and unborn child.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
92% (72 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
75 out of 100 (25 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Rejoice and Shout

Genre: Documentary
Director: Don McGlynn
Premise: “Rejoice and Shout traces the evolution of Gospel through its many musical styles – the spirituals and early hymns, the four-part harmony-based quartets, the integration of blues and swing into Gospel, the emergence of Soul, and the blending of Rap and Hip Hop elements. Gospel music also walked in step with the story of African American culture – slavery, hardscrabble rural existence, the exodus to major cities, the Depression, World War II, civil rights and empowerment. Rejoice and Shout connects the history of African American culture with Gospel as it first impacted popular culture at large.”
Oscar Chances: Documentary Feature
Rotten Tomatoes:
75% (36 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
72 out of 100 (17 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Square Grouper

Genre: Documentary
Director: Billy Corben
Premise: “In 1979, the US Customs Service reported that 87% of all marijuana seizures in the US were made in the South Florida area. Due to the region’s 5,000 miles of coast and coastal waterways and close proximity to the Caribbean and Latin America, South Florida was a pot smuggler’s paradise. In sharp contrast to the brazenly violent cocaine cowboys of the 1980’s, Miami’s marijuana smugglers were cooler, calmer, and for the most part, nonviolent. Square Grouper paints a vivid portrait of Miami’s pot smuggling culture in the 1970s and 1980s through three of the city’s most colorful stories.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
63% (8 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
55 out of 100 (7 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Magnet

13 Assassins

Genre: Period Action Drama
Stars: Kôji Yakusho, Takayuki Yamada, Yûsuke Iseya, Gorô Inagaki, Masachika Ichimura, Hiroki Matsukata, Tsuyoshi Ihara, Kôen Kondô
Director: Takeshi Miike
Premise: “Cult director Takeshi Miike delivers a bravado period action film set at the end of Japan’s feudal era in which a group of unemployed samurai are enlisted to bring down a sadistic lord and prevent him from ascending to the throne and plunging the country into a wartorn future.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
95% (104 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
87 out of 100 (23 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Black Death

Genre: Horror
Stars: Sean Bean, Eddie Redmayne, Kimeberly Nixon, Emun Elliott, Johnny Harris, Andy Nyman, Tygo Gernadt, John Lynch, Jamie Ballard
Director: Christopher Smith
Premise: “The year is 1348. Europe has fallend under the shadow of the Black Death. As the plague decimates all in its path, fear and superstition are rife. In this apocalyptic environment, the church is losing its grip on the people. There are rumors of a village that the plague cannot reaach. There is even talk of a necromancer who is able to bring the dead back to life. Ulric (Sean Bean), a fearsome knight, is charged by the church to investigate these rumors. He enlists the novice monk, Osmund (Eddie Redmayne) to lead him and his band of mercenary soldiers to the village, but Osmund has other motives. Their journey takes them into the heart of darkness that will put Osmund’s faith in himself and his love for God to the ultimate test.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
71% (52 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
71 out of 100 (10 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Hobo with a Shotgun

Genre: Horror
Stars: Rutger Hauer, Gregory Smith, Nick Bateman, Molly Dunsworth
Director: Jason Eisner
Premise: “A train pulls into the station and a Hobo jumps from a freight car, hoping for a fresh start. Instead, he finds himself trapped in an urban hell. This is a world where criminals rule the streets. Amidst the chaos, the Hobo comes across a pawn shop window displaying a second hand lawn mower. He dreams of making the city a beautiful place. But as the brutality continues to rage around him, he notices a shotgun hanging above the lawn mower. He realizes the only way to make a difference in this town is with that gun in his hand and two shells in its chamber.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
67% (104 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
55 out of 100 (22 critics; as of 11/13/11)

I Saw the Devil

Genre: Horror
Stars: Byung-hun Lee, Min-sik Choi, Gook-hwan Jeon, Ho-jin Jeon, San-ha Oh, Yoon-seo Kim
Director: Kim Jee-woon
Premise: “Lee Byung-hyun stars as Dae-hoon, a special agent whose pregnant wife becomes the latest victim of a disturbed and brutal serial killer, captivatingly played by Oldboy‘s Choi Min-sik. Vowing revenge, Dae-hoon blurs the lines between hunter and hunted and good and evil, eventually becoming a monster himself in his twisted pursuit of revenge. From Korean genre master Kim Jee-woon (The Good, the Bad and the Weird), I Saw the Devil is shockingly violent and stunningly accomplished, transcending the police procedural and pushing the boundaries of extreme Asian cinema in surprising and thrilling new ways.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
81% (72 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
67 out of 100 (19 critics; as of 11/13/11)

The Last Circus

Genre: Comedy Horror
Stars: Carlos Areces, Antonio de la Torre, Carolina Bang, Manuel Tallafé, Sancho Gracia
Director: Alex de la Iglesia
Premise: “In spain in 1937, a ‘Happy’ circus clown is forcibly recruited by a militia. Still in his costume he is led into battle. Fast forward to 1973. Javier, the son of the clown, dreams of following in his father’s footsteps, but he can only play the role of the Sad Clown. He finds work in a circus but suffers the abuse of the Happy Clown Sergio. He meets Natalia, a gorgeous acrobat, and abused wife of Sergio. Javier falls deeply in love with Natalia and tries to rescue her from her violent husband. But Natalia is torn between Javier and Sergio. This twisted love triangle evolves into a ferocious battle between Sad Clown and Happy Clown.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
81% (26 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
70 out of 100 (14 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Trollhunter

Genre: Fantasy
Stars: Otto Jespersen, Glenn Erland Tosterud, Johanna Mørck, Tomas Alf Larsen, Urmila Berg-Domaas, Hans Morten Hansen
Director: Andre Ovredal
Premise: “Trollhunter is the story of a group of Norwegian film students that set out to capture real-life trolls on camera after learning their existence has been covered up for years by a government conspiracy. A thrilling and wildly entertaining film, Trollhunter delivers truly fantastic images of giant trolls wreaking havoc on the countryside, with darkly funny adherence to the original Norwegian folklore.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
82% (90 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
61 out of 100 (25 critics; as of 11/13/11)

Tucker & Dale vs. Evil

Genre: Comedy Horror
Stars: Tyler Labine, Alan Tudyk, Katrina Bowden, Jesse Moss, Philip Granger, Brandon McLaren, Christie Lang, Chelan Simmons, Travis Nelson, Alexander Arsenault, Adam Beauchesne, Joseph Sutherland
Director: Eli Craig
Premise: “Tucker & Dale vs. Evil is a hilariously gory, good-spirited horror comedy, doing for killer rednecks what Shaun of the Dead did for zombies. Tucker and Dale are two best friends on vacation at their dilapidated mountain house, who are mistaken for murderous backwoods hillbillies by a groiup of obnoxious, preppy college kids. WHen one of the students gets separated from her friends, the boys try to lend a hand, but as the misunderstanding grows, so does the body count.”
Oscar Chances: None
Rotten Tomatoes:
88% (89 critics; as of 11/13/11)
Metacritic:
65 out of 100 (23 critics; as of 11/13/11)