Limited Releases: Keeping Their Promises

December 28, 2012

The end of the year has a few limited releases trying to get a last chance for Oscar glory with Oscar qualifying runs. Promised Land is clearly the biggest film of the week, but its reviews suggest it won't even thrive in limited release.

The Apple Pushers - No Reviews
A documentary about the Green Cart Initiative, which is designed to help people who live in so-called food deserts in New York City. Food deserts are places in cities where it is really hard to get fresh fruits and vegetables. The film doesn't open till Monday, the last day of the year, and there are no reviews on Rotten Tomatoes at the moment.

Promised Land - Reviews
Matt Damon stars as a corporate salesman trying to convince a town dealing with economic depression to sign over gas rights to his company. However, he runs into an environmentalist, John Krasinski, who tries to convince the town that the gas company will destroy the environment in the process. This film clearly comes from the hearts of the two screen writers, Matt Damon and John Krasinski, but many critics complain that they were more worried about the message than the story. Promised Land opens tonight in 25 theaters before expanding wide next week.

Tabu - Reviews
When an elderly woman, Aurora, is hospitalized, she asks her neighbor and friend, Pilar, to find a man, Gian Luca, and tell him of her condition. From that beginning, we flashback to when she was young and an illicit love affair she had. The film's reviews are incredible and the film did win some awards at the Berlin International Film Festival and the Las Palmas Film Festival. Tabu opened on Wednesday at the Film Forum in New York City.

West of Memphis - Reviews
A documentary look at the West Memphis Three, three men who were wrongfully convicted of murdering three boys. They boys' deaths were so shocking that there was a rush to find someone guilty and in that pressure, they looked for an obvious target: three boys who dressed in black and listened to Metallica. In the rush to convict, some evidence was overlooked and one of the boys, who has an 80 IQ, was pushed into confessing. This is not the first film on this subject, but the reviews are amazing. West of Memphis opened on Christmas Day in five theaters, mostly in the Los Angeles Area, but also in New York City.

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Filed under: Limited Releases, Promised Land, West of Memphis, The Apple Pushers, Tabu, Matt Damon, John Krasinski