{"id":194190,"date":"2025-11-22T10:33:17","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T10:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/194190\/"},"modified":"2025-11-22T10:33:17","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T10:33:17","slug":"indie-films-opening-nov-21-rental-family-doc-cutting-through-rocks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/194190\/","title":{"rendered":"Indie Films Opening Nov. 21:’ Rental Family’, Doc ‘Cutting Through Rocks’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tSearchlight Pictures\u2019 TIFF-premiering Rental Family<\/a><\/strong> and two Sundance prize-winning documentaries \u2014 Cutting Through Rocks<\/a><\/strong> and Zodiac Killer Project<\/a> \u2014 are among new indie releases this weekend but most steered clear of Universal\u2019s juggernaut Wicked: For Good<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\n\tSony Pictures Classics is launching an Academy run for Sylvain Chomet<\/a>\u2019s (The Triplets of Belleville,\u00a0The Illusionist) Cannes-premiering animated features A Magnificent Life<\/a><\/strong> (French title Marcel et Monsieur Pagnol),\u00a0a biopic of the legendary French novelist, at the Village East in NY and Laemmle Royal in LA. Bleecker Street\u2019s\u00a0Rebuilding<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0by Max Walker-Silverman starring Josh O\u2019Connor starts a slow rollout to ten theaters from two in NYC. The Metropolitan Opera\u2019s Live in HD<\/strong>\u00a0season continues via Fathom Entertainment with Strauss\u2019s\u00a0Arabella\u00a0on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on 700+ screens.<\/p>\n

\n\tRental Family<\/strong> By Japanese director Hikari, set in modern-day Tokyo, stars Brendan Fraser as an out-of-work American actor who struggles to find purpose until he landing an unusual gig working for a Japanese \u201crental family\u201d agency, playing stand-in roles for strangers. As he immerses himself in his clients\u2019 worlds, he begins to form genuine bonds that blur the lines between performance and reality. The family comedy is 87% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, see Deadline\u2019s review<\/a>. Wit Takehiro Hira<\/a> (Sh\u014dgun), Akira Emoto<\/a>, Mari Yamamoto and Shino Shinozaki.<\/p>\n

\n\tCutting Through Rocks<\/strong> winner of the\u00a0Sundance Grand Jury Prize for World Cinema Documentary, opens at NYC\u2019s Film Forum and expands to select cities beginning Dec. 5. Iranian American filmmakers\u00a0Sara Khaki<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Mohammadreza Eyni<\/a> shine a light on Sara Shahverdi, the first elected councilwoman of her Iranian village, who aims to break long-held patriarchal traditions by training teenage girls to ride motorcycles, stopping child marriages and advocating for female land ownership. \u201cFierce and unapologetic, Sara pushes for bold reforms, fighting her most difficult battles on behalf of the village\u2019s girls and women,\u201d notes a synopsis. \u201cBut when her efforts spark backlash and accusations about her motives, Sara must confront not only her critics \u2013 but also her own sense of identity.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tSelf-distributed by Gandom Films, the doc went on to win top awards at the 50+ international festivals it\u2019s played post-Sundance, most recently Best Doc and Best Doc Directing at Woodstock. It hit DOC NYC\u2019s Short List, and the IDFA doc fest in Amsterdam ahead of its New York debut. At 100% on Rotten Tomatoes off 21 reviews, it\u2019s featured on Deadline\u2019s fall virtual screening series For The Love Of Docs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tMusic Box Films opens Zodiac Killer Project<\/strong> at IFC Film Center with a national expansion to follow. The winner of the 2025 Sundance Film Festival: NEXT Innovator Award is directed and narrated by Charlie Shackleton, who deconstructs the true crime documentary with a deep dive into our obsession with serial\u00a0killers and the stories we tell about them. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe film started as another project, the account of a highway patrolman\u2019s effort to identify and capture the infamous\u00a0Zodiac\u00a0Killer. Shackleton began collecting interviews and shot evocative B-roll footage of ghostly California freeways and parking lots where the\u00a0killer\u00a0may have once lurked. When that\u00a0film fell apart, he was left with fragments of the unfinished film \u201cand time to ruminate on shortcuts and signifiers of the ubiquitous genre.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tNew indie distributor Obscured Releasing<\/a>\u00a0is out with its first film,\u00a0Stop the Insanity: Finding Susan Powter<\/a>, Zeberiah Newman<\/a>\u2019s documentary about the fitness and nutrition powerhouse who was a 1990s superstar only to later disappear.\u00a0Jamie Lee Curtis<\/a> serves as executive producer. Opened at Cinema Village in New York after a debut at Laemmle Noho in LA this week.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cIn the \u201990s, pop culture icon\u00a0Susan Powter<\/a>\u00a0burst onto the scene with her signature bleach-blonde buzz cut and bold message of health and wellness,\u201d reads a synopsis. \u201cAfter conquering infomercials, becoming a New York Times bestselling author, hosting her own talk show, and seeing her face on thousands of products, she dramatically walked away from Hollywood and into obscurity. Crippling lawsuits with her business partners left her bankrupt, and she has since lived as a total recluse below the poverty line in Las Vegas, where the filmmaker ultimately finds her.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tMORE<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Searchlight Pictures\u2019 TIFF-premiering Rental Family and two Sundance prize-winning documentaries \u2014 Cutting Through Rocks and Zodiac Killer Project…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194191,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[108012,108013,18,117,19,17,327,35970,15693,105460,108014,108015],"class_list":{"0":"post-194190","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-a-magnificent-life","9":"tag-cutting-through-rocks","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-movies","15":"tag-rental-family","16":"tag-specialty-preview","17":"tag-stop-the-insanity-finding-susan-powter","18":"tag-the-met-live-in-hd","19":"tag-zodiac-killer-project"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115592901591979198","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194190","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194190"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194190\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194191"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194190"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194190"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194190"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}