Focus Features turns 15 years old in 2017, and the distributor is celebrating all summer with an initiative that includes an international “Focus 15” screening series that gives fans the chance to see some of Focus’ best movies, including Shaun of the Dead, Lost in Translation, Moonrise Kingdom, Atonement, Coraline, Brokeback Mountain, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, Brick and many more back on the big screen. (Go here for full screening times and locations.)
While not quite an award season darling, one of the more anticipated movies of the next two months is Juan Antonio Bayona’s adaptation of A Monster Calls, a movie about a young boy who dives into a fantasy world to deal with the pain of losing his mother. Sitting as a cross between The Iron Giant and Calvin and Hobbes, A Monster Calls is a film about childhood loss; those who saw the film on the festival circuit have already described it as an earnest tearjerker, including our own Erin Whitney at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Norman sees dead people. But instead of borrowing its ideas from Haley Joel Osment and ‘The Sixth Sense,’ the adventurous animated thriller ‘ParaNorman’ looks a lot more like ‘The Monster Squad’ crossed with 'Scooby-Doo' … and that’s more than OK in our book.