Linklater’s Last Flag Flying Will Premiere at the New York Film Festival

Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying, starring Bryan Cranston, Steve Carell and Lawrence Fishburne will take a formidable spot in the awards race by having its premiere at the New York Film Fest on September 28, 2017 and then will open on November 17. The pic is being distributed by Amazon Studios. The film is a follow-up to The Last Detail (which starred Jack Nicholson) and based on a book written by the same author.  Linklater adapted the screenplay with the book’s author, Darryl Ponicsan. 

Last Flag Flying seems to be shaped around The Last Detail a bit with the background here being the Iraq war in that Carell plays a father who lost his son in the invasion.

Pics that open in New York can be hit and miss with Oscar because the crowds there can sometimes be overly harsh. Whenever audiences look at a film through the eyes of Oscarwatchers they tend to over-examine it in terms of “will it be an Oscar movie or won’t it” or “will ‘they’ like it or won’t it.” All movies are better seen in terms of whether they’re good or not, not whether Academy voters will go for it or not, with a few exceptions. Also, people can be really really wrong. Life of Pi was underestimated out of the NYFF and Arrival was really underestimated out of Telluride. You just never know until you know.