It's the first Friday of 2024, bringing a batch of new movies to theaters all across the US. But while there are new 2024 movies premiering, like Night Swim, this weekend also brings some of 2023's best-reviewed movies to places for the first time, including major Oscar contenders like All of Us Strangers and American Fiction.
The Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal and Claire Foy starring drama All of Us Strangers officially opened in the US on December 22, but that was limited to select movie theaters in Los Angeles and New York City. As of right now, however, All of Us Strangers has expanded its presence to the likes of Austin, Baltimore, Boston, Chicago, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
The movie follows Scott's Adam, who while beginning a new relationship with his neighbor (Mescal), is drawn back to his childhood home where he discovers his parents (Foy and Jamie Bell) living as they were when they died in their 30s. Written and directed by Andrew Haigh, the screenplay and the performances from Scott and Foy have been the most recognized thus far, including Scott up for a Golden Globe on January 7.
As for American Fiction, the Jeffrey Wright-led comedy began its run in theaters on December 15, before beginning to expand on December 22. It has continued to grow its presence in movie theaters, with the movie's Instagram page sharing all of the locations that it is playing in right now, which include Atlanta, Dallas, Denver, Detroit, Houston, Indianapolis, Minneapolis, Nashville, Philadelphia, Seattle and St. Louis.
The plot of American Fiction revolves around Wright's disgruntled writer Monk, who is disappointed that his work is often overlooked by what he sees as stories negatively portraying Black stereotypes. As a joke, he writes one of his own but its becomes a big success and things quickly spin out of control for him. Wright has consistently earned nods for his lead performance (including a Golden Globe) and the movie overall, from first-time director Cord Jefferson, is widely seen as a likely Best Picture contender at the Oscars.
There's another movie that was a bit more under the radar but has some Oscar buzz to it as well, the Jessica Chastain and Peter Sarsgaard movie Memory. It got a limited run in Los Angeles and New York on December 22 to make sure it qualified for this year's Oscars, but as of January 5 Memory is expanding to additional locations, including Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Phoenix, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.
Memory stars Chastain as a social worker whose life gets blown open when she reconnects with an old classmate who is suffering from memory loss. The movie, written and directed by Michel Franco, premiered at the Venice Film Festival, where Sarsgaard won the Best Actor prize. It's been mostly quiet from the major awards to date but could still surprise with ones like SAG and the Oscars coming up.
To find out if and where exactly these movies are playing near you, check out Fandango.
