Resistance (2020)

May 6, 2022 6:35 PM

The true story of mime Marcel Marceau (Jesse Eisenberg) as he works with the French Resistance to save the lives of ten thousand orphans during World War II. This movie was tied as the number one box office film of the week of its release. Alas, that week was April, 2020 and that box office tally was $2,490.

Currently available streaming in the US on IFC Films and for digital rental via various outlets.

posted by DirtyOldTown (4 comments total)

This is the kind of movie that could have been a smash were there no COVID. Solid to good box office, some Oscar nominations, your mom or dad and all of their friends speak highly of it. I mean, it's also the kind of movie that would have had a backlash, would have had no Oscar wins eventually, would have had more sober critics saying it was well made, emotionally effecting, but sort of an old hat story, a little melodramatic and a touch manipulative, even if you have to give it slack for being based on a true story.

Instead it came out during the height of the first wave and no one seems to even talk about it. It disappeared without a trace.

It's a shame. It's not the 10/10 the boomers on book clubs might have called it, but it's a very good movie and a good story all the same. It didn't deserve to get buried.

If you have interest in this story matter, the unheralded nature and resulting low expectations may make this a surprising winner.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 6:50 PM on May 6, 2022 [2 favorites]

It's not the 10/10 the boomers on book clubs might have called it, but it's a very good movie and a good story all the same. It didn't deserve to get buried.

Movies a group have to decide on have largely died out, I feel that cinema is hyper-targeted. I've also heard no press about this.
posted by geoff. at 10:26 AM on May 7, 2022 [1 favorite]

It's the kind of old Hollywood thing that is very good but would have been overrated, not long ago. Between the tides shifting on this kind of stuff and its release date falling into the deepest part of the COVID cinema crack, it became invisible.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 2:57 PM on May 7, 2022

Oh man thanks for posting about this, I had no idea myself! I missed a new Jesse Eisenberg movie, I can't believe it.
posted by cendawanita at 10:19 PM on May 9, 2022