Neon has acquired Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck.” A summer 2025 release date is being set up for the film, which means it won’t take part in this year’s Oscar race (via Variety).
Neon has a lot of eggs in its basket this year, which includes the current Oscar frontrunner (“Anora”), so it’s not surprising to see them toss ‘Chuck’ aside and bet all of their chips on Sean Baker’s film. However, releasing ‘Chuck’ in 2025 does halt any momentum Flanagan’s film might have had coming from TIFF.
Two weeks ago, ‘Chuck’ won the TIFF’s people’s choice award, and many were saying that it could contend for Oscars. Having seen the film, I never believed the hype. The reviews for the film were fine (64 on Metacritic), and Flanagan diehards seem to have fully embraced this film, but it’s just not that good.
However, the film was a major hit with TIFF audiences. I attended close to 20 world premieres at TIFF, and ‘Chuck’ might have had the most rousing ovation out of all of them. It has an expertly choreographed mid-film dance sequence that’s absolutely crowd-pleasing, and other genuinely heartfelt moments, but as a whole, it just doesn’t fully come together.
Based on short stories in Stephen King’s 2020 book “If It Bleeds,” the cast includes Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay. ‘Chuck’ is told in reverse order, from the end of a man’s life to the beginning. The film starts with the death of Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), then proceeding to showcase moments in his life, culminating with his childhood as an orphan in a supposedly haunted house.
In my review, I called ‘Chuck’ a narratively “creative” film, but also a very “schmaltzy” and “messy” one. Flanagan just can’t help himself in hammering down his message. There’s a part of me that really wanted to embrace ‘Chuck’ a little more, especially in how beautifully constructed the whole thing was, but Flanagan is just not that subtle a filmmaker.
Historically speaking, 12 of the last 14 TIFF winners have gone on to earn Oscar nominations for Best Picture, and four of them won the big prize. Previous winners include “American Fiction,” “The Fabelmans,” “Belfast,” “Nomadland,” “Jojo Rabbit,” “La La Land,” and “12 Years a Slave.”