This Christmas, Choose ‘Nosferatu’ in Theaters Over ‘Red One’

“Nosferatu” screened for critics and Academy members over the past week to rave first reactions. Mind you that first-reactions fever can lead to overpraise that sours into less enthusiastic reviews. Take “Gladiator II,” which sent first-look viewers (which also included AMPAS and press) dancing into the streets a couple of weeks ago, but reviews that broke today (including IndieWire’s own) were more muted in their praise.

On this week’s edition of IndieWire’s “Screen Talk” podcast, co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio are unified in their praise of “Nosferatu,” which Focus Features opens as surely R-rated counter-programming on Christmas Day. Anne points out that Academy voters are bound to be seduced by the film‘s serious attention to 19th century period detail and vernacular. But it’s not a baldly commercial movie and, as with any Robert Eggers joint, may struggle to sink its teeth into audiences. Lily-Rose Depp is stark raving mad as the object of Count Orlok’s (Bill Skarsgård) obsession in this revamp of Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” itself the source material that formed F.W. Murnau’s 1922 “Nosferatu,” a movie writer/director Eggers obsessed over as a child.

Elsewhere in this episode, we discuss the European Film Awards and their influence on the Academy. Euro voters went big for Jacques Audiard’s “Emilia Peréz” and Pedro Almodóvar’s “The Room Next Door,” but will there be room for multiple Euro-centric movies in the ultimate Academy Award Best Picture race?

Ryan saw a movie Anne did not, and nor should you: Amazon MGM Studios’ ghastly $250-million Christmas franchise nonstarter “Red One,” directed by Jake Kasdan. (Read his IndieWire review of “Red One” here.) The Christmas action comedy starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Santa Claus’s body guard — opposite J.K. Simmons as a kidnapped Santa and Chris Evans as the hacker assigned to help find him — opens in theaters this Friday. It’s tracking to open upwards of $36 million but it’s likely more people will see it on Christmas Day on Prime Video. No streaming release date has been announced, but this would fit into a predictable theatrical-to-streaming window. Either way, skip this cynical cash grab of a leaden CGI spectacle on any platform.

Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.

Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.