Annual Top Films Lists

Top 100 Most Anticipated American Indie Films of 2018: #38. A.J. Edwards’ Friday’s Child

Published on January 17, 2018

Friday’s Child

“Sponging both formal technique and spiritual inflection to create a film that looks, sounds and feels like the work of Malick, yet stands as something new, fresh and fully formed”. This is how we described A.J. Edwards‘ debut film. The Better Angels was of a different vernacular (read review / listen to our interview) and didn’t exactly make waves, but some fine folks did notice. Actor Tye Sheridan for one. Produced by Tyler Glodt, Christian Sosa and Nicolas Gonda (Song to Song), we mentioned that his sophomore feature Friday’s Child sounds like a future cousin to Malick’s own Badlands.

Written by A.J. Edwards and Michael Dolan, and starring Sheridan, Imogen Poots, Caleb Landry Jones, Jeffrey Wright and Brett Butler, is a modern day redemption story set in Waco, Texas. Joan (Poots), whose father is murdered by Richie (Sheridan). Not knowing the young drifter is the source of her suffering, Richie and Joan strike up an unlikely bond during the period of her grief. As complications grow, it is only through Joan that Richie can find redemption. Joan’s own struggle is one of learning to forgive the most heinous of crimes, discovering that only in selflessness can there be peace.

Release Date/Prediction: Locarno feels right.

Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).