Annual Top Films Lists

Top 200 Most Anticipated Films for 2014: #80. Michael R. Roskam’s The Drop

Published on February 24, 2014

The Drop

Director: Michael R. Roskam
Writer: Dennis Lehane
Producers: Chernin Entertainment’s Peter Chernin and Dylan Clark, Mike Larocca
U.S. Distributor: Fox Searchlight
Cast: Tom Hardy, Noomi Rapace, James Gandolfini, Matthias Schoenaerts, John Ortiz, Ann Dowd, James Frecheville

Michael R. Roskam’s English language debut is a no-brainer entry on this list – after all, his feature debut, the unshakable Bullhead was a hardcore revenge film that even found the difficult palates from the Academy could appreciate for some Best Foreign language category nomination love. The newly minted The Drop which will likely feature a pissed off Tom Hardy (look for comparisons to be made between him and Matthias Schoenaerts) might actually become the best of Dennis Lehane’s overrated book to film adaptations.

Gist: This centers on a Boston bartender (Hardy) who rescues a dog from a garbage can. This act of good will gets him into more trouble than he can imagine, when the pooch’s deranged former owner comes after him. He also gets caught in a criminal conspiracy at the mafia-controlled bar he works at.

Release Date: Having recently pegged this with a September 19th release, Fox Searchlight folks are probably eyeing a Venice-TIFF-Telluride release showing.

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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).