The Past, the new film by the director of A Separation, opens via Sony Pictures Classics on December 20th and will expand later in the month and throughout January and February. It is not turning out to be an absolute critical juggernaut on par with A Separation, but reviews are still very strong (its current Metacritic score is 76), and it could easily score an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film as Iran's submission. And it will benefit from A Separation's critical and commercial success, of course.

Oh, and it must be said: here is a director who knows how to give his films engaging, memorable, sexy titles.

Less.

Less.

But the film is so damn good. Here's hoping it can win Best Foreign.

Definitely less. A Separation was a very exceptional foreign language hit, and had easily the best reviews of 2011 for any movie. I'm guessing this will do well though - $2-4 million sounds about right.

The current expansion plan: http://www.sonyclassics.com/thepast/dates.html