The Annihilation of Fish

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The Annihilation of Fish
The Annihilation of Fish 4K poster.jpg
Film poster (4K restoration)
Directed by Charles Burnett
Written by Anthony C. Winkler
Produced byKris Dodge
Paul Heller
William Lawrence Fabrizio
Eric Mitchell
John Remark
Starring
CinematographyJohn Ndiaga Demps
Rick Robinson
Edited byNancy Richardson
Music by Laura Karpman
Distributed by Kino Lorber
Release date
  • September 12, 1999 (1999-09-12)(TIFF)
Running time
108 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Box office$70,840 [1]

The Annihilation of Fish is a 1999 American romance film directed by Charles Burnett and starring Lynn Redgrave, James Earl Jones and Margot Kidder. [2] [3] [4]

Contents

Plot

Wistful and lonely Flower 'Poinsettia' Cummings is freshly out of a relationship with the dead composer Giacomo Puccini, while Jamaican immigrant Obadiah 'Fish' Johnson has just been released from a mental institution that cannot cure him of the antagonistic demon that follows him wherever he goes. When the two become neighbors, they embark on an unlikely romance.

Cast

Reception

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes , 79% of 28 critics' reviews are positive. [5] Metacritic , which uses a weighted average , assigned the film a score of 63 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews. [6]

Merle Bertrand of Film Threat wrote, "Romantic comedies have become something of a tired staple in indie filmmaking, these days. Yet, odd as it may seem, it’s the unlikely interracial geriatric chops on display in The Annihilation of Fish that breathe new life into the genre." [3] Todd McCarthy of Variety wrote, "It’s hard to imagine what the filmmakers were thinking when they put this project together, in that it’s a picture about two oldsters with very little forward momentum, no subplots and the barest of production values. The stars and director Charles Burnett have names to reckon with, but they’ll all have to write this one off as a misguided bit of whimsy." [2]

In 2025, Robert Daniels of RogerEbert.com gave the film four out of four stars and wrote, "In The Annihilation of Fish, age is the accumulation of scars. Aching memories, unhealed bruises and pent-up desires remain alive even when many of the sights and sounds that once decorated one's existence are dormant. For James Earl Jones and Lynn Redgrave, two actors who were already in the autumn of their lives when the film was initially released a quarter century ago, age appears to have been an especially potent subject." [7]

Preservation

The Annihilation of Fish was restored by the UCLA Film & Television Archive and The Film Foundation, in collaboration with Milestone Films, from the 35mm original picture and track negatives. Restoration funding was provided by the Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation. The restoration had its west coast premiere at the 2024 UCLA Festival of Preservation. [8]

Home media

The film was not released on DVD and Blu-ray until June 17, 2025. [9] [10]

References

  1. "The Annihilation of Fish". Box Office Mojo . IMDb . Retrieved September 1, 2025.
  2. 1 2 McCarthy, Todd (September 22, 1999). "Review: 'The Annihilation of Fish'". Variety . Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  3. 1 2 Bertrand, Merle (May 18, 2000). "The Annihilation of Fish". Film Threat . Retrieved January 2, 2024.
  4. Burnett, Charles; Kapsis, Robert E. (2011). Charles Burnett: Interviews. University Press of Mississippi. p. xxxvi. ISBN   9781604739503.
  5. "The Annihilation of Fish". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved July 13, 2025.
  6. "The Annihilation of Fish". Metacritic . Retrieved March 22, 2025.
  7. Daniels, Robert (February 2025). "The Annihilation of Fish". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved February 14, 2025.
  8. "The Annihilation of Fish". UCLA Film & Television Archive . Retrieved February 5, 2025.
  9. "Sony sets Krull for 4K Steelbook, Kino Cult's Xanadu Ultra HD, plus TONS of new Warner Archive, Indicator Films, and Imprint Films titles!". The Digital Bits. June 13, 2025. Retrieved June 17, 2025. Kino Lorber is also releasing Charles Burnett's long-lost comedy The Annihilation of Fish (1999), which stars Lynn Redgrave, Margo Kidder, and James Earl Jones, on Blu-ray and DVD on 6/17.
  10. "The Annihilation of Fish". Milestone Films . Retrieved June 17, 2025. For almost a quarter of a century, The Annihilation of Fish has been unavailable on all media — it has never been distributed on 35mm, DCP, VHS, DVD, Blu-ray, television, or streaming — anywhere.