On Sunday, October 27, 2024, Clint Eastwood will premiere his fortieth feature directorial effort, "Juror #2," at the American Film Institute Festival. This feels like a landmark number. It's certainly a landmark achievement, given that Eastwood is 94 years old, an age at which most people are interred. So it's frankly despicable that Warner Bros-Discovery, headed by noted enemy of cinema David Zaslav, has chosen to unceremoniously dump "Juror #2" on 50 screens over its opening weekend, with no plans for expansion or an awards campaign.

While it's possible the film is not, in the eyes of its studio, an awards contender, it has a commercially viable hook (as evidenced by its compelling trailer) and a killer cast headed up by Nicholas Hoult. Moreover, it's a film by Clint Eastwood, a man whose films have earned WB loads of money over the last 50-plus years. He's had an office on the lot for nearly as long,...