His Lauded Movie Sat on the Shelf for Years. Now He Can’t Imagine Directing Another One

When A Little Prayer debuted at Sundance nearly three years ago, it instantly emerged as one of the festival’s breakout hits. Praise went to writer-director Angus MacLachlan’s humane filmmaking, the powerhouse performances from David Strathairn and Jane Levy, and the authentic portrayal of family life in Middle America. Sony Pictures Classics bought the drama within days of its premiere, paving a plausible path to awards recognition for MacLachlan and his cast. In a post-COVID landscape that’s kept the specialty-theatrical market under severe threat, here was the rare, subtle indie to pull off what used to be commonplace before the pandemic.

Except ultimately, that didn’t happen. A Little Prayer sat on the shelf for years, with Sony Classics eventually, quietly letting go of the distribution rights. The dual actors’ and writers’ strikes disrupted plans to release the movie in the fall of 2023, sources tell The Hollywood Reporter, and from there, strategic disagreements between the studio and MacLachlan led to a dissolution of the relationship. “I raised all the money myself for this film — nobody else would,” MacLachlan says. The blow of what was essentially a canceled release has proven hard for the director to shake: “I’m really discouraged. Incredibly discouraged. In fact, I can’t imagine making another one. It’s so fucking hard.”

Speaking alongside his star Jane Levy, MacLachlan is conscious of not wanting to sound too negative over the course of our chat. After all, this painful story has a happy ending: Earlier this year, A Little Prayer was rescued from oblivion by the Chicago-based Music Box Films, and released back in August. (It was made available for rental across VOD and digital platforms last week.) Sony Pictures Classics praised the release in a statement to THR, when asked for comment on this story: “A Little Prayer is a beautiful film. We were happy to see it finally released in theaters in August and now on VOD where audiences everywhere can continue to enjoy it.”

Critics remain champions of the movie (Metacritic has it designated with “universal acclaim,” and it has stayed north of 90 percent on Rotten Tomatoes for years), and there’s hope for some awards recognition with smaller and indie-focused voting bodies. But still, the filmmakers learned some harsh lessons. “I feel so beaten down,” says Levy. “I will continue to want to make movies like this. I love acting so much. I love being on movie sets so much. I love cinema. I love independent film…and I will always try to do it. But my expectations are so demolished.”

MacLachlan nods in the Zoom window beside her, to which Levy stops herself for a moment and laughs: “Is that too dark?”

MacLachlan has spent his career making films of this scale. He broke out with the screenplay for Junebug, which netted him an Oscar nomination, before going on to helm the well-reviewed indies Goodbye to All That and Abundant Acreage Available. A Little Prayer, which THR has confirmed had a budget of $1.3 million, is his best movie to date, though, an intricately observed ensemble piece set in a small town. The inciting incident is modest — a father (Strathairn) discovers his son is having an affair, and strives to protect his wide-eyed daughter-in-law (Levy) from the truth — but its reverberations hit hard, movingly touching on a range of bigger topics including veterans’ PTSD, abortion, and the deep emotional wounds that pass on from generation to generation.

“I started writing this when my daughter was 15 and she’s now 24,” MacLachlan says. “I realized in retrospect that I was writing a story about letting go of your children and letting them become adults and how you still, when they become adults, want to take care of them and protect them and tell them what to do — and you don’t really have that right anymore.”

MacLachlan knows it’s not the sexiest pitch for an industry increasingly reliant on viral marketing hooks and provocation. But the script is terrific, with the cast including an Oscar nominee in Strathairn and a talented rising star in Levy (best known for leading the TV series Suburgatory and Zoey’s Extraordinary Playlist). Still, the trouble started long before production. “This film has almost died so many times because it was hard to get the producers, it was hard to raise the money,” MacLachlan says. Adds Levy: “First, it’s hard to get a movie financed. Then it’s hard to get the part. Then it’s hard to actually pull off shooting the thing. Then you get into a festival, then it gets quiet. The amount of things that have to happen for a movie to be seen — it’s so many.”

Levy was cast by Mark Bennett, arguably best known for discovering Amy Adams via 2005’s Junebug. Levy gives a true breakout performance in the movie, culminating in a series of wrenching scenes as her character bears the weight of her predicament.

When Sony Classics dropped A Little Prayer, MacLachlan worried first about his leading lady’s work going unnoticed. “My task was trying to find another distributor, and I talked to everybody I know in the business, and they’re all like, ‘That’s going to be really tough because of momentum’ — and also just the state of what independent all film was at that time,” he says. “The thing I felt the worst about was Jane — that people were not going to get to see this incredible performance.” THR’s 2023 review praised Levy’s characterization as “imbued with radiant humility and a calm inner fire.”

“I was resigned to the fact that no one was ever going to see it,” Levy says. “There are no cheap thrills in this movie. It’s a real family drama. And I felt as an actor, I hadn’t really had the chance to do that.”

Newly re-seeking distribution, A Little Prayer was announced earlier this year as the closing night selection for the Chicago Critics Film Festival. Brian Andreotti, who heads up acquisitions for the local company Music Box, then dug into the fate of the movie he’d loved when he first saw it at Sundance — and realized it was again up for grabs. “We thought it deserved an audience and were eager to restart the enthusiasm for it and elevate its visibility,” Andreotti tells THR.

Of course, the initial buzz surrounding A Little Prayer could not be fully recaptured so long after its premiere — there’s a reason that big festival buys almost always result in releases within a year. But Music Box is one of a handful of smaller companies implementing extremely targeted strategies to sustainably platform niche critical darlings. While reluctant to provide specifics or assert profitability, Andreotti points to recent releases like In the Summers (which wound up being sold to Hulu for streaming) and The Unknown Country (for which Lily Gladstone won a Gotham Award for best lead performance) as “trending the way we’d like it” in terms of sales from theatrical to home entertainment. “It does sometimes take several years to actually recoup expenses and then turn it profitable,” he adds.

A Little Prayer has made just north of $218,000 at the domestic box office, per Box Office Mojo, and Andreotti says digital rentals are performing well so far to keep it on the desired trajectory. “We got into the business to make sure films that other distributors were overlooking could make it into theaters and into people’s homes,” he says, noting the company has low overhead and a small team.

“We have a model that allows for us to take on films like this,” he adds. “Theatrical often is a loss leader, but our philosophy is to not dig too big a hole for ourselves. The margins are razor thin.”

MacLachlan is well aware of all this. A certain creative freedom comes with making movies most won’t dare touch anymore. Because of the difficulties in financing, he only had to answer to himself. “I don’t know if proud is the right word, but I’m satisfied. This is what I want,” he says. “I always feel like I’m the Little Rascals putting on a play. Like, ‘Can you come help us?’” Levy does express pride, though — and makes a case for the movie’s value in a crowded, challenged indie market: “I’m really proud of this movie. There’s not many films like this being made in 2023 — or 2024, or 2025.”

And while he looks out toward the future of his corner of filmmaking with some sadly appropriate pessimism, MacLachlan speaks with weary relief that A Little Prayer is now out there, available to be seen by all. Folks just have to seek it out. “I hope that we have enough profile to get people to take a chance on us,” he says. “I’m trying to be incredibly grateful and enjoy this.”