Emma Stone’s Forgotten Mystery Film That Made Just $4 Million Domestically Seeks Redemption on New Streamer

Before she became the muse of director Yorgos Lanthimos, with whom she has made four movies now, Emma Stone briefly played the same role for the now-canceled Woody Allen. She first worked with Allen on the period comedy film Magic in the Moonlight, which also featured Colin Firth, and then collaborated with the director again on his forgotten mystery comedy Irrational Man, which celebrated its 10th anniversary this year. The movie’s wild plot has some seriously sinister implications if you consider the controversies that have followed Allen for decades. It follows a depressed philosophy professor who begins a romantic relationship with one of his students and plots a murder just for kicks. Irrational Man was headlined by Joaquin Phoenix, with Parker Posey playing a supporting role alongside Stone. The movie will soon be available to stream on Hulu, beginning January 1.

Released in 2015, Irrational Man was particularly unsuccessful at the domestic box office. It grossed under $5 million stateside, and concluded its global run with less than $30 million, against a reported budget of $11 million. Like most of Allen’s films of that era, it earned mixed reviews. Irrational Man is currently sitting at a 47% score on the aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, where the critics’ consensus reads, “Irrational Man may prove rewarding for the most ardent Joaquin Phoenix fans or Woody Allen apologists, but all others most likely need not apply.” Allen was effectively canceled by Hollywood some years later, when his 2018 film A Rainy Day in New York was dropped by Amazon. His last film was also his 50th, Coup de Chance, which marked his French-language debut.

Both Joaquin Phoenix and Emma Stone Recently Witnessed Box Office Disappointment

Stone and Phoenix recently worked together on Ari Aster‘s Eddington, which underperformed at the box office earlier this year. Before that, Phoenix and Posey worked together on Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which underperformed commercially as well. Phoenix has been having a difficult run at the box office, following the grand success of Joker in 2019. That film’s sequel, Joker: Folie à Deux, remains one of the biggest big-budget flops in recent memory. Additionally, Joker 2, Eddington and Beau Is Afraid all earned divisive reviews, as did Stone’s latest film with Lanthimos, Bugonia.