Drag Race: "Tap that App" and swiping left on Vixen/Aquaria

From the desk of sick bed of Nathaniel R

I'm totally sick and two days late so I'm racing through typing up this Race. Please excuse possible incoherency ahead. The mini-challenge was a sleazy commercial in front of wood panelling (very 1990s Calvin Klein) where the queens had to make RuPaul laugh while talking to or um... embodying or seducing a chocolate bar. The winners were the exploitable primness of Blair St Clair, Monique Heart's lusty-busty thirst, and Monet X Change's "Irish" jig. Eureka, totally back on her game, mimed an invisible wall while lustily self-narrating. Weird but also "WERK!".

Winners and losers and drama-creators are after the jump...  

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Beauty vs Beast: To Boston With Love

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" - the director David Gordon Green is turning 43 today, so while we wait to see what he does with his Halloween sequel-o-sorts later this year let's cast an eye  a millimeter backwards towards his last movie, the very fine but somewhat overlooked Stronger. I personally was pretty sad the movie never gained any footing during the awards season for its stars Jake Gyllenhaal and Tatiana Maslany or for Miranda Richardson in Supporting - they were all worthy in my book (and Jake made the Bronze in Nathaniel's Film Bitch Awards). But time will be kind to all of them, I think. The film isn't easy on any of its characters - it refuses to sanctify the terror victim or the "supporting girlfriend" at its heart at every turn. These are complicated people in an extremely complicated situation.

panel management

PREVIOUSLY Toss a bone up and see where it lands - last week we wished Stanely Kubrick's 2001 a happy 50 and y'all surprised me with your love for humanity of all things (this is Kubrick, people!), giving Keir Dullea's space-babe a 4% victory over the dead red eye of HAL-9000. Said MARIAH, perhaps summing many of our votes up (Keir was a piece, it's true):

"I am voting for Dave because I am a homosexual male."

Afternoon Break with Baby Daniel Kaluuya

A friend sent me the link to this video. I have no idea what it is. It looks like some sort of British short comedy series - there are several episodes. Maybe it was part of a sketch show?Whatever it is, it's delightful if only for showing us a young Daniel Kaluuya. We already knew he gave good face, and apparently he always did!

If anyone knows anything about this series, tell us in the comments. Otherwise tell us what else have you seen Kaluuya in, prior to Get Out and Black Panther, that other people should check out.

Box Office: A Quiet Place, Chappaquidick, and Blockers Open...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (March 23rd-25th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
A Quiet Place	You Were Never Really Here
1.🔺A Quiet Place $50 NEW REVIEW	1. 🔺 Isle of Dogs $4.6 on 554 screens (cum. $12) CAPSULE | HOMAGE OR APPROPRIATION
2. Ready Player One  $25 (cum. $96.9) REVIEW	2. 🔺 The Death of Stalin $1.1 on 554 screens (cum. $5.5) REVIEW
3. 🔺 Blockers $21.4 NEW	3. 🔺 The Leisure Seeker $577k on 353 screens (cum. $1.8)
4. Black Panther $8.4 (cum. $665.3) PODCAST	4.  Baaghi 2 $255k on 124 screens (cum. $1.1)
5. I Can Only Imagine $8.3 (cum. $69)	5. 🔺 You Were Never Really Here  $129k on 3 screens NEW REVIEW

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Review: A Quiet Place

by Chris Feil

Family tragedy strikes early in A Quiet Place, with the sudden violent loss of the youngest of three children dividing each remaining family member by their own griefs and grudges. With this, his third feature, actor John Krasinski has made a rather astute portrait of grief with shades of Spielberg that is both lean and unpretentious. But this emotional family drama is more than just that: it’s also nerve-fraying creature feature.

The family, led by Krasinski and Emily Blunt, is one of the remaining survivors of a world decimated by an unspecified (but probably extraterrestrial) species. These creatures hunt people by sound alone and with shocking speed, turning survival into a tense lifestyle of sanded pathways, technological ingenuity, and softened surfaces. That A Quiet Place functions equally well as drama and horror is its greatest strength. The silence that keeps them alive reflects the emotional blockage that is tearing them apart, and the undiscussed loss catalyzes the film effortlessly.

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