Doc Corner: 'House of Z'

Fashion documentaries have been going downhill ever since Unzipped. Douglas Keeve’s 1995 portrait of Isaac Mizrahi, a box office smash and critical hit, remains the pinnacle of what so many since have attempted. Like Madonna: Truth or Dare, from which it took much inspiration, that riotously funny glimpse into Mizrahi’s world full of design, famous friends, creativity and wickedly self-depreciating neurosis was a perfect storm of sorts between personality, fashion and celebrity that a film about this sort of person ought to be.  

Every year brings us several of these sorts of documentaries. Like the majority of them, Sandy Chronopoulos’ debut feature, House of Z, is easily digestible and barely raises a sweat; a work of celebrity portraiture that fans won’t regret watching, but which offers little beyond what is promised on the tin. Taking the same narrative hook as Unzipped of a talented young designer’s comeback from the precipice of total failure, House of Z is an act of personality redemption for a man whose career nearly fell apart because of his outlandishness and brattish behaviour. This makes it a humble film in many ways, one that deliberately chooses to show its subject as one appreciative of his position.

That also means that it is a humourless one, too; sapped of the fun and the outrageousness and the glamour that should be natural.I can only imagine how fun this film may have been half a decade ago.

Click to read more ...

"You Were Never Really Here" First Look!

Chris here. Can you believe the wait for the next Lynne Ramsay film is almost over? We've only had to wait a mere six years this time after the the nine year gap between Morvern Callar and We Need to Talk About Kevin, so maybe we shouldn't complain. But this film is a promising return: Ramsay worked on You Were Never Really Here until the last minute before its Cannes debut, landing both a Best Actor trophy for Joaquin Pheonix and a tie for Best Screenplay (shared with The Killing of a Sacred Deer). And don't expect any dampened intensity from the auteur - Pheonix stars as a vigilante hitman tasked to rescue a young girl from a human trafficking circle.

The film is absent from the fall festival circuit and Amazon has yet to announce a release date, which likely spells out a slightly further wait and spring stateside release. No worry for our European readers as the film will open in a few countries this fall, and we've got a new trailer to go with it. Phoenix is pretty thrilling even in just this brief glimpse, but the trailer also hints at a pulsing score from Jonny Greenwood and gorgeous visuals from director of photography Thomas Townend. Take a look at the bloody and brutal NSFW trailer (fair warning - those who've seen the film say the trailer uses a lot of footage from the climax of the film) and rejoice Ramsay's return!

Labor Day Weekend Didn't Fill Movie Theaters

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (4 Day Labor Day Weekend)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
WIND RIVER	DO IT LIKE AN HOMBRE
1. THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD $13.3 (cum. $58)	1. 🔺 INHUMANS  $1.5 new on 393 screens
2. ANNABELLE CREATION $9.3 (cum. $90.9)	2.  🔺 DO IT LIKE AN HOMBRE  $1.4 new on 382 screens
3. WIND RIVER $7.9 (cum. $20.3) REVIEW	3. 🔺  PATTI CAKE$  $315k (cum. $603k) on 295 screens
4. LEAP  $6.5 (cum. $13)	4.  TRIP TO SPAIN $301k (cum. $623K) on 140 screens

LOGAN LUCKY	I DO... UNTIL I DON'T
5. LOGAN LUCKY $5.6 (cum. $22.6) REVIEW	5. 🔺  MENASHE $272k (cum. $1.3) on 126 screens REVIEW
6. DUNKIRK $5.6 (cum. $180.2) PODCAST | TOM HARDY	6. 🔺 I DO... UNTIL I DON'T  $234k new on 165 screens
7. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $4.7 (cum. $325.1)  REVIEW	7. 🔺 VALLEY OF BONES $138K new on 300 screens
8. THE EMOJI MOVIE $3.3 (cum. $81.2) REVIEW	8. A GENTLEMAN  $110k (cum. $385k) on 130 screens
9. DESPICABLE ME 3 $3.3 (cum. $258.8)	9. MAUDIE $109k (cum. $5.9) on 106 screens REVIEW
10. NUT JOB 2 $2.9 (cum. $26.7)	10. 🔺 CROWN HEIGHTS $83k (cum. $167k) on 55 screens
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers from box office mojo

This was the worst Labor Day weekend for the movie business in nearly two decades! Marvel's Inhumans, a tv series launched in movie theaters, didn't even excite people much. I went to a lakehouse with friends to enjoy the last bit of sun and water but we did rewatch Moana with friends' kids though. 

If you did get to the movies, which ones? If you saw Do it Like an Hombre, please report: was it as dated and homophobic-despite-being-about-how-homophobia-is-stupid as it looked? If you didn't, which films have you been thinking about? I have to admit that Wind River has been rustling around in my mind quite a bit after seeing it so I'm glad it's holding steady with audiences.

Happy New School Year!

Each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess, and a criminal."

Dancin' Dan here wishing you a happy start to the school year, on behalf of Team Experience.

Has there ever been a high school movie as universal as The Breakfast Club? It's not a surprise that it's (apparently) still shown in schools to middle and high school students, given how clear and needed its message is: We may seem different to each other, but deep down, we're all going through the same shit. And if we really listen, we can help each other get through it.

Who did you most want to be friends with the first time you saw The Breakfast Club? While I always related most to Anthony Michael Hall's good boy Brian, I always most wanted to befriend Ally Sheedy's Allison, because I loved how she playfully taunted the others when they stared at her freakish behavior. She seemed like the most fun. PLUS: Pixie Stix sandwich.

Beauty vs Beast: Super Cat Scratch Fever

Jason from MNPP here with today's new "Beauty vs Beast" -- I finally got my boyfriend to watch Wonder Woman this weekend (it's finally out on VOD) and he was as surprised as I was by how much he enjoyed it (I was skeptical given DC's lousy track-record and he was skeptical because he doesn't like superhero movies). But he had one complaint that I very much got - there are a couple of full-body CG shots where Diana's hopping around where the effects look pretty goony, or as my boyfriend put it, "That looked like Catwoman." 

Which got me thinking about Catwoman. The Halle Berry one, I mean. Which isn't as dire for me as it is for most - I actually enjoy the 2004 dud, albeit for camp value. But you kind of get the feeling that the film's director Pitof (whose career was, probably rightly, murdered by the film) intended the camp value, which then got me thinking about what a blessing it is that Patty Jenkins was able to give us a female superhero and take her (and her girly love for love) seriously - there's a long history of female superheroes being treated as less than serious by male directors, from Supergirl to Showgirls. 

Of course Tim Burton took Catwoman seriously once, and from that we got the Greatest Superhero Performance of All Time. And he also proved that taking something "seriously" doesn't mean you have to drain all the fun, or even the camp, from it - a lesson every DC movie not named Wonder Woman could stand to learn. So I hope we get a proper Catwoman movie some day, but until then, I'll make due with the camp of Halle Berry smashing the beauty magnate villanness Sharon Stone's cement face in. Which leads me to this week's purrfect poll...

PREVIOUSLY When I was out of town last week Nathaniel took y'all back to Disney's film Hercules (which sidenote I have never seen, whoopsie) and faced off its hero and hell-ward villain, and in a squeaker the titular ginger took the crown with just over 51% of your votes. Always bet on ginger. Said Emma:

"I consider Hercules the second dishiest Disney character (second only to Nick from ZOOTOPIA... don't judge me!), so had to vote for the eye candy."