Review: Mayor Pete

By Abe Friedtanzer

Politics have become so divisive these days that campaigns are often based more on what a candidate is not rather than what they are. It’s refreshing, therefore, to see a politician whose identity is integral to their desire to achieve a certain office. This documentary’s title indicates the informality and folksiness attributed to its protagonist, a man who may actually be one of the most put-together, presentable people in the political world today. That would be Pete Buttigieg, the extremely likeable and publicly gay mayor of South Bend, Indiana who made a run for the presidency in 2020…

Being gay is not the only aspect of who Pete is, but it is a big part of it and one that broke new ground when he shared the debate stage with other Democratic presidential candidates...

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What films are we underestimating for tech nominations?

By Ben Miller

With the film year winding down, the higher-profile films are packing the predictions of Oscar pundits everywhere.  As easy as it is to predict Dune and Nightmare Alley to have plenty of technical nominations, what films are we underestimating?

For the last 18 years, at least one film has received a single Oscar nomination in a below-the-line category.  While it is not unusual for a film to receive a single nomination in Best Original Song, Original Score or Cinematography but these are the categories awards pundits and the Oscars themselves don't tend to pay as much attention to...

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Box Office: "Eternals" opens big, "Spencer" doesn't pack them in.

What did you see this past week/weekend? The public came out in droves for Marvel's disappointing Eternals because the public always comes out for Marvel's Anything. In more surprising news Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch held strong as it added theaters and continues to overperform while Spencer, despite a lot of Oscar buzz for Kristen Stewart, slightly underperformed. Of course you could also argue that it overperformed given the dire market these days for non-franchise* adult-oriented pictures.

Weekend Box Office November 5th-7th 🔺 = new or expanding
1-5	6-10
ETERNALS	FRENCH DISPATCH
1 ETERNALS 🔺  $71 Nathaniel's Review	6 THE FRENCH DISPATCH 🔺$2.6 (cum. $8.4) Elisa's Review
2  DUNE  $7.6 (cum. $83.9)  Elisa's Review	7 HALLOWEEN KILLS $2.3 (cum. $89.7) Elisa's Review
3 NO TIME TO DIE  $6.1 (cum. $143.1) Deborah's Review	8 SPENCER 🔺$2.1 Nathaniel's Review
4 VENOM LET THERE BE CARNAGE  $4.4 (cum. $197)	9 ANTLERS $2 (cum. $7.6)
5 RON'S GONE WRONG $3.6 (cum. $17.5)	10 LAST NIGHT IN SOHO $1.8 (cum. $7.6) Nathaniel's Review

* Director Pablo Larraín's lonely globally famous woman trilogy -- Jackie, Spencer, ?  -- doesn't count as a franchise ;)

Next weekend: a director's cut of Rocky IV and the family film Clifford the Big Red Dog are new in theaters, meanwhile the excellent Passing is in select theaters and hitting Netflix.

Gotham Nominees: Lili Taylor in "Paper Spiders"

by Nick Taylor

With the 2021 Gotham Awards just a week away, we thought it’d be fun to highlight a handful of nominated films that could use some attention. It’s always worthwhile to sort through that exclusive group of widely available, barely distributed, minimally buzzed films hiding between the noteworthy early releases and the awards players that won’t legally exist to the moviegoing public for a few more weeks. Inon Stampanier’s Paper Spiders, which earned an Outstanding Lead Performance nomination for Lili Taylor, falls safely into this lucky group. So, to start with a good film that deserves a moment in the spotlight, and as tribute to all the Lili Taylor gays out there (ie, gays I know who can’t stop watching The Conjuring), we begin our little tour here!

Paper Spiders - a title that won’t make any sense until the last few minutes - centers itself on the relationship between college-bound high school senior Melanie (Stefania Owen) and her mother Dawn (Lili Taylor)...

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Review: the sprawling staccato "Eternals"

by Nathaniel R

Why am I here? What is my purpose? Who am I… really? These are essential questions in life and if you stop to think about it, they’re also the backbone of practically every superhero origin story. A hero discovers their gift. Grapples with how to use it and what kind of person they are and what kind of hero they can be.  With great power comes great responsibility. Etcetera. The reaction to Marvel’s Eternals suggests that it’s the first “spiritual” or “existential” superhero film which is, quite frankly, the opposite of the truth. 

Where did this impression come from? Perhaps it’s only that most superhero films asks these questions in a less “I’m asking these questions!” kind of way. Or, even when they're obvious about the questions, they quickly jump back into the action setpieces. Eternals wants to be more of a sober meditation but it can’t reconcile the weightiness of contemplation with the weightlessness of frequent CGI action setpieces...

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