What did you see over the holidays?
Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at 8:01AM 
How did you spend Thanksgiving weekend? I watched Moana again with the honorary nieces, saw a preview of Things to Come (yet another Isabelle Huppert triumph) with cinephile friends and caught up with a screener or two.
What did you see over the holiday weekend? The actual box office results are after the jump...
TOP WIDE
800 screens +
01 Moana $56 (cum. $82) NEW Review
02 Fantastic Beasts... $45 (cum. $156)
03 Doctor Strange $13.7 (cum. $205.7) Review
04 Allied $12.7 (cum. $17.7) NEW Review
05 Arrival $11.4 (cum. $62.5) Review and Podcast
It was a great weekend for Disney with Doctor Strange breaking Marvel "first solo film" records and Moana topping the charts. The news was also incredible for Arrival which dropped only 5% (!!!) in its third weekend, suggesting that audiences are really talking about it. Things weren't so happy for Rules Don't Apply (reviewed) which failed to hit the top ten despite premiering on a holiday weekend and over 2000 screens. Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk (reviewed) fared even worse in its second wide weekend, earning less than $200 per screen it played on. The $40 million production has only earned $1.5 million at the US box office. Ouch.
TOP LIMITED
under 800 screens excluding previously wide releases
01 Loving $1.6 (cum. $4) 421 screens Review and Podcast
02 Manchester by the Sea $1.2 (cum. $1.6) 48 screens Review, Second Take
03 Moonlight $1.2 (cum. $8.5) 618 screens Review and Podcast
04 Dear Zindagi $977K NEW 153 screens Review, Second Take
05 Nocturnal Animals $836K (cum. $1.6) 126 screens Review and Podcast
06 The Eagle Huntress $262K (cum. $908K) 64 screens Review
07 Lion $123K NEW 4 screens Review
08 A Man Called Ove $123K (cum. $3) 88 screens
09 Elle $117K (cum. $399K) 12 screens Review and Podcast
10 The Handmaiden $79K (cum. $1.6) 61 screens Podcast
As per usual the top players on limited screens are all your critical darlings, and whichever Bollywood picture happens to be opening that week -- this week that's the latest from reliable draw Shah Rukh Khan. Not charting on only 3 screens was Miss Sloane (reviewed) but hopefully that sees much wider expansion since it's essentially a mainstream entertainment, not an arthouse challenge!
Of note: The Handmaiden is already Park Chan Wook's highest grossing subtitled film in the US (that honor previously belonged to Oldboy in 2003) but if it hangs on to its screens for another week it'll also beat his biggest hit here, the English language Stoker.
Reader Comments (37)
I saw "Moonlight" which is quite a gem...
As a "meta" exercise, my best friend (black), her husband (white), my partner (white), and I (black) saw a Saturday night showing of Loving -- thirty minutes of actual story stretched out to two hours during which both some things and nothing much happen. That the film primarily focuses on the simple, plainspoken couple's desire to build a home and raise a family in their native Virginia is commendable, but I wish there were more to recommend the drama than the subject matter itself (yes, the performances are good and the story well-told. However...).
Troy -- that's my feeling, too.
I stayed home and watched "Umberto D.," which is an accurate depiction of my life next year.
We saw Manchester By The Sea. Devastating. My second favorite of the year after Moonlight.
That limited release top 10 is a thing of beauty.
I saw Fantastic Beasts a second time and liked it just as much.
My boyfriend dragged me out of bed first thing Saturday to go to the free preview of Sing. It's charming enough, a solid throw back "putting on a show" musical by way of a second hand Zootopia - in other words, it borrows liberally from other, better movies without bringing much nEw to the table. But it is fun. It also seems destined to be a huge smash hit that most cinephiles will turn up their noses at.
I'd planned to hit up Allied or Rules Don't Apply Sunday, but decided to do yard work instead. Mother nature > movies, sometimes.
Paolo - lol. hugs.
Certain Women, which was quite good, and Arrival for the 2nd time which might be my favorite movie of the Teens.
Fantastic Beasts - tedious waste of my time and their (unlimited) resources
Moana - I was a little disappointed - maybe my obsession with Hamilton made my expectations too high. It was good but Kubo and the Two Strings and The Little Prince are still my animated films of the year
Edge of Seventeen - Now I have an even greater appreciation of Diary of a Teenage Girl. Edge is too beholden to tv sitcom conventions, where no problem is too messy that it can't be cleared up before the closing credits - preferably with a hug. Ugh. One example, when Nadine meets up with the boy she sent an obscene text to, he talks about "all my friend told me you were nuts" or something similar. In other words, he's shared that text with his friends, and in other words, the whole school is going to know. What happens then? But at the end, she's got herself a fella and it even looks like she'll have oodles of friends. A potentially good movie ruined by its own conventionality.
I also saw Umberto D. (for the third or fourth time) on TCM. Superlatives don't do it justice. DeSica's masterpiece.
Nocturnal Animals - Amy Adams is now officially one of the five most consistently wonderful actresses of the past 10 years. Both in terms of directorial choices and actual performances.
I liked the movie. I like movies about awful people. It's great that her character was both Catholic & a bitch.
Paterson - Jim Jarmusch loves experimenting with structure. And I love experiments.The film does stay with you.
It’s Only the End of the World - it's really moving. Has quite a bit of "seen it all before" moments and it's slightly stagnant at times. But very moving. It rings true. Fully opens the dysfunctional family episode. In fact, I'd say I recognized a few of my family members in the characters.
Queen of the Desert - This easily could've been the "Female Lawrence of Arabia". But they've added too much soap & head & shoulders. The film's beautiful. Kidman is extremely dedicated. But too much soap & head & shoulders. Also kinda really tired of love stories.
I agree Ken S., Edge of Seventeen is a good conventional entry in the teen coming of age genre (it reminded me a lot of 10 Things I Hate About You). But it's nothing groundbreaking.
Haven't seen "Elle" yet but "Things To Come" is my best film of the year so far. Can't believe Huppert can be better than here and the film itself is pure delight.
"The Love Witch" - beautiful, one of a kind, and just a tiny bit boring. The narrative meanders and doesn't quite engage throughout, but perhaps that was an intentional part of the genre homage? Clearly the film has more to offer than a traditional story, but it doesn't commit to being NON-narrative either, so I think it's fair to wish that the story was a little tighter or had more structure. But it's really marvelous to look at.
"Captain Fantastic" - darker than I expected, but lovely.
We saw Arrival, which was beautiful, of course.
I was a busy bee with ALLIED, LOVING, BILLY LYNN, and RULES DON'T APPLY in theatres, none of which I loved - but at home I caught up to CAPTAIN FANTASTIC and KATE PLAYS CHRISTINE both of which I did
In theaters, I saw Moana and Allied. Both were pretty solid. Allied was a little weaker but thank goodness for Marion Cotillard who stole the show and was the main reason I saw it.
I also delved into the wonderful world of streaming and saw some films on Google Play:
"Chevalier": Had nice ideas but completely boring as hell.
"Henry Gamble's Birthday Party": An absolute gem. Very intimate yet very soulful filmmaking.
"Keep The Lights On": Another strong LGBTQ+ film that still sticks in my memory. A powerful demonstration on how love makes people fight for it.
I saw Arrival. I didn't love it. The whole segment devoted to language was quite fascinating -Adams really shines in those scenes- but I couldn't care less about her divorce. Renner sucked. Also, the political consequences of the arrival were poorly developed and that final phone call was risible.
I saw ARRIVAL a second time, and my love for this film was cemented. Eerie, gorgeously filmed (crossing my fingers for Bradford Young's first Oscar nom!), with a stellar lead turn from Amy Adams and, perhaps, my all-time favorite film aliens, save for E.T. The end feels less like a twist and more like an inevitable slide into excitingly emotional, morally and ethically slippery terrain. It was great to think less and enjoy more the second time around!
I finally saw Christopher Plummer's film version of his one-man show "Barrymore" (2011). Well... it's actually him playing John Barrymore and John Plumpis playing a theater prompter. I was absolutely mesmerized by his performance. It reminded me of -and was at the same level as- Albert Finney in "The Dresser" and Laurence Olivier in "Sleuth".
It also made me nostalgic of the 70s, when endeavors such as this one -basically filmed theater- could garner Oscar nominations for their actors. Point in case... 1975 saw TWO such actors in its Best Actor roster: Maximilian Schell in "The Man in the Glass Booth" (inspired by the story of nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann) and James Whitmore in "Give 'em Hell, Harry!" (playing President Harry Truman).
"The Man in the Glass Booth" was part of a very prestigious series of film adaptations of stage plays produced by Ely Landau. There were 14 films divided into 2 seasons; the films had limited runs in cinemas, with top-notch directors (Losey, Olivier, Lindsay Anderson, Tony Richardson, Harold Pinter, Frankenheimer and Peter Hall among them) and star-stellar casts (Hepburn, Olivier, Scofield, Lee Remick, Schell, Alan Bates, Joan Plowright, Glenda Jackson, Susannah York, Marvin, Frederic March and many more).
This is a wikipedia link to The American Film Theater films:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Film_Theatre
FANTASTIC BEASTS. Meh. Only bright spots were the two female leads. Agree with my sister who said "Eddie Redmayne's physicality is now trapped by his performances in The Theory of Everything and The Danish Girl." So tick-filled, tedious and cringe-worthy. Reminds me of an old interview with Meryl Streep, where she continued to talk in a stilted, Polish-Sophie sort of way, long after the film was shot, I long for the Eddie from Pillars of the Earth; also the one who unicycled around the Graham Norton set.
Seeing LION at a screening tonight. CAN NOT WAIT!
I saw...
Arrival
We Will Not Grow Old Together (35mm)
The Handmaiden
Christine
Loving
The Love Witch (35mm)
Captain Fantastic
Howards End
A Single Man (35mm)
Moana: B
Fantastic Beasts: B+ (the best blockbuster of the year. Newt Scamander is the nerd hero we need)
The Edge of Seventeen: B+ (Great cast and a very perceptive screenplay about the fragile egos of teenagers. Hayden Szeto is an adorable, hunky "nerd.")
Amy: B+ (Man, Winehouse was surrounded by horrible people)
Henry Gamble's Birthday Party: B- A good gay indie film as gay indie films go. It's commendable for how even-handed it is in portrarying faith and the difficulty even the most faithful have in following the straight and narrow, (so to speak).
Manchester by the Sea: A (It ambles and a bit overlong, but it so piercingly incisive about grief and guilt. It is heartbreaking. Like You Can Count On Me, it makes me wonder long after the film has ended how the characters are doing.
I saw Loving. I was very moved by it but not blown away. Edgerton and Negga are on the borderline for nominations. Negga has the most beautiful eyes. Grade: B+
I saw Loving. I was very moved by it but not blown away. Edgerton and Negga are on the borderline for nominations. Negga has the most beautiful eyes. Grade: B+
Over the weekend I only saw Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, which I did not dislike nearly as much as I thought I was going to. As much as the HFR 3D look horribly fake in the beginning, there were some moments where it was stunningly gorgeous, and in its best sequence is the most stunningly visceral anti-war film I've ever seen. But satire like this is amazingly difficult to translate from the page to the big screen, and Ang Lee - with all due respect - was probably not the man for the job. That said, I was completely engaged the whole time, and I'm tempted to think of it more as a "noble attempt" than anything else.
Other People - cute, warm, sometimes funny. I liked Plemons and yet wanted more from him, just something more simmering under the surface so his grocery store breakdown feels inevitable, not scripted. Shannon was great. I haven't seen enough films yet this year to know if she should be in the top five of supporting actresses, but I think she did a lot of great, subtle work. And that dance sequence with the kid! That was just...wow.
Meet Me in St. Louis - charming, lovely, if a little meandering and sometimes boring. The costumes and colors are gorgeous. And man, when Garland opens her mouth for the first time, it's really stunning.
Who are you people? ;-)
Gilmore Girls: A Year in the Life.
That is all.
Loving: I'm sad that I was also disappointed by it. There just wasn't enough to it, despite the good performances.
Moana: I'm sick of the buddy comedy formula that Disney has had for every film in their new "renaissance." The animation was gorgeous (THAT WATER), the characters were great, the music is addicting, but ughhhhh...The plot was so boring.
I saw three "old" movies I got from the DVD section of the library. The first was THE HEAT. Eh, it was a so-so cop movie and only intermittently funny. Sandra is a good sport. I'd probably not seek it out to see again.
The second was PRISONERS. This may be the most intense movie I've seen in years. I had my hands over my eyes, and had to get up and pace around the living room. Great performances from, well, everyone really. Jake really got a lot of mileage from blinking. Nevertheless, I'd be very cautious in recommending it because it's not for everyone, and I don't know if I could sit through it again.
Finally, I saw NOW YOU SEE ME which was the most popular of the three in my household. I thought it was a bit of a cheat because you can be really good at "magic" if you're starring in a movie. I mean if you can have realistic dinosaurs in a movie, then yes, you can make any sort of magic trick look good and plausible. Ultimately I just enjoyed it as a ludicrous heist movie with magic as it's gimmick. I'd be happy to watch it again someday.
Saw DOCTOR STRANGE (enjoyable, glad Rachel McAdams had more than one scene!) and AMERICAN HONEY (really liked it).
DeeJay, MMISL is so good, but it cannot overcome a major flaw--Margaret O'Brien. One of cinema's all-time irritants. Blech.
Brookesboy - yeah, she was pretty irritating, but also the character is a really big brat, so maybe it was just good casting?
I celebrated by watching "Giant," which was released 60 years ago Thanksgiving weekend.
"Giant" gets generalized as a soapy epic, but it has a strong social message regarding racism, sexism, capitalism, big money & politics...you know, all the things that we still struggle with today!
Here's my blog post review of "Giant":
http://ricksrealreel.blogspot.com/2016/11/giant-1956s-timely-and-timeless-epic.html
Arrival, Doctor Strange, and a bunch of 30 for 30 docs.
I saw "Moonlight" which is not only one of the best gay theme films I've seen in a while but one of the best movies of the year.
Caught Manchester by the Sea with my film group. I had three quick takeaways from the film:
-- although over two hours in length, the film never seemed tedious, and the scenes flowed effortlessly into each other. It boasts a beautifully written screenplay on a difficult subject matter (the coping of loss) with just the right amount of comic relief;
-- Casey Afflick and Michelle Williams certainly are deserving of the acting kudos they thus far have received, and are particularly effective in their scenes together. Williams, for me, was a relevation (she really dug down into her character);
-- the ending seemed real and just right to the characters and storyline.
I watched Elle twice already and appreciated the subtlest shade of nuance that Huppert's Michele Leblanc brings to her face when reacting to people around her. But I was not prepared for Mia Hansen-Løve's L'Avenir's quiet beauty. Huppert has two very strong scenes when talking about her mother, and expressing her fondness for a summer home that's irrevocably lost. The tears came naturally and not gratuitous or emotionally manipulative. I never get the sense of watching Huppert's films through the years that she was showboating. She seems spiritually aligned to the characters she's playing.