Got a question for the podcast?

We're recording tomorrow.

Ask away and Murtada and I will try to answer a handful or two of them... along with a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood discussion. 

Once Upon a Time & The Farewell are wins for adult programming, thank god.

What did you see this weekend? 

Weekend Box Office Estimates July 19th-21st  🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Highly Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood	The Farewell
1 The Lion King  $75 (cum. $350.7) REVIEW	1 🔺 The Farewell $1.5 (cum. $3.6) PERSONAL & UNIVERSAL, INTERVIEW ★
2 🔺 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood $40.3 *NEW* REVIEW  ★	2 Art of Self Defense $311k (cum. $2) REVIEW
3 Spider-Man Far From Home $12.2 (cum. $344.4)  TOM HOLLAND, REVIEW	3 🔺 Maiden $204k (cum. $1.1) REVIEW ★
4 Toy Story 4 $9.8 (cum. $395.6)  PODCAST, REVIEW	4 Super 30 $189k (cum. $2.1)
5 Crawl  $6 (cum. $23.8) REVIEW	5 🔺  Pavarotti $135k (cum. $4.2)

numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo

Unless you wanna talk about The Lion King (why? it's bad!) the big story this weekend was the strong opening of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Making movies for adults is now an endangered business so we're happy that the film had such a healthy opening, the best ever for a Tarantino picture. (Given the movie's defiantly leisurely pacing, though, we have trouble imagining great word of mouth to keep it going for a long time.) Meanwhile The Farewell continued to do great business, so much so that it entered the regular top ten this weekend despite being at only 135 theaters. Go Lulu Wang and Awkwafina! Next weekend continues the annoying trend of Hollywood refusing to compete with itself with the third straight weekend with only one new wide release: Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw. After that the floodgates open with lots of new films per week as the summer movie season begins to wane. 

Review: Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad...

We want you... to see this movie so we can talk about it.

[Spoiler-free review] Here’s the best way to know that you’re inside an auteur’s movie. It’s impossible to imagine it having been made by anyone else. Quentin Tarantino’s 10th feature film (creatively referred to as his 9th, presumably to give him a retirement out after his various “I’ll quit after 10 films!” proclamations) is a fable about Hollywood. The movie begins in 1968 and ends in the summer of 1969 when the very pregnant actress Sharon Tate, Roman Polanski’s new wife, and her house guests were all brutally murdered by the Manson family. Any number of filmmakers could have made a movie about that infamous year in California, but only Tarantino could have made Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood. 

Historical events, real ones at least, have never been as sacred to Tarantino as the history of the movies. Whenever he’s dipped into “history” -- Django Unchained, Inglourious Basterds-- it’s been as emotionally loaded prefab worlds from which to spin his own idiosyncratic yarns.  In this regard Once Upon a Time is no exception. To this viewer, though, his latest movie feels closer in spirit to Pulp Fiction...

Click to read more ...

Oscar Hopefuls from The Netherlands

by Nathaniel R

Romy's Salon is one of nine finalists to be the Dutch Oscar submission

Dutch films have been on our brains since Rutger Hauer passed away, so here's a timely bit of news. The NOSC (Nederlandse Oscar Selectie Commissie) will choose the Dutch Oscar submission in early September. Nine finalists are reportedly up for the honor...

Click to read more ...

on the pages of a blueboy magazine...

Remember when Gus Van Sant made Keanu Reeves into a living softcore magazine cover in My Own Private Idaho? Good times. 

(Thanks to Canadian filmmaker Bruce La Bruce for this memory jog)