Remembering "Ed Wood" on its 25th

Ed Wood opened nationwide on this very day, 25 years ago. 

by Anna

There’s an admirable irony in that a biopic on the worst director of all time ended up being one of the best-reviewed movies of 1994. The added fact that it ended up being largely ignored by mainstream audiences at the time seems almost fitting. As the second of Burton and Depp’s repeat collaborations, it further set the precedent for all their future collaborations exploring the odd man (in every sense of the term) amid everyday life. But instead of the Frankenstein pastiche that defined their previous film, this one is about someone who has endless stories to tell… even though he doesn’t have the talent to tell them.

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T'was a good weekend for Pedro, Joaquin, JLo, and Renée

Weekend Box Office [Actuals] Oct 4th -6th 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
Joker	Pain & Glory
1 🔺  Joker  $96.2 *new* REVIEW	1 🔺 War $1.6 on 305 screens *new*

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The Best Production Design Oscar Race

By Cláudio Alves

Will a Tarantino movie finally be nominated for Best Production Design?

Let's take a look at the Best Production Design Oscar race. While period pieces and fantasy extravaganzas dominate the costuming category, production designers are more open to other styles, too, like sci-fi, contemporary excellence, and even superhero movies. That said, at least in regards to the films that have already opened, the major contenders are roughly the same as with the Best Costume Design Oscar race. 

THOSE WE'VE ALREADY SEEN

Rick Heinrichs designed Dumbo's spectacular sets.

Rick Heinrichs won an Oscar for a previous collaboration with Tim Burton (Sleepy Hollow) and his designs for Dumbo are quite good, like nightmare visions of an Art Deco Disneyland. I’m less enchanted with Gemma Jackson’s pseudo-Arabian designs, but it would be foolish to count Aladdin out of the race...

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Streaming Roulette, Oct: High Life/Noon and Handfuls of Dust.

As is our practice we've selected a handful plus of new-to-streaming titles and frozen them at utterly random moments without cheating (whatever comes up comes up!). After those selections we've listed all the movies from each of the streaming channels. What should you queue up for OCTOBER 2019 ? (★ means we definitely recommend catching them and bold titles are buzzy things we haven't yet seen) 

Let's get started...

[mood music]

HIGH LIFE (2019) on Amazon Prime
Funnily enough this empty shot is exactly as I recall High Life, so much atmosphere and isolation. Humanity is over. (Except for Juliette Binoche who is just living for her disturbing role.) We expect this will end up on some top ten lists at year's end...

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Joker, Reviewed: An Empty Beauty Full of Anxious Laughter

Please welcome new contributor Michael Frank...

by Michael Frank

The circus around Joker has been exhausting. It’s been a nonstop argument between every single person that posts a positive or negative review, causing friction between subgroups you didn’t even know existed. I admit I found myself having trouble separating the discourse from the film itself. I couldn’t forget the unfortunate interviews given by director Todd Phillips. When I sat in the packed-to-the-brim theater, my head was filled with expectations, anxiety, and the dozens of headlines, articles, and think-pieces I’ve read over the past few weeks. 

I’ve never seen a film provide so much discourse outside the screen, yet feel this empty and broken once it's playing in the confines of a theater. Joker is gorgeous, though, and unrelenting in its violence and instability, by way of both the titular character and its striking visuals...

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