Review: Jennifer Kent's "The Nightingale"

by Ben Miller 

In the world of Jennifer Kent’s The Nightingale, no one is safe unless they've won the lottery.  If you lucked into being born as a white English male in 19th century Tasmania, you can rest easy in the knowledge you are powerful.  If you are a woman, of another race, or from another country, that same luxury is not afforded to you.  Death and misery looms around every corner.

The titular Nightingale comes in the form of Clare (Game of Thrones Aisling Franciosi) as she serves as a maid and singer for a group of British officers.  She is held there as penance for her crimes of thievery, being Irish and being a woman. She is overseen by Lieutenant Hawkins (Sam Claflin), who is procrastinating processing her release, due to his infatuation with her.  Clare’s husband Aidan (a wonderfully warm Michael Sheasby) tries to persuade Hawkins to release her, but to no avail.  Things spiral violently out of control.  When Clare survives the unthinkable, she seeks revenge on those who have wronged her.

This might read like a simple rape and revenge film on paper, but it is much more nuanced and realistic than that in execution...

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Horror Actressing: Kasi Lemmons in "Candyman"

by Jason Adams

We don't talk enough about Kasi Lemmons, the actress. Maybe it's because she proved herself an absolutely terrific director in 1997 with the wildly underrated Eve's Bayou -- and she's got the Harriet bio-pic with Cynthia Erivo coming out in November -- and maybe it's because Hollywood, per their usual routine when it comes to too many black actresses, never gave her a truly great role to play with. But she's got a two-fer in the early 90s as "the best friend" in seminal horror films that she really managed to inject a lot of life into.

The most prominent one is obviously The Silence of the Lambs, where Kasi played Jodie Foster's fellow FBI recruit and friend Cordelia -- the film doesn't have much time for her but she proves a capable ally to Clarice, and as with any actress Jodie ever co-starred with the two of them had way more chemistry than with any man on the premises...

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AGLIFF: "Saint Frances" gets an encore screening, lives up to its hype.

by Nathaniel R

After winning SXSW in Austin this spring, the festival darling Saint Frances returned to the film-friendly Texas city for an encore screening at AGLIFF. We were initially perplexed at the inclusion since we hadn't heard that it had LGBTQ content. But, then, we don't read reviews until after screening films so sometimes these details slip by. The film has been picked up by Oscilloscope for distribution (we presume in 2020?) but they have a challenge ahead in marketing it. The film has no name actors, no easy marketing hook (more of a character study than a plot film), and is a debut festival hit from a white male director. We only mention the latter, and half in jest, because the film actually has quite a fresh voice and inarguably feminine POV...

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What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Box Office Estimates August 23rd-25th Estimates 🔺 = New or Expanding / ★ = Recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES
Ready or Not	Luce
1 🔺 Angel Has Fallen  $21.3 *new*	1 Misson Mangal $655k (cum. $2.7)
2 Good Boys $11.6 (cum. $41.9)  REVIEW  ★	2 🔺 Luce $252k (cum. $863k) REVIEW
3 🔺 Overcomer  $8.1 *new*	3 🔺 Brittany Runs a Marathon $180k *new*
4 Hobbs & Shaw  $8.0 (cum. $147.6) REVIEW ★	4 🔺 After the Wedding $154k (cum. $348k) REVIEW
5 The Lion King $8.0 (cum. $510.5) REVIEW	5 Maiden $140k (cum. $2.5) REVIEW ★
5 🔺 Ready or Not  $8 *new* (cum. $11) REVIEW ★	5 🔺  Meneur $78k (cum. $4.2)

numbers on that chart are pulled from boxofficemojo

A relatively quiet week at the box office unless you're among the target audiences for the faith-based drama Overcomer or part of the Gerard Butler fan club since Angel Has Fallen opened above expectations (its a sequel to London has Fallen). Outside these charts festival favourite Peanut Butter Falcon (reviewed) expanded into wide release with a solid $3 million and another festival hit Brittany Runs a Marathon had the weekend's best per screen average with $35k from each of its five locations. Sadly the Elizabeth Debicki Virginia Woolf film Vita and Virginia was all but ignored grossing only $4k at one location.

AGLIFF: Gay Choruses, Trans Athletes, and Chicken-Fried Everything

by Nathaniel R

Nathaniel and two fellow jurors (though we weren't in the same jury) at AGLIFF

Hello "y'all" (when in Texas...) writing to you from blistering hot Austin where the 32nd annual aGLIFF festival is nearing its wrap. The festival, which runs from Thursday to Sunday each year in late August is actually the oldest film festival in Texas. Yes, even older than SXSW though not as famous.

The festiviites began Thursday night with a packed house at the Alamo Drafthouse for a performance by the Austin Gay Men's Chorus followed by the opening night film, Gay Chorus Deep South (2019). It's a very moving documentary about a the iconic San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus and an all volunteer charity tour they made of the Deep South after T****'s election. The tour was an attempt to bridge divides between red and blue, and combat rising anti-LGBT sentiment within the country and specificially the ever-present anti-LGBT sentiment within our nation's churches...

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