What did you see over the weekend?

What did you see over the weekend? I was in Bentonville so I was only seeing festival films (which, more on soon)...

Weekend Box Office (Actuals) May 10th-12th 🔺 = new or expanded theater counts / ★ = highly recommended
W I D E	PLATFORM / LIMITED
1 Avengers Endgame $63.2 on 4662 screens (cum. $723.7)	1 🔺 Student of the Year 2 $462k on 190 screens *new*

2 🔺   Pokemon Detective Pikachu $54.3 on 4202 screens *new* REVIEW	2  Amazing Grace $366k on 260 screens (cum. $3.3)

3 🔺 The Hustle  $13 on 3007 screens *new* ANNE HATHAWAY, PODCAST	3 🔺  Red Joan $250k on 193 screens (cum. $896k)  JUDI DENCH

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Doris Day (1922-2019)

by Nathaniel R

"Legend" and "Icon" and "Classic" are all overused words in showbiz prose, and we're as guilty of anyone at letting those words fly out with abandon. But they're nothing like overstatements when it comes to the career of Doris Day, one of the 20th Century's most beloved and successful stars. She began her career as a teenage big band singer and nine years later debuted on the big screen in her most regular genre, the romantic comedy (with or without songs) via Busby Berkeley's Romance on the High Seas (1948).

She was an instant hit with audiences but it took a few more years for her true classics to emerge...

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Bentonville: Geena Davis, Jamie Brewer, and the Fabulous Freddie Mercury

Part 1 of 3 by Nathaniel R

"Include," was scrawled across every sign at the 5th annual Bentonville Film Festival which just wrapped up. As part of the logo, it was hard to miss. More noteworthy is the fact that you would have been able to hear that message loud and clear at any of the screenings and events even if you'd never seen the logo. Oscar winner Geena Davis launched the festival five years ago. It's a smart offshoot of the actresses work at the Geena Davis Institute on Gender in Media... and that advocacy reaches beyond gender to include film industry representation for multiple minorities: queer people, people of color, and disabled people, too.

Bentonville, sight unseen at least, is an odd locale for a film festival. That is until you see how much money that corporate sponsor WalMart, headquartered right there, has poured into the festival. The Film Experience has had the pleasure of attending several regional festivals across the years and Bentonville is definitely among the most well-funded / well-run. The attending filmmakers even got a mini-retreat before the festival began for industry networking opportunities. The town itself is a little slice of Americana with little shops, cute restaurants, a charming town square, and a lux gorgeous museum named Crystal Bridges.

Geena Davis in the house!

Crystal Bridges is where the trademark opening event "Geena and Friends" is held...

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Beauty vs Beast: The Kindness of Strangers

Jason Adams from MNPP here, using this week's brand new "Beauty vs Beast" poll to celebrate the 48th birthday of the great Sofia Coppola, which is tomorrow. We are so lucky to have her! Quite honestly I think the world's been under-valuing her directing career, which's given us one great film after another after another. Her last one, 2017's remake of The Beguiled, is where we're focusing today -- another entirely under-appreciated one if you ask me. While I've long been a fan of Don Siegel's sweaty 1971 version I consider Coppola's an improvement for how it spins itself off into a gothic fable of female empowerment gone to seed. It feels like a sister film to Nicole Kidman's other movie about haunted folks isolated during war-time, The Others -- seriously, go watch them back to back. That'll be an excellent evening at the movies. But until then...

bike tracks

PREVIOUSLY
Switching over to the Elder Coppola, it turns out it was too tough for us to vote for a war-mongering maniac with last week's Apocalypse Now poll, even when he's played by Marlon Brando -- Martin Sheen's "Captain Willard" managed to score 57% of your vote instead.

Summed up by Tom G:

"Shouldn't we NOT be voting for crazy people with too much power?"

Theater World Awards: Jeremy Pope, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Paddy Considine

Tis the season of theater awards. We've already covered the Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, Drama League, and Tony nominations. Now it's time for the Theater World Awards. Unlike the other theater prizes the Theater World Awards don't have nominations, just winners. Their purpose is honoring performers who made either Broadway or Off-Broadway debuts or delivered breakout performances during the theatrical season. Most of the names are new to us but you'll recognize a couple of stars from film and television among the possible future theater legends. 

The thirteen performers who will be honored at their event are after the jump...

THEATER WORLD WINNERS 2019

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