Halloween stays on top. Suspiria packs houses (albeit only two of them)

by Nathaniel R

Staying power or lack of competition? Halloween, A Star is Born, and Venom held on to the top three spots in wide release (with Venom booting Crazy Rich Asians out of the top ten films of 2018...sigh) while the platforming Oscar hopefuls continued their slow crawl towards public awareness beyond people like us if you know what I mean...

Weekend Box Office Estimates (October 26-28)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1.  Halloween $32 (cum. $126.6) Review	1. 🔺 Johnny English Strikes Again $1.6 on 544 screens *NEW*

2. A Star is Born $14.1 (cum. $148.7) Review, Soundtracking, Podcast	2. 🔺 Free Solo $1 on 394 screens (cum. $5.1)

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Doc Corner (Surprise Weekend Edition!): 'The Price of Everything'

By Glenn Dunks

We took a week off recently due to office job duties so as a means of not getting behind in the schedule, we're posting a (for now) one-off weekend documentary review for your Sunday reading.

The world is a distressing place right now where seemingly everything is terrible. It’s only natural that documentary filmmaking would reflect this global tussle for law and democracy. If these films aren’t telling us something frightening and new then they at least usually these films at least attempt to show us something familiarly awful from a new angle or with an unfamiliar point of view. I’m here to tell you, however, that one of 2018’s most miserable moviegoing experiences isn’t about war or famine, disease or political unrest. Rather, it’s about the art world. A ghastly portrait of some of society’s worst impulses of greed and capitalist grotesquery.

The world of Nathaniel Kahn’s slickly polished and glossy yet hollow documentary The Price of Everything is one ripe for interrogation. And yet this film doesn’t take advantage of the uniquely wide-net of talent and personalities that it has access to. Among others, there’s the delightful yet sad parallels in name and career of Jeff Koons and Larry Poons, there’s Gerhard Richter albeit briefly, and there’s the back rooms of Sotheby’s of New York with Executive Vice President Amy Cappallazzo as she prepares for an auction worth obscene amounts of money including one painting by Henri Matisse that she ballparks at around a couple of hundred million dollars. Far out.

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Tweetweek

I was going to answer this brilliant question but David Call's answer cannot be beat. After the jump more curated tweets for you involving: Steven Yeun, Helen Mirren, A Star is Born, and remake culture... 

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Happy Teresa Wright Centennial

The Oscar-winning actress of Mrs Miniver fame, was born 100 years ago on this very day in Harlem, where I'm typing this from. (Well, not literally where I'm typing this from - this apartment probably didn't exist in 1918 but who knows.) 

a lesser known distinction: she was Marlon Brando's very first romantic interest in a film (his debut The Men, 1950)She didn't consider herself a glamour girl, which could account for the sparcity of glamorous photoshoots compared to other 'it girls'. Wright's screen heyday was short-lived as many careers are when the success is so instantaneous and large. Still, it's hard to knock the girl next door beauty  for not being able to live up to her first two years in Hollywood. Her first three movies (Little Foxes, Pride of the Yankees, Mrs Miniver) all brought her Oscar nominations. An Oscar winner by the age of 24 with batting a thousand record there was essentially nowhere to go but down. Still, before the inevitable fade of her career she managed two more all time classics, doing her best acting for Alfred Hitchcock in Shadow of a Doubt (1943) and appearing the perfect ensemble of one of the very best Best Picture winners The Best Years of Our Lives (1946). Her big screen career died quickly due to diminishing popularity and fights with her studio but she worked frequently on TV beginning in the 1950s.

Do you have a favorite Teresa Wright film?

Can You Ever Link Me?

• In Contention Alfonso Cuarón could tie Walt Disney's record this year for most nominations for a single person in one year (six). And he could break the record for most nominations for a single person from a single film (four)
• /Film Katherine Langford (Love Simon, 13 Reasons Why) added to the cast of Infinity War's sequel
• Variety Extremely sad to report that Filmstruck is shutting down next week. It had become the go to streaming place for cinephiles once Netflix started having such crappy movie selections
• Next Best Picture if you're not sick of hearing me rave about Can You Ever Forgive Me? yet, I'm the guest on this podcast doing that again.

• TFE in case you missed it, our podcast on the same movie
• The Daily Beast hateful conservatives now targeting Netflix's brilliant Big Mouth series which is all the more reason why all of you should watch it. It's awesome.
• /Film this is kind of non-news given the caginess of the statements but TriStar is still hoping to mount a Labyrinth sequel with Jennifer Connelly reprising her role 30+ years later
• MNPP 13 moustaches of Halloween - fun series, now with more Sam Elliott and Vincent Price
• /Film to celebrate Dario Argento a ranking of his features. His most famous film, Suspiria, is NOT number one!
• Next Best Picture on recent under 15 minute performances nominated for Oscars with some possibilities this year like Sam Elliott and Daniel Kaluuya

Off Screen or Behind the Scenes
• Wall Street Journal thinks there is an atmosphere of fear at Netflix with their quick firings
• Variety Boy George interview as Culture Club releases their first album since 1999. It's called "Life" -- ftr I think "Colour By Numbers," their 1983 album is one of the most perfect albums ever recorded
• Playbill 10 plays and musicals that only require 2 actors
• Playbill Wicked is about to turn 15. Kristin Chenoweth and Idina Menzel are sharing two things they added to the musical that weren't in the original script/score.
• Fast Company examines the state of Hollywood's middle class. Turns out the proliferation of content isn't good for everyone and the reasons why aren't all that apparent from the outside (shouldn't more content mean more job opportunities?). Note: this website has annoying ads that are confusing to get out of in order to read the article (hint) scroll down without hitting that scroll down sign!