Happy Fourth of July!

The Tree of Life (2011)

Almost titled this 'god bless America' because America needs a lot of blessings right now. Anyway. Have a wonderful holiday if you celebrate. We're throwing a last minute backyard potluck chez moi. We'll be back to regular posting tomorrow with some Limited Series Emmy punditry and a celebration of the work of cinematographer Hoyte Van Hoytema. Later in the week and into the weekend some "halfway mark" celebrations of the best of January through June. And then the first wave of Oscar predictions (much later than usual - apologies!) 

Did you see 'The Dial of Destiny' or pass?

By Nathaniel R

The box office prelude to a mid-week Fourth of July (today) rested on Indiana Jones's 5th outing but he didn't truly deliver in The Dial of Destiny, a sequel that few people outside of Hollywood's money-obsessed board rooms  were asking for. Hollywood is discovering that it can't live on franchises alone. Problem is that's become Hollywood's ONLY strategy and all they've been investing in for some time now. Unfortunately for those of us who love the cinematic experience audience  increasingly lukewarm or chilly response to the big franchises isn't really morphinng into interest pointed at other moviegoing options. Hollywood has been training people to only care about franchises for years and now that they've "won", we're all losing!

Weekend Box Office (estimates? actuals? it's always a little fuzzy around holidays) June 30th - July 2nd  🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (Over 800 Screens)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY	EVERY BODY
1 🔺 INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY $60.3 *NEW* 4600 screens	1 🔺 EVERY BODY [doc] $150k *NEW* 255 screens

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Queering the Oscars: "Common Threads: Stories From the Quilt" for Best Documentary Feature

Team Experience has been looking at LGBTQ+ related Oscar nominations. 

by Nick Taylor

Over the course of June, one of my big cinematic missions was to watch as many queer documentaries as I could. A broader understanding and recognition of lived queer experiences, either through art or lived interaction, is something I’m finding increasingly valuable and incredibly grateful for. Past or present lives, always reflecting so many potential futures - cherish that shit! Cinema allows for a unique view on long-gone lives I would never have met. A lot of my dive has been focused on the Criterion Channel’s various LGBTQ+ playlists. If you haven’t already seen Dressed in Blue, Tongues Untied, and Shakedown, watch them all now and learn from their authors, the multitude of voices in front of and behind the camera bravely willing to show us who they are and what they know. 

Common Threads: Stories from the Quilt, was also a recent discovery, equally inspired by this series and by its renewed spotlight on Criterion. To those who want to see it but don’t have this particular streaming service, it is also free on YouTube). The film is one of two Oscar-winning documentaries directed by Rob Epstein in Criterion’s playlist, each representing worlds of grassroots activism on behalf of a queer America grappling with very different realities from each other. The Times of Harvey Milk is as committed to being a joyous celebration of solidarity and advancement as well as a hollowing eulogy for everything violently, permissibly stolen from queer America as Common Threads is, with its own fierce editing and poignant, unabashed political agenda...

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First & Last 015

Can you guess the movie from its first and last shot?

scroll down for the answer...

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Doc Corner: 'Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music'

By Glenn Charlie Dunks

It’s rather fitting to have watched Taylor Mac’s 24-Decade History of Popular Music at the tail end of pride month as LGBTQ+ rights are yet again being politicised and stripped while its community are demonised. Queer people of various sorts have existed for more than 24 decades, obviously. But in his massive theatrical undertaking, playwright and performance artist Taylor Mac integrates his own queer sense of self into American history.

Through song, spoken word, and flamboyant theatricality, he tells the sort of the United States of America, using music to celebrate all kinds of humanity and asking us as an audience to see ourselves and our struggles across time...

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