Sharp Objects: Episode 1 "Vanish"

By Spencer Coile 

It’d be easy for audiences to tune into Sharp Objects with considerably high expectations. It stars Amy Adams and Patricia Clarkson, is the latest “prestige” piece of television from HBO, and is directed by Jean-Marc Vallée – who is coming off of a fantastic year with the success of HBO’s 2017 phenomenon,Big Little Lies. Add in source material from Gone Girl’s Gillian Flynn, and you have yourself an unsettling, binge-worthy summer series to watch. 

Yet, while Big Little Lies was fantastic, those drawing comparisons between it and Sharp Objects are evaluating HBO’s latest all wrong. Its first episode, “Vanish” demonstrates this perfectly by introducing a story and a leading lady who are so detached, so cut off from reality, that it’d be difficult to compare it to anything else. 

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YNMS: The Favourite

Chris here. One of our most conspicuously hidden fall movies has finally teased us with a feisty first look trailer: Yorgos Lanthimos' royal period piece The Favourite. We've suffered months without a glimpse at what a Lanthmos costume drama might look like, with even the first teaser poster being literal white text on a black background. But rest assured that this intriguing setting for the starkly contemporary director does not look to be tamer than his previous films. In fact, it might just be his Lanthimost.

Last year's The Killing of a Sacred Deer had a fairly divisive response, so some of his fans will rejoice to note that this trailer promises something more in line with The Lobster. And it's not just the mischievous, cutting tone that is in line. It looks like we will also be getting another dryly genius performance with supporting player Olivia Colman as Queen Anne. Set during the 18th century during war with France, the film stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz as servants clashing for her favor. Take a look at Lanthimos' take in the trailer, and we'll break down the Yes No Maybe So...

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Beauty vs Beast: The Gump Generation

Jason from MNPP here with this week's "Beauty vs Beast" fun-time poll extravaganza - it feels, in the legendary words of Stephanie Tanner, HOW RUDE, to wish Tom Hanks a birthday today with what's come to be seen as his most divisive role, that of the lead character in Robert Zemeckis' 1994 Oscar-magnet Forrest Gump. "We hate that movie now," screams the internet echo chamber.

Except... I kind of don't? I've always been plenty privy to its gross conservative streak - I went to film school in the late 90s, we talked about it a whole bunch, don't worry. I get that it takes a feather-lite tickle to nostalgic Boomer bullshit when a hand grenade might've been more helpful. I was always rooting for Jenny (Robin Wright) and have always found the film's liberal ladling of degradation onto its independently-minded female character, in the words of here and now, hella probelmatic.

And yet despite all that if I stumble upon the film on TV I'll always get sucked in. Zemeckis spins his fable of Straight White Americana with soda-pop commercial zeal, and everybody's so good, iconic really, in their roles. Perhaps we can one day find a middle-ground, watching the movie as an under-amber representation of a vacuum-sealed culture's last gasp; this is the way America saw itself once, lucky and dumb, constantly blundering forward into the next morass without thinking and then making a pretty story out of the good parts.

online survey

PREVIOUSLY Speaking of curdled American Dreams last week's I Tonya contest gave Tonya her gold medal at last - Margot Robbie kneecapped statue-hog Allison Janney with 68% of your vote. Said Suzanne, echoing most of your comments since y'all still mad about last year's Oscars:

"Laurie Metcalf should have won. (And if anyone were going to beat her, it should have been Lesley Manville.) It's Tonya for me."

Open Thread. Best Amy Adams Performances?

by Nathaniel R

With Sharp Objects debuting tonight on HBO (Yes, we'll cover it here), let's talk Amy Adams. Why should film twitter have all the listing fun? Talk Film Society asked people to list their 3 favorite performances were and I was stunned how quickly I came to my definitive answer. 

• Junebug (2005)
• The Fighter (2010)
• Enchanted (2007)

You've got her full range displayed; endearing dramedic instincts, stealth pathos with deep soul beneath the exteriors of women who seem ordinary at first glance, her star charisma and comic invention are all over her best work.

And to make the question a bit more interesting. Is there a performance of hers other people love that you just don't? My vote there is for The Master (). I think she's terribly miscast and I couldn't ever figure out the draw of what she was doing or how people figured it was earned within the film -- especially for an actual Oscar nomination. Those are hard to come by ["for other people" - self-editing note]  But to each their own in opinion-land, right?

Box Office: Ant-Man Grows, Mr Rogers Moves In, and LaKeith Stanfield Phones In

by Nathaniel R

I've been reading mixed things on the success level of Marvel's latest superhero flick The Search for Michelle Pfeiffer in the Quantum Realm. Some say it's opening weekend of $76 million is a big step up from Ant-Man's debut, others think that that's all too low for a Marvel film at this juncture in their history. It does work as a nice after-dinner mint for the heavy meals of Black Panther/Infinity War (though I could've done without the bitter aftertaste of its post credits sequence.) At any rate this is the last Marvel Studios film for awhile. We now have a eight-to-nine month break from Marvel heroes unless of course Black Panther becomes a big Oscar conservation. The next Marvel Studios film is Captain Marvel (March 8th, 2019) which will be followed by the as yet untitled Infinity War Part Two (May 3rd, 2019). 

Weekend Box Office Estimates (July 6-8)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Ant-Man and the Wasp	Sorry to Bother You
1.🔺 ANT MAN AND THE WASP $76 *NEW*	1. 🔺 WHITNEY $1.2 on 452 screens *NEW*
2. INCREDIBLES 2 $29 (cum. $504.3)	2. SANJU $1.2 on 359 screens (cum. $5.9)
3. JURASSIC WORLD FALLEN KINGDOM $28.5 (cum. $333.3)  REVIEW	3. 🔺SORRY TO BOTHER YOU $717k on 16 screens *NEW*
4. THE FIRST PURGE  $17.1 *NEW*	4. 🔺 THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS $717k on 51 screens (cum. $1) REVIEW
5. SICARIO: DAY OF THE SOLDADO $7.3 (cum. $35.31) REVIEW	5. 🔺 LEAVE NO TRACE $425k on 37 screens (cum. $800k) TRAILER DISCUSSION

In other box office news, the LaKeith Stanfield starring comedy Sorry to Bother You opened to very full houses (albeit only 16 of them) which bodes well for significant expansion and the popular Mr Rogers doc Won't You Be My Neighbor? went wide...

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