Isle of Dogs Goes Wide.

What did you see this weekend? We'll skip the charts this week but let it be known that The Rock had another #1 opening weekend ($34 million for Rampage), horror hit A Quiet Place closed in on $100 million, and Isle of Dogs went wide in its 4th weekend and has a cumulative gross of $18 million. That means it's going to be about as succcessful as Fantastic Mr Fox and The Life Aquatic (i.e. his second tier successes) with his tier 1 biggest hits by a large margin being Grand Budapest Hotel, The Royal Tenenbaums, and Moonrise Kingdom. 

I've been a bit sad that the inventive delights and storytelling nuances of Isle of Dogs aren't being discussed as thoroughly as the film's take on Japan...

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Milos Forman (1932-2018)

by Nathaniel R

Milos Forman directing Thomas Hulce on the set of Amadeus (1984)

One of the world's most acclaimed directors has passed away at 86 years of age after a long full life and a pretty sturdy filmography. Milos Forman won two Oscars during his career for One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975) and Amadeus (1984) began life as Jan Tomas Forman in Czechoslovakia. Like another two-time Best Director winner (Ang Lee), he was twice honored in the Foreign Language Film category before his English language Oscar wins...

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Drag Race: "Last Ball on Earth"

by Nathaniel R

You can't blame RuPaul for so many apocalypse jokes. It really does seem like the world is on fire of late. Last days, indeed. So if we're going out have a ball. Or throw one. Which is another way of saying bless this show for existing because FUN and a sense of humor are so needed and both are in such short supply. This week's maxi-challenge was runway based as the queens had to come up with three global warming end-days looks...

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More Streaming Options

If you're bored with your new choices on Netflix, thought we'd give a shout out to a few options for only 99¢ on iTunes at the moment. Stronger, with Jake Gyllenhaal (who won our Bronze for Best Actor for last season) is their movie of the week. But in their often changing "Movies You Might Have Missed" section, also 99¢, they're currently offering five Pedro Almodóvar movies (Volver, Women on the Verge, All About My Mother, I'm So Excited, and Kika), Meryl Streep in She-Devil (which the Month of Meryl column hits next Thursday), the Glenn Close classic Fatal Attraction, David Fincher's Se7en, and, um, a Chinese remake of the unimprovable 90s romcom My Best Friend's Wedding... but at least it stars Shu Qi so it *might* be worth 99¢

And still more streaming options if you're not in the mood for Dwayne Johnson's Rampage this weekend or you've already see the delightful / problematic / futureOscarnominee Isle of Dogs. Amazon Prime has added a 55 wide movie collection called Movies From OutFest which is LGBTQ titles from film festivals over the last several years including a movie I've had friends rave about (52 Tuesdays) but which I've managed to not see up til now and the new musical Hello Again with a cast stacked with NYC stage greats like Martha Plimpton, Audra McDonald, and Cheyenne Jackson which I haven't seen so I'll be queueing that right up.

This Summer Has "The Incredibles", Too

Chris here. Before Avengers fever takes over in the coming weeks with Infinity War (which we're still hoping is more Black Panther 1.5), it's worth remembering that the Marvel crew isn't the only superhero assemblage happening at the multiplex this summer. Namely, Pixar is finally delivering their long promised sequel to The Incredibles.

And we just got a big reminder with a full trailer that finally gives us some details about what the Incredible family is going to be facing this go around. So why not take a look and do your own Yes No Maybe So'ing in the comments.

YES. This time, Holly Hunter's Elastigirl takes the heroic center stage while hubbie Mr. Incredible struggles with fading into the background. You're married to the voice of Holly Hunter, kindly know your place, sir.

NO Pixar's previous non-Toy Story sequels give us pause about getting too excited for this one...

but none of those had Edna Mode. (And we're back up to the "Yes" column)

MAYBE SO. While this family-friendly look at issues of gender parity gives some reservations (is this all going to be Mr. Incredible's "but ME!" perspective?), we'll keep goodwill hope that the final product has some lessons in store for dad.

Are you excited for more Incredibles?