Box Office: A Fantastic Woman, A Wrinkle in Time, and More...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (March 9th-11th) Estimates
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Black Panther  $41.1 (cum. $562) PODCAST	1. 🔺 Thoroughbreds $1.2 on 549 screens NEW REVIEW
2. 🔺 A Wrinkle in Time (pictured) $33.3 NEW REVIEW	2. 🔺  A Fantastic Woman (pictured) $287k on 166 screens (cum. $1.1)  REVIEW  | OSCAR WIN
3.🔺 Strangers Prey at Night $10.4 NEW	3.🔺 The Death of Stalin $181k on 4 screens NEW REVIEW
4. Red Sparrow $8.1 (cum. $31.1) REVIEW | JENNIFER IN VERSACE	4. 🔺 The Leisure Seeker $119k on 28 screens NEW
5. Game Night $7.9 (cum. $45) REVIEW	5.  The Party  $98k on 91 screens (cum. $483k)

It's a history-making weekend at the box office. For the first time ever the two top grossers are both from African-American directors. Ryan Coogler's Black Panther continues its astonishing run. It's now the biggest non-Star Wars hit since Jurassic World three years ago and The Avengers before that six years ago and likely to outgross them both). It was also opening weekend for Ava DuVernay's A Wrinkle in Time. $33 million for a movie with no bankable stars that's not a sequel is good though people are calling it a failure due to its heavy price tag.  How the Oscars affected the box office after the jump...

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Review: Thoroughbreds

By Spencer Coile

Thoroughbreds, written and directed by newcomer Cory Finley, was originally intended to be a play. The film follows the twisted relationship of two teens: Amanda (Olivia Cooke), who claims to feel no emotions whatsoever, and Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy), a spoiled rich girl with a history of lying. Friends back in grade school, the two drifted apart, but reconnect when Amanda’s mom asks Lily to be Amanda’s tutor. This all takes a turn for the bizarre when Lily enlists Amanda to help kill her stepfather. All hell begins to break loose.

The film’s rapid fire dialogue makes it very easy to envision a staged production. Fortunately, Finley has just as much skill with directing as he does writing, and so Thoroughbreds becomes a truly cinematic experience. It's absurd, gripping, and deeply uncomfortable...

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ACS: Gianni Versace "Ascent"

by Jorge Molina

Because of the backwards narrative style, the entire second season of American Crime Story has been one big origin story for Andrew Cunanan, his relationships, and the motives that eventually led to his string of murders. The seventh episode, titled “Ascent”, was the episode that we’ve been leading up to all along to fully get a changing point in Andrew’s life.

Last week’s episode (titled “Descent”, in parallels that were evident throughout) was about Andrew losing everything he built for himself. This week we get a peek into how he started putting it together...

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Retro Randomness: Come to the Stable (1949)

by Nathaniel R

Have you ever queued up an old movie no one talks about anymore hoping to discover a gem?

You imagine that it's only been forgotten or is underdiscussed due to the vagaries of when and where movies are available in the ever changing landcape of viewing technologies, Such was my fantasy when I sat down to watch Come to the Stable (1949). This French nuns in New England comedy was my biggest viewing gap in 1949 Oscar history. In fact, I didn't even know it was a comedy.

Alas the fantasy of stumbling upon a forgotten gem didn't last long. Still, Come to the Stable's tagline must have been true in 1949. It read...

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RPDR All Stars 3: E7 - And the Oscar Goes To...

by Chris Feil

It was a rough week for Drag Race fans. Not only has this season had an unending barrage of racism and vitriol in the fandom, but RuPaul showed her ass again this week revealing her exclusionary thoughts on trans queens. The whole enterprise, including the supreme leader, needed a post-Snatch Game Latrice Royale table-slamming intervention. If ever there was a time for the show to make essentially zero waves, now was certainly convenient timing.

Maybe it was just aftermath of both Ru’s ignorance and BenDeLaCreme blindsiding us with a tectonic shift self-elimination, but this week’s episode of RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars was a relief partly because it was so predictable. Call it the least essential of the season but when the weight of drama has become so cumbersome, this felt refreshingly unburdened and unbothered. I blame the restorative powers of Nancy Pelosi arriving in the workroom to brandish a rainbow bracelet just, you know, because.

This week’s challenge was also perfectly timed for the remaining afterglow of last Sunday’s Oscars...

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