Monday, July 24, 2017 at 1:00PM 
Left to Right: Chris Feil, Murtada Elfadl, Nathaniel R, Jose Solis
The Film Experience is mostly an online party, but on very rare occasions small portions of us have the opportunity to see each other off line. So from this brief weekend get together... happy Monday to all of you!
WHAT'S ON YOUR CINEMATIC MIND?
Monday, July 24, 2017 at 10:12AM "The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. Click on the images to see them in magnified detail.
The Lost City of Z begins with Percy Fawcett (Charlie Hunnam) in hot pursuit of a stag, risking his limbs to win the respect of his superior officers. Two things are obvious in an instant: his athletic ability and the enormous chip on his shoulder. Burdened by the memory of his alcoholic father, he throws his whole body into the quest for social redemption.
Unfortunately, this burst of exertion doesn’t pay off. He does get the stag, its lifeless head displayed prominently at the evening ball. But it’s not enough. The labyrinthine snobbery of England is presented by writer/director James Gray as an impossible obstacle, as resistant as the dense rainforests where Fawcett later seeks his fortune.
After this initial frustration, Fawcett accepts a cartographic mission to Bolivia. There, he is seduced by tantalizing stories of a lost city of gold. It becomes his obsession. In turn, the contrast between rigid England and lush Amazonia drives the film’s visual logic...
Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 9:07PM By Nathaniel R
It's musical chairs every week at the box office now. But new releases like Dunkirk and Girls Trip (which both opened well above expectations) and presumably Atomic Blonde next weekend should have an untroubled run if word of mouth is strong given that August is looking pretty dire in terms of upcoming mainstream releases.
| Weekend Box Office (July 21st-23rd) |
|
| W I D E | L I M I T E D |
 |
 |
| 1. 🔺 DUNKIRK $50.5 |
1. 🔺 MAUDIE $390k (cum. $4) 233 screens REVIEW |
| 2. 🔺 GIRLS TRIP $30.3 | 2. 🔺 THE LITTLE HOURS $162K (cum. $971k) 114 screens REVIEW |
| 3. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $22 (cum. $251.7) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION |
3. THE HERO $145K (cum. $3.7) 191 screens BEST ACTORS |
| 4. WAR FOR PLANET OF $20.4 (cum. $97.7) REVIEWISH | PODCAST |
4. 🔺 A GHOST STORY $141k (cum. $480k) 43 screens |
| 5. 🔺 VALERIAN AND... $17 |
5. LADY MACBETH $123k (cum. $219k) 40 screens |
 |
 |
| 6. DESPICABLE ME 3 $12.7 (cum. $213.3) |
6. BEATRIZ AT DINNER $114k (cum. $6.7) 116 screens |
| 7. BABY DRIVER $6 (cum. $84.2) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | POSTERIZED | PODCAST |
7. 🔺 LOST IN PARIS $61K (cum. $242k) 42 screens |
| 8. THE BIG SICK $5 (cum. $24.5) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | HOLLY ♥︎ !!! | PODCAST |
8. PARIS CAN WAIT $53k (cum. $5.4) 66 screens |
| 9. WONDER WOMAN $4.6 (cum. $389) REVIEW | TOP TEN | SPECIAL |
9. 🔺 LANDLINE $52k 4 screens |
| 10. WISH UPON $2.4 (cum. $10.5) | 10. 🔺 THE MIDWIFE $20k 3 screens |
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo |
|
Dunkirk's $50 million opening with no stars, no superpowers, and no sci-fi spectacle, is another reminder that directors can be bankable too, IF they consistently deliver for their audiences which Nolan has (consider that his devout fanbase never seems even the slightest bit disappointed in his work). Meanwhile people are using Girls Trip's terrific opening as a cudgel with which to beat Rough Night which is kinda silly. Just because two rowdy comedies feature a group of women does not make them interchangeable! Imagine saying that about two comedies about men behaving badly. Girls Trip received an A+ Cinemascore (meaning its paying audiences went wild for it) while Rough Night scored a C+ (which means the audiences didn't like it at all - C+ is basically a failing grade with Cinemascore). Their review fates were similarly disparate (pro Girls / con Rough) but reviews don't mean much to mainstream pictures in terms of opening weekend box office.
Wonder Woman marks its incredible 8th weekend in the top ten and maybe its last given that it took its first big hit with theater count. Still, what a run. It's now the #2 superhero origin movie of all time (behind only Sam Raimi's Spider-Man), the #1 DC Extended Universe movie, the #1 World War I movie (though the competition isn't strong there), the #2 movie of 2017 (behind Disney's Beauty & The Beast karaoke) and the #5 female action movie of all time (behind only two installments each from the Hunger Games and Star Wars franchises).
What did you see this weekend?
Dunkirk, Girls Trip, Landline, Valerian, box office Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 12:57PM 
In this episode Nathaniel, Joe and Nick talk three new movies with our usual tangent of asides including Michelle Pfeiffer in Ant Man and the Wasp, Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur, and more...
Index (42 minutes)
00:01 National Critics Institute / Michelle Pfeiffer news
07:44 The Big Sick performances, and it's place within the Romantic Comedy ecosystem
19:00 Matt Reeves's War for the Planet of the Apes, Gary Oldman vs Woody Harrelson, prequel issues, and the original 1968 classic.
30:40 Edgar Wright and Baby Driver, plus Kevin Spacey's sexuality, and Jon Hamm as a movie actor
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Related Reading
Nathaniel's first restaurant review
Kevin Spacey as Gore Vidal
Emmy Drama Actress roundtable
Gay pornish Planet of the Apes gif
Sunday, July 23, 2017 at 11:54AM
Wanting movies to be projected on a screen in public, as they have been since their inception, is now the height of arrogance. Got it.
— Scott Tobias (@scott_tobias) July 20, 2017
