"Being There" -- Essential Viewing For the Right Now

by Nathaniel R

Hal Ashby’s Being There (1979) is a fortune teller. And the future it foretells isn’t rosy. The classic film about a TV-loving cypher who Forrest Gumps his way into history is approaching its 40th anniversary, but its essential viewing for the right now.  Don't wait until 2019 to see it.

Among the film’s many queasy previews of life in the early 21st century is the proliferation of screens. Here that takes the shape of television, with Ashby frequent crosscutting to whatever is on the TV in a given scene. Though the content we see is recognizably dated, its intrusion is evergreen. 

Hidden within the prophecy of multiple screens replacing actual experience, is an even sharper notion of the screen as a mirror...

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Beauty vs Beast: From Ape To Eternity

Jason from MNPP here with a new round of our "Beauty vs Beast" series! I haven't had a chance to see War of the Planet of the Apes yet but I have heard the near unanimous praise so I'll make it soon - until then let's tackle the classic original film from 1968 this week, because who doesn't love to see Charlton Heston shackled and abused for whatever reason. Opposite his amusingly bombastic astronaut George is Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), who gives that movie's simians a sweet heart - something that the new series of films has really run with.

PREVIOUSLY Last week we wished blad icon Yul Brynner a happy birthday with some King of Siam action but it was his dancing partner who swept y'all off your feet - Deborah Kerr won 67% of the vote. Said Pam:

"I always pick the lady in a gentleman vs lady competition. Plus Deborah Kerr gets higher marks for looking glorious in period dresses and Technicolor. And how easy and natural her chemistry seems with all of her male co-stars, even if she detested them IRL. (But according to some sources, she had dalliances with more than a few...but Yul was not one of them)"

The Furniture: A Quiet Passion's Floral Punctuations

"The Furniture" is our weekly series on Production Design. You can click on the images to see them in magnified detail.

by Daniel Walber 

If you know one thing about the life of Emily Dickinson, it’s probably that she was a recluse. She spent the last years of her life cooped up in her Massachusetts home. Very few of her 1,800 poems were published during her lifetime. Up until very recently, only one picture of her was known to exist.

Yet she is now recognized as the most important American poet of the 19th century. That her universally resonant voice emerged from such isolation has seemed miraculous. A Quiet Passion peers into this conundrum and finds some strikingly poetic answers.

Unsurprisingly, the key to understanding is found in her house. Cynthia Nixon gives a brilliant performance, but the difference between Terence Davies’s film and lesser biopics is that she is not left to fend for herself. The work of production designer Merijn Sep and set decorator Ilse Willocx is crucial... 

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Box Office: War for the Planet of Spider-Man

By Nathaniel R

Spidey was only able to stay on the box office mountain-top for a single week. Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his army of intelligent ape friends came storming in on horseback to take over during the War For the Planet of the Apes. 

Weekend Box Office (July 14th-16th)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. PLANET OF APES (9) $56.5 NEW	1. THE HERO $343k (cum. $3.4) 341 screens BEST ACTORS
2. SPIDER-MAN (6) $45.2 (cum. $208.2) REVIEW	2. THE LITTLE HOURS $318K (cum. $689k) 105 screens REVIEW
3. DESPICABLE ME 3 $18.9 (cum. $187.9)	3. MAUDIE  $252K (cum. $3.5) 99 screens REVIEW
4. BABY DRIVER $8.7 (cum. $73.1) REVIEW | BEST OF | POSTERIZED	4. BEATRIZ AT DINNER $222k (cum. $6.4) 205 screens
5. THE BIG SICK $7.6 (cum. $16) REVIEW | HOLLY ♥︎ !!!	5. PARIS CAN WAIT $153k (cum. $5.3) 177 screens
6. WONDER WOMAN  $6.8 (cum. $380.6) REVIEW | TOP TEN | SPECIAL	6. A GHOST STORY  $146k (cum. $288k) 20 screens
7. WISH UPON $5.5 NEW	7. LOST IN PARIS $79K (cum. $138k) 38 screens
8. CARS 3 $3.1 (cum. $140)	8. LADY MACBETH $68k NEW 5 screens
9. TRANSFORMERS (5) $2.7 (cum. $124.8) REVIEWISH	9. THE EXCEPTION $67k (cum. $612k) 44 screens  REVIEW
10. THE HOUSE $1.7  (cum. $23.1)	10. ENDLESS POETRY  $28k NEW 2 screens
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo

The Hero is doing well in limited release which is happy news. It's writer/director Brett Haley's follow up to his sleeper success I'll See You In My Dreams. He wrote it just for Sam Elliott, who turned in such good work in that breakthrough film. Elliott is excellent as a former movie star with cancer who is thrown by renewed interest in his career and a younger woman's (Laura Prepon) interest. 

In other important news, Wonder Woman will overtake Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 this coming week to become the year's second highest grosser (behind Disney's Beauty & The Beast karaoke) and the 3rd highest grosser in Warner Bros history just behind Chris Nolan's Batman movies and ahead of Harry Potter's finale!.

She's a wonder, Wonder Woman 🎵

What did you see this weekend? 

ICYMI

It occurs to me that though we did mark the year's halfway point, we did not do a "wrap" post for May or June and here we are in mid July. So let's stop to catch our breath before steaming ahead into the dog days of summer. Herewith key posts in case you're behind on your favorite blog. That's this one, right? (Rhetorical question)

17 Favorites
• A League of Their Own - a four part retrospective
• Olivia de Havilland sues Feud - don't mess w/ this centenarian
• Interview James Ivory - on Maurice's 30th anniversary
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Moonlight - revisiting the Oscar winner
• Susan Hayward Centennial - we looked back at four pictures
• mother! - the teaser poster
• Podcast Premiere - Wonder Woman, My Cousin Rachel...

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