Review: All Quiet on the Western Front

By Christopher James

Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer) heads into World War I in "All Quiet on the Western Front," the German submission this year for Best International Feature.

It’s daunting to remake a Best Picture winner. Steven Spielberg was able to breathe new life and vitality into West Side Story, making it a companion to the timeless original. But, more often than not, filmmakers buckle under the weight of expectations and self importance (like the failures of, say, Steven Zaillian's star-studded rendition of All the King’s Men or Timur Bekmambetov's Ben-Hur).

The Lewis Milestone adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's anti-war novel All Quiet on the Western Front in 1930 struck new ground for realism, brutality and anti-war sentiments. It earned Oscar wins for Best Picture and Best Director. It's been regarded as a classic ever since, later receiving citations on AFI’s list of best films and best epics and inclusion in the National Film Registry. How could a new film pack a similar punch? Director Edward Berger doesn’t reinvent the story, but his 2022 re-telling of All Quiet on the Western Front is loaded with enough technical panache to make it a worthy, additive remake and a great time at the movies...

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Holdovers and Halloween: A Quiet Box Office Weekend

By Ben Miller

With Black Panther: Wakanda Forever inching closer to release, studios aren't about to release anything big that the Marvel behemoth could engulf.  With only two new releases for the Halloween weekend and two additional wide expansions, Black Adam and Ticket to Paradise both repeated their top spots from last week's chart.  

Weekend Box Office (actuals) October 28th-30th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
TICKET TO PARADISE	TRIANGLE OF SADNESS
1  BLACK ADAM $27.4 (cum. $110.9)	1 🔺 ★ TRIANGLE OF SADNESS (sweden/uk) $548k (cum. $2.2) 610 screens
2  TICKET TO PARADISE $9.8 (cum. $33.5)	2 🔺 ★ THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN $535k (cum. $785k) 58 screens

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Horror Costuming: "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?"@60

by Cláudio Alves

I had such grand plans for October. There was going to be plenty of spooky season with horror-themed write-ups and the return of my miniseries on scary movie costumes. But then COVID hit, and then the flu -- it's been a perpetual state of foggy-brained sickness. Still, it wouldn't do to let October end without one Horror Costuming post. even if I have to write the damned thing in between coughing fits. Since I already wrote about one one genre pic that won the Costume Oscar (the Eiko Ishioka-dressed Dracula) let's look at another. On its 60th anniversary, let's discuss the essential What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?, the genesis of the Grand Dame Guignol craze...

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Taylor Swift, Star-Studded and "Bejewelled"

by Nathaniel R

Do we have any Swifties amongst the readers? I personally rarely thought of Swift outside of liking a few hits but with the queer-ally song "You Need To Calm Down" followed by the double pandemic punch of the Folklore and Evermore albums, the common wisdom that she was a very talented songwriter finally pierced my consciousness where pop music is but a small niche (crowded out by cinema, tv, and theatre). Her new album "Midnights," which was immediately at the top of the charts giving her the most #1 albums of any woman (though she's tied in that with Barbra Streisand), is 20 songs long so it'll take a while to sink in.

But let's talk music videos. Taylor has always loved celebrity cameos (remember "Bad Blood" and its bevy of young actresses?) and the first two Midnights videos are star-studded fun...

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October. It's a Wrap

A dozen highlights from the month in case you missed 'em...

• "Hot Ones" as Oscar stop Best Actresses getting spicy
• Angela Lansbury in Death on the Nile as tribute when she passed
• Paul Mescal x 2 Eurocheese on Aftersun and God's Creatures
• Podcast Guesting Nathaniel had fun on "Hallmarkies" talking Bros and "Oscar Wild" taking pre-season Oscar Predictions
• Middleburg w/ special guests Nathaniel with Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) and Dolly DeLeon (Triangle of Sadness)
• Banshees of Inisherin Nathaniel on Martin McDonagh's Oscar hopeful
• TÁR Nathaniel on Todd & Cate's incredible collaborative drama
• TÁR's ending Ben thinks it's a major misstep. You? 
• Brainwashed Glenn on the controversial gender/film theory doc
• Mars One Juan Carlos talks to the director of Brazil's Oscar submission
• Alcarràs Jason on Spain's Oscar submission
• Decision to Leave Cláudio on South Korea's Oscar submission

COMING IN NOVEMBER
The Spirit Award nominations, that long awaited 1951 Smackdown (sorry sorry), Centennial tributes to both Dorothy Dandridge and Veronica Lake, and a whole slew of new films as we hit the busy season like Black Panther Wakanda Forever, The Fabelmans, The Son, The Wonder, Bones and All, Good Night Oppy, She Said, The Inspection, and more!