Box Office: "Bullet Train" off to slow-ish start, "Bodies Bodies Bodies" big in limited release

by Nathaniel R

With no major competition, the action flick Bullet Train (reviewed) easily won the weekend but the results were mixed. $30 million is a good opening but is it good for this sort of film? That's debatable. Brad Pitt titles sometimes develop good legs so the second weekend hold (or lack thereof) will tell us more...

Weekend Box Office  August 5th-7th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
BULLET TRAIN	BODIES BODIES BODIES
1 🔺 BULLET TRAIN  $30 *NEW*	1  MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON $345k (cum. $4.9)

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Olivia Newton John (1948-2022)

by Nathaniel R

Olivia receiving an award in 2019 for her philanthropy. [image via.]

Heaven is one angel stronger today. The iconic 1970s superstar Olivia Newton-John passed away earlier today at age 73 after her fourth bout with cancer. Our thoughts here at The Film Experience go out to her surviving loved ones, husband, siblings, and daughter. More pointedly they go out to her legion of fans since yours truly counts myself among them. If you're in that group, you're surely hurting, too. You see, dear reader, Olivia was my first love. Like everyone who came of age in the 80s, the trio of Grease and Xanadu and "Physical" were impossible to escape. Nor did young Nathaniel want to! I can't remember where I even first learned her name or heard her sing. She was just always part of the world...

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Tennessee Williams @ the Oscars

by Cláudio Alves

Vivien Leigh accepts her second Oscar in 1952.

The Supporting Actress Smackdown of 1951 is coming at the end of the month, bringing with it a revisit to the first Tennessee Williams adaptation to catch the Academy's eye. Elia Kazan's A Streetcar Named Desire marked the start of a period when Hollywood couldn't get enough of the American playwright, bringing most of his celebrated texts to the screen in big studio productions that attracted the cream of the talent crop of filmmakers and actors. These projects were incredibly captivating for the latter, with their guarantee of juicy roles prone to critical acclaim. Over just fourteen years, 19 performances were Oscar-nominated, and five won. 

Let's explore the list of AMPAS-approved Williams adaptations, find out where one can watch them, and share some Oscar trivia along the way... 

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Monday Monologue: "Three kinds of pipe" in Moonstruck

Bringing back an old series Monday Monologue* for fun - will try to do this weekly since we love amazing combos of actors and screenplays.

The women of Moonstruck (1987), mother and daughter Rose (Olympia Dukakis) and Loretta Castorini (Cher), get all the credit. It's not hard to see why since both actresses won richly deserved Oscars but the men in the movie are indispensable to its pleasures, too. Though we've seen Moonstruck many times, when we were prepping for a recent episode of Streaming Roulette, we chanced upon a brief character comedy scene we'd completely forgotten about. In the scene, the family patriach and plumber Cosmo Castorini (Vincent Gardenia) is trying to convince a couple that they need to pay for a huge upgrade to fix their a bathroom leak...

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Reviews: "Bullet Train" and "Thirteen Lives"

by Nathaniel R

Whenever we're about to go thumbs down on two movies, we feel the need to reiterate that we genuinely love the cinema. Even when we don't love a movie, we're (usually) glad we went. But sometimes you want to love a movie (Thirteen Lives), and it just isn't worthy. Other times you go in, fully expecting a great love (Bullet Train) but the movie is too narcissistic and cocksure to even notice you're watching it in time to love you back...

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