Tuesday, August 16, 2022 at 5:03PM by Nathaniel R
Four countries have already announced their Oscar submissions thus far but soon the official titles will start pouring in from all over the place. Today we have news from Germany and Poland, both of which have won the category before. Both countries have named a list of finalists for the submission. Those titles are after the jump...
Monday, August 15, 2022 at 9:02PM by Nathaniel R
Hollywood is living dangerously. There's are very few potential sleepers and almost no blockbuster hopefuls coming for a few months (unless something really surprises) despite a fairly strong box office summer. (Why on earth are potential sleeper rom-coms Bros and Ticket to Paradise waiting the end of September/end of October when the landscape is so barren starting in Mid-August? ) As a result the movies that are already out are holding pretty well. Especially Top Gun: Maverick which continues to defy all reasonable expectations, climbing back up to #2 in its *gulp* 12th week in theaters. But talk about killing the Grand Return To Moviegoing by starving audiences! We'd like to think audiences would just start being more adventurous and seeing some limited releases but realistically that's not what they do (sigh)...
| Weekend Box Office August 12th-14th 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it |
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| WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS) | PLATFORM RELEASES |
 TOP GUN MAVERICK |
 INU-OH |
| 1 BULLET TRAIN $13.4 (cum. $54.4) |
1 🔺 LAAL SINGH CHADDHA (India) $1.4 (cum. $1.8) *NEW* |
Mack & Rita, box office, moviegoing Monday, August 15, 2022 at 5:00PM by Nathaniel R
Severance won 5 prizes
The Hollywood Critics Association has been making waves in the past couple of years inviting lots of new members (expanding beyond California, albeit with a 25% cap) and getting more press, too. Their TV awards were distributed over two star-studded nights where both celebrities and critics presented.
The most noteworthy thing is that they divvy their awards up much differently than the Emmys, by splitting them in half between "broadcast & cable" and "streaming". They even split hairs further for the top program prizes divvying it up three ways: "broadcast", "cable", and "streaming". In a way, it's a savvy Golden Globe to the Oscars kind of tactic, since they get to honor way more programs and actors by splitting things in half or by thirds. Consider for example that the Hollywood Critics Association did not have Dopesick (streaming) and The White Lotus (cable) in direct competition; they could both win prizes with ease! At the Emmys of course those two shows will go head-to-head. Two of TFE's three California-based contributors were on hand as you can see in the photo after the jump. A complete list of winners follows, too...
Monday, August 15, 2022 at 3:48PM 
We have our fourth contestant in the annual Oscar games for international cinema. If you missed the first three those were here.
🇹🇼 GODDAMNED ASURA
Taiwan (3 nominations, 1 win, and 2 additional finalists from 48 submissions)
The film is about a young man who orders a gun online and fires into a crowd on his 18th birthday. The film reportedly has an ambitious structure, shifting from virtual gaming to reality and following six different people who will be affected by the shooting. This film was inspired by a true story in 2014 which has inspired other films before this as well since gun violence is rare in Taiwan...
Monday, August 15, 2022 at 11:38AM 
In 2016, Bolivian director Kiro Russo took his first feature to Locarno, where the Jury for the Golden Peacock presented him with a special Centenary Award for Best Debut Film. Dark Skull was an exercise in modern Neorealism, reinventing that movement from Italian cinema to a Latin American setting and deep-rooted specificity. More in line with the operatic myth of Visconti's La Terra Trema than with De Sica's urban melodramas, the film followed Elder's return to his desolate hometown upon his father's death. With the patriarch fallen, the son takes on his work, going into the mines like those before him. Those shadowy realms become the entrails of a cavernous titan through the gaze of Russo's camera, the industrial work shattered into a nightmare by mad editing, expressionist sound.
Underrated and under-discussed, Dark Skull was a tremendous triumph, and The Great Movement follows in its steps. Only this time, instead of Italian and German influence, Russo seems to be exploring the possibilities of Soviet montage and social realism, retrofitted as a new cinema for a new world…
