Box Office Bounty For Thanksgiving

Buoyed by Twilight & 007 fanaticism, an abundance of newish Oscar contenders, and even a dusty remake for the crowd that doesn't care about Twilight or the Oscars or, you know, quality, there was something for everyone this Thanksgiving weekend! Moviegoers came out in droves for the biggest Thanksgiving at the movies ever.

So it's an extra long box office list today.

Box Office Top Twenty - Actuals
01 THE TWILIGHT SAGA FINALLY ENDS $43.6 (cum $227.3)
02 SKYFALL  $35.5 (cum. $221.1) Review & Deborah's Review
03 LINCOLN  $25.6 (cum. $62.8) Podcast Discussion
04 RISE OF THE GUARDIANS  $23.7 *NEW* (cum $32.3) Capsule Review
05 THE LIFE OF PI $22.4 *NEW* (cum. $30.5)
06 WRECK-IT RALPH  $16.5  (cum. $149.2)
07 RED DAWN $14.2 *NEW*  (cum. $21.6)
08 FLIGHT $8.4 (cum $74.7) Review
09 SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK $4.3  (cum $6.2) Beau's Review
10 ARGO $3.8 (cum $98)

11 TAKEN 2  $.9 (cum. $136.4)
12 ANNA KARENINA  $.8 (cum. $1.5) Capsule Review
13 PITCH PERFECT  $.7 (cum. $62.5) Capsule Review
14 THE SESSIONS $.7  (cum $3.9) Review
15 JAB TAK HAI JAAN  $.5  (cum. $3)
16 HERE COMES THE BOOM $.5 (cum. $42)
17 CLOUD ATLAS $.4 (cum $25.7)
18 THE PERKS OF BEING A WALLFLOWER $.3  (cum $16.3) Capsule Review
19 HOTEL TRANSYLVANIA $.3 (cum $143.5)
20 LOOPER $.3  (cum. $65.5) Review

So many decisions this Thanksgiving. Alexei or Vronsky? Pumpkin or Pecan?

What did you see this weekend? If it's Here Comes The Boom, Red Dawn or Taken 2 eight weeks into its run please spend some time in the corner thinking about your life choices. If it was Hitchcock (just outside this list) my review is here but really I have to confess that I'm so deeply ashamed of it because JA wrote the most brilliant possible review anyone could have ever written about it. For real - read it! 

Gotham Awards Winners

You inspire him"
-Amy Adams to Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Did The Gotham Awards inspire more faith in the possibly fadingg Oscar prospects of The Master? They did not. The following films competed for Best Picture in NYC's sort-of answer to The Spirit Awards: 

• Bernie
• The Loneliest Planet
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Middle of Nowhere

(Yes, The Beasts of The Southern Wild was already famously snubbed here when the nominations were announced last month though it had other nominations and the team was in town for the ceremony and to beat their Oscar drum.) 

THE WINNERS

Jared, Benh, and Ematatzy

Audience Award ARTIFACT. Jared Leto accepted the documentary about his band and a lawsuit.

Don't hate me because I beat that other film."

Breakthrough Director BENH ZEITLIN for Beasts of the Southern Wild

It's no time to sit around crying like a bunch of pussies. Make more movies."

Breakthrough Actor EMAYATZY CORINEALDI in Middle of Nowhere

(Beasts of the Southern Wild seemed to be having as rough a night as Gotham's Live Feed which sorely disappointed. But things turned around for it. The movie, not the live feed.)

Best Film Not Playing at a Theater Near You
(Incidentally my favorite idea for an award category ever)
AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION OF HER BEAUTY by Terence Nance 

Bingham Ray Prize
BENH ZEITLIN for Beasts of the Southern Wild 

Best Ensemble
YOUR SISTERS SISTER

Best Documentary
HOW TO SURVIVE A PLAGUE 

Best Film
MOONRISE KINGDOM 

Michael made a For Your Consideration plea for Moonrise Kingdom in Best Picture a short time ago right here at The Film Experience. I've not been confident on its Oscar prospects mostly because the film skews so young in its narrative (Oscar isn't that enamored of childhood tales outside of the Foreign Film category) and because excessively stylized pictures tend to be a tough sell for many voters. But the Gotham win is heartening.

Are you happy with the outcomes this year? Do they inspire you?

Review: "Hitchcock"

This review was originally published in my column at Towleroad

The first thing HITCHCOCK gets right about Hitchcock is the humor. Director Sacha Gervasi's serio-comic adaptation of the book "Alfred Hitchcock and the Making of Psycho" starts with a playful dodge, beginning not with a shot of that infamous house on the hill or the Bates Motel or even a Hollywood soundstage but in the rather humble yard of a Wisconsin farm. It's home to Ed Gein, the gruesome 1950s killer who inspired Psycho. The camera pans away from Gein's (fictional) murder to reveal the iconic plump suited figure of The Master of Suspense cooly observing him (Sir Anthony Hopkins in Sir Alfred Hitchcock drag).

Hopkins addresses the camera directly as if he's welcoming you to a very special edition of television's "Alfred Hitchcock Presents" or recording a promo for his latest cinematic thrill ride. He'll break the fourth wall again to bookend this film with an even better visual joke that's absurdly hokey.

More...

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Mean Girls Predicted the Future!

For Your Consideration: The William Hurt Honor

Moi?

Dear Nathaniel,

In lieu of gifts this holiday season, I wanted to campaign for the inclusion of a new category in the Film Bitch Awards called:

The William Hurt Honor.

For those scene-stealers whose roles are too large to be cameos, and who really have no purpose in their respective films other than to just show up and have a fuck ton of fun.

________

And this year, You can honor the man who made us laugh immorally in a morality play.

The man whose strut puts drag queens to shame.

The man cool enough to have the Stones introduce him everywhere he goes.

He might show up to the party, but don't worry:

 

He's on the list, baby girl.

With love, 

Beau