Still 'Unhinged' about moviegoing. What did you see at home?

Some websites are choosing to not cover theatrical releases while it's still unsafe to go to theaters. We're undecided. On the one hand everyone should be free to make their own life decisions and you can't live without risk of any kind. On the other hand, Americans have been exceptionally stupid and belligerent about taking needless risks and demanding that their individual comfort (like not wearing a mask or getting their haircut or whatever) trumps everyone else's actual life. 

Of course in other countries that have not had total grifter clowns in power, they've been able to start the trek back to normal. Sadly until the GOP and their enablers -- a much worse threat to the safety of everyone on the planet than the coronavirus -- are out of power, we're probably stuck in this abnormal hellscape for awhile still.

Anyway, the box office story is that the new Russell Crowe road rage drama Unhinged made $4 million this weekend in the US. That's a huge number considering how many theaters are a) still shut down and b) selling only half their seats in order to comply with distancing guidelines. 

Most of us are still watching movies indoors for the time being. For instance, we finally watched The Assistant (2020) on Hulu. It was good though surely its pin drop sound and growing discomfort would have been more immersive and, thus, effective inside the dark quiet cocoon of a movie theater. So what did you see at home this past week?

Emmy Review: Lead Actress in a Drama

By Abe Friedtanzer

Last year’s winner in this highly competitive category – Jodie Comer – is back after her show, Killing Eve, performed much better than most thought it would. This race will surely be close, with a defending champion, three potential new victors, and one dark horse surprise (who I think may just win). 

I’ll try to avoid major plot details in my analysis – but if you'd like more spoiler-filled descriptions, click on the episode titles. Let’s consider each nominee…

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The elliptical cinema of Mia Hansen-Løve

by Cláudio Alves

Cinema is many things. An audiovisual art form, a dream, memories crystalized, ghosts of light. It's also a language, an idiom with rules and grammar of its own. Some cineastes film straightforward prose. Others prefer a lyrical approach and write poems with their cameras. There are those who make manifestos, compose diaries, some even do journalistic documentations. Whatever their uses of the language of cinema, the punctuation is usually the same, with norms judiciously followed to keep the clarity of intention, of information and tone. Still, sometimes the most interesting artist is the one that bends those rules to their will, reshaping, transforming, making them into something personal.

Mia Hansen-Løve is such a filmmaker. Instead of employing commas and periods, writing and cutting traditionally, she prefers to film in ellipsis. Constant, evocative, oft-mysterious and emotionally poignant, ellipsis…

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Remembering River Phoenix on his 50th Birthday

by Camila Henriques

This Sunday marks what would have been River Phoenix’s 50th birthday. A talent taken away from us much too soon, he went from adorable teenage prodigy to Oscar nominated scene stealer to Volpi Cup winner in less than five years.  Seeing the work that other actors of his generation, who also started young, like Leonardo DiCaprio and Christian Bale, have delivered from the mid 90s until now can be heartwrenching. They make it impossible not to wonder what could have been if that fatidic night in 1993 had not happened...

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Beauty Break: Batman's Smokey Eye

by Nathaniel R

Behold the first tease of Robert Pattinson as The Batman (2021). Who knew the Dark Knight loved a smokey eye (and some spiky bangs)? Then again who doesn't? Even if these smokey eyes are less lancome than practical how-to-blend-your-eyes-with-your-black-mask, we love them. After the jump an impromptu Beauty Break with other smokey-eyed movie classics...

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