Watch at Home: Knives Out, Midway, System Crasher, and Monty Clift

by Nathaniel R

Do any of you buy Blu-Rays or DVDs anymore? The release dates of such used to be a big deal for film fans but now it's but another random date and everyone is on their own timetable. Nevertheless we should probably check in once in a while, shouldn't we? (New to streaming titles are also listed after the jump)

New to DVD/ Blu-Ray (Feb 3rd-25th)
If we've written about the film it's linked up...

• 21 Bridges - the Russo brothers attempt to step away from the Marvel Cinematic Universe (albeit with Black Panther himself in tow)
• A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood - the misunderstood and underrated Mr Rogers hosted drama
• Color Out of Space - Nicolas Cage again...

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Reader's Choice: Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Last week by popular vote you selected this streaming film for screening & discussion...

by Nathaniel R

It lasted 30 days... You will remember it as long as you live."

So went one of the chief taglines for the Oscar hopeful Voyage of the Damned (1976). It reads like a threat -- when taglines attack! -- this promise of a long unforgettable sit. Having only viewed The Voyage of the Damned for the very first time this weekend, it's too soon to say if we'll remember it for as long as we live, but the other part of the statement is accurate. We won't make a snarky comment about the running time (too easy!) but the titular passage was indeed a month long moment of intensely shameful global history. 

For those unfamilar with the history it goes, very briefly, like this...

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Almost There: Marion Cotillard in "Rust and Bone"

by Cláudio Alves

Throughout the years, the Oscars' most polyglot acting category has been Best Actress, amassing twenty nominations and two victories for performances in non-English languages. Those winners, Sophia Loren (1961, Two Women) and Marion Cotillard (2007, La Vie en Rose), are also the only women to nab more than one nod for acting in their native non-English tongue. That's not the only factor that makes Cotillard's awards history a strange affair. She's also one the very few actors to get attention from the four major precursors (BFCA, HFPA, BAFTA, SAG) for her work in "foreign language" films, a feat she accomplished twice. Strangely enough, it wasn't for the same two productions that got her the Academy's attention!

Marion Cotillard's take on Edith Piaf got nominated for everything and, in the end, conquered her a little golden man. Still, five years later she was royally snubbed, becoming only the second person to get those four precursor nominations and fail to enter the Oscar line-up. The film was Jacques Audiard's Rust and Bone and the performance remains one of Cotillard's greatest achievements…

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Horror Actressing: Una O'Connor in "The Invisible Man" (1933)

by Jason Adams

What better time than now, what with the latest iteration of The Invisible Man hitting movie theaters this week, to celebrate one of the cinema's greatest character actresses -- I speak of ye Irish spitfire Una O'Connor, who was once described as having "the body of a scarecrow, the contemptuous stare of a house detective, and the voice of an air-raid siren." Said with affection, no doubt.

She certainly brought all of those awesome qualities to bear on James Whale's 1933 adaptation of The Invisible Man, which had her playing the mistress of the pub that the villain-scientist Claude Rains rents an upstairs room from...

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What did you see this weekend?

Performing significantly above expectations this weekend were the wide release Call of the Wild, and two female-driven platform titles, France's awesome Portrait of a Lady on Fire, and the latest adaptation of Emma. Box office estimates after the jump... 

Weekend Box Office February 21st-23rd (ESTIMATES ONLY) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
Call of the Wild	Emma
1 🔺 SONIC THE HEDGEHOG  $26.3 (cum. $106.6)	1 🔺 IMPRACTICAL JOKERS $2.6 on 357 screens *new*
2  🔺  CALL OF THE WILD  $24.8 *new* HARRISON FORD	2 🔺  MY BOYFRIEND'S MEDS $1.4 on 350 screens *new*
3 BIRDS OF PREY $7.0 (cum. $72.5) REVIEW	3 🔺 PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE $715k on 130 screens (cum. $1.4) TOP TEN LIST ★

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