Ai Weiwei's "Vivos" - Pretty to look at but too detached

New contributor Ren Jender reporting from Sundance...

 

In 2014, Mexican police attacked students from a rural teachers' college, Ayotzinapa (known as a hotbed of leftist activism) in Iguala, Guerrero. They killed six of the students but injured many more and abducted another 43, who have never been found. In his new documentary Vivos, artist Ai WeiWei (Human Flow) focuses on the families left behind (and in limbo) When the families speak about the disappearance of their sons, siblings and partners, Ai captures the lyricism of their stories. One father memorably states:

That night, it rained and rained and rained."

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"Zola" has to be seen to be believed.

Murtada Elfadl reporting from Sundance

Maybe it was the 10th time director Janicza Bravo used a freeze frame to reframe the wild weekend tale she’s telling in Zola, when I knew I loved her movie. The freeze frames until then were used to stop the narrative for a pithy or funny observation by our narrator Zola (Taylour Paige), twitter reply style. But this time we were getting a whole new perspective from another character. It was delectable, hilarious and ghastly. I’d say the same for Zola. 

You all remember the infamous 2015 Twitter thread that started with the classic opening lines: 

Y’all wanna hear a story about why me & this bitch here fell out? It’s kind of long but full of suspense?”

Well they went and made a movie out of it...

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What did you see this weekend?

Parasite was astonishingly up 16% in its 16th weekend getting its third wind or so now as we approach Oscar night. 1917 has passed the $100 million mark and Little Women is almost there, too, both dropping less than 30% this weekend five weeks into their run. In short: they're all quite popular which is good news for the Oscars coming in early February. 

Weekend Box Office January 17th-20th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 BAD BOYS FOR LIFE  $34 (cum. $120.6)	1 🔺   THE LAST FULL MEASURE $1.0 on 614  screens *NEW*

2 🔺  1917  $15.8 (cum. $103.8) CONTINUOUS SHOT, GLOBE VICTORIES ★	2 WEATHERING WITH YOU $693k on 458 screens (cum. $6.5) REVIEW  ★

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So many awards this weekend!

Designers, makeup artists, and personal stylists must be logging looooong hours this month. There's so many awards galas happening crammed in before Oscar night. We already covered the DGA and the Annies but that wasn't all that happened this weekend (and the Grammys are still to come tonight!). After the jump, a list of other prizes handd out this weekend to luminaries like Greta Gerwig and Roger Deakins.

USC Scripter Awards
Greta Gerwig won this prize along with the posthumous Louisa May Alcott and gave this lovely acceptance speech...

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Driver and Cotillard SING!

by Eric Blume

In other surprising/weird/interesting film projects ahead for us in 2020, filming just wrapped on Annette, a musical featuring Adam Driver and Marion Cotillard, and directed by French auteur Leos Carax. Apparently Driver plays a stand-up comedian and Cotillard an opera singer, whose lives take a twist with the birth of their daughter Annette, who is born with a "special gift".

The movie sounds gloriously bananas.  Is it in French or English, or both?  Leos Carax is, without hyperbole, one of the most idiosyncratic directors alive.  It's almost thirty years ago that he had Juliette Binoche waterskiing down the Seine in Les Amants du Pont-Neuf, and eight years ago that he mystified everyone with the accordions and role play of Holy Motors.  The man does not have a commercial bone in his body.

We know from Marriage Story that Driver can carry a tune. It's thrilling that at essentially the most pivotal time in his career, he's chosen to take a left turn with a movie like this.  And it's been far too long since Cotillard has had a great role.  She's utterly magnificent in Nine (not sorry, haters), and her two numbers in that film demonstrate her ability to both keep it simple / honest AND to fly into full-blown performance mode.  But...she's playing an opera singer?  Sounds iffy.   Still, Driver and Cotillard are two of the greatest actors working today, and matching them sounds wonderfully inspired.

This movie on paper truly earns the letters WTF.  Even if it doesn't land, it should at least be interesting!