Horror Actressing: Lupita Nyong'o in "Us"

by Jason Adams

Most folks first reference the voice, the Batman-needs-a-lozenge croak that Adelaide's underworld doppelganger Red speaks with, when praising Lupita Nyong'o's dual performance in Jordan Peele's Us, and for good reason -- she put a lot of work into it, meeting with people who've suffered from the very real neurological condition called spasmodic dysphonia that's brought about by trauma, and that work memorably shows. I made the Batman joke but only because it's very nearly already as iconic a choice as that one -- go find somebody and talk like Red at them and see how movie-savvy people will get it; the percentage won't be low.

You'd also get a lot of mileage talking about Lupita's physicality in the roles...

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FYC: Robert Pattinson for Best Actor & Supporting Actor

by Cláudio Alves

Margot Robbie isn't the only actor with more than one performance in buzzy productions. 2019 has been a year full of actors with sterling bodies of work. There's also Scarlett Johansson, Laura Dern, Adam Driver, among many others. I'd like to shed light on the excellence of a star whose work is quite far from Oscar's presumed radar. I'm talking about a former heart-throb turned character actor who spent the year getting drunk with Willem Dafoe, facing the challenges of single-parenthood in outer space and casting aspersions at Timothée Chalamet's disproportionate genitalia.

That's right, we're here to sing the praises of the one and only Robert Pattinson. First, we have his adventures with a fuckbox, a mad scientist and a baby…

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Last "Regular" Weekend Box Office Report of the Year!

So, from here on out we'll be hitting our "Year in Review" lists which will include a few exciting box office deep dives on niche topics. So let's retire the regular box office charts of the weekend for 2019 with one last blowout of EVERYTHING still in wide release (there's just 13 films on that many screens at the moment and boy is the last of 'em unlucky). And, as per usual, their counterparts in limited release where the more interesting movies usually are. That said you'll notice the platform section of the chart is not yet complete. That's because those numbers rarely come in comprehensively or correctly before Monday evening so we'll update again then. 

What did you see this weekend? 

Weekend Box Office December 13th-15h (ESTIMATES)  🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
1 🔺  JUMANJI: THE NEXT LEVEL  $60 *new*	1 PARASITE $632k on 306 screens (cum. $20.3 PODCAST, CLASS, BONG, SAG CAST★

2 FROZEN II $19.1 (cum. $366.5) REVIEW	2 🔺 UNCUT GEMS $525k on 5 screens *new*  REVIEW ★

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Boston, Chicago, St. Louis, AAFCA, Phoenix, and Kansas Pick Their Winners

Little Women  was a hot commodity in the latest round of critics awards. The esteemed Boston Society of Film Critics and the relatively famous Chicago Film Critics Association and the actually very old Kansas City Film Critics have recently announced as have St Louis, Phoenix, and the AAFCA (African American Film Critics Association). Most of those groups found something to love in Greta Gerwig's period piece. Naturally the other usual suspects are accounted for again though The Irishman (which led with Parasite in early critics announcements) isn't particular beloved by today's roundup of associations and circles and societies winning no new Picture or Director prizes.

The winners and a few comments are after the jump...

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Christmas Movies of the Moment

by Tony Ruggio

Christmas movies, full of cheer, pretty lights, and sometimes reindeer. I grew up on ‘em, on Home Alone and Christmas Vacation. I continued loving ‘em as a big kid even, with Elf and The Santa Clause holding a special place in my cold heart. They used to be one of those seasonal things Hollywood did best, but as comedy has sunk, so have movies set during the holidays. 

They were on the fast track to extinction, in fact, until streaming came along. Sure, there were Hallmark hate-watches and other network specials gasping for attention. Hallmark still has a certain devoted fan base despite the decline of cable television, but theatrical movie-going has been devoid of the holiday spirit for some time now. Thanks to Netflix, I’ve been able to indulge and Christmas party like it’s 1999, so here are three new Christmas films you may have heard of (there are two more I won’t even mention) that you may or may not want to spend time with this season...

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