Unlucky 13 ???

Everyone keeps saying we're "bitter" in the comments this year, even though we're not (listen, final time saying it: 1917 is a good picture, it'll make a non-embarrassing winner but it's just a little disappointing when they had a chance to make history with a real masterpiece staring them right in the face and gently blowing peach scrapings at them while doing next to unthinkable box office numbers in the current moviescape for subtitled features!)  

ANYWAY let's lean in to the bitter in a silly numbers way and talk about something potentially icky, the infamous "unlucky number" 13. Is 13 an unlucky number with Oscar or not?  Let's find out...

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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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