u know where i'm at, u know where I be, u in the blog just to linky 🎵

If you missed part one of our massive link roundup to catch up on news and such, that's here. Going a lot shorter for part two

/Film on the 20th anniversary of Boogie Nights
This is Not Porn Sigourney Weaver with a pumpkin
/i09 Jeff Goldblum riffing on the meaning of "Ragnarok" - I was personally alarmed to see this whole story this morning because I feel like I knew all this classic mythology stuff when I was in diapers and I KNOW we learned some of it in school. Is mythology not taught anymore? Weird cause kids tend to love it (since there are superpowers, monsters, etcetera)
Jezebel a fine interview with famous primatologist Jane Goodall about her work, the new documentary about her, and climate change

Film School Rejects 35 things we learned from Edgar Wright's Baby Driver commentary
AV Club Carla Gugino and Bruce Greenwood on filming Gerald's Game, another Stephen King adaptation that people are actually liking (what is happening?)
Coming Soon Director Taiki Waititi (What We Do in the Shadows, Thor Ragnarok) is very coy about whether or not he'll direct the long gestating live action remake of anime classic Akira but if he does, he won't be casting non-Asians. So if they must make this movie, let's hope he gets the job.
Playbill Idina Menzel didn't want to write a memoir so her sister wrote a book about their lives "Voice Lessons: A Sisters Story"
/Film Corey Haim & Corey Feldman, teen idols of the late 80s, are getting the Lifetime movie treatment
W Magazine Cara Delevingne is now an author ("Mirror Mirror") and a brunette
The New Yorker "Everything that I'm afraid might happen now that I've lost my headphones"

Congrats to the MacArthur Genius Grant Winners.
The 24 recipients for 2017 have been named who will each receive the grant of $625,000 which is a lot of change for most writers and artists and performers. Celebrities of course make truckloads of money but that's much different than toiling away for your craft in most arts careers. Twenty four recipients from many different kinds of field were chosen so let's just list those in the arts: Annie Baker (playwright), Rhiannon Giddens (musician), Taylor Mac (performance artist ♥︎), Yuval Sharon (opera producer), Tyshawn Sorey (composer), and Jesmyn Ward (writer)

Weak Weekend Box Office - Did You Go To the Movies?

It was a rather tepid week and weekend at the box office aside from some milestones further down the list. Wonder Woman continues to break records despite falling out of the top 15. In its 12th weekend its just passed by Sam Raimi's Spider-Man (if you don't adjust for inflation) making it the top grossing origin story superhero film. In other happy news for fans, both Girls Trip and Baby Driver passed the important $100 million mark this week. The Girls Trip figure isn't as unusual as the internet seems to be  pretending -- how quickly people forget that The Color Purple, Hidden Figures and The Help, which all centered on black women, were megahits and two of those in the very recent past! But the Baby Driver milestone is rarer. It's a first for director Edgar Wright who has had a devoted fanbase for years but never quite crossed over in this way. More after the jump...

Weekend Box Office (Aug 18th-20th)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. 🔺 THE HITMAN'S BODYGUARD $21.6 NEW	1. AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL $300k (cum. $2.9) 514 screens  REVIEW
2. ANNABELLE CREATION $15.5 (cum. $64)	2. A TAXI DRIVER $266k (cum. $842k) 41 screens
3. 🔺 LOGAN LUCKY $8 NEW   REVIEW	3.🔺 INGRID GOES WEST  $265k (cum. $438k) 26 screens REVIEW
4. DUNKIRK  $6.7 (cum. $165.5) PODCAST | TOM HARDY	4. 🔺  MENASHE $230k (cum. $715k) 86 screens REVIEW

Click to read more ...

Podcast: War for the Big Sick Planet of Baby Drivers

In this episode Nathaniel, Joe and Nick talk three new movies with our usual tangent of asides including Michelle Pfeiffer in Ant Man and the Wasp, Charlton Heston in Ben-Hur, and more...

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 National Critics Institute / Michelle Pfeiffer news
07:44 The Big Sick performances, and it's place within the Romantic Comedy ecosystem
19:00 Matt Reeves's War for the Planet of the Apes, Gary Oldman vs Woody Harrelson, prequel issues, and the original 1968 classic.
30:40 Edgar Wright and Baby Driver, plus Kevin Spacey's sexuality, and Jon Hamm as a movie actor

 You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

Related Reading
Nathaniel's first restaurant review
Kevin Spacey as Gore Vidal
Emmy Drama Actress roundtable
Gay pornish Planet of the Apes gif

Baby Driver, Big Sick, Planet of Apes

Brief Notes on Baby Driver and Spider-Man

by Nathaniel R

I'd be remiss if I didn't publicly thank Chris Feil for the extra work he did while I was away. Such a good hire. (Send him your love and follow him on Twitter!) Herewith 150 words each on two movies Chris already reviewed but I wanted to chime in briefly just cuz.

BABY DRIVER
As some of you know I just returned from the National Critics Institute. In one session we read a curated batch of stellar articles and we discussed in fine detail as a group what made them pop and resonate...

Click to read more ...

C O N S I D E R - Favorites of 2017, 2nd Qtr

THE YEAR'S FIRST HALF IS OVER! But rather than wait for this "halfway mark" for year in review listicles we started at the end of the 1st quarter so you'll have to combine those lists (movies / actresses / actors) with the highlights from your host's April through June screenings for a complete "halfway mark" take. Got it? Unlike many critics orgs and the Oscars, The Film Experience believes that moviegoing is a 12 month long activity and each month can hold worthy efforts.  Here are 4 or 5 highlights of what we've seen the past three months per Oscar category in alpha order. How will they measure up to what's still to come?

Key movies I regret missing this quarter: Beatriz at Dinner, Hero, Gifted, Manifesto, and Their Finest

PICTURE and/or DIRECTOR and/or SCREENPLAY
(i couldn't decide which to cut so this first grouped selection is 6 wide)

BABY DRIVER (Edgar Wright)
THE BIG SICK (Michael Showalter)
THE LOVERS (Azazel Jacobs)
LOST CITY OF Z (James Gray)
THE WEDDING PLAN (Rama Burshtein)
WONDER WOMAN (Patty Jenkins)

Lots more after the jump...

Click to read more ...