Year in Review: 20 Best Movie Posters

by Nathaniel R

The Year in Review party continues. Contrary to those headshots against monochrome backgrounds titles you see while scrolling through Netflix, the movie poster as an artform is not dead. It just has diminished in popularity and might soon be evolving. The upright rectangle has been the norm for almost a century, probably because it was just-right for magazines and newspapers. But both of those modes of information-distribution are outmoded. The standard shape might still continue in dominance, though, given that it's also the shape of a phone but who knows. But we digress. The 20 best movie posters for 2020 films after the jump...

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Nathaniel Gives Thanks, 2020

by Nathaniel R

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, READERS! It occured to me the other day that for as crappy as pandemic shut-in 2020 has been, we should be grateful for it... at least here in the US. Without the pandemic, despite a quarter million lives lost, we would surely have been stuck with the worst and most corrupt government in our history and the end of Democracy as fascists cemented their rule. It's not that the threat is gone exactly. Due to numerous ills embedded in American society, we could still see Democracy vanquished. But we have bought ourselves at least a couple of years reprieve (more if we're lucky and continue getting out the vote). So, I never thought I'd say this but "thank you, COVID" (?)

On a lighter and more movie-site note here are 15 showbiz things that I was personally grateful for this past year...

 • The opportunity to moderate a Beanpole discussion at Film Forum (before movie theaters closed *cries*) for the absurdly talented 28 year-old Russian director Kantemir Balagov. The movie wasn't nominated at the Oscars but at least it made the international finals!

• The sound design of Sound of Metal for putting us inside Riz Ahmed's head. It's the closest we've ever been to his perfect face and we're grateful...

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Did you see any movies over Oscar weekend?

This past weekend's box office results suggest that a lot of people were trying to catch up on Oscar nominees before the big show. Here are all the titles still in wide release and their counterparts in limited release...

Weekend Box Office February 7th-9th (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
Margot Robbie in "Birds of Prey"	Oscar WINNING Short Film "Hair Love"
1 🔺 BIRDS OF PREY  $33 *NEW* REVIEW	1 🔺 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORTS $870k on 535  screens (cum. $2.7) REVIEW,  THE CHARTS ★
2 BAD BOYS FOR LIFE  $12 (cum. $166.3)	2 THE LAST FULL MEASURE $214k on 617 screens (cum. $2.5)

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Weekend Box Office

It was a quiet weekend at the box office with both new wide releases (horror film Gretel and Hansel and revenge thriller The Rhythm Section) opening softly, apart from a few noteworthy monetary marks for indie films...

Weekend Box Office January 31st through February 2nd (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = recommended
WIDE RELEASE (800+ screens)	PLATFORM TITLES
"Gretel and Hansel"	Oscar Nominated Short Film "Hair Love"
1 BAD BOYS FOR LIFE  $17.6 (cum. $148)	1 🔺 OSCAR NOMINATED SHORT FILMS $1.0 on 460  screens *NEW* THE CHARTS ★
2 1917  $9.6 (cum. $119.2) THE ACTING,  CONTINUOUS SHOT ★	2 THE LAST FULL MEASURE $519k on 617 screens (cum. $2.0)
3 DOLITTLE $7.7 (cum. $55.2) THIS ODD FRANCHISE	3 WEATHERING WITH YOU $405k on 224 screens (cum. $7.2) REVIEW  ★

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Best International Feature: France, Denmark & Russia's contenders

by Cláudio Alves

In less than two weeks, December 16th to be exact, we'll know the Best International Feature shortlist. In previous years, there were only nine finalists but, due to recent rule changes, the list has been expanded to ten titles. As usual, expect to see a lot of European productions since this category loves to reward the cinema of the Old Continent. Thinking of those preferences, I've decided to purview the submissions of three European champions of the past. 

Specifically, they are France, with nine competitive wins and three honorary awards uner their belt; Denmark, with three victories; and Russia, which won once or four times if you count USSR's wins. We'll start with the most-nominated country in the category's History…

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