Tom Hardy's Furrowed Brow Acting

by Murtada

I have a curious relationship with Tom Hardy. I like him as an actor but almost never get excited about the movies that he’s in. And that doesn't look like it will change. On the heels of his signing to play Spider Man baddie Venom in a stand-alone film, Hardy will produce and star in My War Gone By, I Miss It So. The film is a  personal account of the Bosnian War, based on the 1999 book of the same name by Anthony Loyd, an English journalist and war correspondent. Gavin O’Connor who has previously directed Hardy in Warrior (2011) is attached to direct. Another war film and another macho aggressive character for Hardy to play.

Hardy is currently on screen in Dunkirk,  of course...

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Four Movies Shared the Wealth This Weekend

By Nathaniel R

What did you see this weekend?

Weekend Box Office (July 28th-30th)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. DUNKIRK $28.1 (cum. $102.8) PODCAST	1. 🔺   A GHOST STORY $382k (cum. $941k) 329 screens
2. 🔺  THE EMOJI MOVIE $25.6	2. 🔺  DETROIT $365k 20 screens
3. GIRLS TRIP $20 (cum. $65.5)	3. MAUDIE  $350k (cum. $4.6) 228 screens REVIEW
4. 🔺 ATOMIC BLONDE  $18.5	4. 🔺  MUBARAKAN $300k 128 screens
5. SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING  $13.4 (cum. $278.3) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | PODCAST	5. 🔺WOLF WARRIOR 2 $190k 53 screens
6. WAR FOR PLANET OF APES  $10.3 (cum. $118.6) REVIEWISH | PODCAST	6. 🔺 LADY MACBETH  $179k  (cum. $467k) 104 screens
7. DESPICABLE ME 3 $7.7 (cum. $230.4)	7. 🔺  AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL $130K 4 screens REVIEW
8. VALERIAN $6.8 (cum. $30.6)	8. THE LITTLE HOURS  $125k (cum. $1.2) 96 screens  REVIEW
9. BABY DRIVER $4 (cum. $92) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | POSTERIZED | PODCAST	9.🔺 THE MIDWIFE $78k   (cum. $112k) 27 screens
10. WONDER WOMAN $3.5  (cum. $395.4) REVIEW | TOP TEN | SPECIAL	10. THE HERO  $68K (cum. $3.8) 102 screens BEST ACTORS
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo

Dunkirk and Girls Trip, both enjoyed very strong second weekends (giving their audiences exactly what they promised... which is all too rare!) and managed to mostly fend off the new challengers which were the animated Emoji Movie and Charlize Theron kicking all kinds of spy ass as Atomic Blonde. It was a fairly unique weekend since all four titles were within 10 million of each other - they all have a reason to celebrate. The only people not celebrating? Whoever chose to take their families to Emoji Movie which is the worst reviewed movie of the year. 

In limited release the doc sequel An Inconvenient Truth (reviewed), Kathryn Bigelow's race riot drama Detroit, the Hasidic drama Menashe (reviewed), and Brigsby Bear all barely dipped their toe into theaters but audiences expressed interest in all four. Expect expansions soon with Detroit going wide next weekend.

Podcast: Dunkirk and Spider-Man Homecoming

In this episode Nathaniel, Joe and Nick talk about the latest superhero movie (Spider-Man Homecoming) and the latest heroic movie without super powers (Dunkirk). Plus Nick has very exciting upcoming Film Comment issue news.

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Nick talked to Jane Campion, omg!
03:15 Spider-Man Homecoming, Tom Holland, Marisa Tomei, and a brief sidebar to Avengers: Age of Ultron
13:33 Dunkirk, Christopher Nolan's recurring obsessions, and brief tangents to Detroit and The Beguiled

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 Posts
• Revenge of the Twinks
• Review Spider-Man Homecoming
• Previous Podcast

Dunkirk and Spidey

we've got the tweet we've got the tweet.... yeahhhhh, we've got the tweet 🎵

Before we get to the amusing tweets of the week, let us communally worship this new image of BFFs Naomi & Nicole, which Naomi posted with "this woman is everything to me" message. 

This woman is everything to me 😍

A post shared by Naomi Watts (@naomiwatts) on Jul 28, 2017 at 6:54pm PDT

Doesn't their friendship just warm the cockles of your heart? Or thaw it if it's gone ice cold. Do you think they watch each other's work and discuss like its book club or something? 

After the jump tweets on Meryl Streep's onscreen deaths (no really), Atomic Blonde's badassery, Henry Cavill's moustache, much Dunkirk hoopla, and more...

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"Dunkirk" and "Girls Trip" Have Great Opening Weekends

By Nathaniel R

It's musical chairs every week at the box office now. But new releases like Dunkirk and Girls Trip (which both opened well above expectations) and presumably Atomic Blonde next weekend should have an untroubled run if word of mouth is strong given that August is looking pretty dire in terms of upcoming mainstream releases.

Weekend Box Office (July 21st-23rd)
W I D E	L I M I T E D
1. 🔺  DUNKIRK $50.5	1. 🔺   MAUDIE $390k (cum. $4) 233 screens REVIEW
2. 🔺  GIRLS TRIP $30.3	2. 🔺  THE LITTLE HOURS $162K (cum. $971k) 114 screens REVIEW
3. SPIDER-MAN HOMECOMING $22 (cum. $251.7) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION	3. THE HERO  $145K (cum. $3.7) 191 screens BEST ACTORS
4. WAR FOR PLANET OF $20.4 (cum. $97.7) REVIEWISH | PODCAST	4. 🔺  A GHOST STORY $141k (cum. $480k) 43 screens
5. 🔺  VALERIAN AND... $17	5. LADY MACBETH $123k (cum. $219k) 40 screens
6. DESPICABLE ME 3  $12.7 (cum. $213.3)	6. BEATRIZ AT DINNER  $114k  (cum. $6.7) 116 screens
7. BABY DRIVER $6 (cum. $84.2) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | POSTERIZED | PODCAST	7. 🔺  LOST IN PARIS $61K (cum. $242k) 42 screens
8. THE BIG SICK $5 (cum. $24.5) REVIEW | 2ND OPINION | HOLLY ♥︎ !!! | PODCAST	8. PARIS CAN WAIT  $53k (cum. $5.4) 66 screens
9. WONDER WOMAN $4.6 (cum. $389) REVIEW | TOP TEN | SPECIAL	9. 🔺  LANDLINE $52k  4 screens
10. WISH UPON $2.4  (cum. $10.5)	10. 🔺  THE MIDWIFE  $20k  3 screens
🔺 = new or added screens numbers from box office mojo

Dunkirk's $50 million opening with no stars, no superpowers, and no sci-fi spectacle, is another reminder that directors can be bankable too, IF they consistently deliver for their audiences which Nolan has (consider that his devout fanbase never seems even the slightest bit disappointed in his work). Meanwhile people are using Girls Trip's terrific opening as a cudgel with which to beat Rough Night which is kinda silly. Just because two rowdy comedies feature a group of women does not make them interchangeable! Imagine saying that about two comedies about men behaving badly. Girls Trip received an A+ Cinemascore (meaning its paying audiences went wild for it) while Rough Night scored a C+ (which means the audiences didn't like it at all - C+ is basically a failing grade with Cinemascore). Their review fates were similarly disparate (pro Girls / con Rough)  but reviews don't mean much to mainstream pictures in terms of opening weekend box office. 

Wonder Woman marks its incredible 8th weekend in the top ten and maybe its last given that it took its first big hit with theater count. Still, what a run. It's now the #2 superhero origin movie of all time (behind only Sam Raimi's Spider-Man), the #1 DC Extended Universe movie, the #1 World War I movie (though the competition isn't strong there), the #2 movie of 2017 (behind Disney's Beauty & The Beast karaoke) and the #5 female action movie of all time (behind only two installments each from the Hunger Games and Star Wars franchises).

What did you see this weekend?