Salim Gives Thanks

By Salim Garami

What's good?

I'll tell you what's good, Thanksgiving! Particularly the concept of a holiday where we can dream of feasts like those in Tampopo or Babette's Feast or Ratatouille and dig in surrounded by those we love, whether it be family or an extended definition of family.

Now, personally... I don't think 2017 is a year I'll look back on with much fondness. And that's just on account of the pop culture I consumed, not even reckoning with the exhausting political landscape or the misconduct ingrained within the film industry that is being brought to light.

In any case, this is making me sound like THAT GUY who's at every Thanksgiving dinner and that's not the point of this post. But the context of a year that didn't feel at the top of its game means the things I'm thankful for are wonders that stand out to me and I appreciate them further. So what am I thankful for this year...

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Was King Kong a Box Office Monster?

What did you see this weekend?

check out that monster-sized beard on KONG SKULL ISLAND director Jordan Vogt-Roberts!

After catching up on TV shows like Big Little Lies and Feud, I went to Kong: Skull Island with a friend. Afterwards I eagerly read Chris's review, nodding a long at most of it. It's an easy-sit with surprising charm (mostly by way of John C Reilly's ad libbing... he seriously saves the movie from its paint-by-numbers blockbuster strategy) but wow was it disposable. Will anyone remember anything about it in a year's time?

And this to build a whole franchise on? Not too many of my audience members stayed for the stinger after the credits but that it was an enjoyable visual tease of other iconic kaiju like Godzilla, Ghidra, and Mothra. While the film opened at #1 it seems likely that Warner Bros was looking for much bigger numbers to launch a whole franchise on. The last installment of Godzilla, for example, opened to over $90 million.  Perhaps by pairing them in Kong vs Godzilla (due in 2020) they can get closer to $100? Box Office charts for the weekend and some related news items are after the jump...

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Infinity Links... "a fun filled year of lensing"

Esquire cool interview with the director of John Wick: Chapter 2, a former stuntman
Stage Buddy on a new book about the immortal classic Casablanca
Vox an excellent piece on AMC's Humans and how it differs from HBO's similarly AI themed but wildly different Westworld  
NYT Harvey Fierstein's Torch Song Trilogy to return to the stage 
Indie Wire Tulip Fever gets pushed back AGAIN even though it was supposed to open in less than two weeks
Silver Screening Room on the Adapted Screenplay race of 1976 for reasons I dont know but I enjoyed 

More after the jump including Avengers Infinity War...

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Box Office: Street Cats, Kinky Sex, Lego Superheroes

This weekend's box office charts are deceiving in their rankings. Lego Batman and the Fifty Shades sequels topped the weekend but both opened well below their predecessors while #3 was a huge success. John Wick's second outing doubled its original's opening weekend gross suggesting that the fanbase grew exponentially once the 'first chapter' was available for home viewing. This kind of thing we used to see far more of in the early days of VHS but now in the age of franchises, generally you don't see that kind of word-of-mouth "discovery" growth. You're either a behemoth or you're not. 

Three more items of note that don't really show in these charts...

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Review: John Wick

Michael C here 

The screenplay for David Leitch and Chad Stahelski’s John Wick is so simplistic it rises above laziness until it reaches a kind of glorious absurdist joke. What “plot” there is (and I’m typing those quote marks as hard as I can) could be adapted into a book for beginning readers without much stretching:

See John Wick’s wife die. John sad.
John’s wife leaves John dog. John slightly less sad.
See Russian mobster kill John’s dog. John mad.
See John kill. Kill, John, kill!

To gripe about the thinness of the script is to miss the point. A movie like John Wick is all about getting to the good stuff. When the story is pared down to such a degree it’s a giftwrapped opportunity for filmmakers to show off their chops by filling all that empty space with creatively staged mayhem and wild, indulgent detours, two things for which I am always on board. On such occasions, I am more than willing to disengage higher brain function for 100 minutes, lean back in my seat and say “Show me what you got!” silly grin on my face, drool collecting on my popcorn...

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