Monday, December 12, 2016 at 11:45AM Feel free to suggest others in the comments...
BEST ACTRESS COMEDY
The way you feel about iTunes updates is how Meryl Streep feels about Golden Globe nominations.
— Louis Virtel (@louisvirtel) December 12, 2016
Sunday, December 11, 2016 at 7:58PM What did you see this weekend? I've had the neverending winter cold so I've been totally out of it. Hope you've been enjoying more films than I! This weekend contained a spectacular debut for La La Land which grossed nearly a million in only five theaters. To put it in context that's about twice what Moonlight and Cafe Society were able to accomplish in their similar sized opening weekends which were considered quite strong at the time. It's about four-to-six times what other art house darlings of the year (like The Lobster, Jackie, Love & Friendship, A Bigger Splash) were able to manage in similar sized openings. Most of those films proved to have a ceiling around $9-12 million at the US box office but La La Land seems sure to cross over to mainstream success.
Also worth noting: A great weekend for the musical form in general since Moana stayed up top.
TOP TWENTY
01 Moana $18.8 (cum. $145) Review
02 Office Christmas Party $17.5 NEW
03 Fantastic Beasts $10.7 (cum. $199.3)
04 Arrival $5.6 (cum. $81.4) Review and Podcast
05 Doctor Strange $4.6 (cum. $222.3) Review
06 Allied $4 (cum. $35.6) Review
07 Nocturnal Animals $3.1 (cum. $6.2) Review and Podcast
08 Manchester by the Sea $3.1 (cum. $8.3) Review, Second Take
09 Trolls $3.1 (cum. $145.4) NEW
10 Hacksaw Ridge $2.3 (cum. $60.8) Review & Podcast
11 Miss Sloane $1.9 (cum. $2) Review
12 Almost Christmas $1.4 (cum. $40.2)
13 Bad Santa 2 $1.2 (cum. $16.8)
14 Incarnate $1 (cum. $4.2)
15 La La Land $855K NEW Reviewish & How Rare Is It?
16 Loving $623K (cum. $6.5) Review and Podcast
17 Edge of Seventeen $620K (cum. $13.8) Review
18 Moonlight $589K (cum. $10.8) Review and Podcast
19 Jackie $495K (cum. $869K) Review
20 The Accountant $460K (cum. $85)
Thursday, December 8, 2016 at 12:46PM With La La Land opening tomorrow (go see it) we must discuss it's already combed over reception from film critics and awards pundits and the like. When La La Land took the Best Picture prize from the NYFCC last week, certain pockets of people were outraged. Suddenly it was a "safe" movie, middlebrow, something utterly and completely common. 'Boy meets girls. Boy loses girl. UGH Romantic Dramas, am I right?!' Awards season backlash and contrarianism is a real thing though people try to pretend it's not each and every year and consider their motives solely pure. I know I've been guilty of it myself. I trust exactly no one in the entire talking-about-movies ecosphere who claims they haven't. Awards season is like politics; It affects everyone, even or especially those who rage against it and claim it to be meaningless to them. File that type under "the lady doth protest too much".
Naturally I was quick to jump to La La Land's defense whenever this happened. This was not because I love it (which I do...but keeping it 100 it's not a Moulin Rouge! level masterwork or anything) or even because I am a die hard warrior for the musical form. No, I bristle solely because this stance is ridiculous. La La Land is absolutely the furthest thing from a "safe" or common movie. And how uncommon it is, after further research, was stunning even to me!
Some lists before the revelation...
Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 3:57PM The New York Film Critics Circle was founded way back in 1935 when the Oscars were just 8 years old themselves. In their first year they agreed but disagreed with the NYFCC choosing The Informer and Oscar following suit with a Best Picture nomination for that but the eventual prize to Mutiny on the Bounty. Not much has really changed since. The NYFCC aesthetics aren't anti-Oscar but they're just as likely to go slightly left of field with a more challenging option as their #1 as they are to pre-stamp a future winner.
Here's what they chose this year...
Thursday, December 1, 2016 at 11:36AM 
The BFCA has spoken and as per usual the results are a mix of beautiful support of outstanding motion pictures and a few pockets of embarrassment! Under the beautiful support umbrella we find three terrific pictures leading the nominations with 12 for La La Land and 10 each for Arrival and Moonlight. Under the pockets of embarrassment portion of our programming in what universe is Captain Fantastic a "comedy" (Viggo Mortensen, who gives one of the year's best dramatic performances is nominated as best comedy actor but not as best actor. What a world).
The BFCA's special categories, which aren't as well defined as the Globes, usually carry with them lots of weird and empty-headed calls. How, for instance, do you have 6 nominees for most categories but only 4 for Best Actress in an Action picture and only nominate supporting actresses for that prize and leave out two leading women who really carried their films with aplomb: Mary Elizabeth Winstead in 10 Cloverfield Lane and Blake Lively in The Shallows. Why even have these categories if you're not going to do them justice?
All the nominations (film & tv) with comments are after the jump...
FILM AWARDS
