What did you see this weekend?

Superbowl weekend was rough for the movies with lower than usual grosses all around. Was it the polar vortex? Who dared venture out of their homes?!

Weekend Box Office Estimates February 1st-3rd (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count /  ★= Recommended
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
Miss Bala	Free Solo
1 Glass $9.5 (cum. $88.6) Review	1🔺 They Shall Not Grow Old $2.4  (cum. $10.7) Review ★
2 The Upside  $8.8 (cum. $75.5)	2🔺 Free Solo $1.3 (cum. $14.9) Review, Biggest Doc Hits ★
3 🔺 Miss Bala $6.7 *NEW*	3🔺 Ek Ladki Ko Dekha...  $600k *NEW*
4 Aquaman  $4.7 (cum. $323.5) Review, Podcast	4🔺 Cold War  $564k (cum. $2.1) Review, Biggest Foreign Hits ★
5 Into the Spider-Verse  $4.4 (cum. $175.2)  Review, Annie Award Winner ★	5🔺 Destroyer $234k (cum. $1.2)  Review ★

Miss Bala had a rough opening weekend, unable to unseat three week old Glass and four week old The Upside to claim the top spot. Two notes on Oscar boosts: Green Book is now finally on its way to becoming the hit everyone originally assumed it would be when they saw it at festivals, having roared back to life last week and holding super well this week (it's at #6 for the past two weeks -- the highest its ever climbed on the charts after almost three months in theaters indicating that word of mouth has finally caught up with it. In specialty theaters Free Solo and Cold War have also done a superb job capitalizing on their Oscar nods. Free Solo  was all but finished with its run a few weeks ago but is suddenly reenergized, this weekend becoming the second highest doc grosser of 2018 by topping RBG. Meanwhile Cold War has been cruising up the foreign film charts and is now the 8th biggest subtitled hit of 2018, just now defeating last year's Oscar champ A Fantastic Woman.

Method Linking

The Matinee on the trouble with "classics" and drawing timelines in the sand
Kenneth in the (212) the Mommie Dearest mansion is on the market
The Stake on why blockbuster franchises are all boring now. Even the good ones
National Post pop culture power rankings best and worst in method acting from Daniel Day Lewis to Jared Leto
Uproxx movies have sucked this summer - well, the big ones have. Lots of goodies in limited release 

MNPP * NSFW* Orlando Bloom made the internet all sweaty with his nude paddleboarding adventure 
MNPP I love the "Siri Says" series Jason does. She picks a number, he delivers his favorite films from that year. 
Variety Maya Rudolph to co-star in Melissa McCarthy's Life of the Party (2018)
The Tracking Board Hollywood is planning to remake Mexico's Miss Bala (sigh). Good luck finding a lead to match Stephanie Sigman in the 2011 original
Coming Soon Angelina Jolie has opted not to take the lead role in Murder on the Orient Express. Charlize Theron is the new possibility. And ICYMI...
TFE... we held a Cast This about the other roles in that remake recently.
Film Stage new Antonio Banderas movie is coming called Finding Altamira. I hadn't heard of this but it's directed by Hugh Hudson who I've suddenly realized is still alive. He hasn't made a movie in 16 years. I was just watching his Greystoke movie the other day
AV Club Antonio Sabato Jr hilarious thinks his career is over because of his support of Trump. Oh babe, it's been over for a long time. That's like blaming Obama for the death of Captain Khan who died four years before he was in offic-- oh wait.
Esquire In case you had forgotten that Clint Eastwood is an old guard conservative/misogynist, they have a new interview he does in tandem with his son Scott in which he uses "pussy" as a pejorative, disses Hillary and Obama, and tries that old chestnust "both sides" argument about Trump's behavior. Nope. Sorry Clint. Only one party tries to motivate voters with bigotry. (He also talks movies and at least he loves Sunset Blvd so he's not 100% a terrible person.)
Women and Hollywood Ava Duvernay to become the first black woman to helm a $100 million budgeted film with A Wrinkle in Time - this is news because she's quite successful already and men with a lot less success have been handed blockbuster budgets often. Crossing our fingers that it's a financial and artistic success! 

Dunkirk Teaser
Here's the very quick new tease for Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk which seems certain to net him that Best Director nomination that's eluded him so long if it's any good at all, it being a WW II movie and him being "overdue" and such. And he knows how to direct spectacle films after all.

Off Cinema
Buzz Feed "every time President Obama lost his chill around kids" if you need something adorable to look at
The Guardian Leonardo DiCaprio is "with her". He's hosting a $33,400 a plate fundraiser
The Daily Good Yes the media does play favorites in politics, but as this study shows, it isn't the people complaining about it who are getting the unfavorable treatment 

Foreign Film Finalists: "A Separation" Sheds Many of Its Chief Rivals

With just six days until Oscar nominations, the Academy has released the finalist list for Best Foreign Language Film. Iran's wondrous A Separation (see my top ten list) might just go all the way. While it's true that most pundits are already predicting just that, I've been more cautious. Masterpieces are often tripped up in this category by more heartwarming or traditonally baity mass-appeal films in the final heat. The biggest surprise here might be the omission of Lebanon's 'can't we all get along' musical Where Do We Go Now? which some pundits, including myself, had suspected might be a real threat given its populist pull. It won the People's Choice at Toronto which generally bodes well for Oscar traction. Not this time.

Poland's "In Darkness" is "A Separation"'s chief rival now; it's a Holocaust drama.

The Finalist List

• Belgium (5 noms) "Bullhead" Michael R. Roskam
• Canada (5 noms | 1 win) "Monsieur Lazhar" Philippe Falardeau
• Denmark (8 noms | 3 wins) "Superclásico" Ole Christian Madsen (I'm a fan)
• Germany (16 noms | 3 wins)  "Pina," Wim Wenders
• Iran (1 nomination)  "A Separation" Asghar Farhadi (#1 of the Year)
• Israel (9 nominations) "Footnote" Joseph Cedar
• Morocco (never nominated) "Omar Killed Me" Roschdy Zem
• Poland (8 nominations) "In Darkness" Agnieszka Holland
• Taiwan (3 noms | 1 win) "Warriors of the Rainbow: Seediq Bale" Wei Te-sheng

Omissions
Lebanon's entry is not the only high profile entry to be shown the door. France's amazing Declaration of War -- which obliterates 50/50 on the cancer dramedy battleground -- was probably too contemporary and eccentric for Oscar's foreign volunteer committees. Mexico's lauded Miss Bala about a would be beauty queen struggling to survive a drug war is probably the snub that will prompt the most anger from film buffs. I do wonder if Miss Bala had stuck to its original release plans (it was supposed to open in 2011) if it might have built up enough of a reputation to avoid being set aside here. Finally, there's at least three auteurist cinephile darlings on this cutting room floor: Finland's Le Havre, Turkey's Once Upon a Time in Anatolia, and Hungary's The Turin Horse. 

Records To Be Broken
The dance documentary Pina is still gunning for a fascinating record. It might become the first film to ever be nominated in both the documentary and foreign language film categories... and though I'd have to triple check I believe it would be the first documentary every nominated for Best Foreign Film even if it loses out on the documentary shortlist.

Morocco is the only country that might be looking at a first time nomination.

Our favorite Israeli actor (not that we're that familiar with a plethora of them) Lior Ashkenazi (Late Marriage, Walk on Water) in "Footnote"

Israel has been on a roll with Oscar. If Footnote is nominated it will be the fourth Israeli film in five years to score a nomination. Their previous best run was from 1971 through 1977 when they scored four nominations. Despite frequent nominations they've never won the gold making them the Deborah Kerr or Peter O'Toole of the foreign film Oscars.

If Taiwan is nominated a fourth time this year for their battle epic it will be the first time they've ever been nominated outside of the Ang Lee filmography.

CURRENT PREDICTIONS

10 Word Reviews: The Ides of Miss Pina Bala's March of Shame

I think you'll agree that we've had our best festival coverage ever with our NYFF write-ups (thanks to Kurt & Michael for their continued input) but even with the speedy pace of full reviews that we've been hitting, it's all too easy to fall behind. So here are super short notes on films seen recently during the festival and outside of it since we can't get to full reviews yet (or ever probably in some cases). After the ten word reviews I'm adding Oscar Thoughts since all four of these films have golden dreams.

Shame (Steve McQueen)
Fucked up siblings Michael Fassbender & Carey Mulligan self-destruct in New York through sex & despair.
10 WR: Brilliant sense of ghostly city, personal demons. But too obvious. B+ (B?)
Oscar?: Frighteningly committed acting but will voters see it? It'll surely be NC-17

Miss Bala (Gerardo Naranjo)
A beauty pageant contestant falls prey to drug cartel in escalating war.
10 WR: Easy indulgent nihilism elevated by smart construction and thematic visualizations. B-
Oscar?: The things it does very well are easy to see/love (or overpraise depending on how you see it). Will almost certainly make the pre-nomination finals in Best Foreign Language Film.
P.S. Michael reviewed this one and liked it much more than I did it. 

Pina (Wim Wenders)
A performed documentary on Pina Bausch, the late legendary German choreographer.
10 WR: 3D amplifies choreography's spatial genius. Bit noncommittal: Performance? Doc? Decide! B
Oscar?: Unless you count Waltz With Bashir, Oscar's foreign committee has never nominated a documentary. But this one is very very easy to enjoy (the dancing is like heaven) and could be a novelty exception to "rule". 

Ides of March (George Clooney)
Clooney adapts the stage play about dirty politics and betrayals of spirit, body, and ideals
10 WR: Involving and handsome but few great scenes. Weird "scene-change" pacing. B
Oscar?: Seems very likely on several fronts but particularly Supporting Actor (Clooney, Giamatti or Hoffman, though?) and score (Desplat's work gets a lot of "air time" if you will.) Though Evan Rachel Wood (major role) and Marisa Tomei (minor role) are both marvelous, Supporting Actress seems less likely for a wide variety of reasons.

Quick takes. Finis! In short it's been a good run of super enjoyable or at least interesting movies lately. Other than that Abduction fluke. Your turn in the comments.

"Link, I Am Your Father"

This doesn't need an entire post to itself but if you haven't heard you should know that SHAME, the eagerly awaited Hunger follow up from visionary Steve McQueen will open on December 2nd. That's the one that stars the naked raw talents known as Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan. Yay! I'd tell you that I'm seeing it this week but the press screenings at NYFF this year have been more difficult than in past years... so I plan to see it this week.

LINKS
Rope of Silicon has first pic of Russell Crowe as Superman's father in Man of Steel. I get why the capes are that muted color but it's still weird to think of SuperPeople with muted color palette costumes.
Movie|Line Awesome inimitable director/personality Werner Herzog will play the villain in the Tom Cruise vehicle One Shot. As TFE's unsung hero Michael put so well on twitter "The only thing that would make that Werner Herzog news cooler is if he's playing Werner Herzog."
Hollywood and Fine  on the shifts of star generations and how that plays into The Ides of March with Ryan Gosling vs. George Clooney. It's a smart piece though some of the claims are suspect (like DeNiro and Pacino still having great work in them...uhhhh)  
MNPP Luke Evans Seven Times 

The House Next Door Jaime N Christley is a dissenting voice on Mexico's critic's darling Miss Bala 
Frankly My Dear.... War Horse newbie Jeremy Irvine already has his follow up picture. He'll be in the umpteenth Great Expectations adaptation. This one for director Mike Newell.

Vanity Fair Johnny Depp is the new cover boy and apparently he hates being photographed (uhhhh) and he says yes to all the stupid money for his kids (Uhhhh... what kids need $300 million dollars? Isn't becoming  a hack really for your kid's kid's grandchildren at this point? $300 million for the Pirates franchise alone.) Unsolicited advice: Take a challenging role soon, maybe by a new visionary writer/director who nobody would think to bankroll without you, do it for scale and rediscover your gift. Just sayin'. 
Antagony and Ecstasy Mr Brayton, one of the best critics on the net and a twentysomething cancer survivor, reviews the twentysomething cancer comedy 50/50.

Today's Recommended Watch
The making of that infamous nippley The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo poster set to the film's score.