What did you see this week?

Though theaters in LA and NYC never reopened, in places they did many are now closing again due to skyrocketing COVID rates. Sigh. This pandemic will be with us until there's a vaccine and not a day sooner because 40% of the country is insane and the GOP have politicized basic decency and believing in science as into bad things. WEAR A F'IN MASK. Jesus. Anyway. I personally had a heavy viewing week taking in The Life Ahead, Sound of Metal, First Cow, Mulan, The White Tiger, Pieces of a Woman, and Hillbilly Elegy. More on most of those soon.

On the internet, The Life Ahead hit Netflix and I Am Greta arrived on Hulu. Meanwhile in limited theatrical release The Climb and Ammonite opened and earned $103 and $85k respectively.  What did you see this week?

WEEKEND BOX OFFICE (WIDE... SUCH AS IT IS THESE DAYS)

1. Freaky *new* (serial killer comedy) $3.7 million
2. Let Him Go (Diane Lane and Kevin Costner thriller) $1.8 (cum. $6.8)
3. The War with Grandpa (Robert DeNiro comedy) $1.3 (cum. $15.2)
4. Come Play (horror)  $1.1 (cum. $7.3) 
5. Honest Thief (Liam Neeson action) $800k (cum. $12.3)
6. Tenet (Christopher Nolan sci-fi) $735k (cum. $56.3)

Halloween Costume: "Drive" and "Fury Road"

by Tony Ruggio

Before I was 24 I never used Halloween as an excuse to tout one of my favorite movies. I’ve been a self-described cinephile since the age of 14 and yet somehow it had never occurred to me to dress up as a character from any film, less it was an already uber-famous character like Batman and such. When I discovered that, lo and behold, there were replicas being sold of the iconic scorpion jacket from Drive, I jumped at the chance to purchase one for myself and have some Ryan Gosling cool rub off on me...

Click to read more ...

Fav Halloweens: Living my "Pretty Woman" fantasy

We thought it might be fun if Team Experience shared a few of our favourite Halloween memories with you.

by Christopher James

Some people mark time by birthdays. I mark them with Halloween costumes.

Halloween costume planning was always a weeks long planning process growing up. Harry Potter, James Bond, Ash from Pokemon - I did it all. Seven year old me wanted to be cool so bad he begged his parents for an Anakin Skywalker costume even though he had never seen any Star Wars movie yet. As you can tell by those examples, Halloween reflected my pop culture taste at the time. It was my yearly permission to pretend I was in one of my favorite movies. It’s safe to say, I never grew out of my love for Halloween.

It wasn’t until I was 25 that was able to finally pull off dressing as my ultimate pop culture hero - Vivian Ward. Yes, we’re born gay, not made gay...

Click to read more ...

The 'Cancel the Oscars' thing is just plain bulls***t. Here's why

by Juan Carlos

I’ve been itching to discuss this for quite a while now. Ever since the pandemic, the way we watch films has dramatically shifted. Cinemas are now either closed down or maintained with stringent health safety measures. Drive-in cinemas have experienced a resurgence in popularity due to their safer conditions. Meanwhile, we have seen films dropping on streaming platforms, VOD, and virtual cinemas at such a rapid rate that it is quite hard to even keep track of what is being released. 

Meanwhile, AMPAS made several changes in its rules to adjust to the current world we are living in. So for the first time, the Academy allowed streaming-only films in as long as there was an intention to exhibit them theatrically (I still don’t know how they would prove intention, but that's another discussion). Also, they have extended the eligibility period: from January 1 to December 31, 2020, it will now extend until February 28, 2021, a move that seemed hastily done months ago and now makes even less sense since majority of the films that were supposed to screen in the last months of the year in cinemas have now moved to late 2021 anyway. 

And then this opinion piece from the Washington Post happened.

In an article that adds itself to the chorus of people saying that the Oscars should be cancelled in its entirety, the writer asserts that the Oscars should be cancelled because...

Click to read more ...

Podcast: "Nomadland" and "The Nest"

with Nathaniel R & Murtada Elfadl

We're back for weekly podcasting now as the season revs up.

Index (58 minutes)
00:01 Virtual festivals pros & cons and blurry lines between film and TV
13:00 NYFF - Frances McDormand in Chloe Zhao's Nomadland
27:00 Ivory Coast's Night of Kings and the documentary Time
40:22 Sean Durkin's The Nest starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon 
49:00 Boys in the Band in brief
56:00 Wrap up: French Exit is soon! Eeeeeee

Related Reading:
• Nathaniel's Review of Night of Kings
• All posts on Nomadland
• Murtada's Review of Boys in the Band

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? 

The Nest and Nomadland