Doc Corner: Dances with Films Festival

by Glenn Dunks

The spectre of films past linger over two documentaries at the Dances with Films independent film festival (June 7th-17th at the TCL Chinese Theaters in Los Angeles). Their ability to bring an audience back to something more innocent is perhaps one of the strongest elements of this festival that prizes the atmosphere of a summer camp rather than a crazed film festival in the snowy mountains or on the sunny beaches.

The more obvious of the two that I was able to sample is Alexander Monelli's At the Drive-In, a film that you could glimpse at a pass and suspect you have already seen a dozen times at other festivals. Film festival audiences are, after all, more naturally disposed to watch a documentary about a venue like a drive-in or a classic movie palace or a dying/dead/forgotten part of the filmgoing experience. The inherent nostalgia and cinematic reverence of these topics make them solid programming on any festival’s behalf...

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Box Office: Infinity War & RBG

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (May 4th-6th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Infinity War	RBG
1. 🔺 Avengers: Infinity War $112.4 (cum. $450.8) REVIEW	1. 🔺 RBG $560k on 34 screens NEW REVIEW
2. 🔺 Overboard $14.7 NEW	2.  🔺 102 Not Out $480k on 102 screens NEW
3. A Quiet Place  $7.6 (cum. $159.8)  REVIEW, SECOND OPINION, SCREENPLAY	3.  🔺 Disobedience  $310k on 31 screens (cum. $638k) REVIEW
4. I Feel Pretty  $4.9 (cum. $37.7)	4.  The Death of Stalin $181k on 200 screens (cum. $7.4) REVIEW
5. Rampage $4.6 (cum. $84.7)	5. The Rider $141k on 47 screens (cum. $567k) REVIEW

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Box Office: "Infinity Wars" tops "The Force Awakens" for Most Opening Weekend Loot

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (April 27th-29th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Infinity War	Disobedience
1. 🔺 Avengers: Infinity War $250 NEW	1. Beirut $257k on 237 screens (cum. $4.5)
2. A Quiet Place $10.6 (cum. $148.1) REVIEW, SECOND OPINION, SCREENPLAY	2.  🔺 Disobedience $241k on 5 screens NEW REVIEW
3. I Feel Pretty  $8.1 (cum. $29.5)	3.  🔺 Lean on Pete  $240k on 167 screens (cum. $665k) REVIEW
4. Rampage  $7.1 (cum. $77.9)	4.  Death of Stalin $210k on 150 screens (cum. $347k) REVIEW
5. Black Panther $4.3 (cum. $688) PODCAST	5. 🔺 The Rider $188k on 37 screens (cum. $357k) REVIEW

Avengers Infinity War  is gigantic in just about every way and the audience responded in kind gifting it the biggest opening weekend of all time. Yes, even the super long awaited return of the Star Wars franchise The Force Awakens fell to Marvel Studio's magical gloved might... The studio is currently saying that Avengers beat the record by about $2 million dollars but Marvel tends to underestimate their opening weekends in a bit of a humble brag way so expect the margin to increase a bit. 

Elsewhere at the multiplex...

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Come to "Show Business: The Road to Broadway" this Sunday!

by Nathaniel R

Hello all. A week or so ago I moderated a screening of Mean Girls (2004) for Show-Score's new Stage and Screen series with two members of the new stage musical's team (The Broadway version of Tina Fey's classic officially opens this Sunday).

I'm doing another Q&A so come! This Sunday at 1:00 PM I'll be speaking with director/producer Dori Berinstein about her documentary Show Business: The Road to Broadway (2007) which follows four musicals during the seminal 2003/2004 Broadway season: the blockbuster Wicked, the little scrappy show that could (and did) Avenue Q, Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori's brilliant Caroline or Change, and the troubled Boy George musical Taboo.  I saw all the big shows that year (a rare occurrence) and loved all four of the musicals this doc follows so that season remains special to my heart.

The movie has awesome rehearsal and backstage footage and all sorts of brilliant taking heads like Tony Kushner, Carol Channing, Alan Cumming and many more.

Idina and Kristin rehearsing Wicked in 2003.

When: Sunday, April 8 at 1:00 PM
Where: Peter Norton Symphony Space's Leonard Nimoy Thalia (2537 Broadway at 95th).

If you'd like to attend as my guest, please e-mail me and I'll arrange it. Would love to have some TFE readers there! Come support my stage fright AND see a fun movie that isn't streaming anywhere.

Link Factory

• Mashable badly seeded March Madness brackets are terrible storytelling
• Film School Rejects picks the 18 best movies of 2018 thus far (weird-ass rankings if you ask me, especially with Isle of Dogs below A Wrinkle in Time... and the kind of obnoxious indie supernatural ovie The Endless)
• Decider looking back at an old Tiny Toons episode about representation in 1990
• Screen Crush man died when head got stuck in seat at movie theater (I'm going to have nightmares)
• E! Online Arnold Schwarzenegger has emergency open heart surgery

• Tracking Board  Twice delayed X-Men adjacent movie The New Mutants has been a nightmare to make; Fox keeps changing their mind about what they want it to be. While we all might complain from time to time about Marvel Studios (who are far from perfect -- especially in regards to gender) at least they seem to know what they want every time and how to get there. Even if what they want has been a bit formulaic until recently.
• Cartoon Brew it only took 32 years (oy!)  for a woman to get to direct a Pixar short
• AV Club here's another cute report about that movie which is called Bao and about a dumpling that comes to life
• My New Plaid Pants Klaes Bang, of The Square fame, made a gay short film
• Jim Carrey I somehow missed that in his spare time the seemingly retired movie star has become a political cartoonist. A pretty good one, too. This reminds me of the first time I saw him. Anyone remember his short-lived sitcom Duck Factory in which he played a cartoonist?
• Vanity Fair a good pilot season for South Asian actors - lots of roles in all sorts of shows
• Deadline the cast of Sex & the City supporting Cynthia Nixon's run for NY Governor
• Theater Mania Desperate Measures, which was so so wonderful in its premiere engagement (we talked about it here) is getting an open ended run off Broadway soon. Here's hoping the hilarious original cast is available.