Coco, CMBYN, and the Specificity of Feeling Seen at the Movies

by Jorge Molina

Award season means trying to watch as many movies as possible in the shortest amount of time to feel included in the zeitgeist (well, in our zeitgeist here, at least; movies from all across the board that, apart from wanting to be in the awards conversation, often have little in common.)

Recently I watched two movies that, at first glance, couldn’t be more different. On one hand there’s Coco, Pixar’s newest entry about a Mexican boy wandering into the Land of the Dead. And on the other, there’s Call Me by Your Name, the much-discussed festival favorite that follows the romance between a teenager and an older man in sun-drenched Italy. On the surface, these two films don’t share much yet they offered me a very similar cinematic experience.

Both made me feel seen (yes, in italics). They reflected parts of my identity that I rarely get to see reflected on screen. How did they do that? By being as specific as possible...

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Link Trip

Decider this Tiffany Haddish Oscar nomination could happen. 'Let's do this!'
Guardian when should cinemas turn their house lights on? During credits? After them?
Movie City News Jodie Foster talks at length about The Silence of the Lambs 
NathanielR... you've maybe already seen my anger about this topic when it comes to Call Me By Your Name, which is absolutely not over when the credits begin no matter what the house lights or your fellow moviegoers think. Stay in your seat. Respect the art. 
IndieWire Paul Thomas Anderson explains why there will be no cinematographer credited on his new film Phantom Thread

 

EW interviews Beanie Feldstein who is so wonderful in Lady Bird
GQ Dacre Montgomery on his shirtless dancing audition tape for Stranger Things 2
Guardian a new exhibit on 100 years of Australian film in pictures from the silent pictures through The Babadook
Variety Critics Choice Awards return to the CW. January 11th. 
Boy Culture reviews the new production of Harvey Feirstein's Torch Song
Coming Soon Jessica Chastain for the It sequel. Sure sounds plausible
TFE... in case you missed it: the full awards calendar for the rest of the season
Awards Daily Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit is getting a rerelease with a new FYC trailer to try to generate awards buzz
Tracking Board in the worst idea we heard this week news, there's a discussion about making The Lord of the Rings into a TV series. make it stop make it stop. Not everything needs to go on eternally. Let some things be. 
Variety Swords and Scepters, a historical epic about an 1857 Indian rebellion led by the Queen of Jhansi, is assembling a great cast including Rupert Everett, Devika Bhise, Derek Jacobi, and Jodhi May. There's also a Bollywood picture coming about the same story

Must Watch Video
Uma Thurman on the recent Hollywood flood of sexual harassment stories.

Uma Thurman's response when asked about the flood of sexual misconduct allegations....wow. pic.twitter.com/Sw5Br1GwFg

— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) November 4, 2017

If she can channel this rage (it's so audible despite her careful reflective words) into a performance, she'll be Oscar worthy again. Have always loved her. Hoping for another classic role soon to go with Mia Wallace, The Bride, Mrs H, Cecile de Volanges, and June Miller. 

Dystopias Large (Blade Runner 2049) and Small (The Florida Project) at the Box Office

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (October 6th-8th)
BLADE RUNNER 2049	BATTLE OF THE SEXES
1.🔺 BLADE RUNNER 2049  $31.5 on 4000+ screens new BEST OF | SHORT FILMS	6. AMERICAN MADE $8 on 3000+ screens (cum. $30.4)
2.🔺 THE MOUNTAIN BETWEEN US $10.1 on 3000+ screens new	7. LEGO NINJAGO MOVIE $6.7 on 3600+ screens (cum. $43.8)
3. IT $9.6  on 3600+ screens (cum. $304.9) REVIEW | 5 TAKEAWAYS	8.🔺 VICTORIA & ABDUL $4.1 on 732 screens (cum. $5.9) BEST ACTRESS
4. 🔺 MY LITTLE PONY  $8.8 on 2500+ new	9. FLATLINERS  $3.8 on 2500+ screens (cum. $12.3) TRAILER
5.  KINGSMAN: GOLDEN CIRCLE  $8.1 on 3400+ screens (cum. $79.9)  REVIEW OF THE ORIGINAL	10. 🔺 BATTLE OF THE SEXES $2.4 on 1800+ screens  (cum.$7.6) BEST OF... | TRAILER
🔺 = new or significant expansion numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo

T'was a quieter weekend than forecasters predicted at the box office with the Blade Runner sequel having more trouble than expected (which wouldn't be trouble but for that $150 million budget -- hey, at least it's all on the screen!) The Mountain Between Us didn't turn into a towering counter-programming option but with a much much lower budget $35, it should be fine in the long run.

The week's most crowded theaters (albeit only 4 of them) belonged to A24's The Florida Project, which Chris reviewed and Jason shared a personal essay about here already. We highly recommend it. The film is off to a very solid platform start of $153,000. For context that's about 2½ times the first weekend of Sean Baker's previous awards worthy critical darling Tangerine , which also happened to be a supremely empathetic, wickedly funny, moving look at a marginalized community. We love Baker for his consistent great skill with first time actors and that singular but versatile niche. Much less popular but far more of a specialty audience only item was the debut of Agnes Varda's delightful new documentary Faces Places which Murtada reviewed.  

What did you see this weekend? Apart from Blade Runner 2049 (which, more soon) I had a theater weekend taking in "The Play That Goes Wrong" on Broadway and a very wacky very naked modern dance performance inspired by the films of Almodovar. No, really! 

The hyped mysteriousness of "mother!" pre-release

Ongoing adventures at TIFF

During Oscar season awards journalists often receive little bits of swag in the mail, cupcakes when Jennifer Aniston was trying to get nominated for Cake, a lux coffee table book on Los Angeles when La La Land was in the race, a stuffed Olaf during the Frozen year. That sort of thing. My favorite mail came from the creative and memorable campaign for Black Swan. The first thing to arrive was a black envelope with no return address. Inside were three black and white feathers. That was it. No message, no card, no return address, no explanation. Creepy. By the time the season was in full swing and the movie was familiar a mirrored music box was the perfect curio to arrive. 

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Wonder Woman at The Alamo Drafthouse

Please welcome guest contributor Shannon Fox with a report from the all female screening of Wonder Woman at the Alamo Drafthouse.

Photo Credit: Proma Khosla/Mashable (Right to left: Stephanie Barnes, Annemarie Mancino, Shannon Fox)

Be careful.”  

This was the general response by friends and family, both male and female, upon learning that I had secured tickets to the women-only Wonder Woman screening at my local Alamo Drafthouse.  And, I mean, sure, we live in a scary world nowadays-- crazy things happen.  But it’s a pretty atypical response to catching a flick, you know?  I mean, I don’t know about you, but I usually hear “let me know if it’s any good” rather than “please don’t get murdered” when it comes to going to the movies.

But if that isn’t telling of the female experience in today’s society, I’m not sure what is.  

Alamo’s women-only screenings have garnered quite a bit of press over the past week, thanks to the multitude of mostly-male detractors on the internet.  There have been lawsuits, threats of storming the theater, and demands of men-only screenings in the future (for the female-led The Last Jedi, inexplicably) to name a few. Because of that, I wasn’t quite sure what to expect this past Sunday...

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