The Film Experience™ was created by Nathaniel R. All material herein is written by our team. (This site is not for profit but for an expression of love for cinema & adjacent artforms.)
It's Friday which means "new movies!". We'll discuss the streaming titles in a bit but first here's what's new in movie theaters today, Friday, October 28th, to help you plan your weekend...
I recently had the pleasure of guesting on two podcasts. The first was the annual fantasy draft episode of Oscar Wild wherein various pundits/Oscar fans chose our horses for the Oscar season. You'll recognize a lot of the lovely voices. It was fun which was expected but also extremely tense which was a surprise -- I drew the shortest straw so I was the last to choose a contender but the draft was in a snake order so thankfully it all sort of evened out. The episode was recorded BEFORE the festival premieres so some of the choices are already ouchies given the mixed/negative reception of a few of the films. I'm pretty happy about betting on Top Gun Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, and Elvis among others. The rest, we shall see.
Then this weekend in a change of pace I was the guest for a bonus episode of Hallmarkies, a podcast about romantic comedies with a focus on Hallmark movies. Since frequent Hallmark leading man Luke Macfarlane is the romantic co-lead of Billy Eichner's Bros, it was a natural topic for them to hit.
I really really loved Bros (even more than Baby Clyde did) and, though I wish I'd been a bit more eloquent in singing its praises, I hope you enjoy both the movie and this podcast. If you haven't seen the movie yet, I would suggest waiting until you do to listen to this since we talk about the plot in full and you'll want to save the surprises and great laugh lines for the moviegoing experience!
AND WE'RE OFF... Fall film season is now underway, thanks to the wrap up of TIFF and something finally happening in the nation's theaters again. Those somethings were Gina Prince-Blythwood's action drama The Woman King and the David Bowie documentary Moonage Daydream on IMAX screens, both doing fine business. Here are the charts from the weekend. We separate the wide and limited because otherwise limited release don't get any attention in stories about what people are seeing. But more people SHOULD frequent their local arthouses.
Holiday Weekend Box Office September 19th-21st ๐บ = new or expanding / โ = Recommended links if we've written about it
It's Friday which means NEW STUFF. There's quite a lot arriving today in US theaters so are you moviegoing this weekend? Here's what's playing. If there's a link we've reviewed it.
NEW ON IMAX SCREENS
Moonage Daydream- Glenn calls this David Bowie experiential doc "exhilarating" and we have our tickets in hand for tonight (albeit at one of those fake IMAX screens...sigh. The real ones are so few and hard to get good seats for.)
The trailer for Sam Mendes’ Empire of Light promises to capture, if you will, the spirit of the Nicole Kidman AMC ad. Something that depicts the escapist power of moviegoing and 'that indescribable feeling we get when the lights dim.' As Toby Jones’ projectionist character says at one point, there is something about the experience of that beam of light bursting from the projector when the previews start, the theater darkens, and we’re all huddled together to escape into another place or time.
In the film’s entirety, are we treated to the ode to moviegoing that the trailer promises? The answer is... somewhat. As it turns out, Empire of Light serves as a meditation on both mental illness and race as well as the power of cinema...