Five Things I've Learned From "The Film Critic & The Common Man"

By Ben Miller

I danced around the idea of hosting my own podcast for quite some time.  There were a thousand reasons to avoid it.  What made me special that anyone would care what I have to say?  I'm just another straight white guy who loves films.  But, I discovered if I talked to someone who doesn't have the same critical approach, we could really be onto something.  Enter my big brother Jake. 

We started a podcast called The Film Critic & The Common Man.  Together, we discuss a film from my critical perspective and from his perspective of a regular guy.  Sometimes we talk about a box office hit that won Best Picture.  Other times, we talk about a dumb comedy.  We record episode 10 this weekend.  Despite our limited time, I've learned a lot from the experience...

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Tweetweek: the Susan Hayward and Timothée Chalamet of it all

martin scorsese was once asked by a ten year old "how do i become a film director?" he waited and replied "make your movie. grab a cell phone, everyone has one these days". that kid was orson welles.

— catarina. (@cacmrg) September 1, 2022

🤣 Curated tweets for you after the jump featuring Susan Hayward, Timothée Chalamet, animal actors, and solo moviegoing... 

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What did you see this weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Hollywood is living dangerously. There's are very few potential sleepers and almost no blockbuster hopefuls coming for a few months (unless something really surprises) despite a fairly strong box office summer. (Why on earth are potential sleeper rom-coms Bros and Ticket to Paradise waiting the end of September/end of October when the landscape is so barren starting in Mid-August? ) As a result the movies that are already out are holding pretty well. Especially Top Gun: Maverick which continues to defy all reasonable expectations, climbing back up to #2  in its *gulp* 12th week in theaters. But talk about killing the Grand Return To Moviegoing by starving audiences! We'd like to think audiences would just start being more adventurous and seeing some limited releases but realistically that's not what they do (sigh)... 

Weekend Box Office  August 12th-14th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
TOP GUN MAVERICK	INU-OH
1 BULLET TRAIN  $13.4 (cum. $54.4)	1 🔺  LAAL SINGH CHADDHA (India) $1.4 (cum. $1.8) *NEW*

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Review: "Inu-Oh", a punk riot and true spectacle

by Nathaniel R

Last week we had the pleasure of an invitation to the East Coast premiere of the anime rock opera Inu-Oh, which opens in theaters today. It's distributed by GKids, a company which has long championed non-Hollywood animation for US audiences who we all know can be stubbornly myopic about animation, viewing it as a genre rather than a medium capable of all kinds of genres and visual experiences. The screening was at Japan Society here in Manhattan. I bring this up primarily because I had somehow never been there and must highly recommend the venue which has monthly screenings of both anime films and acclaimed live action Japanese films, too (recent films included everything from Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke to the kaiju film Mothra, to Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha).  Seeing specialty films, which generally play to tiny arthouse crowds, in a beautiful respectful context to a large packed crowd is always a thrill (one of the reasons film festivals, never lose their thrill).

And Inu-Oh deserves a big screen so don't wait until streaming if it hits a theater near you...

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Box Office: 'Nope' Flies while 'Marcel' Takes His Sweet Time

by Nathaniel R

Once again Jordan Peele proves he's one of the rare celebrities who is bankable behind the camera. His third film as a director brings him a third #1 finish, as Nope nabs the biggest original film opening weekend since... Peele's own previous hit Us (2019) opened to $71 million. Any win for original filmmaking feels so good, doesn't it? More after the jump...

Weekend Box Office (Estimates) July 22nd-24th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	PLATFORM RELEASES
NOPE	FIRE OF LOVE
1 ★🔺 NOPE $44.3 *NEW*	1  🔺 MARCEL THE SHELL WITH SHOES ON $874k (cum. $2.9)
2 THOR: LOVE & THUNDER $22.5 (cum. $276.6)	2 ★🔺 FIRE OF LOVE [DOC] $133k (cum. $283k)

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