Christmas today and Christmas back then...(at the movies)

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE.

This picture has nothing to do with the post but it's Nicole Kidman three Christmases ago. Cheers!

Years ago it was decided that we couldn't be celebrating movie anniversaries with utter randomness at the Film Experience so we committed to 10th, 25th, 50th, and 75th, and 100th parties. We stray often, especially if we're busy on "projects" like a Smackdown or what not, so this decision was useless and we'll probably drop it next year. Broader movie culture wouldn't play along anyway, celebrating all sorts of odd anniveraries (17th! 36th!) in order to just keep celebrating the same things over and over again. This is all a long way of getting around to the conceit of this post (GET ON WITH IT) which is

On this Christmas day in showbiz history, what was going on...

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Thankful for... Lynn Lee

This year for our "thankful for" column we've been mixing it up by interviewing various team members (the ones that volunteered -- we love the other ones, too!). If you're just taking a break from family this holiday to peak around the web, please give it up for LYNN LEE.

We were first introduced to Lynn by her friend Nick Davis (of Nicks Flick Picks fame). It was yet another example of Nick's impeccable taste, not just in movies but in people. Lynn began as a contributor back in 2015 (with a Mad Men @ the Movies featuring Joan Crawford as Mildred Pierce) and given the long hours that come with the lawyer life we don't see her enough but when she's here we love it. Some posts to check out include takes on both 1994's and 2019's Little Women remakes and  a personal piece on Minari's grandma.

Other pieces she's written are linked from our mini interview that follows... 

When did you first fall in love with the movies?

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Box Office: "Eternals" opens big, "Spencer" doesn't pack them in.

What did you see this past week/weekend? The public came out in droves for Marvel's disappointing Eternals because the public always comes out for Marvel's Anything. In more surprising news Wes Anderson's The French Dispatch held strong as it added theaters and continues to overperform while Spencer, despite a lot of Oscar buzz for Kristen Stewart, slightly underperformed. Of course you could also argue that it overperformed given the dire market these days for non-franchise* adult-oriented pictures.

Weekend Box Office November 5th-7th 🔺 = new or expanding
1-5	6-10
ETERNALS	FRENCH DISPATCH
1 ETERNALS 🔺  $71 Nathaniel's Review	6 THE FRENCH DISPATCH 🔺$2.6 (cum. $8.4) Elisa's Review
2  DUNE  $7.6 (cum. $83.9)  Elisa's Review	7 HALLOWEEN KILLS $2.3 (cum. $89.7) Elisa's Review
3 NO TIME TO DIE  $6.1 (cum. $143.1) Deborah's Review	8 SPENCER 🔺$2.1 Nathaniel's Review
4 VENOM LET THERE BE CARNAGE  $4.4 (cum. $197)	9 ANTLERS $2 (cum. $7.6)
5 RON'S GONE WRONG $3.6 (cum. $17.5)	10 LAST NIGHT IN SOHO $1.8 (cum. $7.6) Nathaniel's Review

* Director Pablo Larraín's lonely globally famous woman trilogy -- Jackie, Spencer, ?  -- doesn't count as a franchise ;)

Next weekend: a director's cut of Rocky IV and the family film Clifford the Big Red Dog are new in theaters, meanwhile the excellent Passing is in select theaters and hitting Netflix.

Now Playing: "Last Night in Soho" and more...

by Nathaniel R

"Do you like scary movies?"
Glamorous mod movies?
Psycho thrillers?
Ghost stories?
Actress twinning movies (a la Persona, Mulholland Drive, Black Swan)?

I wish we could report that Last Night in Soho would satisfy all those disparate urges or even a single one of them. But alas...

I first saw the movie in Venice and though that was just under two months ago, this ghost story haunts as one of the worst of the year. Was I unduly harsh with a "D" from the Venice review? From the review...

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Middleburg: Crowd-pleasing with "King Richard" and "Belfast"

by Nathaniel R

The family watching "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" in BELFAST

The 9th annual Middleburg Film Festival wrapped up Sunday night but they programmed well so the joy lingers. The two events that always have after parties, Opening Night and Saturday Centerpiece, were King Richard and Belfast respectively. In both cases you could feel the love in the room even before the booze began to flow. Since the Middleburg audience is a reasonably good proxy for the bulk of Oscar voters (mature, well to do, cultured, and with movie tastes that fall somewhere between critics and the general public) it's easy to imagine both films greeted just as warmly on Oscar nomination morning...

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