Box Office: Little Willie Style

Absence doesn't always make the heart grow fonder. Will Smith quit headlining movies very abruptly 5 years ago. He stuck a toe back in box office waters last year for another Men in Black but the one-time king of summer movie blockbusters couldn't even beat a Jesse Eisenberg ensemble picture or a 6th edition of a long-in-the-tooth franchise with no bankable stars outside of that franchise? That's some sort of wake-up call but to whom and for what? Will? The Smith Family Players? M Night?

For his next trick, he'll make Will Smith giant-sized bankability disappear

BOX OFFICE TOP TEN
01 FAST & FURIOUS 6 $34.5 (cum. $170.3)
02 NOW YOU SEE ME  $28.5 *NEW* 
03 AFTER EARTH  $27 *NEW* M Night Shyamalan's Fall
04 STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS  $16.4 (cum. $181.1) The Dumbing Down of Star Trek
05 EPIC $16.4 (cum. $65.1)
06 THE HANGOVER PART III $15.9 (cum. $88)
07 IRON MAN THREE $8 (cum. $384.7) Reviewed & Podcasted
08 THE GREAT GATSBY $6.2 (cum. $128.2) Reviewed & Dreamt About
09 MUD  $1.2 (cum. $16.8)
10 THE CROODS $.6 (cum. $180.5)

In limited release Frances Ha nearly cracked the top ten in its third week and will pass Margot at the Wedding's gross quickly. The real test will be if it can break through to Squid and the Whale levels without the aid of awards buzz since we're not in the season.  Meanwhile, Before Midnight, which in a perfect world would be a $100 million blockbuster, wasn't very aggressive in expansion in its second week. I wonder what the future will hold for it?

What did you see this weekend?
I binged (hence the lack of posting) with two oldies having big anniversaries Adventures in Robin Hood and Cleopatra - good christ but that movie is a slog to watch in one sitting! - and three 2013 offerings (The East, Mud, and What Maisie Knew) so I should write something about something soon, shouldn't I?

Yes, No, Maybe So? Greta Gerwig in 'Frances Ha'

Hey lovelies. Beau here with a look at the newest indie darling. 

It’s hard to pin down Noah Baumbach. While most of his nineties peers have vanished from the cinematic landscape or are reaping all the glory on the mountains, he’s that curious anomaly that no one is quite sure what to do with.

Since his resurgence and critical coup in 2005 with The Squid and the Whale, (a coming out party for Jesse Eisenberg post-Rodger Dodger) he’s only made two films in the seven/eight years after. Margot at the Wedding is an enormously divisive picture, but even that couldn’t prepare audiences and critics alike for his follow-up, Greenberg featuring a particularly acidic turn from Ben Stiller. It’s not many films that could inspire such vitriol as to warrant something like this on theater’s windows nationwide. 

Eek.

Yes, No, Maybe So breakdown after the jump.

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NYFF: "Frances Ha" Dazzling Brooklyn Snapshot

Michael C. here to report on the first home run I've seen at the New York Film Festival. Frances Ha is the type movie experience I’m hoping for every time I plunk down my ticket money. It knows exactly what it wants to do and how it wants to do it and as a result it grabs you by the sleeve and pulls you right in. It is Noah Baumbach’s finest film to date and the big breakout due for Greta Gerwig for some time now. 

Frances (Gerwig) is a dancer who shares a Brooklyn apartment with her bestest buddy Sophie (Mickey Sumner). Pushing thirty and stalled professionally and personally, she is right at the age when spending her nights flitting around the city getting wasted with her girlfriend stops being cute and starts being a cause for concern. When events transpire to threaten Frances' holding pattern the wheels quickly come off her cushy existence.

With this film Baumbach has not expanded his style so much as smashed it into a thousand pieces and arranged them into a collage. [More...]

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TIFF: Charmed by Ewan McGregor and "Frances Ha"

Toronto International Film Festival reports. Amir is already on the scene...

Amir here. The first couple of days at the festival have been so fantastic, surreal even, that I fear there’s no way to go from here but down. There’s been quite a lot of star gazing: Ryan Gosling, Snoop Dogg Lion, Selena Gomez, Abbie Cornish and the impossibly gorgeous Greta Gerwig. I also happened to run into the super lovely Ben Whishaw and most significant of all, had a one on one interview with William H. Macy for The Sessions. It was an amazing experience as Macy’s long been one of my favourite actors and to get to meet him in person was more than I could ask for. (The interview is forthcoming.)

The most unexpected of my encounters with the celebrities, however, happened at the screening of Noah Baumbach’s exquisite Frances Ha. Those of you following me on twitter have already seen my picture with the man in question but the story went as such: prior to the film, my friends and I were discussing which celebrities we most wanted to see and my pick was Ewan McGregor, who’s in town for the premiere of The Impossible; he's probably my favourite actor working today. Then, as we settle in our seats in the theatre, I look to a few rows ahead and lo and behold, McGregor – who is in no way involved with the film and is only there to see it – is sitting there, just chatting with a friend.

And then this happened...

me and McGregor!

Having worked behind the scenes at TIFF for so many years, I’ve seen a good share of celebrities but this was something truly special.

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