Still 'Unhinged' about moviegoing. What did you see at home?

Some websites are choosing to not cover theatrical releases while it's still unsafe to go to theaters. We're undecided. On the one hand everyone should be free to make their own life decisions and you can't live without risk of any kind. On the other hand, Americans have been exceptionally stupid and belligerent about taking needless risks and demanding that their individual comfort (like not wearing a mask or getting their haircut or whatever) trumps everyone else's actual life. 

Of course in other countries that have not had total grifter clowns in power, they've been able to start the trek back to normal. Sadly until the GOP and their enablers -- a much worse threat to the safety of everyone on the planet than the coronavirus -- are out of power, we're probably stuck in this abnormal hellscape for awhile still.

Anyway, the box office story is that the new Russell Crowe road rage drama Unhinged made $4 million this weekend in the US. That's a huge number considering how many theaters are a) still shut down and b) selling only half their seats in order to comply with distancing guidelines. 

Most of us are still watching movies indoors for the time being. For instance, we finally watched The Assistant (2020) on Hulu. It was good though surely its pin drop sound and growing discomfort would have been more immersive and, thus, effective inside the dark quiet cocoon of a movie theater. So what did you see at home this past week?

Doc Corner: A24's 'Boys State'

By Glenn Dunks

I watched the new Apple+ and A24 documentary Boys State and, sorry to break it to you, but America is nuts. Like, really. A lot. I’m allergic to nuts—anaphylactic, send me hospital kind of allergic—and I felt as if I were about to break out in hives watching Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ compelling and unsettling new movie. A film about the next generation of wannabe political leaders that stands as a frightening neon-lit (just barely) metaphor for the country’s political climate.

The premise here is something that sounds far more bizarrely foreign to me than anything with subtitles. A strange, long-standing experiment known as Boys State, a social summer camp of sorts that requires military interviews for some reason where 1,200 young Texan teenage boys seek the life-changing opportunity to seemingly learn how to best weaponize their gender, their race and adopt all the sleazy tricks in the political book. "That’s politics—you play to win...”

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The New Classics: Lincoln

By Michael Cusumano 

Abraham Lincoln abilities as a writer probably would have earned him a place in history even without his accomplishments as a statesman. He is surely the best writer that has ever occupied the Oval Office. Capable of expressing complex ideas with remarkable economy, he had a deft hand with allusions and was responsible for many evocative turns of phrase that resonate far outside the political context of their time, “The better angels of our nature” or “The dogmas of the quiet past”.  Hell, simply opting for “Four score and seven” over “eighty-seven” reveals a writer’s ear for the musical potential of language.

It's a fitting tribute then, that the most prominent film about the sixteenth president, Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, with a screenplay by Pulitzer prize winning playwright Tony Kushner, exudes that same love of language. There’s scarcely a scene without some memorable linguistic spin. There's much to admire in Spielberg’s film from the beautifully worn production design to the momentous performances, but the real reason I’ve returned to it repeatedly since 2012 is simply because the characters are such fun to listen to. All of the film’s dramatic peaks involve the spectacle of verbal fireworks, particularly my favorite scene, where Tommy Lee Jones blasts his way out of a political trap firing off ornately worded insults like cannonballs... 

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Would you rather?

Would you rather?

• ...have a cup with sleepy Charlie Heaton?
• ...road trip to Moab Utah with Mira Sorvino?
• ...load up on carbs with Martha Plimpton?
👈 • ...play politics with Jessica Chastain?
• ...pee in the Swedish sea with Joel Kinnaman?
• ...take a bubble bath (for charity) with Daniel K Isaac?
• ...summer squash it with Natalie Portman?
• ...read a bestseller with Christina Hendricks?
• ...listen to tunes / take selfies with Yahya Abdul Mateen II on the Watchmen set?
• ...blow bubbles with Tom Mercier?
• ...contemplate 2020 with Michelle Pfeiffer? 

Pictures are after the jump to help you decide...

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Horror Actressing: Marcia Gay Harden in "The Mist"

by Jason Adams

If you've ever been a big fan of a book that's been turned into a movie then you have probably known the eyebrow-singeing sensation of a book character getting cast by an actor that seems so correct, so perfect for the role, that it astonishes. Think of Alan Rickman playing Severus Snape in the Harry Potter films, or of Nicole Kidman as Mrs. Coulter in the admittedly ill-fated Golden Compass movie -- these actors were already the faces you were picturing when you read the book, and seeing the movie get it right this way, it's always a buzz.

I both did and did not experience this sensation when Frank Darabont hired Marcia Gay Harden to play the character of Christian super-bitch Mrs. Carmody in his 2007 adaptation of my all-time favorite Stephen King story, The Mist.

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