Podcast: Mission Impossible - Eighth Grade!

An intimate convo this week as Nathaniel R welcomes Murtada Elfadl to the podcast. (Apologies for the oddly imbalanced sound - still fiddling with the equipment, wondering why we're so cursed!)

Index (42 minutes)
00:01 Desiree Akhavan's The Miseducation of Cameron Post
10:10 Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Tom Cruise's ego
21:05 Eighth Grade, Bo Burnham, and authenticity
33:00 Sorry to Bother You and LaKeith Stanfield
39:00 August is a really good month for movies for once!

You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you? 

M:I - Eighth Grade

Release date shuffle. The backloading begins with "Boy Erased" and "On the Basis of Sex"

by Nathaniel R

Ah.... statue lust. It invariably shoves everything into the last two months of the year. This just in: Focus has pushed back both of its key contenders this year: Boy Erased, the gay conversion drama, is moving the beginning of its platform release from September 28th until November 2nd and On the Basis of Sex, the biopic on Ruth Bader Ginsburg, is moving its limited launch from November 9th until December 25th. Though pushing back a little seems kind of wise for On the Basis of Sex (put a little distance between yourself and RBG) Christmas seems like a step too far. Or is that just me? 

We expect a few more Oscar contenders to push back into December. Why? Well, despite statistics being in favor of releasing in October or November if you'd like to win e--  The Shape of Water (2017) was actually the first Best Picture winner to begin its release in December since Million Dollar Baby (2004) -- common beliefs are hard to shake and Hollywood has long viewed a December berth as the be-all and end-all of awards strategies. There is a good reason for that though we hate to admit it: despite December being tough for Best Picture wins in the modern era (momentum needed!) it is and basically always has been easier to get nominations if you release in December. Try to imagine, say, The Post, being nominated last year had it come out in September. It doesn't happen. But in December it had so much pre-release hype as an assumed frontrunner that it was able to weather lukewarm precursor attention and snag the nod.  

Wings (1927) the first best picture winner. It still holds up. For fun here's a list of when every Best Picture ever first opened in theaters excluding festival debuts obviously. (Some of the dates are a bit fuzzy, of course, that's especially true for ye olden times when listings are harder to come by and sometimes it's hard to tell the difference between event premieres and the actual beginning of a platform release...

Click to read more ...

Box Office: Jumanji, Tonya, and the Oscar waiting game

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Jan 5th-7th)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle  $36 (cum. $244.3)	1.🔺 I Tonya $2.4 on 242 screens (cum. $5.2)  REVIEW | GLOBE SURPRISE?
2. 🔺  Insidious The Last Key $29.2 (cum. $212.1)	2.🔺 The Post $1.7 on 36 screens (cum. $3.8) REVIEW | OSCAR KICK-OFF PODCAST
3. The Last Jedi $23.5 (cum. $572.5) LYNN'S REVIEW | NATHANIEL'S TAKE	3. Call Me By... $758k on 117 screens (cum. $6) REVIEWISH | SCREENPLAY | SEX
4. The Greatest Showman $13.8 (cum. $75.9) REVIEW | ZAC ATTACK | ZENDAYA	4.🔺 Hostiles $310k on 46 screens (cum. $435k)
5. Pitch Perfect 3 $10.2 (cum. $85.9) REVIEW	5.🔺 Along with the Gods $280k on 35 screens ($1.1)

One thing that we're always forcefully reminded of each holiday season -- since we tend to forget -- is that the whole world is not, in point of fact, thinking about Oscar buzz. Each year countless films casually ring up rather large box office returns without generating any "heat" in award season and some not even being part of that game. Insidious for example had the weekend to itself in terms of new wide releases and was rewarded for it. The Greatest Showman, is another one that isn't really banking on Oscar love. The musical's global gross has already doubled its budget (though given the P&A expenditures it's probably got some ways to go before a profit still)...

Click to read more ...

Isle of Links

So much news to catch up with. Deep breaths...

Vanity Fair Brie Larson is this month's cover girl. Talks awards season madness, Hollywood friendships, and Captain Marvel
Slate a breathless take on early footage from Marvel's Black Panther including kudos for what sounds like Angela Bassett's best movie part in a long time
Coming Soon Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs, his second animated feature, got a teaser poster and a release date
EW Faye Dunaway breaks her silence on February's Oscar Best Picture mixup
AV Club release dates for upcoming Disney pictures including Star Wars, The Lion King, and the bound to be terrible Frozen 2 (because didn't that story feel complete as is. sigh) 
Movie City News David Poland is done apologizing for not liking James Gray movies very much. Here's why.
Deadline Monumental Pictures has announced they're making a big screen version of the Roe v Wade Supreme Court drama that determined abortion rights in the US. Curiously the article doesn't mention that this has already been dramatized. Holly Hunter starred in the TV movie Roe vs Wade (1989) and won the first of her two Emmys (both were in the category Lead Actress in a Miniseries or Special)
Cinematic Corner Sati looks back at Dolores Claiborne (1995) 

The Stake an interesting piece about Scarlett Johansson's "embodiment quartet" (Ghost in the Shell, Under the Skin, Her and Lucy) doing work that's explicity about bodies and voices
IMDb has a bajillion casting updates for TV including new roles for Donald Sutherland, Ashley Judd, Teen Wolf star Tyler Posey, Kristin Chenoweth, Susan Sarandon's Feud followup, and a series lead for Miles Teller (who normally leads movies)
Kenneth in the (212) Erin Moran of TV sitcoms Happy Days and  Joanie Love Chachi dead at 56
Boy Culture Madonna is NOT pleased about the news about the upcoming biopic on her early years. Calls the filmmakers "charlatans and fools"  
...TFE in case you missed that earlier Madonna news
Awards Daily Ranking Hedda Hopper's Hats in Feud. I wanna kill Joey. I was totally working on an article just like this one when I saw this. argh. Must type faster
MNPP do you like Henry Cavill's new moustache? 
Boy Culture Whoa! the original Bananarama have reunited for a brief 2017 tour. Even I, who lived through the 1980s have never seen all three of them together. I did catch one Bananarama concert in my day but by that point Siobhan had already left the band. 
/Film Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen will be Timon and Pumba  in the remake of The Lion King
Variety the Outer Critics Circle nominations are announced. The musical Anastasia and the revival of Hello Dolly! lead. Curiously, though the awards cover Off Broadway as well as Broadway, Sutton Foster wasn't nominated in leading actress for her Sweet Charity. Actors who hop around between Film, TV, and Stage that were nominated this year include Bette Midler, Sally Field, Daniel Craig, Andrew Rannells,  Allison Janney, Patti Lupone, Cynthia Nixon, David Hyde Pierce, David Oyelowo, Kevin Kline, and The Lovely Laura Linney 

Frances McDormand & McDonagh's "Three Billboards..."

Chris here. Provocateur playwright/filmmaker Martin McDonagh has a new movie coming this year, and like some of his plays the title is a mouthful. Get ready for [deep breath] Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri, about a woman seeking justice for the local authorities' poor handling of her child's death.

What's most exciting about this round of McDonagh acidity is that the typically male-focused writer-director is giving us a female protagonist. And star Frances McDormand is quite a perfect fit to deliver his tricky balance of dry humor, tragedy, and bitter allegory. Her work looks to be a real showcase. Are you already picturing a bleep-heavy Oscar clip? She's surrounded by a solid ensemble which includes Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, and John Hawkes.

It's strange the film has no release date considering we have a full-length trailer, so maybe this one is Cannes bound before awards season? McDonagh won an Oscar for his short Six Shooter before bringing In Bruges and Seven Psychopaths to the screen. This looks like another step up with some gorgeous, brooding visuals and typically ferocious dialogue. Could this be a potential awards player for more than McDormand? Take a look at the first foulmouthed NSFW trailer...