A Weak Weekend at the Box Office

by Nathaniel R

A deflating weekend for Hollywood, proving once again that if you don't put enough new glitzy stuff in theaters (and don't promote them well) people don't show up! But for what it's worth, here's what the weekend was like...

Weekend Box Office  August 26th-28th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended links if we've written about it
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
THE INVITATION	ORPHAN: FIRST KILL

Click to read more ...

A New Awards Group? Yup, Another One for the Indies

Over the years I realize that The Film Experience has been a bit of a killjoy in terms of one very specific development that other awards sites fawn on: the explosion of film award groups. It's just that over the years its been ridiculous to see the numbers explode but not see any correlative expansion of ideas or discussion about what constitutes great cinema. If all awards groups do is rubber stamp each other and watch the same 20 movies, we should just stick to the 3 or 4 original groups and be done with it! 

This preamble is a way of saying that when I heard there was a new Independent Film Award organization I initially rolled my eyes and shrugged it off with a tweet. Weren't The Gothams and the Spirits enough? But I've had a bit of a change of heart and am keeping an open mind after further investigation. If you're going to create a new film award, you need a purpose. And the American Independent Film Awards seems to have one. In fact, it looks like they're planning to do exactly what the Independent Spirit awards originally set out to do but have long since wandered away from as they've become a mainstream big publicity party for the mini-majors and their Oscar campaigns. The AIFA will focus on movies with budgets of $1 million or less. In other words, true indies as studios don't make films that size...  

Click to read more ...

Links: Danielle Brooks, Shark Movies, Ghostbuster Themes

The Ringer "True confessions of Shark," the star who invented the blockbuster (Ha!)
IndieWire calls The Shallows the best shark movie since Jaws. Wow... but then, on the other hand, are there any good shark movies since Jaws so maybe that's not such high praise?
Buzzfeed has a long gripping read about director Karyn Kusama's tough journey from Girlfight (2000) through two studio disasters and on to her new film The Invitation (2016)
TFE... which we reviewed in April, icymi
YouTube the new Ghostbusters theme song "Ghostbusters (I'm Not Afraid)" by Fall Out Boy is basically a cover with some new flourishes including Missy Elliott so it won't be Oscar nominated (or even eligible) like the original tune from 1984

 

US Magazine there's a Golden Girls Cafe opening in NYC but "cheesecake" isn't the menu headliner so fire everyone. (If you read the fine print it's actually a restaurant in honor of Rue McClanahan... but they're really pushing it as a Golden Girls Cafe so they need to step up their menu game)
Variety This Euphoria movie cast gets better and better: Eva Green, Alicia Vikander...and now Charlotte Rampling? And it's got a female director and a great cinematographer (Ex Machina's Rob Hardy). Be still my (frost-bitten) heart 
Slate rips apart 2016's sequels as anti-storytelling, pro-branding. Yes. 
BeSpoke Redmayne awww a little precocious 8 year old who loves Stephen Hawkings and "Eddie's Marilyn movie" got to meet her idol Eddie Redmayne  
NY Theater in case you want a headstart on NEXT SUMMER's Tony Awards - lots of potentially exciting shows opening in the next 11 months including revivals of Falsettos, The Little Foxes, Hello Dolly, and Les Liaisons Dangereuses with Janet McTeer as the Merquise de Merteuil and Liev Schreiber as her partner-in-love-crime Valmont

Quote of the Day
Today Show Danielle Brooks (Orange is the New Black, The Color Purple) says: 

My career is a Crayola box now!"

I demand remakes of Blue Angel, She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, Foxy Brown, and The Creature from the Black Lagoon all starring this fine actress. LOVE HER SO MUCH. Hoping Emmy notices her soon for Orange is the New Black. 

Uh... Try 'Movie of the Year'

iTunes rental deal this week is Todd Hayne's Carol, our #1 film of 2015. It's only 99¢ so there's no time like the now if you've been putting it off. (If you're into buying digital copies of things -- I am not. I need physical copies as digitial is too ephemeral and as soon as there are technology updates or you get a new computer suddenly you lose things -- there are a ton of great deals on LGBT movies at iTunes under their Pride month label)

Review: The Invitation

A dinner party reunion of estranged friends sets the stage for director Karyn Kusama's unnerving and twisted micro-horror The Invitation. The film's marketing has wisely eschewed going much further than that vague synopsis, for this one is most rewarding when experienced fresh. But don't just expect surprises with what unfolds, but from what's underneath the plentiful chills.

Shot almost entirely within one swanky Los Angeles home, the modest production is deceptive for how easily it gets under your skin and rattles. Its slim budget is hidden by a glossy presentation and a production design that finds the right alchemy of alluring and demonic (paging Daniel Walber!). Kusama treats this house as she does the many characters, all hidden corners of darkness packaged within a polished facade. If you watch The Invitation on VOD, prepare to have home jealousy, for this is pure house porn. And you'll definitely want a glass of wine.

Click to read more ...