The calm before the box office storm?

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (Dec 8-10)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. Coco  $18.4 (cum. $135.6) REVIEW | FEELING SEEN	1.🔺 The Shape of Water $1.1 on 41 screens (cum. $1.3)  CAPSULE | PODCAST
2. Justice League $9.6 (cum. $212.1) REVIEW	2.🔺 Darkest Hour $741k on 53 screens (cum. $1.1) CAPSULE | SECOND VISIT
3. Wonder $8.4 (cum. $100.3)	3.🔺 Man Who Invented... $687k on 720 screens (cum. $4.3)
4.🔺 Disaster Artist $6.3 (cum. $7.9) REVIEW	4.🔺 Call Me By Your Name $291k on 9 screens (cum. $1.3) SCREENPLAY | SEX SCENES
5. Thor Ragnarok $6.2 (cum. $301.1) REVIEW, YOUR QUEEN	5.🔺 I Tonya $264k on 4 screens REVIEW NEW

With only 2 new movies (I Tonya and Just Getting Started) in a big movie-going month like December it was a dire weekend at the box office with the box office essentially looking the same as last week. Somebody will need to write a book some day on what happened to distribution in 2017...

Click to read more ...

"Shape of Water" way way out front at the Critics Choice Awards

by Nathaniel R

As always, full disclosure: I am a member of the Broadcast Film Critics Association. So this award announcement is always filled with anxiety for me because I want to be heard. We all want to be heard. Nevertheless most of the longer shots I rallied for didn't make it, he said, pushing away a single tear. The Shape of Water led with 14 nominations... and it was so far out front it nearly doubled the nominations afforded to its nearest rivals (a clump of them jammed together with 8 nominations each:  Call Me By Your Name, Lady Bird, Dunkirk, and The Post).

As ever I'm disappointed that the nominations double so heavily as "general Oscar pundit predictiveness" but here they are in their fullness with very immediate and perhaps too impulsive commentary after the jump.

Click to read more ...

Podcast: The Shape of Lady Bird

Nathaniel and Nick talk two Best Picture hopefuls, the generous funny adorable Greta Gerwig movie Lady Bird and the overstuffed visually creative Guillermo Del Toro fantasy The Shape of Water. 

Index (43 minutes)
00:01 Lois Smith & Lucas Hedges and lingering moments
06:00 Greta Gerwig, Saoirse Ronan, Laurie Metcalf, and Tracy Letts are all brilliant
16:00 More Lady Bird gushing
23:00 The Shape of Water -wanted to love it more
27:00 Guillermo del Toro problems and monsters
32:00 The performances in the movie
37:40 The Best Picture field, Hollywood sexism, and the atypical versus typical within the contenders

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? 

Shape of Water & Lady Bird

Los Angeles Film Critics Association Winners 2017

by Nathaniel R

Another day, another set of precursor awards. We heard from the New York Film Critics Circle a few days ago where Lady Bird and The Florida Project were the big winners with two prizes each. Over on the West Coast Call Me By Your Name and The Shape of Water both took three prizes. Commentary, stats, and winners list are all after the jump...

Click to read more ...

Chris Gives Thanks!

by Chris Feil

Happy Thanksgiving, readers! I'm reaching into the walls of The Film Experience and feeling my heart beat with nothing but gratitude. Whether it's talking about music in movies on my column Soundtracking or dishing RuPaul's Drag Race, I truly love being a part of this marvelous team and engaging with all of you lovely readers even when my sink isn't braced yet.

This year I am especially thankful for:

Click to read more ...