Links!

• TFE Nomadland collects a bunch of OFCS prizes (*updated post)
• AV Club Lovecraft Country's Misha Green will direct the next Tomb Raider. Yes, somehow they're continuing this franchise despite the super dull results last time
• Atlantic Hollywood's big studios largely aren't following Warner Bros 'dump it all on streaming' lead. And Warner Bros may have lost one of its biggest revenue-producing directors with that decision.

News of the World, superhero multiverses, child stars, and Jonathan Bailey ❤️ after the jump... 

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Coal in our stocking. 'Worst' of the Year

Each day a different year in review list. Here's Nathaniel R...

2018 was unpleasant in so many real life ways that grousing about unpleasant things within our favorite escape hatch from reality seems ungrateful. By and large, we love the movies here at TFE and I think I speak for most of the team in saying that we can all pretty much find something to love even in the worst ones. Nevertheless, allow me a quick exorcism of the things I disliked the most this year to get them out of my system. A very important caveat though: As my own boss I can skip whichever films I have no interest in or which receive intense critical drubbings. Therefore my "worsts" are rarely the worsts and sometimes not even terrible just unsatisfying, if you catch the drift. But these films and performances just didn't work for me or actively discouraged benefit of the doubt.

Much kvetching after the jump...

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Watch at Home: Latin History, Ernest & Celestine, Christopher Robin, BlacKkKlansman

Heads up on what's newly available to you this week. Links go to previous coverage / reviews here at TFE.

DVD/Blu-Ray
• Bel Canto -Julianne Moore as an opera singer. It was barely released
• BlacKkKlansman - Spike Lee's best in ages. We think it might be competitive for Picture, Director, Adapted Screenplay, and Editing nominations. Do you?
• Christopher Robin - Ewan McGregor stars as the boy all grown up revisited by Pooh, Tigger, and the Hundred Acre Woods gang.
• Incredibles 2 - The year's fourth biggest hit globally with 1.2 billion in the bank
• Loving Pablo - Penelope Cruz & Javier Bardem star in this drama about a journalist and a drug lord.
• Papillon - Rami Malek and Charlie Hunnam remake the Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen prison drama
• Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood - a salacious documentary about a man who allegedly secured same-sex sex for the movie stars of Old Hollywood.

iTunes 99¢ Deals
• Tomb Raider -Alicia Vikander takes over as Lara Croft. We missed this in theaters and no one seemed to care at the time. 'Is it worth 99¢?' he asked any of you that did.
• Critically Acclaimed Animation - 99¢ deals this week on a bunch of underseen nominees for Best Animated Feature: The Secret of Kells, Ernest & Celestine, A Cat in Paris, and Chico & Rita as well as smaller foreign titles that weren't nominated but were well regarded including Wrinkles and The Girl Without Hands

Brand New Streaming This Week
• Into the Forest (Netflix) a forgotten 2015 sci-fi movie with Ellen Page and Evan Rachel Wood as sisters trying to survive a looming apocalypse
• Latin History for Morons (Netflix) John Leguizamo's fourth solo Broadway outing (after Freak, Sexaholic, and Ghetto Klown) brought him his first Tony Award after two previous nominations. His first two acclaimed Off Broadway solo shows Mambo Mouth and Spic-O-Rama definitely led to boosts in his film/tv career. Writing talent is so handy for the actors that have it. When people aren't giving you great material, write your own vehicle!

I put on my best dad hat and I go to him and I say buddy, honey, I'm sorry but life is gonna fuck you sometimes. It just is.  And you're going to have to... I don't know, just keep changing positions until it feels good somehow. 

ICYMI
• November on Netflix
• November on Prime

YNMS: Tomb Raider

Seán here. Another day, another reboot, another Academy Award Winning Supporting Actress. And not unlike Angelina Jolie at the time, Alicia Vikander is aiming to capitalise on an Oscar with a leading role in a big star making vehicle. Vikander has an advantage compared to Jolie at this time, with some notable credits like Ex Machina and A Royal Affair to upsell her Oscar. Angelina Jolie has had one of the patchiest filmographies for anyone supposedly a mega-famous superstar. The two Tomb Raider films Jolie starred in were snoozefests, making the 2018 reboot something no one is going to be precious about, while raising the important question "why bother?"

The reason is that - at least on paper - Lara Croft is a perfect action heroine.

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Thoughts I Had... While Staring at "Wonder Wheel" and "Tomb Raider" Posters

by Nathaniel R

Movie posters aren't everything. In fact, it's arguable that they do little to change whether or not someone wants to see a movie, at least not half as much as a trailer, commercial, or recommendation might. Still, there's a certain thrill in looking at them if you love movies. Reactions can vary all the way from amping up excitement about a movie you're already interested in, to puzzlement and pondering over how anyone in Hollywood marketing departments keeps their jobs. Every reaction inbetween those two poles happens, too.

So let's look at new posters for Wonder Wheel and Tomb Raider after the jump with unedited thoughts as they come. (Please to do the same in the comments!)

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