Sunday
Dec022018
Ralph and Queen Anne Rule Again
Sunday, December 2, 2018 at 11:45PM | Weekend Box Office Estimates Nov 30th- Dec 2nd🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count |
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| W I D E 800+ screens |
PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide |
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| 1. Ralph Breaks the Internet $25.7 (cum. $119.2) |
1.🔺The Favourite $1.1 on 34 screens (cum. $1.6) Review, Podcast, BIFA Wins |
| 2. The Grinch $17.7 (cum. $203.5) Posterized |
2. Boy Erased $590k on 660 screens (cum. $5.5) Podcast, Soundtracking, Nicole at TIFF |
| 3. Creed 2 $16.8 (cum. $81.1) Michael B Jordan, Podcast |
3.Can You Ever Forgive Me? $350k on screens (cum. $6.5) Review, Podcast |
As suspected with no real new competition the charts were virtually the same as last week so we're skipping the usual report. The good news is that The Favourite and Shoplifters , easily two of the best films this year, both had fine results with second weekend expansions.
What did you see this weekend? I saw Mary Poppins Returns (grinned stupidly the whole time - Emily Blunt is ❤️) and caught If Beale Street Could Talk a second time... to sadly the same reaction; tried to love it but just didn't apart from three inspired supporting performances (Regina King, Colman Domingo, and Brian Tyree Henry are all on fire) and some craft elements. Perhaps it'll work better for all of you when it opens in two weeks!?
Reader Comments (32)
I watched Dogtooth for the first time this weekend, and whoa! After having seen The Lobster and Killing of a Sacred Deer I should have known what I was in for, but it was still shocking to me. That's not a bad thing. It was shockingly good. I laughed so hard at the 'zombie' flowers and then felt immediately bad for it, which is no doubt what Yorgos intended!
Saw CAN YOU EVER FORGIVE ME? which was good and the performances were very solid. Also, caught JANE FONDA IN FIVE ACTS on TV which was very interesting.
Oscar Chances for ‘Mary Poppins Returns’?
I guess because it's Lanthimos I expected "The Favourite" to be much darker and more perverse, but I still mostly liked it. Felt like it was building to something that never quite arrived, though. Had issues with cinematography/editing. All three lead actresses are phenomenal. Great ending.
Does Emily Blunt have the stupid voice she was doing in the trailer?
Interestingly, the same thing that happened to you with Beale Street (which I love) happened to me this weekend with Widows. I watched it the second time and... I still very much dislike it. It's too morose to get the genre thrills it seems to be aiming for and it's juggling so many stories and characters that I have a really hard time connecting to any of them. The cast is solid (and the dog is adorable), though a few of them do go too over-the-top and others don't have enough to do. The crowd I saw it with didn't seem to be getting into it either. So, yeah, sorry TFE, that's one film I won't be agreeing with you on this year.
Re-watches of Night at the Museum 2 and Inception as well as a few first-timers in a couple of Orson Welles TV shorts and a 30 for 30 episode about the rise and fall of Bobby Knight.
I saw Disobedience. Liked it a lot, and thought that the three central performances were all excellent. Indeed, I realised while in the cinema that Rachel Weisz, Rachel McAdams and Alessandro Nivola are three actors I've liked in everything I've seen them in.
The film also has an authentic suburban London setting. I'm pretty sure I've walked along some of those streets myself.
And hoorah to Nivola's victory at the BIFAs! Hope the film gets more recognition in awards season.
Widows
Improbable but fun
You're not alone re Beale Street. Kiki Layne is such a jaw-dropping case of miscasting - to the extent that when she's on screen, even the other (otherwise quite strong) performers are weaker as well. Jenkins's way with dialogue doesn't help her either - you need way bolder, more seasoned performers to make that kind of stylised wordplay work.
That said, overall I still found the film reasonably moving and beautiful. And I agree that Domingo and Bryan Tyree Henry are excellent. Ditto Teyonah Parris, a lot of the tech departments.
King was fine but I'm sure I've seen her do more interesting things with a role in the past so I'm not quite getting the hosannas.
Saw LEAN ON PETE, CREED 2, THE DAWN WALL and A STAR IS BORN in cinemas - all good.
Saw NOWHERE in the local Serbian Film Festival - not bad, the structure was interesting, but it didn't quite come together.
And watched THE BALLAD OF BUSTER SCRUGGS on Netflix - I liked all stories to some level. The first one had the best sight gag I have seen all year!
I've only seen the trailer for "The Favourite" but doesn't Olivia Colman's performance look like a riff on Helena Bonham Carter's Queen of Hearts in Alice in Wonderland? Same curt vocal patterns, same electro-jabs of Brit eccentricity. Loved Bonham Carter's performance, by the way. And loved Lanthimos' "Killing of a Sacred Deer" . So I'll definitely be catching "The Favourite" first chance I get.
I caught both RALPH and THE FAVOURITE
The former was a rollicking good time and a huge improvement on the orginal
The latter was even more of a rollicking good time, captivating, sumptuous, impeccably acted. Oscars galore!
The Favourite - What a fantastic movie. Rachel Weisz is brilliant. Nicholas Hoult is incredibly fun. Emma Stone has a real knack for physical comedy. Colman did well with a tough role (I would say she is the weakest of the 4). I love the book-ended overlay shots. I love how Lanthimos regularly shot Weisz and Stone from below to show their dominance over the queen. I loved the fisheye shots that really show how whackadoodle all of this was. Excellent movie.
Cold War - Disappointing. The cinematography is divine. But the plot is razor thin. If I had to see one more choir shot, I was going to lose my mind.
Sorry Angel - I am still processing, but I think I liked it. It definitely meanders and covers no new ground. And the painful care taken to not show a man's penis was off-putting. But it was extremely sincere and there was a clear effort to make each character as three-dimensional as possible.
Saw Widows and I wasn’t overly impressed. The performances were good, bu the basic plot lost me. The heist/missing money/politicians somewhat reminded me of another Chicago movie; Backdraft. Sure, the action is good in both, but at times I was asking ‘Does anybody know what’s going on in this?!?’ I also felt that Colin Farrell’s character was from Boston, not Chicago. Was he supposed to channel the Chicago political Daley clan or the Boston Kennedy’s?
I also caught Mary Poppins Returns in an advance screening. Was less smitten. I did enjoy Emily, and thought she really made the role her own, but her singing voice is very limited and I longed for someone with the range and skill of someone like Julie. I just miss the days when actually skilled musical theatre performers got leading roles in films. Ben Whishaw was a standout for me also.
The film however for me just felt so hollow. Maybe it was just the digital gloss but it was just such a pat for pat remake, and the pacing was so off. (and also Meryl!? I don't know what she was going for but it did not work.) I also don't really think Shaiman and Wittman were the right choice. I also need Dion Beebe to shake whatever rut he's in. And I genuinely found the animation sequences so garish.
Sandy Powell forever though. Stunning work.
I saw Widows.
Got to admit, I've been let down by some of this year's anticipated indies and completely thrilled by wide release films (A Star is Born, Widows, First Man). It's been years and years since that was the case. Very grateful to the directors who are making middlebrow entertainment for adults great again. Somebody other than Christopher Nolan needed to take up that cause.
Hayden, I feel the same way about a lot of the big indies from this year. Oddly, a lot of my top ten are studio films. Strange year.
Anyway, saw a lot this week.
Ralph Breaks the Internet - delightful, improves on the original, is gonna age so fast.
Boy Erased - performances are good, movie is flat. It mistakes martyring its characters for personality.
Border - I like its committed lead performance and genre playfulness, but I was mostly grossed out and bored. For 2018 foreign fantasy, Good Manners is better than this in every way.
Happy as Lazzaro - I'm missing something with this. A lot of something. Really dreamlike and transportative and the title character has a really interesting face, but I never got into it.
Burning - I also never got into this, but I feel like rewatching. There are so many incredible moments. I just didn't think the plot was anything special and the lead was the weak link of the cast. Felt really really long.
Miseducation of Cameron Post - LOVED THIS. Fabulous ensemble. Human, kind and funny in ways that illustrate where Boy Erased went wrong. Expected nothing, was blown away. Ending is a bit cliche, though.
Free Solo - Also really liked this. The focus on the relationship and documentary ethic paired with that long build up worked really well for me and the climbing scenes are thrilling.
Saw "Can You Ever Forgive Me." Grant deserves the awards and nominations he'd getting. McCarthy is solid, but I, frankly, didn't think she was much better than that: merely solid, never inspired. Also the film itself was a little too dour, somehow. Gave it a 7 out of 10 in my film journal.
Saw The Favourite. Just wow. Gleefully subversive, sickly funny. The visuals were entrancing. That scene where they're riding horses toward the viewer felt like 3-D. The three leads murderize it. But there was something about Rachel that really stays with you. Four stars.
I saw Green Book.
It is a duet of TWO Leading Actors. The two actors are sharp, canny, charming professionals. They explore their characters with a thoughtful kindness. Their teamwork is superb.
But...
Saw
COLD WAR. I don't liked at all!! only The gorgeous cinematography! Don't liked the plot, the singing, everything! Really asking myself why the award of directing in Cannes.
A STAR IS BORN. First half is gorgeous! Loved everything of it. Second half: terrible! Problems with the directing of the supporting cast, Gaga is not on the character (and is portraying herself on this movie), problems with the screenplay.
If Gaga wins the Oscar of Glenn Close, I hope the academy burn in hell!!
Shallow is the best original song in ages a movie has given us!! Loved!
I saw and enjoyed THE GREEN BOOK, mostly due to the chemistry between the two actors, but man what a movie it would've been if it had followed the story of Ali's character instead of making Viggo the lead.
And I'm sorry, but ending the movie on a shot of a white woman smiling is a little too... on the nose?
I was surprised at how much I liked Green Book, probably because the trailer was so abysmal. The script may not be offensive but it certainly is cliche-filled. Not one scene even flirts with originality. But the acting! Mahershala Ali is superb and Viggo Mortensen is even better than that. Take for example, the scene where he learns that Don Shirley can speak Italian. However dubious it was to cast him in the role in the first place, he removes all doubts and then some.
Among the various objections I have to the film, though, I'll single out its half-hearted gay scene (it doesn't even rise to a subplot). This shortish scene comes pretty much out of nowhere and afterwards it is pretty much forgotten. Makes me think they waited to audience-test it, so that if it didn't "play" they could excise it from the film. Considering the results, I almost wish they had.
I also saw Ralph Breaks the Internet. Zzzzzzzz
Widows, which I found to be a taut, well-acted, well-executed heist thriller that says more about race, class, and sex in passing than most movies which are explicitly about such things.
@Nathaniel R
Have you seen Jenkins' Medicine for Melancholy? His work is delicate but not necessarily as engaging as most would want. Moonlight for me left more to be desired since its trailer sold it as more that what it ultimately is.
Tell us all about Mary Poppins!
Saw Widows. And although all the little pieces didn't completely add up for me, the performances and the filmmaking left me very satisfied overall. The camerawork for the scene of Colin Farrell leaving his speech and going back to his house was ridiculous (in a good way).
I agree with Troy up above. The DNA of the film allows it to touch on a lot of different themes in an organic and very rich way without having to underline those themes - although there is one huge instance where that approach doesn't land the way it should.
As a side note, I saw in it in a small, packed theater and the audience went wild for Debicki's scene at the gun show. She's spectacular in the film and I keep waiting for her to break through in a bigger way.
Eh, I finally got around to seeing Tully, which I liked well enough. Charlize is great, but it didn't really feel exceptional.
Speaking of exceptional though, I saw Topsy-Turvy again for the first time since 1999. I remember liking it though it was all a bit ovewhelming. I really, really thought this was well done on a second, much later viewing. The whole movie is a "where are they now?" kind of experience. I could never decide who was best in show. I guess Shirley Henderson and Lesley Manville brought the most "extra" to their small roles. And I had NO idea that it was Kevin McKidd who played the "juvenile" in the show. I didn't even know he could sing.
Saw The Favourite and I loved so many of the parts...the acting, cinematography, costumes, sets, some of the brilliant editing...
BUT...somehow didn't love the whole. Some of the editing was brilliant, but the movie was too long and dragged in parts.
I saw " A Star is Born" which is a very satisfying movie experience. Cooper is very good and his direction is better than that - Gaga could not have wished for a better film intro. Cooper gives her tons of loving close-ups. The film does not reach the height of the 1954 masterpiece but it comes close. Sam Elliot will get an Oscar nomination but I was really impressed by Andrew Dice Clay of all people. I wish the songs had been better. The film will get tons of Oscar love. "Topsey Turvy" is one of the best films ever made a bout the creative process.
I saw Roma which is a good as advertised; if it's my near you go see it now as a TV screen would not do it justice.
For those in the Toronto area, it's playing at the Bell Lightbox for the next three weeks including screenings in 70mm starting December 14th.