What did you see this week?

What did you see this weekend? I binged Heartstoppers on Netflix (having loved the webcomic it was based on), watched a few Coachella performances (Orville Peck, Maggie Rogers, and Finneas) but the highlight was definitely trekking to the theater to see The Northman with friends. Make sure to listen in to conversations from your fellow moviegoers if you see it. You'll hear lots of variations of "that was insane". The sweat lodge / Dafoe scene early in the film and the big Kidman monologue scene late in the film really get people talking if our Friday night eavesdropping was any general indication. Perhaps we should do a spoiler-heavy review (for those who've seen it only -- you should not read reviews before you see this one).

Weekend Box Office April 22nd-24th 🔺 = new or expanding / ✅ = recommended
THE NORTHMAN	EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE...

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Cast This: Johnny Depp out of "Fantastic Beasts" franchise

by Patrick Gratton

Understandably lost during the fog created of election week, on Friday afternoon Johnny Depp took to his Instagram page, announcing that he was stepping down from the role of Grindlewald. The Warner Bros’ Harry Potter spin-off franchise, the Fantastic Beast series is no without a villain. Depp claims that the move comes at Warner Bros request following his failed libel suit against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the tabloid magazine The Sun, over allegations that Depp abused ex-wife Amber Heard.  

The news comes after a tumultuous year for the Potterverse. Not just for Depp, whose years of litigation with ex-wife Amber Heard and whose substance abuse has made him tabloid fodder...

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Top Ten: Ezra Miller Lewks

by Nathaniel R

Tilda & Ezra 7 years ago. He learned from a master

We have been greatly remiss in celebrating Ezra Miller's rising fashion-icon insanity. I am pleased in retrospect to have been one of the five people who saw and admired his debut performance in the disturbing art film Afterschool which made $3,911* at the box office in 2009 (*actual figure, not sarcasm). I vividly remember seeing it because when I left the theater, a friend who worked at the Nashville Film Festival ran up to tell me that Nicole Kidman & Keith Urban had attended the screening directly before mine. (A tragedy truly: we saw the same movie at the same festival on the same day but weren't in the same showing. ARGH!)

More than ever in 2018, Miller has proven that his casting as Tilda Swinton's son in his breakout picture, Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) was more than a little prescient because he's following in Tilda's iconoclastic and androgynous footsteps in the department of causing stirs on the red carpet.

So herewith a top ten of Ezra fashion after the jump...  

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A rough weekend for Oscar hopefuls at the Box Office

by Nathaniel R

What did you see over the weekend? Though a lot of Oscar hopefuls struggled, this weekend was but the preamble to a big holiday weekend so this coming week will tell a much broader story of which films the public is responding too. More commentary after the jump...

Weekend Box Office  (Nov 16-18)
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / LIMITED excluding prev. wide
1 🔺   Fantastic Beasts 2 $62.1 on 4163 screens *NEW*	1 🔺 Boy Erased $1.3 on 409 screens (cum. $2.6) Podcast

2 Dr Seuss' The Grinch $38.5 on 4141 screens (cum. $126.9) Posterized	2🔺 Can You Ever Forgive Me $893k on 555 screens (cum. $5) Review, Podcast

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The Links of Grindelwald

• Feedspot This is nice. The Film Experience has been listed as one of the top 40 movie podcasts.
• AV Club the Random Roles series grills Sarah Jessica Parker about her defining roles
• THR goes deep on The Favourite's power plays
• Rotten Tomatoes Ouch. Reviews for Fantastic Beasts 2 are brutal
• Pop Sugar the casting of Nagini in Fantastic Beasts was controversial but here's where you've seen the actress before
• Stephen Colbert Jude Law discuss fan nicknames for Dumbledore. Very cute

• Awards Daily Rob Marshall "wanted to bring a gift of hope into this climate" with Mary Poppins Returns
• /Film the effort to save Filmstruck has now gotten some big name directors behind it
• The Playlist opinions are divided in Hollywood about whether Netflix's theatrical play with Roma is playing by the rules or a con
• Variety ...speaking of. Italy is cracking down on streaming service with new laws about theatrical windows
• Film School Rejects Kiersey Clemons (Hearts Beat Loud) lines up a biopic which could take her career to the next level
• Coming Soon the Jack Reacher franchise is dead for now. They hope to reboot in TV series form with an actor who is more faithful to the character (who is 6'5"... nearly a full foot taller than Tom Cruise!)

Today's Must Read
• Critics Notebook "The End of Endings" I bow to this great piece. And I worry like ∞

Stage Diversions
• EW Tom Hiddleston will star in a revival of Harold Pinter's 70s classic Betrayal in the West End in the spring
• Playbill Caroline or Change returns to NYC at the Astoria Performing Arts Center next summer. I saw their production of Follies last season and it was really strong so I have high hopes that they'll do this great musical justice. I still think if they ever make this into a movie, whoever plays Caroline will win the Oscar. 
• Playbill Broadway grosses for the week: New shows Network with Bryan Cranston and Tatiana Maslany and To Kill a Mockingbird with Jeff Daniels are already hits, playing to 100% capacity. The emptiest houses are unfortunately for the Go-Gos musical Head Over Heels (which we loved but which has been struggling to find its audience). Head Over Heels will be one of the Thanksgiving performances at the Macy's Day Parade so we'll see if that helps get them through the holidays.