Isle of Dogs and Japanese culture: Riff, love letter, or appropriation?

by Lynn Lee

A friend on Facebook recently asked me, after I posted a positive response to Isle of Dogs, what I thought about the controversy over Wes Anderson’s alleged cultural appropriation of Japan.  My initial answer was that it bothered me a little bit, but not enough to mar my enjoyment of the movie.  Later I realized that I’d just implicitly accepted the charge that there was cultural appropriation and, as an Asian American, felt mildly guilty that it didn’t bother me.  But on further reflection, I’m not sure either of those knee-jerk reactions was warranted.  It’s more complicated than that.

The question of cultural appropriation can be broken down a few different ways...

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Tweetweek: Eye Moisture, Sitcom Troubles, Cat Content

Before we begin a shout out to Katya who is back with us after taking care of her mental health first. As one should. Blessed be.

Pro-tip: put down your cell phone and gyrate in front of the mirror for a minimum of 25 mins each day

— Katya (@katya_zamo) March 28, 2018

 After the jump tweets on Rent the musical (just because), Love Simon, Roseanne, political confusions, and more... 

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What did you see this weekend?

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office (March 23rd-25th) Estimates
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
1. 🔺Pacific Rim: Uprising $28 NEW	1. 🔺 Isle of Dogs $1.5 on 27 screens NEW CAPSULE
2. Black Panther  $16.6 (cum. $630.9)  PODCAST	2. 🔺 The Death of Stalin $1 on 140 screens (cum. $2) REVIEW
3.🔺 I Can Only Imagine $13.8 (cum. $38.3)	3. The Leisure Seeker $315k on 117 screens (cum. $717k)
4. 🔺 Sherlock Gnomes $10.6 NEW	4.  Thoroughbreds $160k on 117 screens (cum. $2.7) REVIEW
5. Tomb Raider $10.4 (cum. $41.7)	5. 🔺 Flower  $125k on 57 screens (cum. $190k)

6. A Wrinkle in Time $8 (cum. $73.8)  REVIEW	6. 🔺 Getting Grace $107k on 60 screens NEW
7. Love, Simon $7.8 (cum. $23.6) REVIEW	7. A Fantastic Woman $100k on 121 screens (cum. $1.6)   REVIEW  | OSCAR WIN
8. Paul, Apostle of Christ $5 NEW	8. Foxtrot  $76k on 26 screens (cum. $270k)
9. Game Night $4.1 (cum. $60.8)  REVIEW	9. The Party $$47k on 70 screens (cum. $677k)
10. 🔺 Midnight Sun $4.1 NEW	10. 🔺 Itzhak $41k on 29 screens (cum. $115k)
🔺 = new or expanding its theater count numbers (in millions unless otherwise noted) from box office mojo

What did you see this week? I did a triple feature to try to not fall any further behind with Pacific Rim: Uprising, Isle of Dogs, and Unsane.  Curiously, Pacific Rim Uprising, the #1 film of the weekend, was the only theater that wasn't jam-packed. Then again this is NYC so directors are more of a draw here so Soderbergh and Wes Anderson pulled them in. Especially Anderson. The movie is such a delight. I'd totally be okay with him making every other movie of his as an animated feature.

And the Links Go To...

Team Experience has been sharing favorite moments from Oscar night  but we must slowly ween ourselves off of Oscar (*sniffle*) and back to the new year in progress. Link time! 

• Vulture The Oscars should always be long (I love this piece with all my heart)
• Liza Donnelly her collection of live drawings from Oscar week

Miscellaneous Screen
• Indie Wire how fun is this? A theater in San Francisco is hosting a screening of Isle of Dogs in which moviegoers can bring their dogs into the theater!
• Deadline apparently there are competing projects about Sharon Tate and the Manson murders. Tate's surviving families are supporting a version starring Kate Bosworth and they're upset with the other two projects (one of which is Quentin Tarantino's)
• AV Club hilarious story -- a teen broke her retainer biting down on it while thirsting for Michael B Jordan in Black Panther. He's now offered to buy her a new one
• MNPP Jason reminds us that David Robert Mitchell (of It Follows promise) has a new movie coming out starring Andrew Garfield
• The Muse how many more non-hits can Jennifer Lawrence's career withstand?
• Straight Outta Crouch End A fascinating take on A Fantastic Woman and its references to Orpheus and Eurydice.

Off Screen
• Vox on MoviePass's fuzzy business model
• Slate Russell Crowe holding a "divorce auction". Do the items paint a "strange and mesmerizing portrait"?
• Out Actress Cynthia Nixon is laying the groundwork to run for Governor in NY
• TodayTix "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child" on Broadway has $40 lottery tickets -regular seats are hundreds of dollars so competition will be fierce. Friday morning entry only!
• NYT "The Shed," a newperformance space in Manhattan is looking to mash art-forms up from film directors staging concerts to collaborations between actors, poets, and opera stars? Sounds exciting.

Berlinale 2018: Isle of Dogs and more...

Seán McGovern reporting from the 68th Berlin International Film Festival.

There's a friendly kind of brusqueness to Berliners. They're very unbothered. But the barely-contained excitement of my first Berlinale is almost matched by the huge passion the Germans have for film culture. Ten days and dozens of stunning venues. I'm here mainly to see all the films up for the Teddy Award but it wouldn't be a film festival if I wasn't in at least three screenings a day.

Opening Film
Isle of Dogs (dir. Wes Anderson, United Kingdom/Germany)

At first it seems like a basic choice – A famed US director with a star studded cast.

But take a moment to appreciate that Isle of Dogs is a multi-format animation, in dual languages, and about a historic animosity between humans and dogs, set in Japan, in the future. It's is a gorgeous testament to the kind of storytelling animation is capable of...

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