Super Mario Bros: The First Movie

by Cláudio Alves

The new Super Mario Bros. movie is upon us and some of the early reviews could hardly be more scathing. This Chris Pratt and Anya Taylor-Joy animated romp has sunk a few critics into pits of despair, with some unfortunate souls stating it's even worse than the 1993 flop. We won't know until we see it but one can envision it being a downgrade in terms of sheer lunacy.

Say what you will about the 1993 movie, but it's a fascinating piece of cinema worth revisiting, its abject failure never stemming from a lack of crazy ideas. A lack of conviction, perhaps, since you can smell the flop sweat of exhausted writers, not to mention the confusion of cast and crew and audience, too! It is one confounding mess, and to watch it is to sense one's sanity slipping away...

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Review: "The Menu"

Dining with Chef Slowick (Ralph Fiennes) is a dangerous experience in "The Menu."By Christopher James

The subgenre of class warfare comedy is alive and well in 2022. Most recently, movies like Bodies Bodies Bodies and Triangle of Sadness have smeared the 1% with blood and excrement, respectively. Director Mark Mylod (of Succession fame), opts for the former with his all-star comic thriller, The Menu. The film effectively entertains, even if it doesn’t ultimately add much to the conversation.

We meet Margot (Anya Taylor-Joy) and Tyler (Nicholas Hoult) at a dock about to be picked up for an elite dining experience. Right from the beginning, we see a disconnect between the two, as if they were newly dating. Tyler is beyond excited for the dining experience, documenting every moment. On the flip side, Margot couldn’t care less. Tyler and Margot travel alongside nine other illustrious guests to an island restaurant run by celebrity Chef Slowick (Ralph Fiennes)...

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Over & Overs: To Wong Foo

In Over & Overs we ask Team Experience to share movies that they've seen countless times and tell us why. Here's Chris Feil...

The 90s were an interesting time to be an odd kid strangely compelled to the sight of men in dresses. Drag comedies had a kind of resurgence into the mainstream, particularly with Robin Williams headlining both Mrs. Doubtfire and The Birdcage to huge popularity. But the one that struck my imagination and sparked an undefined sense of self-identification was Beeban Kidron’s oddly named To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.

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Take me to the link

• NYT Which Cannes films and performances will factor into the Oscar race. Kyle Buchanan thinks Parasite and Pain & Glory are the biggest foreign threats but Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is the big one.
• Hugh Jackman singing Happy Birthday to Sir Ian McKellen with a whole staidum backing him. Awesome
• Variety Owen Gleiberman surveys his Cannes experience and how well the movies filled the big screen
• Variety Chris Hemsworth is the coverboy at the moment so here's the big profile
• The Sheila Variations on Joseph Cotten's active listening in Gaslight (1944) 

• Variety so far Netflix is the only studio to speak out on Georgia's attack on abortion rights which could threaten the massive amount of filmmaking that goes on in that state.
• Out for a blu-ray release of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar, John Leguizamo is talking about his character Chi Chi Rodriguez
• Town & Country we missed this news during Cannes but congrats to Jennifer Lawrence who is now engaged
• IndieWire surveys critics on the best movies that played at Cannes. Parasite comes out on top just as it did with the jury, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire (which only took Screenplay at Cannes) was the runner up.
• Variety more Cannes prizes. FIPRESCI chooses The Lighthouse (from the director of The VVitch)
• /Film a piece on Quentin Tarantino's female characters  in light of a tense moment at Cannes when he was asked about Margot Robbie's lack of dialogue in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood

Tony Season
• NYT fun piece on "mysteries" of this Broadway season including how tall is the tall man in Hadestown, how does Santino Fontana sing like a woman in Tootsie, and how does one do partner dances while in a wheelchair? As for that 'tall man' in Hadestown. We first noticed him in Frozen and we ran into him on the subway over the weekend and he was as sweet and gorgeous as can be while towering over us.
• ... Timothy Hughes is his name and you can follow him on Instagram 
• Stagecraft Rosemary Harris will get a lifetime achievement at this year's Tony Awards. But her previous Tony has a typo on it!
• Playbill Wesley Taylor (Smash) who recently won the Chita Rivera Award for Outstanding Male Dancer is engaged to marry Isaac Powell (last seen in Spongebob Squarepants) 
• Playbill Fresh out of high school, Renée Rapp, who won this year's Jimmy Award (that's the highest honor for High School students in musical theater) is stepping into the role of Regina George in Mean Girls for her Broadway debut this summer.

And look here's a video about Dianne Wiest's latest play Off Broadway. It's a monologue play from Samuel Beckett

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