C O N S I D E R - Favorites of 2017, 1st Qtr

It's April already! We're too impatient to wait for the "halfway" mark for year in review listicles. So why not do it each quarter to encourage more moviegoing? Unlike many critics orgs and the Oscars, The Film Experience believes that moviegoing is a 12 month long activity and each month can hold worthy efforts.  Here are 3 (or 4 if we're torn) highlights of what we've seen thus far this year per Oscar category in alpha order. How will they measure up to what's still to come? (We'll hit favorite performances on Sunday or Monday)

Key films I missed in the first quarter that I might try and catch up with later: Cure for Wellness, The Great Wall, Staying Vertical, T2 Trainspotting, United Kingdom, and Wilson

PICTURE / DIRECTOR / SCREENPLAY

FRANTZ (François Ozon, written by Philippe Piazzo & François Ozon)
FUTURE PERFECT (Nele Wohlatz, written by Pío Longo & Nele Wohlatz)
GET OUT (Jordan Peele)
PERSONAL SHOPPER (Olivier Assayas)

The Future Perfect doesn't have distribution yet but you'd be crazy to miss the other three which were the most all-around well realized of 2017's releases thus far, from concept to execution on all levels. MUCH MORE AFTER THE JUMP...

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Acting is a Strange Profession

Example #27,013...

Hi. @WolverineMovie @20thcenturyfox pic.twitter.com/dr95Zx1Nmg

— Hugh Jackman (@RealHughJackman) March 7, 2017

Box Office: Wolverine slays while Get Out stays...

I dont know where this photo is from but I love itDespite the R rating, or perhaps because of it, Logan opened much stronger than its 2013 predecessor The Wolverine (which eventually racked up $414 million globally). Logan will easily become the highest grossing Wolverine film by the end of its run thanks to what will surely be strong word of mouth... something this particular solo franchise has never experienced.

In other box office news: Jordan Peele's hot button horror film Get Out held spectacularly well, dropping only 21%; Best Foreign Language Film winner The Salesman expanded to over 100 theaters; and most importantly Best Picture winner Moonlight returned to wide release in theaters even as it was just released on DVD / BluRay adding another $2.5 million to its gross. This weekend it became A24's second biggest hit in the US by passing The Witch (still their biggest hit globally though). Moonlight will end its run as the lowest grosser among the 2016 Best Picture nominees but $25 million isn't too shabby at all for a serious black gay art film with no bankable stars. In fact it's kind of a miracle. It just needs $60,000 more in ticket sales this week to beat Ex Machina and become A24's biggest US hit.

TOP WIDE 
01 Logan $85.3 NEW Reviewed
02 Get Out $26.1 (cum. $75.9) Reviewed
03 The Shack $16.1 NEW 
04 The Lego Batman Movie $11.6 (cum. $148.6) 
05 Before I Fall $4.9 NEW

TOP LIMITED 
01 A United Kingdom $625K (cum. $1.8) 271 theaters
02 The Salesman $266K (cum. $1.8) Review, Interview 115 theaters
03 Kedi $234K (cum. $577K) Reviewed 13 theaters
04 Bitter Harvest $94K (cum. $392K) 75 theaters
05 Everybody Loves Somebody $65K (cum. $1.8) 60 theaters

Logan didn't have a post-credit scene due to the nature of its actual content but moviegoers were treated to this amusing Deadpool 2 teaser above with a cameo from Stan Lee and a full moon from game Ryan Reynolds, still loving his role as the merc with a mouth

Review: Hugh Jackman's Last Stand as Wolverine in "Logan"

This review was originally published in Nathaniel's column at Towleroad

Logan, the latest and last (for now) solo Wolverine movie, was not kidding around when it opted for Johnny Cash’s “Hurt” as its trailer music. It’s not just the severity of the title, but the elegiac lyrics, and the dying man as guiding spirit / inspiration. Some trailers lie but this one spoke world-weary truth. This is exactly the kind of movie James Mangold, who also directed the Johnny Cash biopic Walk the Line, delivers.

Wolverine’s mutation were never those iconic claws, which were a science experiment to weaponize him, but his ability to instantly heal which also slows down his aging process. The movie franchise got very silly about this, placing him in the civil war context in X-Men Origins as if the once feral Canadian hero was an immortal vampire rather than a mutant. 

But Logan is anything but silly about aging...

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