"Pinocchio" and "Living" among USC Scripter Nominations

by Nathaniel R

The annual USC Scripter awards honor film and television adapted from other literary sources. The cool thing about them is they award both the current screenwriter and the original author being adapted.

It should be one of the nomination announcements that excite us the most each year in terms of assessment of screenwriting -- the jury is generally made up of writers and critics -- but they often fail to live up to their potential. Usually that's a result of them hewing very close to the Oscar conversation rather than suggesting that the full jury has actually been watching plentiful movies year round and thinking about the craft of writing. Whch is not to say that some of their choices aren't strong but there's usually at least one title that suggests they've been reading Oscar tea leaves rather than books and screenplays. I'll leave it to you to glean what that title is this year. They get a little more creative with the TV side, perhaps because there's no current awards buzz (Emmys were over a few months ago) to piggyback on...

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AFI Top Ten gives a boost to "Nope" and "She Said"

by Nathaniel R

The American Film Institute has named their top ten films and television programs of 2022, giving them all a boost in the awards conversation. And that's clearly what the prize is intended for, given their resolutely mainstream Oscar and Emmy buzz focused lists each year (in their early years they were sometimes a bit more adventurous though still mainstream). The two most "daring" choices for films, if you can call them that, are Nope and She Said, neither of which have a huge amount of Oscar buzz at the moment, though Nope has been performing well in early top ten list / precursor season.

The AFI lists in film and television and some commentary after the jump...

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What did you see this week... or are you waiting for Thanksgiving like Hollywood?

By Nathaniel R

It was a strange weekend for moviegoers. Hollywood wanted to give Black Panther 2 ample room and it's not quite thanksgiving so only two new wide releases risked opening: The Menu and She Said. The former did okay and the latter struggled. In limited release a slightly similar story but just remove a few 0s as Bones and All and The Inspection both opened on a handful of screens. In both box office skirmishes, moviegoers tended to chose the violent option. Violent thrills are really what sells movie tickets these days, with or without vfx budgets. We wish the general moviegoer had wider taste, but it is what it is...

Weekend Box Office (actuals) November 18th-20th 🔺 = new or expanding /  ★ = Recommended
WIDE (OVER 800 SCREENS)	LIMITED / PLATFORM
BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER	BONES AND ALL
1 BLACK PANTHER WAKANDA FOREVER $66.4 (cum. $287.1)	1 TILL $228k (cum. $8.5) 656 screens

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The Refreshingly Modern Marriages of "She Said"

By Ben Miller

There are plenty of things to like about Maria Schrader’s She Said, but one of the most impressive things is the relationships of the main characters. So many heavy, important things happen in the film, the marriages of Jodi Kantor (Zoe Kazan) and Megan Twohey (Carey Mulligan) gets lost in the shuffle. It’s so rare, it’s almost revolutionary. It shouldn’t be ignored

Over a number of months, Kantor and Twohey investigate Harvey Weinstein’s numerous instances of sexual harassment of his female employees. This consists of business trips, long hours, and calls in the middle of the night or weekends. The film goes out of its way to show both women continuing to be mothers to their children and wives to their husbands. Here’s the refreshing part: it’s no big deal...

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