Soundtracking: Teen Spirit

by Chris Feil

Cover songs used to be a pop music regularity, whether they were outright hijacked by artists like Elvis or a staple regurgitated among contemporaries. Recent decades have made them pop culture artifacts or ironic reimaginings that overturn the original mood - the era of somber takes on upbeat tunes really fooled us for awhile. And then another cycle came for the cover song: televised singing competitions. This phase comes to life in bisexually lighting in Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit.

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Easter Weekend Box Office

Happy Easter. It's the quiet before the Avengers: Endgame storm at the nation's theaters.

Weekend Box Office Estimates April 19th-21st (ESTIMATES) 🔺 = New or Expanded Theater Count /  ★= Recommended
W I D E 800+ screens	PLATFORM / SPECIALTY TITLES excluding wide releases losing screens
Curse of La Llorona	Kalank
1 🔺 Curse of La Llorona  $26.5 *NEW* REVIEW	1🔺 Kalank  $1.2 on 320 screens *NEW*
2 Shazam  $17.3 (cum. $121.3)	2 🔺 Amazing Grace $591k on 188 screens (cum. $1.3)
3 🔺 Breakthrough $11.1 *NEW*	3 🔺 High Life $292k on 146 screens (cum. $688k) ★  REVIEW, PODCAST
4 Captain Marvel  $9.1 (cum. $400) REVIEW, BIGGEST HITS 1ST QTR	4 🔺 Teen Spirit  $250k on 696 screens (cum. $305k) REVIEW
5 Little $8.4 (cum. $29.3)	5 🔺 The Chaperone $86k on 55 screens (cum. $222k)

Kalank, a big-budget Bollywood spectacle opened in India and the US on the same day (!) and topped the box office in limited release while the Elle Fanning led Teen Spirit received a disastrous reception in its nearly wide expansion taking in just $360 per screen. Meanwhile at the multiplexes, The Curse of La Llorona which is "sort of" part of The Conjuring franchise (though not officially?) opened at #1 for wide releases and Captain Marvel inched over $400 million domestic in its 7th week of release, somehow returning to the top five despite a continued (if unusually slow) loss of screens. What did you see this weekend? 

SXSW: Elle Fanning has "Teen Spirit"

Abe Fried-Tanzer reporting from SXSW

It feels like every other movie these days is directed by a famous actor. There are a handful of them at SXSW this year, including Olivia Wilde’s Booksmart (reviewed) and Logan Marshall-Green’s Adopt a Highway starring Ethan Hawke. Both of those make sense given the type of films those actors have starred in, which match up decently with what they have made behind the camera. Max Minghella’s Teen Spirit, on the other hand, is a less expected debut.

Minghella is probably most recognizable from his starring role as the kindhearted Nick on The Handmaid’s Tale, and he also had a memorable part in The Social Network, among other things. His father was the late Oscar-winning Anthony Minghella (The English Patient). That piece of trivia makes the subject of Max’s first film even stranger since it doesn’t track with that kind of serious prestigious filmmaking either...

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