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weekendwarriorblog · 3 years

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THE WEEKEND WARRIOR 4/2/21: GODZILLA VS. KONG, THE UNHOLY, OXFORD FILM FESTIVAL

I’m really not sure how I feel about doing the Weekend Warrior at quite the level I was doing last year. Even though the box office is slowly coming back, it’s still very frustrating to write about, and honestly, the Disney announcement last week about all the movies being delayed or dumped to Disney+ kinda brought me down. It just tells me that many studios are giving up on theatrical just as people have gotten so used to watching stuff at home, they don’t care about going out and being in rooms with other people, especially strangers. I guess I can understand that, but all the negativity that pervaded the narrative in 2020 is finally doing its damage as theaters reopen and some may have trouble even filling 25% capacity for some movies.

Then again, I’ve just come back from a weekend at the Oxford Film Festival, which became one of the first American film festivals to go in-person, although it is doing a bit of a hybrid in-person with virtual, so locals and a few out-of-of-towners (mainly me) were able to see all of this year’s great programming at one of the outdoor (and then indoor due to weather) venues. I was on the feature doc jury and got to see 11 terrific documentaries, some of which hopefully will get distribution and get out there, but why wait? While most of the movies are geoblocked to the United States (and some to Mississippi), there’s so much great programming to check out over the next month, and you can do so via OxFilm’s virtual cinema, which includes many great features and shorts. As far as the juries, I can highly recommend the Jury Prize winners, In a DIfferent Key, a fantastic film about autism directed by Caren Zucker & John Donvan, and the runner-up, Patrick O’Connor’s Look Away, Look Away, an amazing bi-partisan look at the fight to keep the Confederate-created flag of MIssissippi or change it, depending on your side of the fight. It’s a doc that really needs to be seen in other parts of the country. (Unfortunately, those are both geoblocked to Mississippi, as is Chelsea Christie’s Bleeding Audio, which tells the tragic story of the rise and fall of San Francisco’s The Matches and won for Music Documentary.) There are movies available everywhere in the United States though, and you can check out the full line-up of movies here.

Anyway, OxFilm gives me hope that there’s a future for theatrical moviegoing and as far as the box office, that hope comes in the form of the first holiday weekend since NYC and L.A. reopened as the Good Friday day off for most schools and Easter Monday that continues the vacation for others might persuade people to check out what’s happening in theaters, and fortunately, it’s a movie that’s so easy to market based on the fact that it has two of the biggest movie monsters facing off for the first time since 1963.

That’s right -- opening on Wednesday is the anticipated GODZILLA VS. KING KONG, starring… well, does it really matter who it stars other than Zilla and Kong? Probably not. The fourth movie in the Legendary Pictures and Warner Bros. Monsterverse takes the star of 2017’s Kong: Skull Island ($168 million at domestic box office) and pits him against the title character of 2014’s Godzilla ($200 million) and 2019’s Godzilla, King of the Monsters ($110.5 million). MInd you, I just include those domestic grosses for reference, because even if we take into account that scary dip from Godzilla and its direct sequel, it won’t really matter when you take into consideration a little thing called…. COVID! We’ve already seen movies gross more than $50 million since everything shutdown

I already reviewed this over at Below the Line, so I don’t have much more to say in that regard. It’s good if you like giant monster fights but isn’t much beyond its amazing monster battles, which is why I won’t even mention the actors that appear in it or any of the characters.

Godzilla vs. Kong is probably going to be the widest release since COVID hit with 2,600 theaters on Wednesday and then expanded to 3,000 on Friday when Regal reopens many (but not all) of its theaters. While I expect it to do fine on Weds and Thursday, making probably $4 or 5 million, it should really explode on Good Friday, which should allow it to make somewhere between $18 and 20 million over the three-day holiday weekend, so let’s say $25 to 26 million before Monday.

Also opening theatrically, this one on Friday is the Screen Gems horror movie THE UNHOLY from Sam Raimi’s Ghost House Pictures, the directorial debut by Evan Spiliotopoulos (writer of Disney’s mega-blockbuster Beauty and the Beast live action movie and the Rock’s Hercules ), who adapted the story from James Herbert’s novel “Shrine.” The movie stars Jeffrey Dean Morgan as disgrace journalist Gerry Fenn who is trying to get stories for a supernatural tabloid when he comes upon a deaf teenager named Alice (Cricket Brown) seemingly praying at an oak tree in a rural community in Massachusetts. When she seemingly gets her hearing back and is able to talk, word quickly spreads that she’s able to communicate with a benevolent Virgin Mary-like spirit that gives her the powers to heal. Since this is a horror movie, you can probably guess that things quickly get ugly and scary. THe movie also stars the wonderful Katie Aselton as a local doctor, who doesn’t do very many doctor-y things.

Before we get to my review -- and I’ll blame the review embargo on it for this week’s column being so late -- let’s talk about the movie’s box office potential, because religious horror-thrillers have quite a significant draw over a certain audience going straight back to the ‘70s with movies like The Exorcist and The Omen (the latter one of my all-time favorites) and The Unholy does dip into the toe of both of those. It’s been a long since there’s been one of those which might make this a draw for audiences into theaters, especially over Easter weekend -- that may be meant as irony -- but there’s also a little movie called Godzilla vs. Kong, which is just way more of a draw even with it being on HBO Max, but also because it’s likely to get better reviews. I’m not sure how many theaters Sony is getting this into, but I expect it’s somewhere around 2,000 or so, and that might be enough for the movie to make around $4 to 5 million this weekend, but probably VERY frontloaded to Friday.

Now let’s get to that review…

The Unholy begins with a flashback scene to “February 31, 1845” with a scene right out of the Salem Witch Trials of a woman being mutilated and strung up to a tree. This plays a very important role in a story that involves a fairly ludicrous premise that mostly involves Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s character finding something called a Kern Baby, essentially a porcelain doll wrapped in chains that he decides to smash in order to create a fake supernatural story about how smashing the doll causes crops to fail. In fact, smashing it releases the spirit of the woman we saw in that opening scene possessing a deaf teen girl named Alice who starts to heal everyone in her rural community, while also releasing the evil that had that woman’s spirit bound into the doll in the first place.

There isn’t that much more to say about the plot to a stupid horror premise so full of religious hokum as more characters get involved with trying to figure out if Alice is actually healing people or not. This includes the benevolent local priest Father Hagan, played by William Sadler, and a Bishop (really) played by Cary Elwes, who is using such a bizarre accent, kind of like a cross between the Bronx and a heavy Irish brogue, that it’s impossible to take his character very seriously.

Just knowing what studio garbage Spiliotopoulos has written did not make me very hopeful for his directorial debut, which is just all over the place in terms of tone and pacing, dragging at times and then throwing the type of cheap jump scares and schlocky CG horror creatures at the viewer with very little of it actually being very scary. " (The creature version of "Mary" just looks silly.) Besides being highly derivative, ripping off almost every religious horror movie, both bad and good, some aspects of the movie are so laughably bad that it’s hard to take much of it seriously. Worst of all, it ends with just a really horrible climax that reverses any good will the movie might have created with the casual young horror fans that usually like this thing. Honestly, I wouldn’t be shocked if it’s another one of those unrare “F” CinemaScores we see whenever a studio horror film doesn’t bother matching up to the quality of something like The Witch or Hereditary. Horror fans definitely want more than the usual these days, and The Unholy just seems like a lazy waste of time.

A movie that I’ve been looking forward to seeing and just haven't had time to watch is Emma Seligman’s SHIVA BABY (Utopia) that stars Rachel Sennott as 20-something Danielle who runs into her sugar daddy (Danny Deferrari) at a shiva with his wife (Dianna Agron) and their baby, as well as her parents (Fred Melamed and Pollyw Draper) and Molly Gordon as Danielle’s ex-girlfriend. It’s actually playing at the newly reopened Quad Cinema, so who knows? Actually I did watch Shiva Baby and was kind of disappointed. It seemed very twee and precious, and Sennott's character seems like the type of spoiled Millennial white girl that I hate in indie movies like this. I also just didn't find it particularly funny. Oh, well.

Streaming Friday on Netflix is Ricky Staub’s CONCRETE COWBOY, starring Idris Elba, Caleb McLaughlin and Lorraine Toussiant with McLaughlin being a teenager who moves in with his estranged father (Elba) in North Philadelphia where he learns about his passion for urban horseback riding.

Opening in New York (at the Angelika and Village East) on Friday and in L.A.and other cities on April 9 is the Oscar-nominated International Feature THE MAN WHO SOLD HIS SKIN (Samuel Goldwyn Films), written and directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, and starring Yahya Mahyni, Dea Liane, Koen De Bouw and Monica Bellucci. Tunisia’s submission is the story of Sam Ali, a Syrian who leaves his country for Lebanon to escape the war with hopes of travelling to Europe to be with the love of his life. To fulfill that dream, he allows his back to be tattooed by a contemporary artist that actually brings more trouble to the poor young man.

Hulu will debut the doc WeWork: or The Making and Breaking of a $47 Billion Unicorn (Hulu), which I still haven’t gotten around to watching but seems like an interesting subject for a doc.

A little closer to home at the still-closed Metrograph, they’re playing Claire Dennis’ 2004 film L’Intrus through April 8, and on Friday will open Sky Hopinka’s experimental debut maɬni – towards the ocean, towards the shore (Grasshopper Films) which follows Sweetwater Sahme and Jordan Mercier as they wander around the Pacific Northwest, mostly speaking in the Chinuk Wawa language. The latter is free to digital members ($5/month, $50 a year!) and $12 for non-members… pretty easy decision there, huh? Ms. Dennis’ film is also available to members.

Not only that, but New York’s Film Forum is also reopening this Friday with the double feature of Almodovar’s remastered Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown and his new short The Human Voice, starring Tilda Swinton; the fantastic doc The Truffle Hunters; as well as his Fellini’s masterful Oscar winner La Strada (Janus Films, 1954), starring Anthony Queen and the wonderful Giulietta Masina! (That’s what I’ll be seeing this Sunday!) On top of that, Film Forum will continue its fantastic Virtual Cinema programming, which will launch Eric Roehmer’s A Tale of Winter (1992) this Friday with Roehmer’s A Tale of Summer (1996) joining the Virtual Cinema starting Friday April 9.

Got exciting news that Film at Lincoln Center will be reopening on April 16, but this week, they’ll be launching the latest edition of Neighboring Scenes, its annual series of Latin American films done in conjunction with Cinema Tropical. It’s 10 films that you can watch with an all-access pass for the low price of $80, and it usually has some good movies in the program.

A couple others out this week, including Funny Face and Every Breath You Take (Vertical), which I don’t even have time to look up what they’re about. Sorry!

That’s it for this week. Next week, Neil Burger’s sci-fi coming-of-age thriller, VOYAGERS, will hit theaters.

#the weekend warrior #godzillavskong #theunholy #movies #reviews #streaming #shivababy

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gossipnetwork-blog · 6 years

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How Joining The Real Housewives Changes Your Life

New Post has been published on http://gossip.network/how-joining-the-real-housewives-changes-your-life/

How Joining The Real Housewives Changes Your Life

Bravo

Margaret Josephs almost stepped into the spotlight on The Real Housewives of New Jersey a whole lot earlier in the Bravo hit’s run than its current eighth season.

A fan of the show since its inception, in part, because it was highlighting women from her neck of the woods, the franchise’s newest addition told E! News that she was contacted by producers about joining the fray way back when Caroline Manzo was spinning off onto her own series after season five. “[They] actually approached me in 2013, we were discussing it last night at dinner, and I couldn’t do it that year,” she revealed. ��It just wasn’t great timing.” Considering that was the year she divorced first husband Jan Josephs for current hubby Joe Benigno, the hesitation is understandable. After all, allowing Bravo’s cameras to capture your life, warts and all, for the world to see is one heck of a commitment.

But 2017 felt like the perfect time for the pigtail enthusiast to convince her family to let her document her life on national television, she told us. “Well, A. I’ve led many lives by the age of 50, and, at 50, I thought it was a great turning point. I’ve already had a business for a long time, all my kids are up and out of the house, and I thought this would just be a great opportunity to do something different,” she explained. “The truth is, my whole life has been a reality series since birth, legit. You’ve seen Marge Sr. I thought it was just the next step in my career. I thought it would be fun. I thought it was great to show people that women could be entrepreneurial. I didn’t come from the Lucky Sperm Club. I pulled myself up by the boot straps, I’ve taken a lot of hits, so I thought I was also very relatable. And Jersey could definitely use a blonde, so I thought it was a good idea.”

With her mind made up, it was time to get her family on board, something she wasn’t able to do with everyone in her life. “Because I’m so out there, and they call me TMI Marge, my whole family knows everything’s out there. My husband Joe is very funny. Everybody just acts like themselves, the girls in my office, Marge Sr. They were super excited. Of course, my children, who are not on the show, were not excited,” she said. (Margaret has one son, as well as three step-children whom she helped raise, from her first marriage.)

“They were like, ‘Um, people know enough about us already. Do you really need to blast it all over TV?’ I mean, I got a lecture from my son. ‘Who talks about their vagina on TV the first episode?'” she continued. “So my children are extremely private people. I don’t discuss their names, I don’t discuss their industry. So I have to keep my kids off, but I have so many other family members, including my ex-husband, who are willing to be supportive and go on the show with me, it’s fine.”

As cameras began rolling on season eight, life quickly began to change for Margaret. Namely, getting used to a lack of spare time. “The adjustment is I run around like a chicken with my head cut off because I also still run my business,” she explained. I didn’t have as much time for myself. You’d think I have all this time for beauty routines. I don’t. That’s how my life has changed. I’m actually more stressed, less time, less time to shop, less time to do anything. But I’m enjoying it. It’s a great ride.”

Of course, then came being involved in her first big Housewives fight, which occurred at the top of the season when the ladies traveled to Boca Raton and Teresa Giudice and Melissa Gorga‘s cake fight set Siggy Flicker off in a serious way. “First of all, I found the first part entertaining. I thought Melissa and Teresa were hilarious. When I saw Siggy literally having a breakdown about it and crying, because that was really happening, I was in shock,” she admitted. “That’s why I was like, ‘Take it down a notch.’ I mean, are you kidding me? Who cries over a freaking cake? I could not believe grown women get upset about things like this, so I was like, ‘Wow, this has never happened with my friends and myself. I’ve never had this kind of dynamic.'”

Introduced to viewers as a friend of Siggy’s, Margaret quickly aligned herself with Teresa, Melissa and Danielle Staub after the shocking turn of events in Boca, putting her at odds with Siggy and her BFF Dolores Catania ever since. Of course, referring to her newfound nemesis as “Soggy Flicker” didn’t help things, though she asserts she never meant any actual harm by the nickname.

“I was shocked that she was sensitive. Usually, strong women have thicker skin,” she told us. “We were acquaintances, we weren’t good friends. We only knew each other from town and things like that. I’ve been around a very long time in my area, I know a lot of people. I get along with mostly everybody, I make fun of everybody. So no one ever has taken me that seriously. I think she truly took it to heart the wrong way. I apologized. The apology obviously didn’t go the way she wanted it to. She wanted me to follow a certain script. I don’t know what it was. Kiss her toes, braid her hair? I guess I didn’t follow it appropriately, so yeah, I was a little surprised it went that way. But we obviously are two different people who don’t see eye to eye.”

Of course, the second life-changing experience as a novice Real Housewife begins when the season starts airing, inviting comment from the farthest corners of the internet. “I think I’ve had an amazing, positive response, which is great. People are writing to me that they relate to certain situations,” Margaret admitted. “I’ve also had some petty responses. People can be so obsessed with pigtails. I always thought it was normal. I never knew I was such a crazy, little oddity, which I think is so funny.”

Around her town of Englewood, NJ, Margaret said that reaction from her neighbors has been overwhelmingly positive, as well. “I’ve lived there since 1991, I literally know everybody. People are very super-excited, all my friends are excited. Everybody loves it. Everyone’s like, ‘Marge, I saw you on TV. Oh my God, you and Joe!’ The funny part is we haven’t changed our everyday routine. I eat at Jackson Hole diner in Englewood three time a week for breakfast because my oven’s still not working, I just want you to know that. We eat in all of our same restaurants, people are super sweet and positive. They’re saying the most amazing things to us. They say, ‘The way you are in real life is the way you are on TV,’ and I love to hear that because that’s the way I act every day.”

While her tenure on the series hasn’t generated any sort of wild endorsement offers just yet—”I’m waiting for the pigtail extension thing to come out,” she said, laughing. “I’m just waiting for that line. A blow-up doll of Marge or something creepy will probably come out”—she has seen a positive influence on her business, the Macbeth Collection. “Christmas orders have improved, people reaching out,” Margaret said. “‘Where can we get your products?’ But we really sell to the mid-tier and the mass. So sales are starting to pick up and we’re getting new deals every day.”

Along with the seeing the public’s reaction to her presence on RHONJ now that the season has been airing, Margaret’s also had to relive every awkward moment, including her bizarre diner scene with Siggy where each woman staked their claim as the show’s resident Joan Rivers. (“OK and obviously we all do know who it is,” she said, laughing.) But so far, she has no regrets about her past behavior.

“It’s almost like an out-of-body experience,” she said of watching herself back, months later. “You can really almost have the same emotion and you don’t realize until you watch it back what exactly everybody looks like, but I’m not embarrassed by anything I have done. I only usually regret what I haven’t done. So it’s very interesting to watch it back. I still find it entertaining. I’m loving this season. We’re here to entertain with the good, bad and the ugly and nothing we do is really that serious, so I thought that diner scene was classic. I loved it.”

There’s still plenty more to come this season, including tonight’s showdown at the Posche fashion show, a trip to Milan—”We suck the life out of Italy,” she promised—and her “super-glam” 50th birthday party, but Margaret was already busying herself, looking ahead to her first reunion.

“This is the Super Bowl of Housewives. That’s what I call it. That’s what I’ve labeled it. So you have to prepare for the Super Bowl,” she explained. “So I’ve been mentally preparing, I’ve been taking my notes. I look at the episodes, what is poignant. Yes, I am very prepared for the Super Bowl. I’m going in very strong. I have my dressed picked out. My hair, I don’t think I’ll wear it in pigtails, spoiler alert. I don’t know if I’ll be MVP coming out as the rookie, but maybe Rookie of the Year.”

[Ed. Note: Margaret and her co-stars sat down for the season eight reunion days after this interview took place.]

As she looked back on her experience thus far, she summed it up for us as such: “It’s very interesting. I feel like I’m in high school. You never get out of high school, that’s the bottom line.”

The Real Housewives of New Jersey airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

(E! and Bravo are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)

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