#coen bros my beloved

[xivdl]

llewyn is the cat

yup

[joshbentley-blog1]

2018, A Year in Film

Much like my love for music, I use the end of the year to compile a list of my favorite films, films that affected my life and altered my perspective and appreciation for the arts. Here are a list of motion pictures that I consider impactful in some shape or form, transformative to a degree, and worthy contributions to the medium. Enjoy.

Honorable mentions:

Roma

Alfonso Cuarón’s return to Earth since 2013′s Gravity finds itself in 1970s Mexico, backdropped by the political turmoil of the time and laced with the mundane yet subtly beautiful comings and goings of every day life. It is an intimate and sincere look into the struggles of surviving day by day, but also a gorgeously emotional ode to the resilience of those entrapped by the life’s unprejudiced judgement.

Director:  Alfonso Cuarón

Distributor:  Netflix

Genre:  Historical drama

Isle of Dogs

Wes Anderson returned to the beloved medium of stop motion animation this year with Isle of Dogs. His previous work, Fantastic Mr. Fox, was a charming and quirky story of a fox father trying to provide for his den in the midst of a heated human versus animal dispute. But where Fantastic Mr. Fox lacked substantial depth (not a bad quality by any means), Isle of Dogs builds a narrative of love and hope, eloquently animating the unimpeachable love humans and dogs so equally share. The set design, animation quality and Wes Anderson quirks are all at their very best. A must-see for any Anderson fan, or appreciator of stop motion animation.

Director:  Wes Anderon

Distributor:  Fox Searchlight

Genre:  Stop motion animation / sci-fi / dystopian

Sorry to Bother You

Directorial debuts were bountiful this year, and one such standout is Boots Riley’s Sorry to Bother You. An apt and absurd social commentary, with enough laughs to punch through the somewhat dark depths it veils. The film starts off vanilla enough, but you soon find yourself in the midst of a dark, fever dream that won’t end. The phenomenal writing and cast make this original an extremely hard film to forget.

Director:  Boots Riley

Distributor:  Annapurna Pictures

Genre:  Absurdist / dark comedy

Top 10:

10. Disobedience

When New York-based photographer, Ronit (Weisz), learns of her father’s unexpected passing, her past life and all its troubles are brought to the forefront. Returning back to the Orthodox Jewish community in London in which she grew up, Ronit is faced with various extremes. From the turmoils of having to explain herself to the Jewish community, to the re-kindling of her relationship with Esti (McAdams), to facing her own faults and desires, Ronit’s life is crumpled and staggered. Disobedience is a heartfelt and organic story of love finding a way through all the dark and uncertainty.

Director:  Sebastián Lelio

Distributor:  Bleecker Street

Romance:  Romantic drama

9. You Were Never Really Here

A heroic yet traumatizing narrative finds Joaquin Phoenix’s Joe in the midst of unfolding the inner workings of a crime ring that stretches further than anyone could have comprehended. Joe is a former military and FBI operative, now a hired gun whose job it is to rescue trafficked girls. Director Lynne Ramsay expertly maneuvers the chaos and violence of the film, often subverted our expectations in various means. Phoenix gives one of his best performances to date, and Jonny Greenwood’s original soundtrack is the icing atop the cacophonic cake.

Director:  Lynne Ramsay

Distributor:  Amazon Studios

Genre:  Psychological thriller / crime drama

8. The Old Man & the Gun

If (500) Days of Summer were all grown up is how I would begin to describe this story. But The Old Man & the Gun is much, much more than a simple romantic comedy. Much like the director’s project from last year, one A Ghost Story, David Lowery once again explores the fabrics of time and how they shapes us as a species. The story is a contemplation on time’s inevitability and its relationship with our feelings of love and yearning. Beautifully backdropped by an America long passed, Lowery’s film finds two characters especially intertwined, strung together by the fickle hands of time itself. Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek have undeniable chemistry, and it is this chemistry that acts as the driving force of the film. Redford’s swan song is one to be seen and remembered dearly.

Director:  David Lowery

Distributor:  Fox Searchlight

Genre:  Biography / romantic comedy

7. First Reformed

A deep meditation on faith and all the uncertainties it brings with, First Reformed is an imaginative and exhausting look into the vitriol we have brought upon ourselves, and how God and Man meet at such an abyss. Reverend Toller, once a chaplain in the Armed Forces, now resides and serves in an old Dutch Reformed church, serving a diminishing congregation and existing in the shadow of the neighboring megachurch, Abundant Life. Toller is forced to deal his own morals and understandings, while also supporting those in his congregation. As his service becomes increasingly darker and more difficult, Toller looks deep within himself and looks to God for an answer, any answer.

Director:  Paul Schrader

Distributor:  A24

Genre:  Drama

6. Eighth Grade

Bo Burnham uses his directorial debut to discuss the Internet in its current context. From his discussions on the A24 podcast, Burnham wanted to find a proper medium for such a discussion, because many who try to judge the Internet and its culture do so miserably. It is understandably difficult to critique such culture without sounding tone deaf, but Burnham executes it to perfection. What better way to critique the Internet than by doing so from the perspective of an eighth grader, a person who has grown up in the shadow of the digital age? Elsie Fisher is a breakout star, nailing the timid courage of her character. Through excellent and organic performances and modern comedic writing, Eighth Grade is a coming-of-age story unlike any other.

Director:  Bo Burnhma

Distributor:  A24

Genre:  Comedy-drama / coming-of-age

5. Annihilation

2018 was admittedly a weaker year for science fiction, but one project that rose above the rest was Alex Garland’s Annihilation. Garland’s no stranger to science fiction or horror, having tackled the genres in 28 Days Later, 28 Weeks Later, and Ex Machina. But with Annihilation Garland is able to capture horror rooted in science, incomparable to any other film. Based on the novel by the same name from author Jeff VanderMeer, the story follows a group of scientists venturing into a quarantined zone known as “The Shimmer.” Once inside, the scientists are faced with the supernatural horrors they studied from afar. Garland’s work is immense and vivid, deserving of so much more praise than it has received.

Director:  Alex Garland

Distributor:  Paramount Pictures & Netflix

Genre:  Science fiction horror

4. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs

The Coen Brothers are no strangers to the subversions of classic film. Their tangled narratives, inconclusive conclusions and ponderings on the workings of humankind have made them standout directors, enemies of conventional filmmaking and pioneers of darkly comedic explorations of humanity.

"A song never ceases to ease my mind out here in the West. Where the distances are great, and the scenery monotonous."

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, the Coen Brothers' first true western since 2010's True Grit, is anything but monotonous and certainly a welcome addition to the genre. Additionally, it is a triumphant return to form for the Coen Bros. Buster Scruggs is unlike most films, and again finds the Coen Brothers subverting the western genre, in its anthological form. Six vignettes tell the tales of settlers, outlaws, cowboys, and every sort of man and woman in between in the days of old, when the West was formed, and includes every bit of gruesome and grim detail.

It is not secret the Coen Brothers are adept at macabre storytelling, and are avid explorers of what makes man tick and humanity tremble. Their iconic dark, dry humor, their gritty and off-center storytelling, and their classic subversions of film are all present in Buster Scruggs. But while Coen films of past contained these elements (e.g. Hail, Caesar!), I have felt that their recent works have lacked that classic Coen charm. That snappy dialogue, the witty banter between characters, the intricate storytelling, all have been present in their works, but not since A Serious Man have I felt the Coen's magic this potently. That is now, not since Buster Scruggs.

The film's characters and stories do not overlap. But the themes and lessons certainly do. The opening ballad of one gun-slinging, guitar-strumming cowboy, Buster Scruggs (aka 'The San Saba Songbird'), is a gruesome musical. Full of shootouts and gore, it perfectly sets the tone for how the remainder of the film will play out. Tim Blake Nelson is charismatic, ruthless, and quick as a whip in this vignette. And I would have adored an entire film devoted solely to his character. But the Coen's first subversion comes when our hero is gunned down in the street by a faster gun.

Near Algodones, New Mexico, we find James Franco's outlaw. Robbing a bank, he is retaliated against by a surly old man covered in pans. This vignette feels shorter than its predecessor but is equally humorous and grim. The third story, Meal Ticket, gives us a glimpse into the harsh realities that faced early western settlers. And how making a living does not always coincide with morality and ethics. Liam Neeson and Harry Melling gel so well together but share few pieces of back-and-forth dialogue. I've seen some criticize this vignette for straying from the classic "western format," but to me it perfectly captures what it meant to live such a life.

All Gold Canyon is among my favorite of the stories. Its beautiful shots, wide takes of a beautiful canyon, and the juxtaposition of a man searching for riches in the mud while the true riches of nature are set behind him. It's a simple story, but it leaves the viewer wanting more from Tom Waits' prospector character. One of the view stories to end happily (in a sense), I found All Gold Canyon to be a masterful work of minimalist storytelling.

The Gal Who Got Rattled is my favorite of the six stories. Zoe Kazan, Bill Heck and Grainger Hines have excellent chemistry and play off each other so well. Straying from the deep west, we are drawn northwards, on the Oregon Trail. The simple yet dangerous treck is beautifully captured by the Coens here, and the story envelops you in its charm. And finally, The Mortal Remains ends our journey. A story laced with symbolism and metaphors, it's the Coen Brothers at their peak. The skeletal format of this vignette is much like the morals explored in No Country and A Serious Man, and I found myself wondering how the story could possibly end. And then it does. The final subversion of the film is this vignette's untimely end.

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs may lack continuity in terms of character arcs and storytelling. But what it certainly does not lack is character, masterful writing, expert characterization, and a deep understanding of what captivates us as viewers. The Coen Brothers understand that sometimes, simplicity is best. There is beauty in minimalism, and I believe Buster Scruggs is a excellent envisioning of such a statement.

Directors:  Joel & Ethan Coen

Distributor:  Netflix

Genre:  Western / anthological film / dark comedy

3. Hereditary

They say the devil is in the details, and so such phrase would better describe Ari Aster’s debut, Hereditary. Perhaps the phrase shouldn’t be taken metaphorically though, instead literally; the film finds a family thrown into tragedy after a Satanic occult ritual, long in the works, begins to root itself in the foundations of the family.

Aster uses the story to burrow into our pysches, to strike fear and discomfort into the viewers. He does so not only expertly, but in such original fashion as well. Sure, Aster’s influences can be indentified and picked apart by an experienced viewer, but his crafting of a narrative and his fleshing out of the characters is so unique and a welcome take to the horror genre, Hereditary feels like an entirely new breed of horror.

The film begins with the funeral of the mother to Annie Graham (Toni Collette). As guests pour in to the congregation, it is clear that Annie is shocked with the occupancy. She states in her eulogy that her mother was a very private and secretive women, and that she is shocked to see so many unfamiliar faces here to pay respects to her estranged mother. Once home, Annie and the rest of the family unwind to a disturbing degree of comfort. Annie does not seem shaken by her mother’s passing, as she begins clearing out boxes that belonged to her mother. As she is exiting her studio however, a vision of her mother briefly appears in the dim and dark corner of the unlit room. Annie steps back, wondering if what she saw was real or a fabrication of her mind. Thus, begins the Grahams’ descent into darkness.

Following the funeral, Annie’s only daughter Charlie expresses her worry over the loss of her grandma. Stating, “Who’s going to take care of me?” Charlie is at a loss. Annie comforts her saying of course she will take care of her, but Charlie responds by asking what will happen when Annie is gone.

Later, Peter (Annie’s son) asks if he can go out and visit friends at a party. Annie lets him go but on one condition, that he takes Charlie with him. Charlie begins having visions of her own, and begins tinkering and creating absurd and deformed sculptures. An obvious introvert, she is reluctant to agree to go to the party with Peter, much to the chagrin of Annie. At the party, Peter finds a group of friends to smoke marijuana with, leaving Charlie by herself. Alone, Charlie gets into trouble and her and Peter rush home. An unfortunate incident occurs en route, which only propels the darkness further.

Annie becomes desperate for answers and substance to her mother’s reclusive and secretive life. She finds hints of the truth through old belongings and an old friend of her mother. Visions keep recurring and stranger forces begin to act on not only Annie but Peter as well.

Soon, the family is tumbling down a slope of despair. Séances, rituals, occult castings begin to mount and the demons and darkness begin to unleash. The film is a gripping and horrifying look at what is perhaps most universally frightening, family.

Director Ari Aster is unafraid to explore and highlight the grotesque and grim. He utilizes shocking imagery and beautiful lighting to display these horrors front and center, while still relying on subtle scares to keep the audience in suspense. Not only is the film adeptly disturbing, its characters are compelling and interesting. None are thrown by the wayside, and the spiraling story’s success is hinged on the characters we come to love. Toni Collette gives her greatest performance to date, and Alex Wolff proves he can handle a broad array of material. Milly Shapiro is excellent as Charlie, rivaling Elsie Fisher for young breakout star this year.

The magnificent blend of cinematography, acting, writing, and horror imagery Hereditary the best horror film I’ve seen all year, and certainly one of the most gripping stories I have ever experienced.

Director:  Ari Aster

Distributor:  A24

Genre:  Supernatural horror / disturbing horror

2. The Favourite

It is often the case that period pieces take on a serious tone, dramatic takes on the facts and legends of old. Think Phantom Thread or Lincoln. Not too common are period pieces that extrapolate on the well-known, but also leave plenty of room for creative freedom from the production team. Even more rare are such projects that include elements of absurdity and dark comedy.

But it would not come to anyone’s surprise to find out that such a project exists at the hands of director Yorgos Lanthimos. Best known for his previous works, The Lobster and The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Lanthimos is almost Wes Anderson-esque or Tarantino-esque, in the marks he leaves in his films. His style is so distinct and his directions very much his own.

The Favourite follows suit, and Lanthimos’ quirks and trademarks are found throughout. From the monochromatic color palette to the dry, darkly comedic dialogue, the film is familiar in a way. But also true is that the film is nothing like Lanthimos has ever done before. It is grander, more gruesome, diabolical in a way, biblical in scope. His first film for a major production studio perhaps led to a grander scope, but I believe that this was a logical next step for the director. From The Lobster it was apparent that Lanthimos was willing and more than capable of tackling a monolithic project such as The Favourite, if given the right assets. It is inspiring to see such a film come to fruition.

The film finds three women in the royal court of Queen Anne:  Abigail Hill, Sarah Churchill, and Queen Anne herself. Churchill (known in the film commonly as Lady Marlborough) has serviced the Queen for quite some time, prior to Ms. Abigail Hill‘s arrival. Both as a political aid and as a lover, Churchill finds comfort and immense power in her role beside Queen Anne. Everything seems to be going well for the court; the Queen, while certainly inept, has the confidence of her subjects and the war with France is going better than expected.

But then Abigail Hill arrives. A cousin of Sarah Churchill’s, Abigail travels to the court in hopes of working under both the Queen and her senior, Lady Marlborough. Hill begins as a lowly servant, making meals and cleaning sections of the palace. But not soon after, she advances the ranks, eventually rivaling Churchill in terms of power and influence on the Queen and all of Britain. The two cousins turn on each other, a once subtle love quickly turns to angst and hate.

The relationship of the three women dips and ascends throughout the film; there are periods of immense joy and respect, but also grim and violent progressions of guilt, lust and jealousy.

All of these emotions are so vividly captured thanks to the unique cinematography and direction. Camera angles are unconventional, using low-lying cameras to peer upward towards the characters, or highly placed lenses creeping above the Queen and her court. All of these placements give the sense that the viewer is spying on the characters, that we are sneaking into their lives unbeknownst to them.

It is the performances of the three leads and the unique cinematography that gripped me so powerfully upon my initial viewing. Olivia Colman (Queen Anne), Rachel Weisz (Sarah Churchill) and Emma Stone (Abigail Hill) are all superb talents, free the stretch their acting chops and creative imaginations to bring such life to their characters. But the supporting cast is equally brilliant. In fact, no elements of the film come off as ill-planned or weak. The film is like a well-oiled machine, perfectly in sync and precise to a scary degree.

Director:  Yorgos Lanthimos

Distributor:  Fox Searchlight

Genre:  Historical comedy-drama / period piece / romance

1. Burning (버닝)

It has been quite some time since I have felt this looming questioning of morality, this cutting sense of dread from a motion picture. Burning is a Korean psychological thriller by Lee Chang-dong, and tells the story of three individuals caught in the unforgiving hands of lust. An ineffable sense of desire lurks throughout the film, as the three characters find themselves and their relationships with each other engulfed in tragedy. Love and desire quickly transforms into decay and wrath.

Lee Jong-su (Yoo Ah-in) is a part-time delivery man, who one day finds an old schoolmate working outside a department store. Shin Hae-mi (Jun Jong-seo) asks Jong-su out to drinks and the two quickly become entranced by one another. Hae-mi asks Jong-su if he remembers her from their shared past. He does not. She informs him that they attended middle school together, lived in the same village, and that Jong-su once called her ugly leading to her receiving plastic surgery. Still, deeply infatuated and perhaps a tad remorseful, Jong-su helps Hae-mi by looking over her reclusive cat while she travels to Africa in the hopes of some soul searching.

Hae-mi eventually returns to Seoul, this time bringing back a friend she met while in the airport, Ben. Ben and Hae-mi bonded over their shared heritage and nationality, being the only two Koreans in the airport at the time. The trio goes out for hot pot and drinks, where Hae-mi states in a drunken stupor that she felt incredibly lonesome while in the Kalahari desert. She describes a bittersweet lonesomeness that only such a vast expanse of desolation could bring. Jong-su seems unphased, almost detached from such a stark statement from a normally bubbly individual. Ben, looks noticeably concerned but then says he has never understood why people cry, he has never shed a tear himself. The three leave shortly after.

Time moves on, and Jong-su eventually moves back to his hometown to take over his father’s farm, as his father has come into legal trouble. Hae-mi and Ben become ever closer and Jong-su appears to remain detached from Hae-mi from the exterior. Deep down, Jong-su feels heavily for Hae-mi, eventually expressing his love for her to Ben at his farm.

Darkness sets in when one day Hae-mi does not respond to Jong-su’s calls. From there on out the story becomes a mysterious and incredibly riveting tale of love and the dangers of desire and inaction.

Yoo Ah-in is incredible as Jong-su, and nails the detached and perplexed characterization. Steven Yeun steals every scene he is a part of, reminding me of Heath Ledger’s Joker or Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in terms of menacing presence and subtle malice. But for me, the standout actor is Jun Jong-seo and her portrayal of Hae-mi. She embodies the character perfectly, and I felt for her character throughout the film. Hae-mi is clearly struggling to find her own way and desperately wants to find courage and power in some shape or form. I can relate to that struggle. Truly, this film is carried by its characters and the beautiful performances by their respective actors.

So many other elements come together to make this film a success though. The cinematography is masterclass. Using wide lenses to capture the claustrophobic chaos of downtown Seoul and the vast and desolate disconnect of the Korean countryside, cinematographer Hong Kyung-pyo is able to capture the diverse beauty of Korea. He uses intimate close ups and handheld camerawork to create cutting scenes of tension and discomfort, drawing the viewer into the experience, emboldening the story of Jung-su and Hae-mi. A wide variety of long takes and tracking shots are utilized as well, forcing the viewer to pay attention and highlighting the characters in an organic moment.

Perhaps my favorite scene of the year, and certainly my favorite scene of the movie comes about half way through the runtime. It involves Miles Davis’ song, “Générique,” and a particular character’s tribal, rhythmic dancing. It’s a beautiful moment of reflection in the film and still runs through my head.

I will refrain from discussing the film anymore, as I strongly believe this work is best experienced with as little knowledge as possible. Lee Chang-dong, Yoo Ah-in, Jun Jong-seo and Steven Yeun, and the rest of the production team have created something incredibly raw and thoughtful here. It is more than apparent that an immense amount of care went into making this story and adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s Barn Burning a triumphant success. What I love about this film is, in a way, it made me feel a connection to my home country in such a profound and unexplainable way. I haven’t seen many Korean films, but Burning was able to kindle a connection in me that I haven’t experienced with other Korean films before. For these reasons, I can decidedly say that Burning is my favorite film of 2018.

Director:  Lee Chang-dong

Distributor:  CGV Arthouse (Korea) & Well Go Entertainment (USA)

Genre:  Psychological thriller / romantic drama

[uomo-accattivante]

Oscar Isaac in the role of painter Paul Gauguin is trouble you see coming from a mile away—the kind you live to regret falling for anyway.

He’s a holier-than-thou painting bro with a “slightly misanthropic” streak (Isaac’s generous wording), eyes glinting with disgust in his first close-up. Pipe in one hand, book in another, dressed all black save for an elegant red scarf, he slams a table and shames the Impressionists gathered around him: “They call themselves artists but behave like bureaucrats,” he huffs after a theatrical exit. “Each of them is a little tyrant.”

From a few tables away, another painter, Vincent van Gogh, watches in awe. He runs into the street after Gauguin like a puppy dog.

Within a year, a reluctant Gauguin would move in with van Gogh in a small town in the south of France, in the hope of fostering an artists’ retreat away from stifling Paris. Eight emotionally turbulent weeks later, van Gogh would lop off his left ear with a razor, distraught that his dearest friend planned to leave him for good. He enclosed the bloody cartilage in wrapping marked “remember me,” intending to have it delivered to Gauguin by a frightened brothel madam as a bizarre mea culpa. The two never spoke again.

Or so the last two years of Vincent van Gogh’s life unspool in Julian Schnabel’s At Eternity’s Gate, itself a kind of lush, post-Impressionistic memoir of the Dutchman’s tormented time in Arles, France. (Not to mention artistically fruitful time: Van Gogh churned out 200 paintings and 100 watercolors and sketches before the ear fiasco landed him in an insane asylum.)

Isaac plays Gauguin like an irresistibly bad boyfriend, a bemused air of condescension at times wafting straight into the audience: “Why’re you being so dramatic?” he scoffs directly into the camera, inflicting a first-person sensation of van Gogh’s insult and pain.

Yet in the painter’s artistic restlessness, Isaac, 37, sees himself: “That desire to want to do something new, to want to push the boundaries, to not just settle for the same old thing and get so caught up with the minutia of what everyone thinks is fashionable in the moment.” He talks about “staying true to your own idea of what’s great.” He talks about “finding something honest.”

From another actor, the sentiment might border on banal. But Oscar Isaac—Guatemalan-born, Juilliard-trained and, in his four years since breaking through as film’s most promising new leading man, christened superlatives from “this generation’s Al Pacino” to the “best dang actor of his generation”—might really have reason to mean what he says. He’s crawling out the other end of a life-altering two years, one that’s encompassed personal highs, like getting married and becoming a father, and an acutely painful low: losing a parent.

He basked in another Star Wars premiere, mined Hamlet for every dimension of human experience, and weathered the worst notices of his career with Life Itself. Through it all, he says, he’s spent a lot of time in his head—reevaluating who he is, what he wants, and what matters most.

Right now, he’s aiming for a year-long break from work, his first in a decade, after wrapping next December’s Star Wars: Episode IX. “I’m excited to, like Gauguin, kind of step away from the whole thing for a bit and focus on things that are a bit more real and that matter to me,” he says.

Until then, he’s just trying “to keep moving forward as positively as I can,” easing into an altered reality. “You’re just never the same,” he says quietly. “On a cellular level, you’re a completely different person.”

When we talk, Isaac is in New York for one day to promote and attend the New York Film Festival premiere of At Eternity’s Gate. Then it’s back on a plane to London, where Pinewood Studios and Star Wars await.

Episode IX, the last of Disney’s new Skywalker trilogy, will see Isaac reprise the role of dashing Resistance pilot Poe Dameron, whose close relationship with Carrie Fisher’s General Leia evokes joy but also melancholy after Fisher’s untimely passing.

Each film was planned in part as a celebration and send-off to each of the original trilogy’s most beloved heroes: in The Force Awakens, Han Solo (Harrison Ford); in The Last Jedi, Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill); Fisher, meanwhile, had hoped to save Leia’s spotlight for last but passed unexpectedly long before filming began. Director J.J. Abrams, returning to close the trilogy he opened with Episode VII, has since said that unseen footage of Fisher from that previous film will ensure the General appears, however briefly.

For his part, Isaac promises the still-untitled ninth film will pay appropriate homage to Leia—and to Fisher’s sense of fun. “The story deals with that quite a bit,” he says. “It’s a strange thing to be on the set and to be speaking of Leia and having Carrie not be around. There’s definitely some pain in that.” Still, he says, compared to the first two installments, “there’s a looseness and an energy to the way that we’re shooting this that feels very different.”

“It’s been really fun being back with J.J., with all of us working in a really close way. I just feel like there’s an element of almost senioritis, you know?” he laughs. “Since everything just feels way looser and people aren’t taking it quite as seriously, but still just having a lot of fun. I think that that energy is gonna translate to a really great movie.”

Fisher’s absence is felt keenly on set, Isaac says. As if to reassure us both, however, he reiterates: “It deals with the amazing character that Carrie created in a really beautiful way.”

Two months after Fisher’s death, Isaac’s mother, Eugenia, passed away after an illness. A month after that, the actor married his girlfriend, the Danish documentarian Elvira Lind. Another month later, the couple welcomed their first son, named Eugene to honor the little boy’s grandmother. Work offered a way for a reeling Isaac to process.

There was his earth-shaking run at Hamlet, in which Isaac starred as the titular prince in mourning at New York’s Public Theater. And then there was writer-director Dan Fogelman’s Life Itself, a film met with reviews that near-unanimously recoiled from its “cheesy,” “overwrought” structure, filled with what one critic called the genuine emotion of “a damage-control ExxonMobil commercial.”

The reaction surprised Isaac. “I thought it was some of my strongest work,” he says. “Especially at that moment in my life. This guy is dealing with grief and, for me, it was a really honest way of trying to understand those emotions and to create a character who was also going through just incomprehensible grief.” He’s proud of the performance—and, in a strange way, heartened by the sour critical response.

“To be honest,” he says brightly, “there was something really comforting about it.” That the work “for me, meant something and for others, didn’t at all, it just made the whole thing not matter so much in a great way.”

“I was able to explore something and come out the other end and feel like I grew as an actor,” he explains. “That matters to me a lot. And the response to that, you know, it’s interesting of course, but it was a great example for me of how it really doesn’t dictate how I then feel about what I did.”

He thinks for a moment of performances and projects that, conversely, embarrassed him—ones that to his shock, boasted “really great notices” in the end. “You just never know, you know? It’s completely out of my control.”

Isaac is an encouraging listener in conversation, doling out interested yeahs and uh-huhs, and often warm, self-deprecating laughter. When I broach a particularly personal subject, he seems to sit up—somehow, suddenly more present. It’s about his last name.

Óscar Isaac Hernández Estrada dropped both surnames before enrolling at Juilliard in 2001. He’d run into several Óscar Hernándezes at auditions by that point, and taken note of the stereotypes casting directors seemed to have in mind for them—gangsters, drug dealers, the works. So he made a change, not unlike many actors do.

Whether Óscar Hernández might have had a crack at the astonishingly diverse roles Oscar Isaac has inhabited, we’ll never know. But given Hollywood’s limiting tendencies, it’s less likely he might have played an English king for Ridley Scott in 2010’s Robin Hood, three years before his breakthrough role as a cantankerous folk singer in Joel and Ethan Coen’s Inside Llewyn Davis. He was an Armenian genocide survivor in last year’s The Promise, an Israeli secret agent in August’s Operation Finale, and now, he’s the Frenchman Paul Gauguin.

Star Wars’ Poe Dameron, meanwhile, or the mysterious tech billionaire in Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, or the army commando in his second Garland mind-twist, Annihilation, specify no ethnicities at all. It’s the dream: to be hailed as a great actor, period, and not a “great Latino actor” first. To be appreciated for your talent, and seen as “other” rarely at all.

There’s a crawl space between those distinctions, though, where another anxiety lives. The one that makes you wonder: Am I “representing” as loudly as I should? Am I obligated to do so in my work? If I don’t, what does that make me? Questions for when you grew up in Miami, or another Latino-dominant place, reckoning with how you’re perceived in a spotlight outside of it. Isaac listens attentively. Then for several unbroken minutes, talks it out with himself.

He rewinds to yesterday, when he boarded a plane from London on which an air steward addressed him repeatedly as “señor,” unbidden. “It was just a little weird. So I started calling him ‘señor’ as well. I was like, thank you, señor!” Isaac recalls, cracking up. “But then at the same time, I had that thought. I was like, but no, I should really, you know, be proud of being a señor, I guess?”

“I think for a lot of immigrants, the idea is that you don’t always just want to be thought of as other. Like, I don’t want him to be just calling me ‘señor.’ Why?” he asks, more of the steward than himself. “Because I look like I do, so I’m not a mystery anymore? It did bring up all those kinds of questions.”

He grew up in the United States, he explains; his family came over from Guatemala City when Isaac was 5 months old. “I’m most definitely Latino. That’s who I am. But at the same time, for an actor it’s like, I want to be hired not because of what I can represent, but because of what I can create, how I can transform, and the power of what I create.”

Still, Isaac has eyes and ears and exists in the year 2018 with the rest of us. “I’m not an idiot,” he adds. “And I know that we live in a politically charged time. There’s so much terrible language, particularly right now, being used against Latinos as a kind of political weapon.” He recognizes, too, the necessity “for people to see people that look like them, because that’s a very inspiring thing.”

As a kid, Isaac looked up to Raúl Juliá, the Puerto Rican-born actor and Broadway star whose breakthrough movie role came as Gomez Addams of the ’90s Addams Family films. “But I looked up to him particularly because he was a Latino that wasn’t being pigeonholed just in Latino parts,” Isaac adds.

“I do think there is a separation between the artist and the art form, between a craftsperson and the craft,” he says, applying the difference in this context to himself. He calls it “that double thing,” as apt a term as any for that peculiar, precise tension: “Like yes, I am who I am, I came from where I come from. But my interest isn’t just in showing people stuff about myself, because I don’t find me to be all that interesting.”

“What is more interesting to me is the work that I’m able to do, and all that time that I spent learning how to do Shakespeare and how to break down plays and try to create a character and do accents,” he says. “That, for me, is what’s fun.”

But it’s always that “double thing”—reconciling two pulls and finding a way not to get torn up. He wants American Latinos “to know, to be proud that there is someone from there that is out and doing work and being recognized not just for being a Latino that’s been able to do that.” On the other hand, he’s “just like any artist who’s out there doing something. I feel like that’s…” He pauses. “That’s also something to be proud of, you know?”

Isaac’s focus lands on me again. “And I think for you too, you’re a writer and that’s what you do. Your identity is also part of that, but I think that you want the work to stand on its own, too.” His sister is “an incredible scientist. She’s at the forefront of climate change and particularly how it affects Latino communities and low-income areas. And she is a Latina scientist, but she’s a scientist, you know? She’s a great scientist without the qualifier of where she’s from. And that’s also very important.”

Paul Gauguin’s life after van Gogh’s death by gunshot at 37 revealed more repugnant depths than his dick-ish insensitivity.

He defected from Paris again, this time to the South Pacific, determined to break from the staid art scene once and for all. He “married” three adolescent brides, two of them 14 years old and the other 13, infecting each girl with syphilis and settling into a private compound he dubbed Maison de Jouir, or “House of Orgasms.” “Pretty gnarly, nasty stuff,” Isaac concedes, though he withholds judgment of the man in his performance onscreen.

To do so might have made his Gauguin—alluring, haughty, insufferable, brilliant—“not quite as complex.” Opposite Willem Dafoe’s divinely wounded depiction of van Gogh, however, he found room to play. “It was interesting to ask, well, what’s the kind of person that would feel that he’s entitled to do those kinds of things?” The man onscreen is an asshole, to be sure, but hardly paints the word “sociopath” onto a canvas. He’s simply human: “I think that anyone has at least the capacity to do” what Gauguin did, Isaac reasons.

The actor has had more than one reason to think on a person’s capacity to do terrible things in the last year. Two men he’s worked with—his Show Me a Hero director, Paul Haggis, and X-Men: Apocalypse helmer Bryan Singer—were both accused of sexual assault in the last year, part of a torrent of unmasked misconduct Hollywood’s Me Too movement brought to national attention.

“It’s a tricky thing,” Isaac says, “because you get offered jobs all the time and, I guess, what’s required now? What kind of background checks can someone do beforehand? There isn’t a ton.” (Just ask Olivia Munn.) “Especially as an actor, to make sure that the people you’re working with, surrounding yourself with, haven’t done something in their past that I guess will make you seem somehow like you’re propping up bad behavior.”

Carefully, he expresses reservations about the phenomenon of the last year. “People don’t feel like they’re getting justice through any kind of legal system, so they take it to the streets,” he ventures. “It’s basically street justice. You have no other option. And what happens when you take it to the streets is that damage occurs, and sometimes people get taken down, things get destroyed that you feel like maybe shouldn’t have.”

“But some of it had to happen, and hopefully now there’ll be more of a system in place to take these things seriously,” he says. “It seems like it is starting to happen more, but then you see things like, how can this person get away with it? How can that person? It just boggles the mind.”

He pulls back again, remembering what’s out of his control.

Tomorrow, he’ll be back in an X-Wing suit, as Poe struggles to accept the same truth. In a year, he’ll be home in New York with his wife and young son, focusing on matters more “real” than Hollywood, its artists, and its art. Whatever he chooses whenever he returns, he’ll be ready—for the critics, the questions, for this new reality.

“All I can do is just do what means something to me,” he says. “You just have to find something honest.” One expects he will.

###

[judgeanon]

Besides Judge Dredd comics (and of course Hershey) what other things do you like/enjoy/read/watch?

Sci-fi in general. I’m not super in-depth but I’ve read my Bradburys and my Asimovs and my Gibsons. Recently my cousin gave me “A Canticle for Leibowitz” and I’m excited to start on that. To my shame I’m not reading a lot of books lately. Unless you count comics.

If you do count comics, I’m really loving a bunch of Image and indie stuff in general. Lazarus, Velvet, Manifest Destiny, Manhattan Projects, East of West, Prophet, Rumble, Kill Six Billion Demons, literally anything by Garth Ennis, and of course, the rest of 2000AD. I’m not reading much Marvel/DC at the moment, but I loved the hell out of Vision and Omega Men, and Flintstones is the best thing DC is publishing right now.

Movies, I’m a sucker for a good western. Bah, I’m a sucker for good westerns regardless of media. Good action, too. Some movies I really liked the last few years were Arrival, Sicario, Rogue One, Hell or High Water, Hail Caesar, Mad Max: Fury Road (watched it about 4-5 times, one in IMAX), so on. Had the pleasure last Sunday of rewatching Hateful Eight with my brother, who hadn’t seen it, during a rainstorm. Anything Carpenter, Scorsese, Coen Bros, Tarantino, etc.

I am terrible at watching series. I just can’t do it. I can’t sit through four or five hours of something, especially knowing there’s four or five more hours to go. Especially if it’s on my PC. I know I’m missing out on a ton of good shit but I just really lack the discipline for one hour shows. I do love the new Thunderbirds Are go show, though. With a passion.

For the last five or six years I’ve also been getting pretty heavily into action figures, especially GI Joes. I backed the Boss Fight Studio and Marauder: Valkyries Kickstarters, and walked out of them with some of the finest bits of painted plastic you’ll ever see in your life. I also have a handful of DC and Marvel figures of characters I just really like.

I like videogames, but I’m not terribly good at them. Right now I’m playing Yakuza 5, Shantae and the Pirate’s Curse, and ABZU. Love nearly anything by Platinum Games or Suda51. I’m goddawful at fighting games, but I have a huge soft spot for Mortal Kombat. Beat ‘em up and vehicular combat are my favorite “dead” genres. Like with comics, I especially like games that have a point to make and use their gameplay and design to drive that point home, like Hotline Miami or my beloved Spec-Ops: The Line.

Also, there’s a handful of “stock plots” I really love: any Heart of Darkness/Apocalypse Now sort of story. Any Anabasis/The Warriors. And Rashomon. Any story, regardless of media, that goes for anything like that has my immediate attention.

[weekendwarriorblog]

WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND December 21, 2018  - Mary Poppins Returns, Aquaman, Bumblebee, Second Act, Welcome to Marwen

This was going to be my last column for the year, but there’s just too much to write about, so I’m going to split it up and publish another, hopefully shorter, column next Monday. This is the last weekend before Christmas, and while there are a ton of big movies released – as well as a couple lower-key ones – most of these movies will just be doing a very small part of their overall business in the generally slower weekend before they explode next week with everyone off from school and most off from work all week.

MARY POPPINS RETURNS (Disney)

Opening on Wednesday is Walt Disney Pictures’ last prospective blockbuster of the year as well as a sequel to one of the company’s most iconic films over its entire history, 1964’s Mary Poppins, which was nominated for 13 Oscars, winning five. Mary Poppins Returns might also be Disney’s first big play for a Best Picture nomination since The Helpin 2011, which actually was a DreamWorks movie. Then again, Disney already seemingly has its stokes in the Oscar fire this year with Marvel’s Black Panther, so this family musical in the Walt Disney tradition might be suitable back-up.

It’s the latest movie directed by Rob Marshall, who helped Disney’s Miramax division win Best Picture with his theatrical directorial debut Chicago, then delivered a musical holiday hit for Disney four years ago with Into the Woods, which grossed $128 million from a Christmas Day release. Chicago grossed $170 million after its own Christmas Day platform release in 2002, and that got Marshall the gig directing 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, which grossed $241 million in North America but did even better with $800 million overseas.

Marshall reunites with a couple of his Into the Woods stars, most notably Emily Blunt, who is so perfect to step into the very big shoes of the original Mary Poppins, Julie Andrews.  Blunt is already having quite a spectacular year after starring in hubby John Krasinski’s The Quiet Place, which grossed $188 million domestically, making it Blunt’s highest-grossing movie to date. A few years ago, Blunt starred in the movie based on the bestselling book The Girl on the Train, which also did decently with $75 million, and that was mostly based on her name (and the book, of course.)  That should be enough to help place Blunt even closer to the A-list and playing Mary Poppins is likely to solidify that role. Who knows? It might even get her that Oscar nomination that has been so elusive despite having six Golden Globe nominations.

Of course, Blunt is ably helped by popular actor-rapper-songwriter Lin Manuel Miranda, whose Hamilton broke many records for Broadway musical and who is working on adapting his previous musical In the Heights  for the screen. Miranda previously got involved with the Disney brand when he wrote songs and provided his voice for Dwayne Johnson’s Moana a few years back, and no surprise that he’s out there doing the most press and talk shows for Mary Poppins Returns. Then on top of those two stars, Marshall and Blunt also reunite with Into the Wood’s Oscar-nominated scene stealerMeryl Streep, clearly an A-list star who can bring people out to see almost anything she does, although she only appears for one song/musica number in this movie. The cast is rounded out by Ben Whishaw, James Bond’s Q, and Emily Mortimer, another great British actor, plus there are a couple highly-publicized cameos by original Mary Poppins stars that will be a thrill to fans of the original.

The thing is that there’s a whole generation or two that did not grow up watching the original Disney movie, so they won’t have the personal connection to the character/movie as their parents might. Also, one can expect that males of all ages will be more interested in checking out Aquaman  or Bumblebee their opening weekend,

It’s important to remember a couple things – the first one being that the weekend before Christmas can be slower than usual, and the second being that opening on Wednesday means that really diehard fans who can’t wait until the weekend might try to see it before heading out of town for the holidays. On the other hand, some might just wait until the weekend or until Christmas week to see it with their families. Either way, these things will likely keep the movie’s weekend numbers to be too crazy.

Because of that, I can see Mary Poppins Returns  making around $10 million on Wednesday and Thursday, getting a nice bump over the weekend to just over $40 million, but REALLY exploding in the week beginning with Christmas to the point where I can see it hitting $200 million by New Year’s Day, which would be quite amazing for a studio that is having their best year ever.

MY REVIEW OF MARY POPPINS RETURNS

AQUAMAN (Warner Bros.)

It’s hard to imagine the latest movie from Warner Bros’ DC Universe might be considered counter-programming to a Disney movie, but let’s face it, Warner Bros. has been struggling against the Disney-Marvel Studios titan for a bunch of years now, and they need a way back into fans’ good graces after last year’s Justice League and 2015’s Suicide Squad.

It’s hard to believe that anyone would ever make an Aquaman movie, especially after the famous Entouragegag – not to mention Saturday Night Liveand others making fun of the character. Jason Momoa’s Atlantean warrior from the Justice League movie is indeed getting his own solo movie, directed by James Wan of Furious 7  and three horror franchises: Saw, Insidious and The Conjuring.

Joining Momoa as Mera is Amber Heard, who also had a brief appearance in Justice League, but has mainly been off-the-grid with the long-delayed London Fields and in the tabloids for her issues with her ex Johnny Depp. Heard hasn’t really been in a major release since the Oscar bait The Danish Girl and Magic Mike XXL in 2015.

The cast also includes Oscar winner Nicole Kidman (as Aquaman’s mother), Oscar nominee Willem Dafoe (as Aquaman’s advisor) and Wan regular Patrick Wilson as his brother Orm aka one of the film’s main baddies, Ocean Master. It also stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II as Aquaman’s other bad guy, Black Manta.

Reviewsfor the movie have generally been mixed but on par with Mary Poppins Returns, maybe a little lower, but much better than Justice Leagueor Suicide Squad. (Thank, God!) Warner Bros. even gave the movie sneak previews this past Saturday for Amazon Prime users, in which it made $2.9 million. That might help get the word out on the movie, but it also might take some money away from the movie’s opening weekend, since many probably went to see it early from positive reviews.

The movie will also have to tackle the most direction competition from Paramount’s Bumblebee (see below) as well as last week’s well-received Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, which is likely to have strong word-of-mouth business from last weekend going by its rare A+ CinemaScore.

Expect Aquaman to do decently over the pre-holiday weekend with $70 to 75 million, because as mentioned before, many people are travelling or doing last-minute shopping over the weekend, but expect it to continue to bring in repeat business over the holidays, so I could see it grossing $250 million or slightly more by the time it leaves theaters.

Also, make sure to check out my interview with director James Wan over at the awesome new VitalThrills.com! Very excited to have a byline on that relatively new site!

MY REVIEW OF AQUAMAN

BUMBLEBEE (Paramount)

The third big movie of the weekend -- and some will find it crazy that Paramount is releasing it this weekend against the two stronger movies above -- is the latest movie in the Transformers franchise, the prequel telling the story of Autobot Bumblebee.

Directed by Travis Knight, the CEO of Laika Studios and director of the stop-motion animated Kubo and the Two Strings, this is a prequel that shows the origin of the beloved Transformer character as he’s sent to earth during the Fall of Cybertron and ends up befriending a rebellious teenager (played by Hailee Steinfeld) in 1987.

Having a female lead in a Transformers is quite groundbreaking since women were mostly used as eye candy in Michael Bay’s movies, but Hailee Steinfeld has done a good job establishing herself with her debut role in the Coens’ True Grit, for which she received an Oscar nomination. Since then, she’s been in films like Ender’s Game, Begin Again, Pitch Perfect 2 and most recently, voicing the role of Spider-Gwen in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.

On the plus side, having a female lead might help bring in younger girls that might not normally be interested in Transformers, but it could theoretically turn off the guys who have already been complaining about the female leads in the Star Wars saga. Both franchises are very male-driven, and both of the new movies above will be of equal interest to anyone who might be interested in Bumblebee.

Fortunately, Bumblebee is much better than most people are expecting, and some might be surprised that it currently has better reviews than both Aquaman AND Mary Poppins with 98% Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, as of this writing.  It does have a ton of competition arriving in theaters, but it’s fairly clear that Paramount and Allspark Films (the film division of Hasbro) are hoping to get some run-off over the holidays from people who have already seen the above two movies, as well as Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The fact that Paramount gave a well-attended early sneak preview of Bumblebee on Dec 8 gives you some idea how confident they are that the fans will dig so.

Even so, Bumblebee will be lucky to make more than $20 million this weekend, although there might be enough room with most people off work and out of school on Sunday to see more than one movie this weekend. I can see this one making around $25 million over the weekend but it should also be able to exceed $100 million by New Year’s, and its overseas money should help Paramount stay in the Transformers business for some time.

MY REVIEW OF BUMBLEBEE

SECOND ACT (STXfilms)

And then we get to some big-time counter-programming, and in this case, it might be a movie that might have a hard time finding an audience, especially against Mary Poppins Returns.

Second Actcould just as well have been called “Jennifer Lopez Returns,” because it is in fact her first major non-voice role in theaters since 2015’s thriller The Boy Next Door. That movie was a bit of a joke, yet it still opened with nearly $15 million and grossed $35.3 million based on her role. Her previous movie Parker two years earlier didn’t fair particularly well, much of which may be attributed to her not being as much in the public eye in terms of movies anyway.

Directed by Peter Segal (50 First Dates), Second Actis more in vein of Lopez’s 2002 hit Maid in Manhattan, which grossed $94 million over the holidays after a moderate $18.7 million December opening. Lopez went on to have a few other romantic comedy hits after that including Shall We Danceand Monster-in-Law, but others like The Back-Up Plan (2010) and What to Expect When You’re Expecting (2012) barely made it to $40 million domestic.

That brings us to 2018 where Lopez hasn’t really been in a movie in some time but still has quite a few female fans, and maybe some of them might not be so interested in the mostly white Mary Poppins Returns. (Yes, I realize Lin Manuel Miranda is Puerto Rican-American … no need to write that angry letter/tweet!)

The movie offers a great premise which has Lopez making it in big business after a friend makes up a fake Facebook account, and it’s something that helps push the female empowerment conversation from the past few years even further. Earlier this year, STX released Amy Schumer’s I Feel Pretty, which did decently with $16 million opening, grossing nearly $49 million domestically, despite terrible reviews.

The trailers for Second Act have been received similarly well and Lopez has been doing her fair share of the talk show rounds, but otherwise, STX has only opened one movie with more than $20 million, and that was 2016’s Bad Moms, which was an easy sell even for its rushed-out sequel Bad Moms Christmaslast year.

Even though Second Actseems like a strong inspirational story, it also seems like the definition of a holiday movie that’s released in the bad weekend pre-Christmas, in which it probably couldn’t make more than $8 million. If the movie is as good as it looks, I can see women going to see it with female friends over the holidays to make it a sleeper with between $40 and 50 million total.

Mini-Review: I didn’t go into Second Act expecting much, even though Peter Segal did direct one of Adam Sandler’s better films (50 First Dates).  I certainly didn’t expect that I’d relate to Jennifer Lopez’s Maya as much as I did. No, I’m not a Latina woman from Queens who works in a supermarket, but I have been having trouble getting a job since I don’t have a degree despite having 25 years of experience writing for the internet.

But enough about me, let’s get back to Second Act, a movie with such an up-front premise that you will pretty much get exactly what you might expect if you’ve seen the trailer and liked what you saw. Somehow, Maya finds herself as a consultant at a big-name corporation’s make-up department because her friend’s son doctored her resumé and Facebook page.

Lopez is definitely in her element with this sort of premise which falls somewhere between Working Girl and 13 Going on 30, and if you like those inspirational woman-empowerment comedies, then you’ll probably find elements to like about Second Act as well.

Much of that is due to Lopez’s supporting cast, a group of underrated funny women like Leah Remini (as Maya’s best friend) and Charlyne Yi (an office assistant) plus Vanessa Hudgens proving once again that she’s quite good at handling anything that’s thrown her way as Maya’s primary competition at the company. Some of the jokes work better than others, but whenever Remini is on-screen, you can expect to laugh.

Sure, the overall premise is one that’s already a little hard to swallow, but then it goes off the rails with a twist absolutely no one will see coming. And yet, it somehow finds a way to recover nicely and get its audience back.

Regardless, Second Act is a perfectly harmless and safe film that gives you more than a few laughs, might even have you in tears at times, but basically gives you exactly what’s advertised, which is something rather rare these days.

Rating: 7/10

WELCOME TO MARWEN (Universal)

Lastly, there’s the latest movie from Robert Zemeckis, which ten to fifteen years ago, may have been a huge deal, especially following the huge success he had with Tom Hanks inCast Awayand Forest Gump, both which were Oscar-nominated (and winning) mega-blockbusters.

Zemeckis’ last film, the WWII spy drama Allied, only made $40 million despite starting Brad Pitt and Marion Cotillard, and his real-life story The Walkstarring Joseph Gordon Lewis might as well have been thrown over the side of the World Trade Center, because it tanked so badly. Zemeckis’ last hit was Flight, starring Denzel Washington, which barely grazed $100 million domestic, but also received two Oscar nominations. The three movies before that were performance capture animated movies with had varying degrees of success.

Like Flight and The Walk, Welcome to Marwenis based on a true story, that of artist Mark Hogancamp, who was injured in a brutal attack and finds therapeutic solace in the models and dolls he builds in his backyard. Hogancamp’s story was previously told in Jeff Maimberg’s award-winning doc Marwencol in 2010, although I’m not sure that many people are aware that doc exists.

Like Nicole Kidman above, this is Steve Carell’s third movie of the year, including the Christmas Day opener Vice, and his last drama Beautiful Boy has only grossed $7.5 million… and that was with super-hot Timothée Calamet! Carell’s 2017 releases, Richard Linklater’s Last Flag Flying and Battle of the Sexes haven’t fared much better, and he’s generally done better voicing Gru in Illumination Studios’ Despicable Me and Minions movies. For this one, Carell is co-starring Leslie Mann (reuniting with Carell for the first time since his breakout film The 40 Year Old Virgin), Eisa Gonzalez from Baby Driver, Game of Thrones’ Gwendoline Christie, Diane Kruger and Janelle Monae, a solid female supporting cast, for sure.

There have been many movies like this released right before Christmas in hopes for any sort of business over the holidays. Movies like Jim Carrey’s The Majestic opened with less than $5 million in 2001, and Will Smith’s Collateral Beautyonly did slightly better in 2016 with its $7 million opening. Also, there was the Tom Hanks movie Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, which only got a platform release over Christmas, which is generally the way to go for movies looking for Oscar nominations.

In some ways, Marwen reminds me of Ben Stiller’s 2013 remake of The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, which opened on Christmas Day (a Wednesday) with $7.8 million and made another $12.7 million on its way to $58 million domestic. I don’t think Marwen could do that well since it’s opening before the Christmas holiday bump, because Universal is only opening Zemeckis’ latest in 1,900 theaters, and the movie has barely been screened for critics or awards groups before this coming week, which tells you that the studio doesn’t see it being an Oscar player.

Frankly, I’d be shocked if Marwen made more than $5 million this weekend, but if it’s any good, it could make upwards of $30 million but not much more. There’s just too much stronger competition in theaters.

Mini-Review: If you haven’t seen Jeffrey Maimberg’s doc – and I haven’t – then you might be even more puzzled by why Robert Zemeckis might want to dramatize the story of artist Mark Hogancamp who was beaten up outside an upstate bar and left in such a bad mental state, he lost all his memories. In order to get through the repercussions of such an assault, he began building a small town called Marwencol in his backyard, populating it with dolls that he would put into various hero scenarios.

Maybe this premise wouldn’t be so weird if the movie doesn’t start off with a WWII action scene involving Carell’s Captain Hogie in doll form taking on Nazis and being saved by a group of women… and the seeming cross between live action and animation just gets weirder and weirder as the movie goes along. There’s also Mark’s proclivity for collecting and wearing women’s high heel shoes, which also plays a pivotal role in the story, as does a “Belgian witch” named Deja (after the John Carter of Mars character), who is voiced by Diane Kruger, who doesn’t have a real-life counterpart like all of Hogie’s other women.

Sometime in the past ten years or more, you may have heard one woman or another complain about the body issues created by Barbie dolls that real girls couldn’t possibly live up to… so take that and then add a poorly-chosen Robert Palmer song, and you can understand why this movie might get many young women bristled.

It’s hard to completely hate a movie that features Leslie Mann in such a key role as Mark’s across-the-street neighbor Nicol, on which he has developed such a huge crush. This 40-Year-Old Virgin offers the movie’s sweetest and most emotional moments but then it’s soon lost in more silliness with dolls or once again showing Mark being beaten up on that fateful night. Janelle Monae and some of the other actors are wasted, barely appearing fully in human form.

The saddest part about this movie is that it’s painfully aware that Zemeckis has completely lost touch with the kind of movies that audiences might want to see, and Welcome to Marwen frequently has you asking, “Who was this movie supposed to be for?” Rating: 5/10

It certainly will be interesting to see how the top 3 movies fare in a busy pre-Christmas weekend, but even moreso to see how they affect the well-received Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and Clint Eastwood’s The Mule, although the former will probably be more affected than the latter. Fox Searchlight will continue to expand The Favourite nationwide, this Friday into 775, as it racks up awards and nominations, although I’m not sure that will be enough to break into the top 10. It probably will end up with around $2 million or so, as will, Focus Features’ Mary Queen of Scots, starring Saoirse Ronan, which will expand into 700 theaters with Ronan doing the talk show rounds this week. It’s a battle of the costume dramas outside the top 10, but expect both of them to find business over the holidays.

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this… (and mind you, these are all for three days, Friday through Sunday)

1. Aquaman  (Warner Bros.)  - $73.6 million N/A 2. Mary Poppins Returns  (Disney) - $41 million N/A ($10 million on Weds/Thursday) 3. Bumblebee  (Paramount) - $25.5 million N/A 4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse  (Sony) - $19.4 million -45% 5.The Mule (Warner Bros.) - $9.1 million -48% 6. Second Act (STXfilms) - $7.5 million N/A 7. The Grinch  (Universal) - $7 million -40% 8. Welcome to Marwen  (Universal) - $5 million N/A 9.Ralph Breaks the Internet  (Disney) – $4.4 million -48% 10. Mortal Engines  (Universal) - $3.4 million -55% -- The Favourite  (Fox Searchlight) - $2.1 million -- Mary Queen of Scots (Focus Features) - $1.8 million

LIMITED RELEASES

Thankfully, things are slowing down as far as limited releases with only a few left this weekend and a couple more next week.

First up is the new film from Oscar-winning Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowsky (Ida), as COLD WAR  (Amazon Studios), this one a love story between a young singer and older conductor and how that relationship evolves over the course of the years and a number of world events that try to come between them. I wrote about the film briefly when it played the New York Film Festival earlier this year and hope to rewatch it over the holidays, because it’s quite amazing. A wonderful story told in a tight 90 minutes, all in black and white with fantastic cinematography by Lukasz Zal, who received an Oscar nomination for his camerawork and lighting on Ida. It opens in select cities on Friday.

Opening in L.A. for a one-week Oscar consideration run is Kenneth Branagh’s ALL IS TRUE  (Sony Pictures Classics), which I haven’t had a chance to seen myself, but it takes place during the final years of William Shakespeare in 1613 with Branagh playing the playwright, Judi Dench playing his wife Anne and Ian McKellen as the Earl of Southampton, who according to Roland Emmerich’s Anonymous, may have authored Shakespeare’s works. It follows the burning down of Shakespeare’s Globe Theater which sends him back to his family in Stratford. No word on when it will get a normal theatrical release, but from what I heard, it doesn’t have much of a chance for Oscars either.

Written by Luc Besson and Richard Wenk  (The Equalizer) and directed by Steven Quale  (Final Destination 5), American Renegades  (Europacorp) follows a group of Navy SEALS who have hidden a vast treasure underwater in a lake in Sorbia. It stars Sullivan Stapleton (300: Rise of an Empire), JK Simmons, Sylvia Hoeks (Blade Runner 2049) and others, and I’m not 100% convinced it’s going to be in many theaters this Friday, but it will be on VOD and digital download on Christmas Day.

Maria Pulero’s psychological thriller Between Worlds  (Saban Films), playing in New York (Cinema Village) and L.A. (Arena Cinelounge) following its VOD release earlier in the week, stars Nicholas Cage as truck driver Joe, who has an encounter with a fellow trucker Julie (Franka Potente, The Bourne Identity) who is able to travel through the astral plane to communicate with the dead. When her daughter Billie (Penelope Mitchell from Hemlock Grove) ends up in a motorcycle accident, Julie uses her power to try to bring her back but instead brings back Joe’s ex-wife and puts her spirit in Billie’s body. Sexual hijinks ensue.

This holiday’s special Bollywood film is Aanand Rai’s Zero (Yash Raj Films USA Inc.), starring Shah Rukh Khan as a young man from a wealthy affluent family who meets two women (Katrina Kaif, Anushka Sharma) who take him on a journey to broaden his horizons. It should be in a couple hundred theaters on Friday.

Also on Wednesday night is a special screening of Christina Kallas’ ensemble drama The Rainbow Experiment (Gravitas), which was the opening night film of this past year’s 13thAnnual Harlem International Film Festival and is currently on VOD. It will screen at the Xavier High School where it was filmed Weds. at 6pm, and you can find out more information and get tickets on the Facebook page.

STREAMING

Streaming on Netflix Friday is the post-apocalyptic thriller BIRD BOX, directed by Danish filmmaker Susanne Bier (In a Better World) and adapted from Josh Malerman’s novel with Eric Heisserer (Arrival). It stars Sandra Bullock as a woman travelling with two small children down a river, all three blindfolded to prevent them from being affected by a virus that has forced millions of people to commit suicide. Since I don’t have many limited releases, I’m going to go ahead and review the movie which I got to see Monday night.

I haven’t read the book, but this is a really interesting decision for Bier, who has done smaller dramas for the most part, and Bird Box really allows her to up her game with a couple action set pieces as well as a lot more involved story.  Although much of the marketing has focused on Bullock’s boat trip with the two kids, the movie spends just as much time five years earlier as some kind of virus or event causes millions across the globe to kill themselves. It’s quickly determined that being outside with your eyes open causes you to become infected by the deadly virus.

Bullock’s character is pregnant and she ends up fleeing to a house full of a disparate group of characters played by John Malkovich, B.D. Wong, Trevante Rhodes from Moonlight, Rosa Salazar, Jacki Weaver, Lil Rel Howery (Get Out) and Machine Gun Kelly. They’re soon joined by an also-pregnant Danielle McDonald (Dumplin’), as the film cuts between this group trying to survive and get along with Bullock and the two kids rowing down the river with the blanks filled in as it goes along.

I really found this to be a fascinating high-concept premise that actually thrived from the interesting cast and Bier’s ability with pulling out great emotions from an audience through performances and the remarkable score by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. Of course, Bullock is as fantastic as always but I was equally impressed with Rhodes who is proving himself to be a heroic lead that audiences can root for.  The film has lots of twists that keep you guessing a out what might happen as others are introduced in to the mix, and frankly, I found myself liking this as much or more than A Quiet Place, mainly due to the cast. I also have to say that it was very enjoyable seeing the movie with an audience as well, and it will play in a couple theaters Friday.

Rating: 7.5/10

Also streaming on Netflix Friday is Irek Dobrowolski’s doc Struggle: The Life and Lost Art of Szukalski about the Polish surrealist who was rediscovered in 1968 by pop culture collector Glenn Bray who brought it to the attention of underground comic publisher George DiCaprio. (George and his famous son Leo are two of the producers on the film.)

REPERTORY

In some cases, this week is a continuation of series that began last week, so if you see your favorite repertory theater missing, then just go back and check last week’s column. Also, the Alamo Drafthouse in Brooklyn will be showing René Manzor’s 1989 French genre holiday film Dial Code Santa Claus (a new 2K restoration via AGFA)on Dec. 19 (sold out!) and Dec. 23.

METROGRAPH (NYC):

In the Year of the Grifter continues, while the weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinee is The Muppet Christmas Carol, while the Metrograph will continue to show some popular holiday favorites in its series Holidays at the Metrotraph, which includes The Umbrellas of Cherbourg  (1964), Vincente Minell’s Meet Me in St. Louis (1944), Joe Dante’s Gremlins (I984), John Landis’ Trading Places  (1983), Paul Thomas Anderson’s Phantom Thread  (2017) and of course, Todd Haynes’  Carol.

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Beginning on Friday is a new 4k restoration of Marcel Pagnol’s The Baker’s Wife  (Janus Films) from 1938, another French filmmaker who I know every little about, although this stars Raim, who also starred in Pagnol’s Marseilles Trilogy. This weekend’s Film Forum Jr.  is the late, great Charlie Chaplin’s 1928 filmThe Circus.

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

The theater’s Holiday Spirit 2018  series continues with double features of Tim Burton’s Batman Returns and Joe Dante’s Gremlins, as well as the even odder double feature ofDie Hard(1988) and Trail of Robin Hood  (1950). On Saturday night, there’s a “Cyberpunk Megazone” double feature of 1995’s Virtual Assassin  and Hologram Man with introduction by Rob Schrab. And on Saturday… It’s a Wonderful Life (1946) but also another oddball holiday double feature of The Dorm That Dripped Blood (1982) and The Oracle  (1985).

AERO  (LA):

American Cinemateque’s other L.A. theater is also getting into the Holiday Spirit  with The Lion in Winter (1968) on Thursday night, Will Ferrell’s Elf (2003) on Friday, Meet Me in St. Louis (1944) on Saturday and It’s a Wonderful Life  TWICE (!) on Sunday, because that seems to be the go-to for repertory theaters this season.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

Visconti’s Death in Venice (1971) continues through Thursday and the theater’s vast Rated X series will continue into the new year with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls  (1970), Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead  (1981), the Japanese erotic drama In the Realm of the Senses  (1976) playing over the weekend, as well as many more.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Yup, It’s a Wonderful Life will continue to play here as well, while this weekend’s Late Night Favorites  will be David Byrne’s Eraserhead, the Weekend Classics Coen Bros. movie is The Hudsucker Proxy  (1994) on 35mm, and this weekend’s Shaw Brothers Spectacular running Friday, Saturday and Sunday at midnight is Holy Flame of the Martial World  (1983).

THE NEW BEVERLY  (L.A.):

Tarantino’s renovated theater continues its holiday celebrations with double features of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and Scrooged on Weds. and Thurs. (sold out online but with tickets at the door). It’s a Wonderful Life and A Christmas Story play as double features on Friday and Saturday, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Jingle All the Way  has matinees on Saturday and Sunday, and then Die Hard and The Silent Partner play as double features on Sunday and Monday’s Christmas Eve.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART  (LA):

Also showing Bruce Willis’ Die Hard at midnight on Friday night.

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER(NYC):

The amazing Jacques Tourneur, Fearmaker series continues, and between this, the Quad’s Rated X series and all the great programming at the Metrograph, New York repertory-philes should be set for the weekend before Christmas and next week, as well.

MOMA (NYC):

Modern Matinees: Douglas Fairbanks Jr. continues with The Exile  (1947) on Weds., Sinbad the Sailor  (1947) and The Dawn Patrol  (1930) on Friday.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

A Cher For All Seasons continues.  

I was hoping this would be the last column of the year, but there are two new movies opening in wide release on Tuesday, Christmas Day,the Will Ferrell-John C. Reilly comedy HOLMES AND WATSON  (Sony) and the Will Ferrell-produced Adam McKay semi-comedy VICE (Annapurna Pictures). Instead of bombarding you with more numbers and info, I will post another mini-column NEXT MONDAY. Something to read while you wait for Santa to bring you better presents.