Sundance 2014 Review: Hellion

It all sounds simple enough from a story standpoint, but Candler manages to interweave layers of complexity into these characters that elevate this tale beyond the surface level. These people feel real and honest in every respect; they could be you or me or anyone we know who’s drowning in grief and can’t see the way back to the surface to breathe again without every moment smacking you with what’s been taken in the blink of an eye, the crash of a metal, the stop of a heart beating.

Picturing Sundance 2014: 7 Looks

Seven first-looks along the streets of sunny Sundance.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Get ready for another set of shockedshocked headlines from media’s middle class as Universal follows last weekend’s success with white people who don’t live in NY or LA with a similar success with black audiences. Both films, of course, include some traction with audiences outside of the niches. But it may be time for the media to stop being surprised when movies that aren’t aimed at the media demo do well.

Sundance 2014 Reviews: Overnighters, Whiplash

Even in these scenes of heartwarming fraternity, there’s always this nagging feeling that Reinke’s generosity is perhaps misguided and downright bizarre, as if there’s something unhealthy or otherwise unspoken that drives his desire to help these men.

Sundance 2014 Review: Locke

“I’m just driving, that’s it,” he says in one way, another, and another. It’s a journey to the end of his soul. “I’m driving,” he says, and the BMW is his cranium, and the voices the voices rocketing within, the car less infernal cage than fevered skull. But it’s not a stunt, no, no, no: all the confinement, the inspired technical legerdemain, it’s all a means to an end, and that end is Locke.

Sundance 2014 Review: Stranger By The Lake

Classically constructed, as rigid in its construction of suspense as any recent thriller, Alain Guiraudie’s Stranger by the Lake (L’inconnu du lac), is a masterful work, uncluttered yet lush, formally regimented, yet always surprising. (Call it full-frontal Hitchcock.) It also takes its location, its construction of sexuality, as commonplace. Guiraudie’s movie is assuredly part and parcel of queer cinema, but also of the cinema of the quotidian, of the everyday.

Gurus o’ Gold: Nomination Day (Page 1 of 2)

The Gurus (at least 9 of them… for now) are offering up 20 categories (leaving out only the short films, which have not been widely seen by the group), a first-blush look at the frontrunners coming off of nominations morning.

If you were to go by The Gurus guesses today, Gravity would dominate as the leading Oscar winners with 6 wins. But might one of them be Best Picture?

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Wilmington on Movies: Ride Along

    RIDE ALONG (Two Stars) U.S.: Tim Story (2014) Ride Along, which grossed over 40 million dollars in its opening  week,  is  a big, glossy, ultra-predictable  buddy cop movie in which costars Ice Cube (Boyz n the Hood) and Kevin Hart (Think Like a Man) and director Tim Story (Barbershop) pull a comedy variation,…

20 Weeks To Oscar: Nominations Morning

The Oscar nominations are in and the big surprise is… no real surprise.

Yes, there are people with expectations and disappointments and preferences all over the place. But I think by the end of December, everyone kind of knew what this year looked like… lots of good candidates and not a whole lot of sure bets.

The DVD Wrapup

Enough Said, Spectacular Now, Short Term 12 and more.

Gurus o’ Gold: Last Stand Before Nominations

The Gurus are back from vacation, just in time to preview the nominations and to shout out about potential surprises – good and bad – on Thursday morning. Moving up the charts are American Hustle, The Wolf of Wall Street, and Dallas Buyers Club. Perhaps in trouble, that Out of Africa duo, Meryl Streep & Robert Redford.

20W2O: The Morning After Pillory

This is the field of play on which we who cover the awards season now toil. We are a part of The Machine. I am part of The Machine. And The Machine could not care less about legitimacy or honor or respect for the work being celebrated. The Machine just grinds on, growing annually, fed by ambition and dreams and even real passion, until it’s too big to seriously examine, whether you are NBC News or The New York Times or some blogger idiot (or some blogger genius). The Machine abides.

The Weekend Report

The true-life war zone endurance saga Lone Survivor hit a bull’s-eye in its national debut with an estimated $38.5 million. That left the session’s only wide newcomer, The Legend of Hercules, looking less than buff with $8.7 million, slotting it fourth in the lineup.

Friday Box Office Estimates

Lone Survivor burst onto the box office scene with what could end up being the biggest January opening ever, depending on how it holds over the weekend. Universal backed away from Oscar ambitions for the film a while ago and set focus on a more traditional audience and it’s paying dividends. Survivor opened about 50% better than last February’s SEAL-focused hit, Act of Valor, which grossed $70m domestically. In the Oscar wars, Wolf and Hustle continue to run neck-‘n’-neck daily, though Hustle remains over $20m ahead in cume after getting a week’s head start. August: Osage County finally goes wide, without much pop.

20W2O: “Hey, Mister… I Got Something Shiny For Ya.”

The basic fact is that an October award show intended to honor the best in film of the year is, at best, doomed to be so off the center of the season as to remain meaningless, and at worst, to be an embarrassing farce that actually makes talent accepting awards look desperate and fake.

It’s in “Hollywood’s” interest not to pretend there is any legitimacy to the Hollywood Film Awards at all. Because while it is a red carpet opportunity early in the season, the more we pretend that it means something, the more problematic the whole exercise becomes.

14 Must-See Films at Sundance ‘14

What sounds good?

The DVD Wrapup

Murph the Protector, Ukulele Live, Runner, Badges of Fury, Dreamworld, Godard’s Hail Mary, Killing Fields, Following and more.

Best Of 2013: Nonfiction Features

A list of ten (with some ties), followed by an alphabetical list of another fourteen, from an exceptionally fine year for nonfiction features. I’m equally awestruck by the top three, The Act Of Killing, The Square and Stories We Tell, especially after multiple viewings.

The Weekend Report

It was the big chill for newcomer Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones as it got iced by Frozen for top spot at the weekend box office. The sole freshman national release bowed to an estimated $18.2 million, roughly $2.5 million behind the animated princess.

Friday Box Office Estimates

In the final weekend of the holiday, pretty good holds from last Friday overall and the addition of a new title from the Paranormal Activity franchise.