The Weekend Warrior 11/18/22
THE MENU, SHE SAID, BAD AXE, THE INSPECTION, MEMORIES OF MY FATHER, BONES AND ALL, EO, THERE THERE, IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING
This is such a great week for new movies, but it’s also a very busy week for me doing other non-movie stuff. Still, I want to make sure that people know that there are lots of other great movies to see in theaters (as well as a few on digital/streaming this week), so I’ll write what I can in my allotted two hours. Cool? (This week has a pretty international flavor with new movies from filmmakers from Germany, Italy, Colombia, Chile, Poland, and even this here good ol’ U.S. of A.)
THE MENU (Searchlight)
The widest new release is this fantastic dark genre comedy directed by Mark Mylod (Succession) and starring Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau, John Leguizamo, and lots more. This is just a terrific ensemble cast in a movie that involves a bunch of wealthy diners going to Hawthorn, the island restaurant of Fiennes’ renowned Chef for a luxurious tasting menu but getting a lot more than they bargain for. I first saw this at the Toronto International Film Festival in September and recently watched it again to equal amounts of enjoyment. I mean, it’s hard to go wrong with such a great cast, but Mylod also had a great script co-written by one of the writers of Succession – which believe it or not, I still haven’t seen! :O
It’s been quite some time since I’ve worked in a restaurant, but those who have may relish at the way that these snobbish and kind of rude customers are treated, most of them more than deserving of said treatment. Hoult plays a foodie Tyler who brings Taylor-Joy’s Margot, who just isn’t quite as impressed by that whole world. She ends up butting heads with Fiennes’ character, who doesn’t even understand why she’s there, but besides that dynamic, I particularly enjoyed Chau’s cold steely response to unreasonable requests from some of the more obnoxious clientele.
Maybe the movie loses a bit towards the last act, but I still enjoyed it enough to see it again, so I think it should find itself some fans as this week’s widest new release, at least until Rian Johnson’s eerily similar (but also quite fun) Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery opens next Wednesday.
(I also should have an interview with Mylod running very soon over at Above the Line, as well as talking about the fantastic location with the production designer, Ethan Tobman, over at Below the Line.)
SHE SAID (Universal)
Another great movie, this one that I saw at the New York Film Festival (where it had its world premiere) is this new real-life drama, starring Carey Mulligan and Zoey Kazan as New York Times journalists Megan Twohey and Jodi Kantor, who broke the story about the sexual abuse, harassment and worse of former Miramax exec. Harvey Weinstein, and their journey to get some of the women who survived his abuses to speak on the record and finally take him down. You probably already know part of the story and how it led to the #MeToo movement, but you might not know of what was involved on the part of Ms. Twohey and Kantor, who wrote the book on which this film directed by Maria Schrader (I’m Your Man) is based. Besides the normally fantastic performances by Mulligan and Kazan, I also really admired some of the supporting cast, including the likes of Samantha Morton and Jennifer Ehle, who only appear briefly but have just fantastic monologues where they relay their encounters with Weinstein to Kazan’s Kanto. I also enjoyed how the film shows the two journalist’s family life, as they’re both mothers – Twohey actually one with a brand-new baby, who is having post-partum depression, which working on this major story helps her get through. I really hope this movie gets the awards attention it deserves, especially for its fantastic script and the performances by Mulligan and Kazan, but honestly, its entire cast deserves attention, and I worry that this movie is just gonna get lost in the shuffle of much higher-profile awards fare, especially since this is such a difficult topic for a mainstream studio movie, maybe even moreso than Bros a few months back. Universal is also only releasing this in 2,000 theaters, probably since it was a harder sell for theater chains outside the larger cities.
Oh, but guess what? I also did an interview with Maria Schrader for Above the Line, but that probably won’t hit until next week.
BAD AXE (IFC Films)
If I were still doing “The Chosen One,” this would probably be this week’s pick in a week full of fantastic movies. Directed by David Siev, who won the Critics Choice Documentary Award for Best First Documentary this past weekend, this doc is a very personal look at his family in Bad Axe, Michigan, who run a restaurant there and have to contend with the problems caused by the COVID pandemic and also the fact that they’re an Asian-Mexican family living in Trump country, which led to more problems for them in 2020. I just love the way that Siev put the spotlight on his family, who are all quite lovable and charming, so that you really enjoy watching them on screen, even when they’re squabbling, either among themselves or with some of the more difficult members of their community, ranging from full-on masked white supremacists to the jerks who refuse to wear a mask. I saw this at the soon-to-be-ending Doc-NYC, and I understand that it’s getting released into roughly 40 theaters on Friday, mainly larger cities, but also quite a few places in Michigan, as well. I really hope that others take the time to seek it out, since it’s going to be one of my top docs of the year, and it’s a movie that really connected with me on many levels, and I’m saying that in a week with a lot of fantastic films.
Fortunately, this interview I did with David Siev for CinemaUSDaily, so that’s ready to go, and if you want to learn more about the movie.
THE INSPECTION (A24)
Speaking of the New York Film Festival (as I was above), the narrative feature debut from filmmaker Elegance Bratton was this year’s closing night film, which is quite fantastic, not just because it’s rare for that festival to have a first-time feature filmmaker close the festival, but it’s also another great personal story hitting theaters this weekend. It’s based on his own story of being kicked out of his home by his mother when he was a teenager, because he was gay, and after being homeless for ten years, he joined the Marines and then had to deal with all sorts of hazing and worse abuse while in boot camp. Bratton is represented by Ellis French, played by Jeremy Pope (Hollywood), while his mother is represented by the one and only Gabrielle Union. Bratton’s cast also includes both Bokeem Woodpine and Raul Castíllo as two of French’s sergeants. I also interviewed Elegance Bratton for Above the Line, so look for that interview hopefully soon.
BONES AND ALL (UA Releasing)
Opening in select theaters this weekend and then going wide on Nov. 23 is the new movie from director Luca Guadagnino – and guess what? I interviewed him as well! This one stars the amazing Taylor Russell – who I interviewed for Above the Line, too! – as Maren, a young woman who learns she’s an “Eater,” essentially a cannibal, and after a horrifying incident, she’s essentially abandoned by her father (played by André Holland from Moonlight) and has to go off on her own to find her mother who left them many years earlier. Along the way, she encounters other “eaters,” one played by Timothée Chalamet, who she bonds with and who joins her on the journey, as well as less amorous ones played by the great Mark Rylance and Mark Stuhlbarg (who played Chalamet’s father in Guadagnino’s Call Me By Your Name, one of my favorite movies that year). It’s a wonderful road trip movie that features some fantastic performances, but as one can imagine from the premise, it does get pretty dark, though I wouldn’t necessarily call it “horror” but more “horror-adjacent” as Brett Arnold and Jesse Hassenger would say on one of my favorite podcasts, “The New Flesh.” I really don’t know much about the original novel by Camille DeAngelis, on which this is based, and how popular or well-known it might be, but Guadagnino continues to impress with his distinctive filmmaking, and he doubled down on this one by getting Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross to provide the film’s glorious score (which also includes songs by Joy Division and Trent Reznor). I’m not really sure how wide this is going on Friday or even next Wednesday when it’s supposed to be nationwide, but I would say this is another good genre option if you’re interested in a different kind of food movie than The Menu.
MEMORIES OF MY FATHER (Cohen Media)
This new film from Oscar-winning Colombian filmmaker Fernando Trueba (Belle Époque) is now playing at the Quad Cinema in New York, and it’s based on the memoir by doctor and activist Héctor Abad Gómez (Javier Cámara) whose father was murdered in Medellin, Colombia in the ‘70s after dedicating his life to helping the poor with public health programs. I didn’t see the movie that long ago – just one week ago – but I had a particularly hectic couple days, and I don’t really remember that much about the movie other than the fact that I enjoyed it, and it fits right in with some of the other film offerings this weekend, being a very personal story, as well as one from an international filmmaker. (The Quad just had a retrospective of Trueba’s work leading up to the release of his latest film.)
EO (Janus Films)
Opening in New York on Friday is the new film from Polish filmmaker Jerzy Skolimowski, which is also Poland’s submission for the International Feature category at the Oscars. It follows the journey of a circus donkey named Eo, as it encounters all sorts of people and situations, including a wealthy woman played by Isabelle Huppert. In some ways, it’s a bit like George Miller’s 1995 movie, Babe, although Eo doesn’t talk, and it’s not necessarily a family film. Unfortunately, this is a bit like Memories of My Father where I didn’t see it that long ago, but it didn’t connect with me enough to really stick, which is kind of odd, since it’s a perfectly fine and enjoyable movie, though it’s also not one that I’d rush out to see again.
THERE THERE (Magnolia)
And now we get to the portion of our show where there are movies I’ve been wanting to watch for a long time, and I just didn’t get around to it. This is the latest film from Andrew Bujalski (Support the Girls, Computer Chess), and it stars Jason Schwartzman, Lili Taylor, and Lennie James from The Walking Dead and Fear the Walking Dead, and I have no idea what it’s about. How’s that for a weekend movie preview?
IN THE COURT OF THE CRIMSON KING (Metrograph)
Considering how long I’ve been a King Crimson fan, it’s shocking how long I’ve had a screener for this documentary about Robert Fripp’s quintessential prog-rock band and still haven’t gotten around to watching it. As luck would have it, Metrograph Press has picked up distribution, and it will play at the Metrograph starting on Sunday, and then again on Tuesday. Sadly, I’ve been a bit out of touch with my neighborhood arthouse since I’ve been so busy with other things, but other things to check out this weekend including Saturday Morning Cartoons on Saturday, the Metrograph’s monthly hour-long series of cartoons from the ‘20s through the ‘50s, mostly shown on rare 16mm prints.
DISENCHANTED (Disney+)
Another movie I didn’t get a chance to see this week – to be fair, I only received the screener today – is this sequel to be one of Amy Adams’ earlier breakouts, the high-concept musical comedy in which she plays a Disney princess trying to adjust to the real world. I remember really enjoying Enchanted when it opened almost 15 years ago, and it’s kind of surprising that Disney decided to put this one on its streamer, because if it’s any good, I bet it would make more money over Thanksgiving than next week’s Strange World, which I haven’t had a chance to see.
THE WONDER (Netflix)
Another movie that I just never got around to watching is this new drama starring Florence Pugh, directed by Chilean filmmaker Sebastián Lelio, best known for his Oscar-winning film A Fantastic Woman, but most recently made Gloria Bell with Julianne Moore. This is a filmmaker who really gets great performances out of actresses, and it’s finally on Netflix after a week in select theaters.
As always here are my predictions for this weekend’s top 10 with the caveat that I might not have all the theater counts at the time of this writing. It will be particularly interesting to see where Ticket to Paradise ends up since presumably Universal will give some of its theaters to She Said, but maybe it can pull ahead of Black Adam anyway? Also, will Searchlight put Banshees into more theaters, or will they hold off until it starts getting some awards? In others words, this is likely to be a far more interesting weekend in theaters than some might suspect.
1. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (Disney/Marvel) - $83.6 million -54%
2. The Menu (Searchlight Studios) - $8.8 million N/A
3. Ticket to Paradise (Universal) - $4.3 million -33%
4. Black Adam (Warner Bros) - $4.3 million -47%
5. She Said (Universal) - $4 million N/A
6. Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile (Sony) - $2.5 million -22%
7. Smile (Paramount) - $1.5 million -36%
8. The Banshees of Inisherin (Searchlight) - $1.2 million -30%
9. Prey for the Devil (Lionsgate) - $1 million -47%
Other films hitting digital, streaming and maybe a few theaters include:
PRESENCE (XYZ Films)
POKER FACE (Screen Media)
THE PEOPLE WE HATE AT THE WEDDING (Prime Video)
LAMBORGHINI: THE MAN BEHIND THE LEGEND (Lionsgate)
Next week is Thanksgiving with a lot more new movies, as well as some expanding into more theaters, but we’ll see if I have time to write the Weekend Warrior on top of two other box office previews.