The Weekend Warrior July 22, 2022
NOPE, HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN, MY OLD SCHOOL, ALONE TOGETHER, THE LAST MOVIE STARS, and More
Thankfully, we have a couple quieter weekends with only one or two new wide releases, but I also have a few busy weeks with other things going on, and I’m very late writing this week’s column, so yeah, can’t make any promises that this will be one of my better weeks. (It seems like every year in mid-July, it gets harder to write this column. Maybe it has something to do with that 90-degree heat and the fact I have no AC?)
NOPE (Universal)
Where to begin with Jordan Peele’s third feature film? Maybe you can start with my review since that’s probably what’s going to be of interest to many or most of you. But after that, we need to start thinking about how it might fare at the box office, since that’s what I do.
What’s interesting about Nope is that it’s a genre that we’ve seen plenty of times before – an alien invasion movie – but it’s done with a definite twist, as one would expect from Peele. It’s also a movie that’s been draped in secrecy for so long with a couple trailers that made people think the movie was one thing or another.
The long and short of it is that it reunites Peele with Daniel Kaluuya, who plays O.J. Haywood, who is running a horse ranch with his father, who dies mysteriously, and then O.J.’s sister Emerald (Keke Palmer) shows up, and then, so does an unidentified saucer-like object floating in the sky. The general principle is that they want to capture the object on film. The movie also stars Steven Yeun in his first movie since last year’s The Humans and his Oscar nomination for 2020’s Minari.
I’m sure I don’t have to go through Peele’s filmography, because he only has two previous films as a director, Get Out in 2017 and Us two years later. The first was more of a discovery movie, opening with $33 million after a well-received secret screening at Sundance, but it went on to make $175 that year, as well as received a few Oscar nominations including a Gold Man for Peele’s screenplay. Us opened almost twice as high as Get Out due to the positive response to Peele’s first movie
There’s an interesting history of UFO and alien invasion movies, and frankly, there are too many to mention, because they range from the thrillers of the ‘50s to Steven Spielberg’s Close Encounters of the Third Kind to M. Night Shyamalans’s Signs to Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and many, many more. (There actually were quite a few remakes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers throughout the decades.) I want to focus on more recent movies, and you can’t get more recent than John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place and its sequel, which had the misfortune of having to pave the way for the summer of 2021 box office only a few short months after theaters reopened in New York and L.A. But first, let’s look at the original movie which opened earlier in April 2018, happier times, opening with $50.2 million and grossing $188 million domestically. (Yes, that is more than both of Peele’s previous movies.) The sequel was delayed for a full year due to COVID and despite the reticence and unknown of returning to theaters. It finally was released in April 2021 and grossed $47.5 million opening weekend on its way to $160.1 million, becoming one of the first true blockbusters last year.
I wasn’t quite sure how reviews might be for Nope after seeing the movie and talking to a few of my colleagues, but at the time of this writing and with 62 reviews, Peele’s UFO movie is at 81% on Rotten Tomatoes, which is lower than Get Out and Us, but still pretty good, although I’m not sure if audiences will enjoy this as much as the critics. It feels more accessible than Us, especially with that movie’s crazy ending, but it just doesn’t have a lot of big action scenes or money shots (to use a term from the movie itself), and it may be perceived more as a slow burn than Peele’s other work.
Still, I have to say that I highly commend the way Universal has marketed this movie, keeping a lot of it under wraps until first the name of the movie was released and then the first teaser trailer, and even that didn’t really give you the full picture of what to expect with quite a few red herrings. When you give away too much in advance, you’re going to turn off people who might go see your movie and Peele/Universal have come up with a fairly brilliant way of just building interest in Nope right up until opening weekend.
Because of that, Nope is probably good for $60 million this weekend, maybe slightly more, but a lot of the movie’s audience will be the fans of his previous movies who will be very curious about the director’s take on the alien invasion movie.
THE CHART:
1. Nope (Universal) - $60.4 million N/A
2. Thor: Love and Thunder (Marvel/Disney) - $22.3 million -52%
3. Minions: The Rise of Gru (Universal) - $16 million -42%
4. Top Gun: Maverick (Paramount) - $9 million -27%
5. Where the Crawdads Sing (Sony) - $8.3 million -52%
6. Elvis (Warner Bros.) - $4.5 million -44%
7. Paws of Fury: The Legend of Hank (Paramount) - $3.5 million -45%
8. The Black Phone (Universal) - $3 million -44%
9. Jurassic World: Dominion (Universal) - $2.8 million -49%
10. Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris (Focus Features) - $1.1 million -44%
HOW TO PLEASE A WOMAN (Brainstorm Media)
Opening in L.A. at the Laemmle Monica and other cities this Friday (but not in New York, oddly) and then on VOD on July 29 is Renée Webster’s Australian comedy, starring Sally Phillips from Veep as Gina, a woman celebrating her 50th birthday whose female friends send her a male sex worker as a gift. Gina is intrigued by the stripper named Tom (Alexander England) but instead of getting a striptease or something more, she instead asks him to clean her house for her. That spurs the idea in Gina that there may be a lot more women who are not satisfied sexually or who are sick of cleaning their houses who could use similar services. When the male removals team at her previous job are all sacked (shortly after she’s fired as well), Gina decides to start up a business for women who want male companionship… and cleaner homes.
There’s definitely something in the ethos right now, because this is another sex-positive movie that focuses on older woman and their needs, similar to Hulu’s Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, starring Emma Thompson. This is more veering to lighter comedy, in some ways similar to something like The Full Monty, so more of a fun ensemble piece about a group of friends who find a way to turn a buck by finding a niche to fill a need for the local women.
Phillips is quite terrific in this role of a woman who has her own marital issues before discovering a way to possibly satisfy her own needs and desires, as well as those of the women around her. The actual sex aspect of the business is actually handled quite tastefully, though it doesn’t shy away from the women and the men talking honestly about sex and what they hope to give or receive from their partners.
How to Please a Woman may be a little predictable and not very deep in terms of its narrative, but I think for older women looking for an alternative to some of the male-dominated macho movies in theaters, this could be an enjoyable comedy, for sure. It may be a bit harder to find in theaters, but it’s a safe bet for VOD.
Rating: 7.5/10
MY OLD SCHOOL (Magnolia)
Opening at the Film Forum in New York City as well as quite a lot of other theaters across the country is Jono McLeod’s documentary about Brandon Lee – no, not Bruce Lee’s son – and the ruse he pulled on his Scottish high school back in the ‘90s. I’m not going to spoil the twist if you don’t know the story, because McLeod finds a good way into this story that doesn’t reveal exactly what is going on for a good amount of time, using a variety of methods – animation, interviews with Lee’s schoolmates at the Bearsden Academy, and the subject himself, but his audio interviews are lip-synced by Alan Cumming.
This is a compelling doc that takes a different approach to telling the story in that it does have the regular talking heads we’ve seen in plenty of other docs, but it’s accompanied by animated recreations of some of the things discussed by the subject. Without giving too much away, it’s the story of “Brandon Lee,” a teen who shows up at the Scottish high school from Canada with stories of his opera singer mother and others that definitely seems a bit suspect as his various classmates relay his story. Cumming is the only actor in the movie who is there just to lipsync the narration by the main subject, who did not want to be filmed or let
In some ways, the movie is a bit like the great docs by Penny Lane, and McLeod not only has Cumming but also pop stars Clare Grogan and even Lulu providing other voices. I’m not sure I can recommend this movie as a theatrical experience vs. just watching it on VOD. It’s fine but might not be for everyone and probably less interesting if you already know the story of the enigmatic “Brandon Lee.”
MY DONKEY, MY LOVER, AND I (Greenwich Entertainment)
Also opening in select cities this Friday, including the Angelika Film Center, AMC Lincoln Square and AMC Kips Bay in New York and Laemmle’s Royal and other theaters in L.A. plus 48 other markets, is this French comedy from Caroline Vignal, starring Laure Calamy (in a César Best Actress-winning performance… really?!?) as Antoinette, a schoolteacher whose married lover (Benjamin Lavernhe) has to cancel their plans when his wife books a vacation fo the two of them. Undaunted, Antoinette decides to basically stalk them on a six-day hike where she’s paired with a donkey named Patrick. Yes, this movie is EXACTLY what the title implies, but after watching about half an hour, I knew right away that this movie wasn’t going to be for me, so I didn’t watch the whole thing. Because of that, I won’t be reviewing the movie. All I’ll say is that this is not particularly relatable or interesting to watch a woman on a hike with a donkey for so long, and I have no idea how this became such a beloved César Awards-nominated film.
ALONE TOGETHER (Vertical)
I actually saw part of Katie Holmes’ second film as a director at Tribeca a few weeks back, but it really wasn’t connecting with me at a time when I had too much work to do, so I bailed on it. It’s a classic pandemic movie with the cast mainly being Holmes herself and Jim Sturgess as two strangers escaping from bad relationships at an Air Bnb where they end up trapped together when the pandemic lockdown hits. Derek Luke plays her boyfriend who decides to remain in the city instead. If I had more time to watch the rest of the movie and review it, it wasn’t likely to be good, so yeah, probably a good thing I didn’t watch the whole movie.
Streaming…
THE LAST MOVIE STARS (CNN Films/HBO Max)
Hitting the streamer on Thursday, July 21 is Ethan Hawke’s 6-part documentary about the life, career and love between superstar actors Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward, which has previously played at the 2022 SXSW Film Festival and at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
I haven’t seen the entire series yet, but I did watch the first episode and the last two episodes (due to a special presentation by Film Forum), and I’m really impressed with what Hawke has achieved, not just creating a comprehensive doc about Newman and Woodward but also just creating an exciting look at the art of acting through Zoom conversations with fellow actors like Laura Linney, Sam Rockwell, Billy Crudup, Sally Field, Zoe Kazan, Karen Allen, Steve Zahn, Oscar Isaac and Mark Ruffalo, as well as his daughter, Maya Hawke. He also has some of his actor friends, including George Clooney, reading transcripts from various interviews that no longer exist on audio but still had transcriptions that the actors read to narrate the series. I really liked what I saw from this series and look forward to seeing the rest, because Hawke definitely seems to have an affinity for delving into the process of acting as well as dealing with fame.
ANYTHING’S POSSIBLE (Prime Video/Orion Pictures)
I also didn’t get a chance to see Billy Porter’s directorial debut, which will on Prime Video this Friday, but it is a coming-of-age story about a trans high school girl named Kelsa (Eva Reign), trying to get through her senior year as a male classmate develops a crush on her.
Also streaming on Netflix this Friday is The Gray Man, which if you read last week’s column, you know that I loved it. But also, you might remember that I recommended you try to catch it in a theater if there’s one near you, so if you didn’t, well that’s tough shit. You blew it. (Unless you’re in New York, because it’s still playing at the Paris!)
Repertory stuff….
Another exciting series kicking off at the Film Forum this Friday and running through August 11 is called “1962…1963…1964,” and you can safely guess those are the years covered in the series with movies like Kubrick’s Lolita, the original Cape Fear, Lawrence of Arabia (which I still have to see!), The Manchuria Candidate, and Whatever Happened to Baby Jane all screening over the next week. Wow! Unfortunately, I’ll be out of town this weekend but hopefully there’ll be some repeats, though there’s more cool stuff coming next week in this series.
Kicking off Friday at my favorite local theater is the 4k restoration of Fruit Chan’s Made in Hong Kong (1997), which I’m pretty sure I’ve seen at the Metrograph sometime in the past, but it will be followed next week by “Hong Kong Heroes,” a small 3-film series of HK action movies. (You can read more about that next week.)
“Welcome to Metrograph A to Z” is screening Joseph Losey’s Accident (1967), Mervyn Leroy’s I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang (1932), Abbas Kiarostami’s 1990 movie, Close-Up, and Denzel’s Devil in a Blue Dress (1995). “Road Trip: American Cinema from Coast to Coast” also has a Denzel movie with Mississippi Masala on Thursday, and a few repeats including the original Candyman, Paul Schrader’s Blue Collar, as well as showing Chris Smith’s 1999 indie classic American Movie on Saturday and Sunday. “Late Nites: Miami Heat” is giving you more chances to see Scarface, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Miami Vice, and True Lies this weekend, while this weekend’s “Playtime: Bicycles and Balloons” is The Wizard of Oz (1939)... a great chance to see it on the big screen!
Another intriguing series is “Anatomy of the Devil: Films from Walerian Borowczyk,” but I really don’t know anything about this filmmaker, so you’re on your own there.
The “Messaging the Monster: Race and Horror” wraps up this weekend with Jordan Peele’s Get Out (of course), Tales from the Hood, and ALSO Candyman (kinda obvious), as well as Rhymes for Young Ghouls and The Colony (paired together) as well as Blood Quantum, all from Jeff Barnaby on Saturday. On Sunday, “The Undead” series begins with Let the Right One In, and then there’s more of this series next week.
A new series called “Pioneering Women in Australian Cinema” begins at MOMI this Friday and runs through August 14 with this weekend’s offerings being Starstruck, starring Gillian Anderson, My Brilliant Career, Sweetie, and more.
Later today (Thurday), you can see the amazing The Raid: Redemption as part of “Russos’ Film Inspirations” as The Gray Man continues there while also on Netflix. After that, there’s The Wild Bunch on Saturday, John Woo’s Hard Boiled on Sunday, Alfredo Garcia on Monday, and Red Desert next Wednesday. It will wrap a week from today with Michael Mann’s Heat on Thursday, July 28.
Tonight (Thursday), the Roxy is screening Showgirls in 35mm, the 1972 Melvin Van Peebles musical Don’t Play Us Cheap, then tomorrow (Friday), it will show the 2002 thriller Queen of the Damned, as well as the 1972 Edie Sedgwick film, Ciao! Manhattan, both in 35mm, and then they’ll repeat through the weekend along with the Abbot Costello movie, Jack and the Beanstalk (1952) on Sunday afternoon. Kind of wish I could see that last one, since I’ve never seen it in a theater.
Continuing this weekend is “Movietown: Los Angeles Plays Itself and Other LA Visions,” which will include They Live, Blade Runner, Boyz n the Hood, The Big Lebowski, and Heat this weekend, as well as the doc from which this series gets its name.
ETC…
THE WHEEL (Quiver)
THE NAN MOVIE (Screen Media)
HE’S WATCHING (XYZ Films)
SHAMSHERA (Yash Raj)
THE DAPHNE PROJECT (Mailuk Films)
LIVING WINE (Abramorama)
So I’m going to take next week off… I think. I have plans this weekend and can’t deal with the pressures/stress of writing this column without having the weekend. I’ll still be writing a preview over at Gold Derby and maybe I’ll post a few thoughts on Twitter… or I’ll just do a column as usual. We’ll see.
Box office data provided by The-Numbers.com.