September 3, 2018

How to Manage Visual Influencers to Tell your Story

Source: Visual Storytelling

September 2, 2018

‘Trial by Fire’ Review: Laura Dern and Jack O’Connell Shine in a Damning Condemnation of the Death Penalty — Telluride

“Fire doesn’t destroy evidence,” one of the arson experts testifies in court. “Fire creates evidence.” That it does. But what if the evidence it creates is misinterpreted by the people who are entrusted to understand it? What if the experts are clouded by confirmation biases, hampered by outdated investigative methods, and complicit in a judicial system that disproportionally targets the poor? And what if — as a direct result of those other what ifs — an innocent man was executed for murdering his own children? In Texas, which executes more than five times as many people as any other state, those aren’t exactly hypothetical questions.

A clumsy prison drama that’s baked into a compelling argument against the death penalty, Ed Zwick’s “Trial by Fire” dramatizes the tragic story of Cameron Todd Willingham, who was wrongly convicted of burning his house down with his three young daughters inside on December 23, 1991. It was just two days before Christmas, a quirk of the schedule that made the accusations seem all the more sinister — a throwaway detail made it that much easier for the prosecution to paint Willingham as an evil soul whose pentagram tattoo indicated an allegiance to the devil.

Not that it is, was, or ever has been hard to convict a man like that. From his face to his police file, the twenty-something Willingham looked like a composite sketch of every white guy on Death Row. He had a mullet, but not a job (or, it would seem, a high school diploma). He had as many DUIs as he did children. He hit his wife, and she hit him back. Looking at Willingham from the jury box, you’d sooner expect to see the guy on an episode of “Cops” than at the center of a movie by the director of “Glory.”

English actor Jack O’Connell (“Starred Up,” “Unbroken”), so good at mining humanity from horror shows of masculinity, does everything in his power to ensure that we make all the worst assumptions about his character. From the start of this dark story (when Willingham calmly watches from a safe distance while his babies are burned alive), to the bitter end (when he still maintains his innocence, and screams that his ex-wife is a bitch), O’Connell never cheats our sympathies. The rest of the film doesn’t either. Geoffrey S. Fletcher’s functional script allows Willingham to mature during his 12 years on Death Row, and to repent for the way that he treated the women in his life, but it narrowly avoids the fatal mistake of making us feel like Willingham should be exonerated because he’s nice, and not because he’s innocent.

Adapted with great passion (but less than zero panache) from David Grann’s extraordinary 2009 “New Yorker” article of the same name, “Trial by Fire” works in spite of its stylelessness. Zwick has always been a happily middlebrow director who prefers to step out of the way and let the sweep of his stories do the heavy lifting, but this is the first of his films that feels like an assemblage of non-choices. There’s value in recognizing that Willingham’s story isn’t so different from hundreds of others that have been told by our criminal justice system, but it almost feels as though Zwick uses that as an excuse to make things as generic as possible.

The early scenes that introduce us to Willingham and his wife (played to flaky, salt-of-the-earth perfection by “The Deuce” star Emily Meade) are bland and scattershot, as indifferent to the emotional aftermath of the fire as the state of Texas is toward the man they decide to blame for starting it. Zwick might want to keep us focused on the facts, but he often accomplishes that by depriving us of any deeper insight. Without a clear aesthetic to illustrate the absurdity of Willingham’s arrest, or to convey the horrifying powerlessness of his imprisonment, the first half of “Trial by Fire” just sort of happens. It’s a veritable parade of prison-movie tropes (the helpful black cellmates the abusive white guard, the solitary confinement dream sequences), but Zwick’s refusal to go full “Shawshank” results in a “terrible soup / such small portions” situation — the film can’t even commit to its clichés.

But then, after the movie skips forward seven years around its halfway point, we and Willingham are graced by a ray of light: Laura Dern. Elizabeth Gilbert is a bored, middle-aged writer and mother of two who’s so compassionate that her dying ex-husband often refers to her as a saint. Or maybe it’s just that she likes to fix the things she can, because it spares her from having to dwell on the things that she can’t (Dern’s pained half-smile does a wonderful job of obscuring the difference). One day, after helping a stranded motorist like the good samaritan that she is, Gilbert is told of a letter-writing program for death row inmates. Struck by the sincerity of Willingham’s writing, Gilbert is soon visiting her pen pal in prison on a regular basis.

“Trial by Fire” is completely reignited by the scenes between Dern and O’Connell, who form a compelling bond through a thick sheet of plexiglass. More than just an acting masterclass, the probing, delicate conversations between their characters build towards a harrowing tap dance between hope and surrender. It’s tempting to think that the film should have just started here, with Dern and O’Connell locked in a lopsided war against a broken state; we could have filled in the rest by simply reading their faces.

It takes so little for Gilbert to recognize a miscarriage of justice, and even less to find irrefutable evidence that Willingham was put on the chopping block for the sake of good politics (someone observes that executions double during election years). Rising from the ashes of a tired prison story, “Trial by Fire” erupts into a harrowing condemnation of the criminal justice system as Willingham’s execution races closer, and the evidence of his innocence grows more irrefutable. The twists folded into the film’s last act are stranger than fiction and profoundly unfair, but also all too easy to believe in a true story that always defaults to injustice. What Zwick lacks in artistry, he makes up for in anger, and “Trial by Fire” burns with a righteous fury that spreads right off the screen. It may not be a great film — at certain times, it may not even be a good one — but it makes a more convincing argument about Cameron Todd Willingham than the state of Texas ever did.

Grade: C+

“Trial by Fire” premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.

Source: IndieWire film

September 2, 2018

‘The Sisters Brothers’ Review: Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly Star in the Most Sensitive Western Ever Made — Venice

“The Sisters Brothers” is a sensitive western about brotherly love that just happens to revolve around stone-cold murderers. It’s a context that requires an original approach to the genre, and that’s exactly what veteran French director Jacques Audiard brings to his first English-language effort. However, in retrospect, Audiard is a natural fit: With movies like “Dheepan” and “A Prophet,” Audiard makes rich character studies about people trying to do the right thing in a world stacked against them, and nothing in American mythology provides a better template for exploring that crisis than the Wild West. However, it’s the stirring chemistry between Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly as committed siblings that transforms these lively, violent circumstances into a sweet and intimate journey designed to catch acolytes of the genre off-guard.

Based on Patrick Dewitt’s 2011 novel, “The Sisters Brothers” unfolds against the backdrop of the Gold Rush, though the historical context is secondary to the narrative it sets in motion. In the first frame, titular Sisters brothers Charlie (Phoenix) and Eli (Reilly) emerge from nighttime shadows to massacre an entire house full of targets. Employed by an enigmatic gangster known as The Commodore (Rutger Hauer, in a fleeting but welcome cameo), the brothers careen across the barren landscape juggling various missions to murder men for reasons irrelevant to their plight. It’s a subversive adventure story about the supposed bad guys, a hit-man comedy by way of Peckinpah, and remarkable for the way it makes the familiar backdrop so appealing from the start.

For the hard-drinking Charlie, this endless killing spree is a justification unto itself; the gentler Eli, however, has started to question the underlying purpose of their missions. Little by little, the focused script (credited to Audiard and Thomas Bidegan) reveals details about this odd pair and the history of their bloody career path; so long as the movie hovers in the center of this dynamic, it remains a fascinating exploration of an unusual family bond.

“The Sisters Brothers” mines so much substance out its central characters that it falters when it cuts away from them. When the brothers are hired to track down a supposed thief named Hermann Kermit Warm (Riz Ahmed, wearing a classy mustache and an inviting grin), the story shifts to his experiences with Morris (Jake Gyllenhaal), the bounty hunter who nabs Hermann under the auspices of delivering him to the killers. Sporting a peculiar British accent that makes his lopsided “Okja” character look normal, Gyllenhaal stands out as odd variable in this otherwise credible scenario, though his scenes with Hermann develop their own sense of intrigue. It turns out the alleged criminal actually has a water-based formula with the ability to make gold appear in river beds, and its financial prospects appeal to Morris enough that he decides to become his prisoner’s business partner as they plot to foil the Sisters brothers when they arrive.

But really, this scenario sets in motion more complications for the brothers to escape, as they continue to contend with the broader existential question of what they should do with their time. Enduring harsh conditions on the road between Oregon and California, the Sisters spend much of the movie saving each other from physical harm, whether it’s abrasive spider bites or drunken saloon showdowns, and it’s so endearing to watch them survive each new twist that it renders broader stakes irrelevant. There’s an Altmanesque quality to the way Audiard builds out this world, with the ever-reliable Alexandre Desplat’s jangly score and Benoit Debie’s warm, painterly visuals opening up the brothers’ journeys to the boundless possibilities of the frontier. It almost seems as though they could keep at it forever, but every messy gunfight inches them closer to the possibility that time is running out.

About those gunfights: While Audiard has never made a proper action movie, many of his credits have a brutal, physical intensity, from the grotesque prison showdowns of “A Prophet” to the street brawls of “Rust and Bone” and the Rambo-like militant finale of “Dheepan,” from which Audiard drew on “The Wild Bunch.” To that end, he excels at constructing the most intense sequences of the movie. Filled with jolting sound design and clever misdirection, the shootouts in “The Sisters Brothers” have a sustained potency and remain unpredictable until the very last moments, much like the brothers themselves.

Reilly, who also produced the movie, tends to strike a distinctive tone between goofball and gentleman, a balance that makes his character here so likable from the outset. In a standout moment at a brothel, he attempts to engage in the most kindhearted sexual role-playing in film history, and his bedroom antics are so lovable the prostitute (“Fargo” Season 1 star Allison Tolman) is led to tears; next door, of course, an inebriated Eli’s wrecking havoc on cue. The sad-funny balance of this sequence epitomizes the movie’s endearing tone.

Phoenix, buried behind his usual scrappy beard, peers out at every twist with the same wild eyes that have become his trademark. A sort of companion piece to his emo hitman in Lynn Ramsay’s “You Were Never Really Here” earlier this year, Phoenix plays Eli as the ultimate foil to his brother’s measured world view: Whereas Charlie constantly worries about his behavior, Eli never hesitates to maintain control of a situation — in a scene that finds the brothers facing down the barrels of a few guns at once, a typically sloshed Eli stares back at their foes and confidently vomits before taking them out.

While not every turn of events remains so involving, the siblings remain a key selling point, as the title of “The Sisters Brothers” provides a template for examining one of its core themes: This most masculine of genres often takes masculinity for granted, but “The Sisters Brothers” doesn’t let its tough guys off the hook. They’re vivid, emotional beings, the products of troubled upbringings who live hand-to-mouth the only way they know how. When they finally come around to confronting a major figure from their past, it arrives as a kind of spiritual awakening, the cinematic equivalent of watching a grown man cry.

Grade: B+

“The Sisters Brothers” premiered at the 2018 Venice Film Festival. Annapurna Pictures releases it theatrically on September 21.

Source: IndieWire film

September 2, 2018

As Telluride Roars, Limited Releases Whimper: With ‘The Little Stranger’ Weak, Only ‘Searching’ Clicks

Wile Labor Day weekend is one of the biggest weekends for specialized distributors with Telluride, Venice, and the upcoming Toronto Film Festivals, it’s the least appealing holiday to open new limited films. Most of the limited action came from two documentaries, both of which are streaming: “Pick of the Litter” and “Active Measures.” There was one significant feature, Lenny Abrahamson’s “The Little Stranger,” which went wide and barely registered with a under-$900 per-theater-average.

Sony, meantime, is having some initial success with its John Cho thriller “Searching.” After a strong limited start last weekend, it found solid results in a moderately wide release. This is a notable, non-awards season release for a studio’s staggered expansion film.

Opening

The Little Stranger (Focus) – Metacritic: 69

$420,000 in 474 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $886

Irish director Lenny Abrahamson broke out three years ago with “Room,” including a Best Director Oscar nomination. His follow up film — a horror mystery set in a dilapidated haunted mansion — has some of the claustrophobic feel of “Room.” But the film, taken on by Focus pre-production, received less favorable reviews and opened in advance of the fall festivals on a national release. The response is underwhelming, although it did have a decent Saturday uptick that suggests it is reaching some of the older audience it wants.

What comes next: This level of gross doesn’t encourage further expansion.

 

Ya Vermemos (Lionsgate)

$1,800,000 in 369 theaters; PTA: $4,878

The title translates as “We’ll See.” This Mexican comedy (already a big hit at home) is the latest from Lionsgate’s Spanish-language partner Pantelion. It centers on a boy dealing with his parents divorce at a time when his eyes are failing. It opened mid-range for their releases that play at mainly strong Latino-audience theaters.

What comes next: This looks to have found its appropriate audience and theaters, with not much expansion likely.

 

Let the Corpses Tan (Kino Lorber) – Metacritic: 62; Festivals include: Toronto, AFI 2017

$12,138 in 3 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $4,046

This  Belgian/French gold heist thriller opened in three New York/Los Angeles theaters with modest review support and similar grosses in its initial week.

What comes next: This is set for mostly limited engagements in prime arthouses ahead.

 

Active Measures (Neon) – Metacritic: 68; Festivals include: Hot Docs 2018; also streaming

$8,143 in 2 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $4,071

Release by Neon’s partnered label Super LTD, this documentary that connects the dots about Russia’s involvement in U.S. politics opened at two prime New York and Los Angeles theater alongside its home viewing availability. The results sold some limited interest, but more importantly got the reviews and other media attention. It was the top documentary on iTunes this weekend, and placed #7 on their overall rental chart.

What comes next: Mostly home viewing, although its timely subject to garner it above average theater play also.

“Pick of the Litter”Pick of the Litter (IFC)  – Metacritic: 62; Festivals include: Slamdance 2018; also on Video on Demand

$19,078 in 2 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $9,539

A documentary on an appealing subject — the training of support dogs — opened in New York and Los Angeles to quite decent results, especially with its parallel initial home viewing platform release. This could be sort of film (as IFC has shown in the past) that can still appeal in theaters with alternatives out there.

What comes next: The next openings are in the Bay Area and Portland this Friday.

A Paris Education (Kino Lorber) – Metacritic: 52; Festivals include: Berlin 2018

$3,358 in 1 theater; PTA (per theater average): $3,358

Without significant review support, this single-screen Manhattan debut for this film set in the world of French cinephiles had a minor initial result.

What comes next: This will see some limited specialized expansion ahead.

Week Two

Searching (Sony)

$5,700,000 in 1,207 theaters (+1,198); PTA: $4,722; Cumulative: $6,208,000

Sony has managed a more-than-respectable initial result in its expansion of this Sundance-premiered sci-fi thriller with John Cho in the lead. It ranks #5 overall for the weekend. This can be tricky territory for major studios, and the longer-term trajectory for the film will be better seen next weekend. But so far so good.

Papillon (Bleecker Street)

$351,530 in 539 theaters (-5)

This remake of the McQueen/Hoffman prison escape drama collapsed its second weekend after a mediocre start. The drop was about two thirds.

The Bookshop (Greenwich)

$190,520 in 60 theaters (+56); PTA: $3,175; Cumulative: $261,029

Veteran director Isabel Coixet’s mostly Spanish-made (in English) period film set on the British coast showed some older audience interest in a rapid second-week expansion. This move should position it to benefit ahead from whatever positive word of mouth is could receive.

Burn Later Productions/Kobal/REX/Shutterstock

Support the Girls (Magnolia)

$(est.) 20,000 in 20 theaters (-15); PTA: $(est.) 1,000; Cumulative: $(est.) 99,000

Andrew Bujaski’s acclaimed feminist comedy with Regina Hall is falling far short of the attention it deserves. It lost many of its initial theaters, with low grosses overall in the remaining ones.

 

John McEnroe – In the Realm of Perfection (Oscilloscope)

$44,190 in 21 theaters (+20); PTA: $1,264; Cumulative: $44,190

McEnroe ranks as an iconic figure with Ruth Bader Ginsberg and Fred Rogers, but this well-received documentary looks to have more limited interest.

 

Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Alex Bailey.

Ongoing/expanding (Grosses over $50,000)

Juliet, Naked (Roadside Attractions) Week 3

$804,025 in 318 theaters (+275); Cumulative: $1,253,000

With Ethan Hawke leading the strong ensemble, this relationship film with a musician-obsession twist expanded nationally this weekend. The results show some crossover interest, but this looks like it might struggle to break out much wider.

The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 3

$524,346 in 78 theaters (+60); Cumulative: $1,014,000

This story of how the marriage of a Nobel Prize winner is affected by his award, with Glenn Close getting some of the best reviews of her career, is thriving as it expands. This is grossing at a pace that looks like it will approach “Call Me By Your Name” territory SPC’s biggest grossing film in the last two and a half years.

Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) Week 9

$267,000 in 505 theaters (+417); Cumulative: $16,958,000

A holiday weekend rebooking of Boots Riley’s genre-bending hit will push it over $17 million. That’s third best among all the many successful films that premiered at this year’s Sundance.

A24

Eighth Grade (A24) Week 8

$266,000 in 227 theaters (-139); Cumulative: $12,929,000

After a wide national run, with most of its business coming from a smaller percentage of its runs, the middle-school transition to adolescence story is one of the biggest live-action specialized films of 2018 — at least before the deluge of fall films.

Three Identical Strangers (Neon) Week 10

$238,260 in 170 theaters (-51); Cumulative: $11,583,000

This very successful documentary has nearly tripled the gross of “Searching for Sugar Man” three years ago. That similar story (a compelling personal mystery that played as a narrative) went on to win the Best Feature Documentary Oscar for 2012.

Puzzle (Sony Pictures Classics) Week 6

$187,013 in 213 theaters (-52); Cumulative: $1,574,000

The story of a woman emerging from her suburban family shell is winding down its run with a mid-level total of $2 million the likely final result.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (FilmRise) Week 5

$70,000 in 45 (-40) theaters; Cumulative: $768,420

Abusive gay conversion therapy and its impact is the subject of this Sundance-debuted drama, which is winding down after getting elevated national art house attention.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus) Week 13; also streaming

$70,000 in 113 theaters (-47); Cumulative: $22,275,000

Nearing the end of its theatrical run (it’s transitioning to home viewing), Fred Rogers is the biggest documentary star in years for this wildly successful film. It stands as the biggest specialized hit of the summer.

Blaze (IFC) Week 3   7-110

$62,636 in 20 theaters (+17); Cumulative: $174,701

Still playing mainly in Texas (Nashville also opened), Ethan Hawke’s biofilm about a cult music figure continues to show some interest in advance of its openings, starting this Friday, in the rest of the country.

Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street) Week 10

$56,357 in 98 (+32) theaters; Cumulative: $5,886,000

With $6 million in view, Debra Granik’s drama looks to equal Bleecker Street’s “Captain Fantastic” two years ago.

 

Also noted:

We the Animals (The Orchard) – $38,410 in 19 theaters; Cumulative: $200,270

Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope) – $28,150 in 31 theaters; Cumulative: $111,821

McQueen (Bleecker Street) – $22,920 in 17 theaters; Cumulative: $1,186,000

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Greenwich) – $14,397 in 17 theaters; Cumulative: $381,229

Memoir of War (Music Box) – $10,857 in theaters; Cumulative: $59,239

 

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source: IndieWire film

September 2, 2018

‘First Man’ Is the Most American Movie of the Year, and the Backlash Proves that Donald Trump Is Killing the Movies — Telluride Critics Notebook

On Thursday night, a crowd gathered at a welcome dinner held by the Telluride Film Festival. It was a full day before Senator Marco Rubio made the ridiculous accusation that Neil Armstrong biopic “First Man” was un-American because it omitted Armstrong planting the flag on the moon, but political discourse was everywhere. In one corner, the conversation shifted from some of the anticipated festival movies to a recent episode of The Daily, the New York Times’ news podcast, and why some people can’t appreciate Rachel Maddow’s reporting. A veteran distributor sitting nearby rolled his eyes. “Donald Trump is killing the movies,” he said.

Though our reality-tshow president has yet to launch a blatant cultural war against the moving image, the point resonated nonetheless: The chaotic news cycle stimulated by the lunatic at the top has eclipsed the appeal of more familiar storytelling. Headlines have become the narratives of the day. Movies that offer sophisticated perspectives on the world can’t keep up with a partisan discourse that rushes to judgement about everything in its path and keeps moving ahead.

So it went with “First Man,” Damien Chazelle’s impressionistic portrait of Armstrong’s multi-year preparation for the moon mission, and surreal experience of loneliness with the universe that he experienced on the surface. Rubio’s ignorant complaints drew further ammo from star Ryan Gosling’s claim that the moon landing was an achievement for all mankind, not only the United States, effectively giving the GOP echo chamber an excuse to ramble on further without seeing the movie. The cycle of outrage moved so rapidly that both Chazelle and Armstrong’s children issued statements defending the movie in an attempt to correct the news cycle.

They should have less to worry about once the rest of the world sees “First Man.” Anyone who did would come to the conclusion Chazelle has made the most American movie of the year, one that wields its ideals like a blunt weapon while opening them up to a mass audience.

Much of Chazelle’s “La La Land” followup often adheres to a familiar mode of sentimental storytelling. Gosling’s Armstrong copes with his worried spouse (Claire Foy) and his child while dealing with the lingering grief of his daughter’s death. The recurring cutaways to the late girl are some of the more heavy-handed moments in a movie that works best in the cockpit, where Chazelle’s extraordinary craftsmanship comes into play, but it’s all related to the same motif: Faced with traumatic personal hurdles, Armstrong pushes ahead. Gosling, who spends much of the movie with a dazed expression that suggests he’s on the moon long before the character touches down, never delivers a tell-all monologue to explain his drive — and yet it has a familiar resonance all the same. When Armstrong stands on the lunar surface and gazes back at his lander (where, yes, you can see the fucking flag), it looks like a fragile miniature against an endless black void. The lyrical imagery carries powerful resonance: an American ideal achieved against the backdrop of the great unknown.

Both ends of the political spectrum tend to celebrate this concept as a key aspect of the country’s identity — survival under impossible odds, commitment to achieving dreams rather than gazing at them from afar, and utilizing the country’s resources to make it all happen. “We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things,” JFK said in 1961, “not because they are easy, but because they are hard.” As he gears up for training in “First Man,” Gosling hears those words emanating from a television screen, and they’re more than enough for him to press ahead.

Notably, Armstrong’s saga in “First Man” was echoed in another movie playing to eager crowds at Telluride, the documentary “Free Solo.” Jimmy Chin and Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi follow up “Meru” with the stunning portrait of climber Alex Honnold, the daredevil who became the first person to free solo climb Yosemite’s 3,000-foot El Capitan. A real-world thriller designed to stimulate sweaty palms, “Free Solo” follows the subdued Honnold as he talks through the prospects of death and prepares for the dire mission; then, much as Chazelle’s cameras fly to the moon alongside his subjects, the filmmakers capture Honnold’s climb in each bracing moment. He’s a fascinating psychological enigma, who shrugs off his girlfriend’s concerns and the various physical setbacks stacked against him simply because the challenge is there.

Like Armstrong, Honnold comes across as a distinctly American figure, compelled to tackle elusive challenges rather than wallowing in the reasons not to press forward. In both movies, the men engage in awkward conversations with concerned relatives and struggle to find the words to explain their motivations. This is also a distinctly American tendency: convictions lead to actions more than conversations about their purpose.

“First Man” and “Free Solo” both reflect the idea that accomplishments driven by personal determination tend to have less to do with party membership than individual will. This concept might be too subtle for a fiery pundit or clueless ideologue like Rubio, but it’s a compelling one for the very same reason — an apolitical conception of American exceptionalism manifesting at the center of partisan times. While Telluride entries like “Watergate, Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out-of-Control President” and Gary Hart biopic “The Front Runner” may engage with the current political climate in obvious terms, “First Man” and “Free Solo” provide a template for the future, when the prospects of succeeding against daunting odds transcends the toxicity of the climate to provide a universal source of pride. They don’t waste time with handwringing over belief systems. They tower over these angry, dogmatic times with a measured gaze and an underlying message: Get over the outrage and keep pressing ahead. Trump might be killing the movies, but with these galvanizing stories, the movies are fighting back.

Source: IndieWire film

September 2, 2018

‘Can You Ever Forgive Me?’ Review: Melissa McCarthy Gives Her Best Performance as a Forger Who Dreams of Fame — Telluride

Melissa McCarthy has shown the potential for a role that deepens her screen presence for some time, but her brash, rambunctious performances have been restricted to broad comedies that usually fall short of exploring what such a character might be like under more realistic circumstances. At long last, she’s landed the right opportunity with “Can You Ever Forgive Me?”, director Marielle Heller’s charming melancholic comedy about real-life writer-turned-criminal Lee Israel, who forged some 400 letters by dead celebrities and pawned them off until the FBI caught up with her scheme. A lonely, infuriated New York woman prone to turn her luck around no matter the cost, Israel provides the ideal template for McCarthy to project her talents onto a more sophisticated plane, and — complemented by a top-notch Richard E. Grant as Israel’s partner-in-crime — she rises to the occasion.

The movie opens in 1991, as the hard-drinking Israel gets fired from her day job and struggles to make rent at her dilapidated uptown apartment. Once a celebrated magazine journalist, she found some success writing biographies years ago, but her penchant for non-commercial subjects led to an interminable dry spell. Her latest pitch to tackle the life of Fanny Brice invites more than one blank stare. “We may disagree on what we consider fascinating,” her frustrated agent (Jane Curtin) says, when Israel storms her office to complain about Tom Clancy’s multimillion-dollar paycheck. “Oh, to be a white man who doesn’t even know he’s full of crap,” she sighs.

Israel wants her work to succeed on its own merits; she doesn’t believe in selling out, but needs an outlet for her talents that pays the bills. Her cat’s sick, her benevolent landlord’s losing his patience, and she can barely afford a decent meal. Salvation arrives from an unexpected direction: After fooling around with her typewriter one night, she discovers that she can easily forge letters by Dorothy Parker, Noel Coward, and others, selling them off for hundreds of dollars apiece. Suddenly, a daring new creative outlet materializes that sends her careening down a dangerous career path.

The movie takes its time allowing this scheme to take shape, building out Israel’s solitary existence to ground her actions in a credible place. The screenplay, written by Nicole Holofcener and Jeff Whitty from Israel’s memoir of the same name, shows the hallmarks of the funny-sad balance that distinguishes so many of Holofcener’s female-centric character studies. Israel certainly makes for an emotionally rich centerpiece, a 51-year-old gay single woman who would rather drink at home and pet her cat than let any new people into her life. The screenplay drops hints of one old relationship that went sour for that exact reason, setting up the arrival of her ideal wingman: At a grimy bar, she’s approached by Jack Hock (Grant, note-perfect), a catty raconteur and philandering street urchin who shares her alcoholism.

As the pair launch a friendship steeped in late-night bar sessions, she confides in him about her scheme, and for a time they’ve launched a foolproof operation. Heller, stepping up with a slick, inviting narrative after her audacious coming-of-age debut “The Diary of a Teenage Girl,” presents the initial stages of the scheme with the ebullience of a heist movie. It’s so much fun to watch Israel get away with things that her immoral obsession becomes infectious.

As the movie tracks Heller through every step of her scheme, the story rolls along with a smooth jazz score and Brandon Trost’s bountiful New York City imagery, as Heller channels the dark urban milieu of vintage Woody Allen. Despite the audacious nature of Israel’s scheme and the eventual intrusion of the FBI, “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” maintains an intimacy with Israel’s story and keeps the cast to a minimum. While her rambunctious chemistry with Grant dominates some of the best scenes, Israel also develops intriguing relationships with the various literary dealers she swindles, including a seedy blackmailer (McCarthy’s husband, Ben Falcone), and would-be writer Anna (Dolly Wells), a good-natured woman whose interest in Israel opens up the possibility that she hasn’t lost the chance for longterm companionship for good.

Of course, Israel’s self-destructive path eventually catches up with her, and Heller arrives at this predictable outcome with a satisfying emotional payoff. “Can You Ever Forgive Me?” sticks to its contained story throughout, rarely going to surprising places, and probably doesn’t benefit from expectations of daring storytelling on par with its protagonist’s big gamble. However, McCarthy elevates the material at every opportunity, and whenever the camera lingers on her expressions, she’s a study in contradictions — tough and tender all at once, unsure which side of that spectrum to unleash. It’s dizzying to watch her world fall apart as she scrambles to hold the scraps together. She keeps searching for an outlet in all the wrong places, suffering through the sting of realization that she’s screwed up all over again, and you can’t help but root for her to succeed again.

Arriving on the calendar just weeks after the embarrassment of her misguided muppet farce “The Happytime Murders,” McCarthy gives her best performance just in time. One could argue that her Oscar-nominated turn in “Bridesmaids” had an unparalleled vulgarity that bordered on iconic, and the intriguing crime-gone-wrong dramedy “Tammy” (which McCarthy and Falcone co-wrote) now looks like a dry run for the richer performance she gives here. The movie reaches the apex of its appeal in a closing monologue in which the forger celebrates her work before an unforgiving judge. Considering that she ultimately profited from telling the story of her exploits, it’s unclear if Israel’s penance was ever genuine. But McCarthy’s performance succeeds primarily because it leaves that tantalizing question open ended as the credits roll.

Grade: A-

“Can You Ever Forgive Me?”  premiered at the 2018 Telluride Film Festival. Fox Searchlight releases it theatrically on October 19.

Source: IndieWire film

August 30, 2018

About that Email You Sent Over Labor Day Weekend…

We’re getting ready for fall, which is a really busy time for StoryCorps, with a planned upgrade of our email system.

While this happens, there will be a temporary disruption in delivery of emails to any address that ends in storycorps.org. This process will start Friday, August 31 at 7:00PM and continue through the weekend. Chances are, if you send us an email during this time, you will receive a bounce back message or undeliverable message.

Here are three suggestions for how to deal:

1. If you receive a message that your email was not delivered, please resend your email after Monday at 7:00AM.
2. Save your email a few more days and be in touch when our offices open Tuesday, September 4. (All our locations are closed in observance of Labor Day.)
3. Log a ticket in our Help Center; we’ll reply when we’re back in the office.

If your message is regarding a reservation this weekend, please leave us a message at (646) 723-7027.

 
In the meantime, please enjoy a StoryCorps classic that also happens to be an email love story:

Source: SNPR Story Corps

August 28, 2018

Why Dual Native ISO Should Be the New Industry Standard

What does “Dual Native ISO” mean, what does it do for your shots, and why would its acceptance in the film and video industries matter?<p>Every few …
Source: CW’s Flipboard Feed

August 26, 2018

Could ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ Hit $200 Million? After This Weekend, It’s Quite Possible

Conventional studio thinking doesn’t leave room for a contemporary film set in an entirely Asian milieu to reach even $100 million, and “Crazy Rich Asians” will pass that number sometime early next weekend. And with a tiny box-office drop of six percent in its second weekend, it could see a total domestic gross as high as $200 million. 

The film opened on a Wednesday, so weekend-to-weekend comparisons aren’t the same as a normal Friday opener. But those numbers are nearly as good, a little more than nine percent down, and that’s phenomenal. It suggests a momentum that could mean that substantial gross remains ahead, and broadened interest that will come from publicity and word of mouth. (Of note: 73 percent of the audience was non-Asian this weekend.)

Next weekend will also see the benefit of a holiday release with Labor Day weekend. There’s not much competition, either; studios usually ignore it. Historically, those films doing well see a pickup for the four-day holiday, by at least 20 percent and often more. (Last year, the third weekend of “The Hitman’s Bodyguard” climbed about 30 percent.) If “Crazy Rich Asians” sees a four-day gross of $30 million next weekend, after adding a likely $12 million during the precedent weekdays, it would stand at nearly $120 million.

That trajectory would place it ahead of “The Help,” 2011’s sleeper August smash. Tate Taylor’s film opened one week earlier in the month, so had a bit of an edge in better playtime. But it ended up (adjusted) at $198 million. “The Help” also opened on a Wednesday, and its second five days fell 26 percent. That was an excellent hold, and suggested a lengthy run ahead.

September is no longer a dead zone. “The Nun” (also Warner Bros.) has high expectations on September 7, though there will be plenty of room for both to thrive. But don’t be surprised to see “Crazy” in the top three films for at least a few weeks.

Courtesy of STX Entertainment

Until recently, Melissa McCarthy reigned as the biggest draw in comedy. She stars in and produces “The Happytime Murders,” which tries to combine a retro-Muppets film feel (director Brian Henson is the son of Jim) and a “Sausage Party” raunchy comedy feel. With a $10 million opening, it didn’t work. This is her worst wide opening since she rose to prominence around 2010.

Even worse is “A-X-L,” a family-oriented tale set in the world of robotic dogs; it couldn’t even manage $3 million in 1,710 theaters. Global Road, which was formed with seemingly solid backing and top industry veterans with its initial release earlier this year, has been taken over by investors. This won’t help their future. The company also canceled the upcoming “City of Lies” with Johnny Depp; this might be more a result of their financial standing than the quality of the film.

 

Even so, this was a great box-office weekend of $100 million, up from $69 million this time last year. “The Meg” retained the #2 spot with a 38 percent drop. Another rare non-franchise studio release (though hardly original) is up to $105 million domestic, with $408 million so far worldwide. That’s with one major territory (Japan) yet to open, making $500 million in reach. That will push it into a decent profit, even with its $130 million budget (before marketing).

Already at $538 million worldwide, “Mission-Impossible: Fallout” (Paramount) — with China still to open — continues its very strong domestic run with only a 26 percent fifth weekend drop. After “Avengers: Infinity War” and “Incredibles 2,” it is only the third film this summer to be among the top four in its fifth weekend. It needs about $28 million to reach what “Rogue Nation” grossed (adjusted) three years ago.

“Christopher Robin,” helped by the dearth of family alternatives, dropped only 28 percent. It held in better than its mediocre opening, and already has exceed a three-time multiple over its opening. $100 million now seems not impossible.

“BlacKkKlansman” also continues to stay strong, dropping 28 percent. Spike Lee’s film has reached $32 million, with $50 million plausible, terrific for the $15-million budget film.

Last week’s two openers fell much more. Peter Berg’s Mark Wahlberg starring “Mile 22” dropped 56 percent and won’t reach $40 million, unexpectedly soft for what has been a strong partnership. “Alpha” kept its drop to 46 percent, but it won’t move much above $30 million.

The Top Ten

1. Crazy Rich Asians (Warner Bros.) Week 2 – Last weekend #1

$25,010,000 (-6%) in 3,526 theaters (+142); PTA (per theater average): $7,093; Cumulative: $76,818,000

2. The Meg (Warner Bros.) Week 3 – Last weekend #2

$13,030,000 (-38%) in 4,031 theaters (-87); PTA: $3,232; Cumulative: $105,301,000

3. The Happytime Murders (STX) NEW – Cinemascore: C-; Metacritic: 29; Est. budget: $40 million

$10,020,000 in 3,256 theaters; PTA: $3,077; Cumulative: $10,020,000

4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount) Week 5 – Last weekend #4

$8,000,000 (-26%) in 3,052 theaters (-430); PTA: $2,621; Cumulative: $193,901,000

5. Christopher Robin (Disney) Week 4 – Last weekend #6

$6,340,000 (-29%) in 3,394 theaters (-208); PTA: $1,868; Cumulative: $77,629,000

6. Mile 22 (STX) Week 2 – Last weekend #3

$6,030,000 (-56%) in 3,050 theaters (no change); PTA: $1,713; Cumulative: $25,171,000

7. Alpha (Sony) Week 2 – Last weekend #5

$5,600,000 (-46%) in 2,719 theaters (no change); PTA: $2,060; Cumulative: $20,161,000

8. BlacKkKlansman (Focus) Week 3 – Last weekend #7

$5,345,000 (-28%) in 1,914 theaters (+126); PTA: $2,793; Cumulative: $32,038,000

9. A-X-L (Global Road) NEW – Cinemascore: B+; Metacritic: 34; Est. budget: $10 million

$2,939,000 in 1,710 theaters; PTA: $1,719; Cumulative: $2,939,000

10. Slender Man (Sony) Week 3 – Last weekend #8

$2,785,000 (-42%) in 2,065 theaters (-293); PTA: $1,349; Cumulative: $25,403,000

 

 

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source: IndieWire film

August 26, 2018

John Cho’s ‘Searching’ Grabs Specialty Crowd as ‘Papillon’ and ‘Support the Girls’ Struggle

The dog days of summer are a dropping ground– just before the festival launch of many major award season entries –for weaker commercial entries that need room to breathe. Still, multiple new titles opened this weekend. One, Sundance grad “Searching” (Sony), looks set for wider interest ahead.

Remake “Papillon” (Bleecker Street) opened in 544 theaters, neither platform nor wide, but standard for general interest openers that still require special handling. Results were desultory, but without a lot of competition the grim period prison drama probably could have done no better, with a chance of some Labor Day holiday playtime ahead.

“The Wife” (Sony Pictures Classics) showed some real strength on its second weekend and should play well for the next few weeks. A standout run could help position Glenn Close for awards ahead of the glut of new contenders that will soon arrive.

Opening

Papillon (Bleecker Street) – Metacritic: 52; Festivals include: Toronto 2017

$1,151,000 in 544 theaters; PTA (per theater average): $2,115

This weakly-reviewed second version of the true island prison escape story stars Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek, while the first showcased Dustin Hoffman and Steve McQueen at their peak. Nearly a year after Red Granite’s $12-million foreign-sales title premiered at Toronto, it opened in sophisticated upscale theaters to modest results similar to two previous Bleecker Street releases, “The Man Who Invented Christmas” and “Beirut.” Both films scored domestic totals between $5,000,000 and $6,000,000. This looks to end up in the same range.

What comes next: This will stay at about the same level next week.

Courtesy of Sundance Institute, photo by Juan Sebastian Baron

Searching (Sony) – Metacritic: 73; Festivals include: Sundance, San Francisco 2018

$360,000 in 9 theaters; PTA: $40,000

While “Crazy Rich Asians” boosts Asian-American actors, John Cho, a leading box-office success both in studio (“Star Trek”) and specialized films (“Columbus”) shines again in this missing child thriller. He stars as a dad who researches his beloved missing daughter’s computer and finds out who she really is. Sony opened this Sundance premiere in nine theaters as a platform release (rare outside of awards season) to a strong result. This should enhance its attention as it moves to a more conventional wide break.

What comes next: This expands to 1,100 theaters this Friday.

Support the Girls (Magnolia) – Metacritic: 86; Festivals include: South by Southwest, San Francisco 2018

$(est.) 51,000 in 34 theaters; PTA: $(est.) 1,500

Set in a Hooters-style venue and shot in Austin, Texas with a strong female ensemble led by well-reviewed Regina Hall, this drama opened in more than 20 cities in a mixture of specialized and African-American neighborhood theaters. The result was mediocre overall, despite rave reviews with major placement in top newspapers. This film might get more attention on other platforms ahead. It’s tricky to grab initial specialized attention with characters who are outside the daily lives of most specialized audiences.

What comes next: The reviews could give this some traction for expansion, but overall this ‘tweener looks like it will struggle to get a lot more national attention.

The Bookshop (Greenwich) – Metacritic: 62; Festivals include: Berlin 2018

$48,000 in 4 theaters; PTA: $12,000

Spanish director Isabel Coixet (“The Secret Life of Words”) has worked in several countries. This time she goes British, as a young woman opens a bookstore in a resistant conservative 1959 English coastal town. This could be an appealing subject for older audiences in the week ahead. With only modestly favorable reviews, its opening is strong enough to give it a foot in the market for interested moviegoers.

What comes next: This expands quickly to 65 theaters for the holiday weekend, so we’ll see soon how much appeal this could have.

John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection (Oscilloscope) – Metacritic: 84; Festivals include: Berlin 2018

$8,060 in 1 theater; PTA: $8,060; Cumulative: $11,915

This documentary portrait of tennis champion (already the subject of the narrative film “Borg Vs. McEnroe” earlier this year) opened exclusively on Wednesday in New York to a decent initial five day gross.

What comes next: Timed to expand while the U.S. Open takes place, this expands to top markets next weekend.

Crime + Punishment (Hulu) – Metacritic: 88; Festivals include: Sundance, Seattle 2018; also on Hulu

$(est.) 8,400 in 3 theaters; PTA: $(est.) 2,800; Cumulative: $(est.) 8,400

Parallel to its debut on Hulu, Stephen Maing’s acclaimed documentary opened in three theaters in order to cop some good reviews. Sure enough, its Metascore is slightly ahead of the three breakout documentaries this summer. The subject — eye-popping New York Police Department quota systems that unfairly target minorities — doesn’t lend itself to major theatrical audience response. But theater placement will get this more attention.

What comes next: Nearly all of its viewings will be on Hulu, but it’s eligible for Oscar consideration and could enter that conversation.

Andrei Roublev (Janus) (reissue)

$12,979 in 2 theaters; PTA: $6,490

Andrei Tarkovsky’s seminal 1960s Russian film opened in New York along with only one show in Los Angeles (at the Aero) to a better-than-average result for a reissue.

What comes next: This will have limited engagements in top cities ahead.

Graeme Hunter Pictures

Week Two

The Wife (Sony Pictures Classics)

$217,382 in 18 theaters (+4); PTA: $12,077; Cumulative: $380,112

The second weekend for this family drama set at a Nobel Prize ceremony is grabbing major attention for Glenn Close. This initial expansion is one of the best performers for SPC since “Call Me By Your Name.” The grosses are better than “Paris Can Wait” at the same point. With not many appealing options for the older specialized crowd in the next few weeks, this drama looks primed for a performance ahead of “Paris.”

Blaze (IFC)

$51,286 in 7 theaters (+4); PTA: $7,326; Cumulative: $104,476

IFC’s unusual release of this Ethan Hawke-directed biopic about a little-known but influential Texas musician added more theaters in that state after its Austin debut. These are decent results for a regional release, which will see two more Texas theaters plus Nashville open this week before a wider national expansion the following week.

Juliet, Naked (Roadside Attractions)

$250,370 in 43 theaters (+39); PTA: $5,822; Cumulative: $344,602

This musical romantic comedy starring Ethan Hawke, Rose Byrne, and Chris O’Dowd got some sampling its second weekend as expanded quickly to major cities nationwide. The entertaining film could pull some crowds over the upcoming holiday weekend.

Cinereach

We the Animals (The Orchard)

$(est.) 44,000 in 11 theaters (+8); PTA: $(est.) 4,000; Cumulative: $(est.) $134,000

With elements of “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” “Moonlight,” and “The Florida Project,” this critically-supported independent film set among disadvantaged young people expanded to top cities this weekend to modest results.

Memoir of War (Music Box) 2-18

$17,743 in 11 theaters (+9); PTA: $1,613; Cumulative: $35,682

This French World War II resistance drama expanded to several new theaters with a typical response these days for subtitled films.

Expanding/ongoing (grosses over $50,000)

Eighth Grade (A24) – Week 7

$440,000 in 366 theaters (-176); Cumulative: $12,480,000

As the season winds down, this acclaimed middle-school drama is A24’s third film (including “Hereditary” and a third of the gross for “Lady Bird”) to bring in over $10 million this year. It’s the best performer of the wider specialty films in release.

Puzzle (Sony Pictures Classics) – Week 5

$372,433 in 265 theaters (+157); Cumulative: $1,210,000

More than doubling the theaters gave this drama about a suburban woman coming out of her shell by playing jigsaw puzzles wider exposure, but not much in the way of gross. This should top out despite a national release including crossover theaters no higher than $2 million.

Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Three Identical Strangers (Neon) – Week 9

$310,000 in 221 theaters (-55); Cumulative: $11,137,000

This non-celebrity-focused documentary continues to add to its already impressive total. This is Neon’s second $10 million-plus grosser in its under 18 months of existence (“I, Tonya” grossed over $30 million). For context, A24, which became successful quickly, was in its third year when it achieved that.

Sorry to Bother You (Annapurna) – Week 8

$151,500 in 88 theaters (-55); Cumulative: $16,606,000

Boots Riley’s imaginative science-fiction comedy is firmly placed third among this year’s many Sundance successes in gross (behind “Hereditary” and “Won’t You Be My Neighbor?”).

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (FilmRise) – Week 3

$120,000 in 85 theaters (+13); Cumulative: $618,730

This gay conversion drama continues it modest response as it expands to more cities.

Won’t You Be My Neighbor? (Focus) – Week 12

$120,000 in 160 theaters (-46); Cumulative: $22,319,000

Mr. Rogers’ very busy neighborhood keeps adding to its population nearly three months after its release.

Photo by Ariel Nava/Lionsgate

Blindspotting (Lionsgate) – Week 6

$70,000 in 38 theaters (-9); Cumulative: $4,145,000

This Oakland-set independent film handled by Lionsgate’s partner Code Black has grossed more than all but four of this year’s Sundance non-documentary releases.

Also noted:

McQueen (Bleecker Street) – $49,235 in 51 theaters; Cumulative: $1,118,000

Leave No Trace (Bleecker Street) – $45,134 in 66 theaters; Cumulative: $5,800,000

Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood (Greenwich)- $37,964 in 34 theaters; Cumulative: $338,254

Madeline’s Madeline (Oscilloscope) – $18,922 in theaters; Cumulative: $68,540

The Captain (Music Box) – $11,800 in 8 theaters; Cumulative: $83,235

Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.

Source: IndieWire film