You thought YOUR family was messed up...
GUESS THE QUOTE
"Every magic trick
consists of three parts, or acts."
The Two Popes, starring Anthony Hopkins Jonathan Pryce as the last two real life pontiffs, is another Netflix release getting their "just enough to qualify for the Oscars" theatrical release. If you're a die hard theater fan and live in the right spot, it's also out this weekend, otherwise if you're interested, but not in the right local, the 🛋️ is your jam on Dec 20th.
Feedback Question: would you like more plot description of the movies? I don't want to be overly explainy because I dislike it when I read things that do that, but maybe I've overcorrected? Would love your thoughts (on anything really!) if you have any.
Favor: if you're with family / friends this week who also like movies, please pass along if it feels right. Would be much appreciated. 🙏
Scheduling: The King's Man (Kingsmen prequel) moved from February to September of next year (due to the Disney buying Fox thing).
NOTE: sending a bit early as both new releases are out TODAY.
Cutoff? Go here, click "most recent edition."
KNIVES OUT
AKA
"what happens when it's the last donut
HMMMMMMMM"
PG-13 / 2 hrs 10 mins
Mystery-Suspense-Comedy / Lionsgate
WHAT'S THE DEAL
In One Line: a modern (and original) mystery from Rian Johnson, the director of two other films steeped in questions, Brick and Looper (as well Star Wars: The Last Jedi), but here he goes full whodunnit with 1/3 of the famous people in Hollywood*.
Is there anyone in your family you'd like to murder? (please, don't email us - plausible deniability and all). We hope the answer is only "sometimes" - good chance some of those times may be this week, good luck 😬- and that it's something you'd never actually act on ( " *pffft* of course not " you unconvincingly retort).
But some people aren't so lucky; take the Thrombey family at the center of Knives Out. Their rich patriarch (Christopher Plummer), who happens to be a mystery novelist (hmmm), is so loathed by one(?) of his kin, he's offed while the whole brood fêtes him on his 85th birthday. But maybe it wasn't a family member, maybe it's someone else (hmmm). Even if all of his children and grandchildren are given strong motives by writer / director Rian Johnson, who is not new to mysteries (he helmed the teen noir Brick and sci-fi mindfuck Looper). But this is very much a traditional whodunit, so expect clues and falsehoods planted everywhere. And even if you can't figure out what they mean, you'll have 007 to guide you - as in Daniel Craig plays a private detective w/ a southern accent hired by an anonymous (HMMMM) person to help solve the crime - a crime two police officers (including Atlanta's Lakeith Stanfield) initially think is a death by suicide (HMMMM).
Craig gets to Christmas ham it up akin to what he did in Steven Soderbergh's Logan Lucky and while doing so, he'll question half of Hollywood** as Johnson tried to fit in like all of the famous people, including: Chris Evans, Toni Collette, Don Johnson, Jamie Lee Curtis, Michael Shannon, Frank Oz, Katherine Langford and more.
Reviews saw it's really rewarding and the rest of the cast gets to have their fun too (see below), so feel free to take your family and hmmm away. Just don't steal their popcorn, otherwise, ya know... 🔪😱
*slight exaggeration, but only slight
** Johnson apparently added a whole other set of characters in the time we wrote this, so we had to up the percentage
NOTE: out today!
REVIEWS
One of the most effusive set of reviews we've seen in a long time. They talk about the energy, the twists and the acting - which add up to a "crowd pleasing" time, a phrase which was used a bunch.
"A genre savant, Johnson understands that one of the pleasures of mystery stories is how they turn viewers into detectives, eager amateur sleuths who also sift through the clues, false and not." - Manohla Dargis, NY Times
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 96%
(166 reviews @ publish)
WHO'S IT (NOT) FOR?
For: one of your favorite things about watching movies is not knowing what's going to happen next
(Not): you hate it when you can't preemptively announce what's going to happen next to your date to look super smart (who probably thinks you're quite dumb)
SHARE THIS FLICK W/ FRIENDS
QUEEN AND SLIM
AKA
"an inaccurate description for a certain plummer"
R / 2 hrs 12 mins
Drama / Universal
WHAT'S THE DEAL
In One Line: Lena Waithe (The Chi, Master of None) penned film about two relatively ordinary people who are black that get caught up in a tragic situation with a cop that sets them on a course to become vigilantes / heroes.
If you've ever been on a Tinder date, you know they can be like any other dates; sometimes they're great, sometimes they're awful and other times, well, they're not bad exactly, they're just... fine. Which is how writer Lena Waithe's (The Chi, Master of None) Queen and Slim starts her story, with an innocuous first date between two strangers, Jodie Turner-Smith (Queen) and Daniel Kaluuya (Slim). Strangers who happen to be black, and at the end of their meetup, driving. Two entirely normal things that sets them up for an entirely abhorrent and abnormal, and yet still far too common, situation which starts with Kaluuya being pulled over for not signalling a turn and ends with a police officer (country singer Sturgill Simpson) shot dead in self defense.
The two now more than strangers leave the scene, but their acts, caught on camera, are viewed across the country, turning them into, as someone from the movie calls them, the "black Bonnie and Clyde." But honestly it seems more akin to the "black Thelma and Louise," since they didn't intend to become outlaws, it was unfairly thrust upon them.
But fairness is something afforded more often to some than others. A point the movie while try and make to you as Q and S (you don't learn their names throughout most of the movie) avoid capture, become symbols, fall in love, figure out who to trust, and make their way towards their ultimate destination - which should have been their respective homes, and yet...
NOTE: out today!
REVIEWS
Saying it's effective and thought provoking even if it stumbles in certain aspects.
"This movie feels like something new, and also as if it's been around forever, waiting for its moment." - A.O. Scott, NY Times
"Melina Matsoukas' powerful debut feature is a meditation and celebration of the Black experience and an at-times searing condemnation of an apathetic white America." Robert Daniels, The Playlist
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 86%
(35 reviews @ publish)
WHO'S IT (NOT) FOR?
For: you think we have a long way to go on race
(Not): you're delusional
SHARE THIS FLICK W/ FRIENDS
ALREADY IN THEATERS + BOX OFFICE
(3-Day Weekend / Domestic Total - $ = millions)
1) Frozen II ($130.2) NEW
Disney ain't lettin that $ go
76% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
2) Ford v Ferrari ($15.7 / $58)
Matt Damon & Christian Bale car movie
92% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
3) A Beautiful Day... ($13.3) NEW
Writer becomes friends w/ Mister Rogers
96% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
4) 21 Bridges ($9.3) NEW
Chadwick Boseman cop killer thriller
48% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
5) Midway ($4.6 / $43)
Big budget action take on WW II battle
42% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
6) Playing With Fire ($4.5 / $32)
Dopy firefighters battle kids
22% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
7) The Good Liar ($3.4 / $12)
Ian McKellen v Helen Mirren
64% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
8) Charlie's Angels ($3.2 / $14)
Refresh of the female action trio
58% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
9) Last Christmas ($3.1 / $28)
Khaleesi & Crazy Rich Asians star meet cute
51% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
10) Joker ($2.7 / $327)
Dark origin story for smiling bat nemesis
69% RT - Trailer - Showtimes
KINDA* LIMITED RELEASE SPOTLIGHT
THE AERONAUTS
Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne partner again in an altered telling of a real meteorologist and a balloonist who helps him fly higher than anyone has before. *it's playing limited and in IMAX theaters then on Amazon Prime Video Dec 20th
LIMITED RELEASE SPOTLIGHT
IN FABRIC
Dress haunts a woman after she buys it for a date. Next movie from Peter Strickland, director of the cult movie The Duke of Burgundy, which was about sex, bondage and... butterflies.
EMMA
February 21, 2020
Teaser. New take on the Jane Austen novel. Stars Anya Taylor-Joy from The Witch and Split. First time director who has mostly done music videos, which explains the style heavy take.
ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR
ANTEBELLUM
April 24, 2020
Teaser. Janelle Monáe is an author in horror movie where... well, I don't know. Very much a teaser, but it involves slavery somehow? To be clear, not directed by Jordan Peele (though it plays off his movies heavily - stylistically & credits wise).
ADD TO YOUR CALENDAR
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