If a movie makes it to No. 1 at a box office during a pandemic, does it make a sound? Because the fate of the Autumn movie slate and struggling cinemas depend on the box office success of Tenet, it kind of does. But right now, it’s just a quiet thump. Christopher Nolan’s espionage film led a mild U.S. box office this past weekend, earning $3.4 million in its fourth weekend. That gives Tenet the unusual distinction of being the lowest-grossing chart topper in 32 years, since David Cronenberg’s Dead Ringers topped with the box office with a $3 million opening weekend in 1988.
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“Ask any working comedian anywhere which club means the most in terms of bragging rights to say you’re a regular at. Hands down, it’s The Comedy Store.”
So says actor, writer, director and former stand-up comedian Mike Binder, who cut his teeth doing stand-up comedy at the world famous Los Angeles comedy club alongside veterans such as David Letterman, Jay Leno, Jimmie Walker, Richard Pryor, Sam Kinison, Jim Carrey and many more. Now Binder is behind The Comedy Store, a five-part documentary series beginning on Showtime in early October, and it’s a riveting, hilarious, heartbreaking, intimate, and definitive chronicle of how this venue defined stand-up comedy for decades and still does to this very day. It’s all thanks to the eccentric and dedicated owner Mitzi Shore, the mother of 1990s pop culture sensation Pauly Shore. Read More »
Disney is returning to Pride Rock again. The House of Mouse is developing a follow-up to Jon Favreau’s 2019 CG-animated remake of The Lion King and has tapped Oscar-winning Moonlight director Barry Jenkins to helm the follow-up. It’s unclear if the film will adapt the direct-to-video animated The Lion King II, or if it will include the film’s all-time banger of a song, “One of Us.” If not…deception and disgrace. Read More »
Posted on Tuesday, September 29th, 2020 by Jacob Hall
Unmatched, the board game series where characters from myth, legend, literature, and pop culture all clash in the nerdiest battle of all time, is heading to Sunnydale. Unmatched: Buffy the Vampire Slayer is a standalone game that lets players fight it out as Buffy, Willow, Angel, and Spike using detailed miniatures and cards featuring stunning artwork from Heather Vaughan. And naturally, it can be combined with past editions, so the Slayer and her crew can take on Bigfoot, Bruce Lee, and yes, even Dracula.
/Film is pleased to debut an exclusive first look at the game components. We’re even more pleased to reveal that the game is available for purchase online right now before hitting retail shelves in mid-November.
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Since the United States was lucky enough to get Disney+ original shows like The Mandalorian before most of the rest of the world, it’s only fair that we had to wait a little bit to get the new watch party feature that has been kicking around Canada, Australia, and New Zealand recently. But the wait is over, as Disney+ has announced that their new GroupWatch feature is launching on the streaming service today, giving subscribers the chance to watch a movie or TV show virtually with their friends online. However, at launch, it won’t be quite as sophisticated as some of the other watch party features out there. Read More »
The most striking thing about Spring Blossom, in which a 16-year-old girl falls in love with a man in his mid-thirties, is that it stars 20-year-old director Suzanne Lindon in the leading role.
The 2020 Cannes and TIFF selection is a tender and amusing portrait of teen-hood, in which the character of Suzanne experiences a generational disconnect. Bored with her school-aged peers, she seeks out a magnetic stranger — Raphaël (Arnaud Valois), an actor rehearsing at a theatre en route to Suzanne’s school — as a means to escape her mind-numbing routine. Raphaël is similarly dissatisfied, as a performer stuck with older castmates and directors he struggles to understand. And so, their rendezvous feels like the passing of ships in the night, an affair that’s barely physical but always emotional, often expressed through surrealist moments of interpretive dance.
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One month ago, the entertainment world and the world at large were rocked by the loss of one of Hollywood’s most promising talents when Chadwick Boseman died of colon cancer, an affliction he kept hidden from the world for years. As the shock slowly begins to wear off and the outpouring of grief at his loss gives way to stories celebrating his life, one of Boseman’s co-stars remembers a particularly generous act that highlights what type of man he really was off-screen.
Sienna Miller, who co-starred with Boseman in the cop drama 21 Bridges, has recounted a story about how she asked for a certain quote to appear in the film, and the parties involved with the movie could not or would not reach that quote – but Boseman stepped in and paid some of her salary out of his own pocket because he thought she deserved the quote she was asking for.
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(Welcome to The Quarantine Stream, a new series where the /Film team shares what they’ve been watching while social distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic.)
The Movie: Labyrinth
Where You Can Stream It: Amazon Prime
The Pitch: Saddled with babysitting her baby half-brother Toby on a Friday night, 16-year-old Sarah (Jennifer Connelly) dreams of playing out her childhood fantasies, and accidentally wishes that Toby be taken away by goblins. The Goblin King (David Bowie) appears to grant her wish, to Sarah’s horror, and gives Sarah 13 hours to solve his labyrinth and find Toby before he is turned into a goblin forever.
Why It’s Essential Viewing: In the ’80s, Jim Henson dreamed of creating a whole genre of filmmaking with puppetry. After the modest box office success of The Dark Crystal, Henson turned to one of the biggest stars who could get people into the theater to watch a movie about puppets: David Bowie. While Labyrinth failed to recoup its budget at the box office, it became a cult hit on home video — thanks, in part, to Bowie’s magnetic charisma and the dark, gnarled vision of Henson’s bizarre fairy tale world.
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When Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was all the rage in the 1990s, some of the most coveted toys inspired by the imported action series were Bandai’s collection of head-flipping action that changed the teenagers of Angel Grove into the superpowered fighting team. Now Hasbro is bringing the head-flipping Power Rangers action figures back in all their retro glory. Read More »
Cool Posts From Around the Web:
The Morning Watch is a recurring feature that highlights a handful of noteworthy videos from around the web. They could be video essays, fanmade productions, featurettes, short films, hilarious sketches, or just anything that has to do with our favorite movies and TV shows.
In this edition, take a deep dive into the famous “Copa Shot” from Martin Scorsese‘s classic mob movie GoodFellas with Larry McConkey, the Steadicam operator for the long take sequence. Plus, listen as the cast of Hamilton remixes some lyrics from the famous Broadway show to encourage you to vote, and listen to John Cusack break down some of his most famous roles, from The Grifters to High Fidelity and more. Read More »
