Still No 1 despite a 55% drop from last week, the monster movie is still running amok in the hiatus ahead of Marvel?s Avengers: Infinity WarA combination of sunny skies and a relatively weak set of new releases ahead of Marvel?s Avengers: Infinity War combined to lay waste to the UK box office. Takings overall tumbled 55% from the previous frame, delivering the third-worst weekend of the past 12 months in the UK market, and the worst since early December. Apart from A Quiet Place, which fell 46%, and Black Panther, which fell 48%, every film in the Top 25 fell by at least 50% from the weekend before. Top title Rampage fell 55%, earning £1.41m in its second session for a £6.48m total. With kids back at school after the Easter holidays, family films fell particularly hard, with Peter Rabbit, for example, dropping by 76%. Thursday, and Infinity War, can?t come soon enough for cinema operators. Continue reading...
The role of the aggressive, biddable pet in the Austin Powers films did huge damage to the dwarfism community and our struggle for respect I have dwarfism. I was 13 when Verne Troyer hit our screens as Mini-Me in Austin Powers sequel The Spy Who Shagged Me. The character was a compound of stereotypes of people with dwarfism. He was hypersexual, unintelligent and aggressive. He was not even a character in his own right but a replica of another, average height role. Like dwarf performers in circuses of days past, his character only existed in contrast to others. In one scene, Mini-Me appears in a sling strapped to Mike Myers? chest, like an infant. In the follow-up film, Goldmember, another character threatens to eat him because he ?looks like a baby?. Throughout the series he serves as Dr Evil?s biddable pet. I imagine few who watched it know that in the past aristocrats and monarchs often ?kept? dwarf people like this ? abusing, ridiculing, and, sometimes, even killing them. Continue reading...
Packed with names such as Annette Bening, Elisabeth Moss and Saoirse Ronan, this adaptation of the classic play is brisk and funny Taking in the night, Dr Dorn (Jon Tenney) looks at poor lovesick Masha (Elisabeth Moss), pauses, then sagely sighs: ?The spells cast by this lake.? This new version of Anton Chekhov?s The Seagull, as adapted by Stephen Karam, seems populated by characters who know they are in a Chekhov play. I don?t mean that there are any arch, meta-textual tricks, more that the comedy inherent in the play is amplified, the ?woe-is-me? mopery is kept to a minimum, and the woodland grounds and its samovar-laden patios are gorgeous.While this is not director Michael Mayer?s first film, he is far better known for his work on Broadway and in the West End (he won a Tony award in 2007 for Spring Awakening). Despite his background and The Seagull?s old war horse status on the boards, Mayer takes pains to ensure everything is as cinematic as possible. At first one might fear he has overcorrected, but after a prologue (the beginning of Act IV appears first before we flip back to page one) the rhythm settles in. The editing is brisk, the camera placement is creative (especially during a conversation on a rowboat) and each actor gets their closeup. Continue reading...
James Cameron has warned against unnecessary superhero sequels, as a new Marvel film opens ? does he have a point?? Sign up for Film Today and get our film team?s highlights of the dayOn the surface it?s pretty rich for James Cameron to complain, as he did over the weekend, about Avengers fatigue, given that it now appears to be his one true goal to bury us in so many unnecessary Avatar sequels that we all end up gagging on them, begging for even the merest shred of leniency.But then again, maybe the man has a point. You could argue that his description of the Marvel oeuvre as ?hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process? isn?t entirely accurate. You could even argue that, a decade from now when the world?s oceans are clogged to bursting point with discarded Avatar 3 lunchboxes, we might find ourselves yearning for a return to the glory days of Iron Man 2. But, nevertheless, something rings true. Continue reading...
Redoubtable is a new biopic which focuses on the French-Swiss auteur?s early career. But in obsessing over the old Godard, it obscures the fact that he?s still making radical filmsSign up for Film Today and get our film team?s highlights of the dayBrace yourselves for a wave of Godard nostalgia. It?s 50 years since Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut and co closed down the 1968 Cannes film festival in solidarity with student protests in Paris. This year?s Cannes poster also pays tribute to Godard?s 1965 film Pierrot Le Fou. Those were the days, eh? When cinema was radical and part of the revolutionary struggle. Nobody embodied that more than Godard. He is cinema?s Picasso and its Che Guevara. He is the auteur wannabe auteurs want to be and remains the most dazzling, inventive, stylish, insouciantly brilliant yet confrontationally political film-maker the medium has ever seen. Related: Sign up to our Film Today email Continue reading...
French director and critics? darling Claire Denis talks about her new film with Juliette Binoche and Gérard Depardieu, the appeal of Robert Pattinson ? and why the Weinstein affair has changed nothing? Sign up for Film Today and get our film team?s highlights of the dayIn her new film, Let the Sunshine In, Juliette Binoche plays an intelligent, creative, beautiful woman who seeks sexual rapture with men who are variously pompous, self-absorbed, rebarbative and physically unprepossessing. We?ve seen this scenario before in countless French films ? but they?re usually directed by pompous, self-absorbed, rebarbative, physically unprepossessing men. It?s unusual to see this story told by a woman ? and especially by Claire Denis, one of the most challenging and innovative film-makers at work today.Denis is a writer and director with a ferociously individual vision: her output is unpredictable, sometimes intransigently tough. Formerly assistant director to Jim Jarmusch, Wim Wenders and Jacques Rivette, she made her own provocative debut with Chocolat (1988), a drama set in Cameroon and informed by her childhood in Africa as the daughter of a civil servant. Continue reading...
Family announces death on social media sitesStatement: ?Verne was an extremely caring individual?The actor Verne Troyer has died, according to a statement posted to his social media pages on Saturday. He was 49. Related: Verne Troyer: a cult star who sustained a career with dignity and good humour | Peter Bradshaw Continue reading...
Despite the fickle British weather, ticket sales to watch films in the open air have tripled in three years? Sign up for Film Today and get our film team?s highlights of the dayBritain is in the middle of a boom in outdoor cinema, as people brave the unpredictable British climate to watch films ?on location? in castles, aircraft hangars and even beach huts.George Wood, founder of Britain?s biggest outdoor film company, the Luna Cinema, says ticket sales have tripled in the past three years. ?You strike gold when you can actually pair the film to the venue,? said Wood. Continue reading...
Verne Troyer, who at 2ft 8in was one of the world?s shortest men, racked up 30 film credits in a career spanning 24 yearsActor who played Mini-Me in Austin Powers films dies age 49 Continue reading...
Jerusalem-born actor was due to receive 2018 Genesis prize but cancels saying she ?cannot in good conscience? attend ceremony ? Sign up for Film Today and get our film team?s highlights of the dayNatalie Portman has pulled out of a major award ceremony due to take place in Israel, citing her ?distress? at recent events in the country.Portman, who was born in Jerusalem and holds dual Israeli and US citizenship, was named in November as the recipient of the 2018 Genesis award, a yearly prize for ?outstanding achievement by individuals who have attained excellence and international renown in their chosen professional fields [who] embody the character of the Jewish people?. Continue reading...
While most Marvel fans are in full hype mode over Avengers: Infinity War a few eyes are tilted toward next year's Captain Marvel, if only because of the movie's remarkable cast list.
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