Author Archive
 

 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Hal & Harper”

  HAL & HARPER (no network):  Cooper Raiff launched his career as an actor-writer-director with Shithouse, which won the Narrative Grand Jury Award at SXSW.  He parlayed that into Cha Cha Real Smooth, which was less...
by Mitch Salem

 
 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Omaha” & “Ricky”

  OMAHA (no distrib):  A tiny tragedy that doesn’t reveal the true depths of its sadness until the very end.  One morning, a widowed father (John Magaro) hurries his children, 9-year old Ella (Molly Belle Wright) a...
by Mitch Salem

 

 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Love, Brooklyn” & “Sunfish & Other Stories On Green Lake”

  LOVE, BROOKLYN (no distrib):  Roger (Andre Holland) is a successful magazine writer who’s hung up on his latest piece, because it requires him to come to grips about how he feels regarding the Brooklyn bourgeoisi...
by Mitch Salem

 
 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Plainclothes” & “Bunnylovr”

  PLAINCLOTHES (no distrib):  A coming-out story laced with paranoia.  It’s 1997 in upstate New York, and the cops are running undercover operations in public restrooms to lead gay men into indecent exposure charge...
by Mitch Salem

 

 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Atropia” & “Bubble & Squeak”

  ATROPIA (no distrib):  A setting in search of a movie.  The US military operates training camps in remote locations around the country that are designed to give soldiers the most accurate possible preparation for time ...
by Mitch Salem

 
 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Train Dreams” & “Lurker”

  TRAIN DREAMS (Netflix – TBD):  Train Dreams was one of only two films acquired for wide distribution during Sundance, and while Netflix clearly regards it as an awards contender, barring overwhelming critical supp...
by Mitch Salem

 

 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “The Ballad of Wallis Island” & “Jimpa”

  THE BALLAD OF WALLIS ISLAND (Focus/Universal – March 28):  A low-key British charmer.  A decade ago, Herb (Tom Basden) had a successful run as part of a folk duo with Nell (Carey Mulligan), which ended when they ...
by Mitch Salem

 
 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “The Wedding Banquet” & “Last Days”

  THE WEDDING BANQUET (Bleecker Street – April 18):  Ang Lee’s 1993 comedy needed to be rethought before it could be remade, since its plot turned on a woman marrying her gay landlord so that she could get a g...
by Mitch Salem

 

 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Kiss of the Spider Woman” & “Two Women”

    KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN (no distrib):  The exercise in narrative that began with Manuel Puig’s 1976 Argentinian novel has found an enduring place in popular culture, first through a 1983 theatrical version...
by Mitch Salem

 
 

Sundance Film Festival Reviews 2025: “Sorry, Baby” & “Dead Lover”

  The 2025 Sundance Film Festival is still going on, and will continue through February 2.  However, at this point all the major titles have premiered, and the at-home part of the festival has kicked in, so it seems fair ...
by Mitch Salem

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office 1.19.2025

  OPENINGS:  It was a blah MLK Weekend at the box office, driven by soft openings.  Over the 3-day weekend, ONE OF THEM DAYS (TriStar/Sony) was reported to have a very narrow lead with $11.6M, but it was expected to fall...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Box Office 1.12.2025

  OPENINGS:  The first “major” release of 2025, DEN OF THIEVES:  PANTERA (Lionsgate) hit its target with a $15.5M launch, almost exactly the same as the $15.2M start for 2018’s Den of Thieves.  That on...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office 1.5.2025

  OPENINGS:  January is often welcoming to low-budget horror, but that didn’t help THE DAMNED (Vertical), which found $800K at 732 theaters, a meager $1100 weekend per-theater average. HOLDOVERS:  Flooding the holi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office 12.22.24

  OPENINGS:  SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 (Sega/Paramount) was within expectations at $62M, although that was lower than the $72.2M for Sonic 2 in 2022, and while Sonic 2 had a 2% Friday-to-Saturday gain, Sonic 3 slumped by 24% o...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office 12.15.2024

  OPENINGS:  Expectations were low for KRAVEN THE HUNTER (Marvel/TSG/Columbia/Sony), and it still managed to under-deliver, with a puny $11M start.  Even though Kraven had moderate costs by superhero movie standards (aro...
by Mitch Salem