Author Archive
 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Miss Americana,” “Ironbark” & “Scare Me”

  MISS AMERICANA (Netflix – January 31):  There are certainly areas of Taylor Swift’s life that are carefully elided in MISS AMERICANA (her actor boyfriend’s face and name are absent, for example, and th...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Worth,” “Dream Horse” & “Uncle Frank”

  WORTH (no distrib):  A dry but fascinating angle on the story of 9/11, Worth centers on the real-life Ken Feinberg (Michael Keaton), an attorney with a very specific expertise:  he and his firm calculated and negotiate...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Promising Young Woman,” “Four Good Days” & “Zola”

  PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN (Focus/Universal – April 17):  Emerald Fennell’s feature-film writing/directing debut has antecedents as old as the 1973 TV-movie The Girl Most Likely To… (co-written by Joan Rive...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Shirley,” “Surge” & “The Climb”

  SHIRLEY (no distrib):  Josephine Decker’s film isn’t really a biography of the horror writer Shirley Jackson (The Haunting of Hill House, The Lottery), played here by Elizabeth Moss.  The script by Sarah Gu...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Reviews: “The Nest,” “Wendy” & “Sylvie’s Love”

  THE NEST (no distrib):  Sean Durkin’s first feature since 2011’s Martha Marcy May Marlene presents its emotions with such high-intensity beams that it often feels as though the film is going to slip into the...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Reviews: “The Father,” “Nine Days” & “The Glorias”

  THE FATHER (Sony Classics – TBD):  It’s probably foolhardy to start making predictions about next year’s Oscars when this year’s haven’t even been handed out yet, but it’s hard to ima...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Horse Girl,” “Happy Happy Joy Joy” & “Kajillionaire”

  HORSE GIRL (Netflix – February 7):  Every one of the four films Jeff Baena has directed had its premiere at Sundance, with Horse Girl following Life After Beth, Joshy and The Little Hours.  It’s an impressi...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Festival Reviews: “Sergio” & “Lost Girls”

  SERGIO (Netflix – April 17):  Greg Barker’s film has an unusual pedigree.  Barker, up to this point a documentarian, directed a nonfiction version of the same story (and with the same title) in 2009, but de...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Sundance Film Reviews: “Save Yourselves!” & “The Fight”

  SAVE YOURSELVES! (no distrib):  A moderately amusing sketch that doesn’t quite have the heft for feature length.  Writer/directors Alex Huston Fischer and Eleanor Wilson satirize Brooklyn hipsters and sci-fi in t...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.9.2020

  OPENINGS:  BIRDS OF PREY (DC/Warners) was supposed to be the year’s first tentpole smash, but at $33.3M in the US, it was a dismal disappointment, by far the lowest start for this generation of DC movie properties...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

SHOWBUZZDAILY Oscars Live-Blog

  It’s time to gather for the 2020 Academy Awards, which… may be the most boring in recent memory.  The favorites currently seem to be overwhelming, and with no host to carry us through the proceedings, if 191...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.16.2020

  OPENINGS:  A Friday Valentines Day that leads into a long holiday weekend is a bonanza for Hollywood, and the movie that cleaned up the most was SONIC THE HEDGEHOG (Paramount), with a remarkable $57M over the 3-day week...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 2.23.2020

  OPENINGS:  THE CALL OF THE WILD (20th/Disney) did a bit better than expected at $24.8M, but in the long run that’s not likely to make much difference.  Similarly to Dolittle (although much more quietly), Call of ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 
 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.1.2020

  OPENINGS:  THE INVISIBLE MAN (Blumhouse/Universal) had a 12% Saturday bump, evidence of extremely strong word of mouth in the horror genre (among recent uncommonly leggy horror releases, Get Out rose 17% on its 2nd day ...
by Mitch Salem
 

 

 

Behind the US/Worldwide Weekend Box Office – 3.8.2020

  OPENINGS:  In the US, ONWARD (Pixar/Disney) was merely a disappointment by Pixar standards, with an OK 37% Saturday bump that allowed it to claim a $40M weekend, pending actuals on Monday.  That isn’t much better...
by Mitch Salem