TIFF '23: Queer Way of Life

by Cláudio Alves

The 48th Annual Toronto Film Festival may have ended already, but my coverage here at The Film Experience is still going for a few more days. This time, let's talk about the program's queer offerings, highlighting three projects that range from an award-winning World Premiere to a beloved Spanish auteur's first foray into the Western genre. They are the dragged-up double feature of Sophie Dupuis' Solo, which took the Best Canadian Feature prize, and Unicorns, directed by Sally El Hosaini and James Krishna Floyd. Finally, there's Pedro Almodóvar's Strange Way of Life, bound to hit American theaters on October 4th, released by Sony Pictures Classics…

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VES Nominations & Final Visual Effects Oscar Predictions

by Nathaniel R

on the set of Solo: A Star Wars Story

The Visual Effects Society have released their nominations for the year. Avengers: Infinity War, Incredible 2, and Lost in Space lead the nominations in the movie, animated movie, and television divisions.  The full list of nominations, Oscar predictions, and a few comments follow...

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Salim Gives Thanks

Team Experience members were invited to give thanks this week so you'll be hearing from a few of us. Here's Salim Garami...

What's good?

2018 has proven to be a very busy year for yours truly, hence my radio silence here in The Film Experience (I didn't have much time to write on my own personal blog Motorbreath). But it has also proven to be a surprisingly rewarding year for me, both in my personal life after much hassle earlier in the year and run-around later in the year (I have been going back-and-forth between not two but THREE U.S. cities for professional reasons) and in cinema

I think 2018 has been one of the best moviegoing years I've experienced in my whole life. So many surprises and experiments, so many crowdpleasers where I am proudly on that bandwagon, a couple of Oscar contenders that I actually enjoyed. And there's no shortage of music, television, or literature from this year amusing me in some way or another as well so let's dig in...

• Comedic songwriter/teleplay writer/critical writer extraordinaire Demi Adeyugibe has blessed us with not one but TWO funny "fake" credit songs for the nerdiest tentpoles of the summer: Future imitation "Snap" for Avengers: Infinity War and the compulsively catchy Childish Gambino imitation in "L-A-N-D-O" for Solo: A Star Wars Story.

• Tom Cruise trying to figure out where the "payload" is at and finding a giant switch saying "payload" in the helicopter chase climax of Mission: Impossible - Fallout...

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C O N S I D E R - Actors of 2018, First Half of Year

With the year half over, it's time to look back on the first six months of the year and what treasures they brought us. Here are the 18 performances by male actors that we liked the most thus far this year. It should probably suffice to say that this list was much easier to come up with then the forthcoming female list since the competition wasn't as fierce. (Four key films I missed that might have played into these categories were The Rider, Lean on Pete, You Were Never Really Here, and Paddington 2)

5 LEADING ACTORS
(Jan 1st through June 30th releases)

Daniel Giménez Cacho as "Don Diego de Zama" in Zama
Though I didn't much care for this film, Giménez Cacho, the talented Mexican/Spanish star (of Blancanieves and Cronos fame... and the unseen narrator of all time Mexican classic Y Tu Mama Tambien) delivers as the frustrated sickly officer of the Spanish crown longing for a transfer that may never come.

Alden Ehrenreich as "Han Solo" in Solo
Mimicry is overrated. It's better to get the spirit of a thing than to duplicate the tics. He manages the former though the script fights against it, refashioning Han as a hero at the beginning. 

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Box Office: RBG, Book Club, Saoirse x 2 and More...

by Nathaniel R

Weekend Box Office Estimates (June 1-3)
W I D E 800+ screens	L I M I T E D excluding prev. wide
Adrift	First Reformed
1. Solo $29.2 (cum. $148.8)  REVIEW, BEHIND THE SCENES	1. 🔺 RBG $1.1 on 432 screens (cum. $7.8)  REVIEW
2. Deadpool 2 $23.3 (cum. $254.6)	2. 🔺 First Reformed $455k on 91 screens (cum. $1) REVIEW
3.🔺Adrift $11.5 *NEW* REVIEW	3. 🔺 The Rider $243k on 224 screens (cum. $1.7)  REVIEW
4. Avengers: Infinity War  $10.3 (cum. $642.8) REVIEW	4. Disobedience $211k on 158 screens (cum. $3k) REVIEW
5. Book Club $6.8 (cum. $47.3) REVIEW	5. How Long Will I Love U $170k on 32 screens (cum. $501k)

More bad news for Solo as it fell a terrible 65% in its second week and its also underperforming overseas where would be blockbuster "disappointments" often make up for their tepid reception at home. None of the new pictures got audiences revved up though Adrift did decent business and might eventually be profitable. But the studios were clearly scared of Solo's second weekend when they did their original summer scheduling. Little did they know!

The best hold in the top ten is Book Club which will hit $50 million domestic with ease...

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