In Contention

Tag: Sunshine Cleaning

  • Emily Blunt named British Artist of the Year

    Emily BluntOkay, let me get this out the way: I love Emily Blunt.

    On screen and off, she exudes smarts, class and a welcome streak of British eccentricity. Most still remember her principally as the girl who cut through “The Devil Wears Prada” like a hot knife through butter, though it was 2004’s “My Summer of Love” which best showcased her dramatic chops and tart sex appeal. Put simply, she’s got it.

    I did not, however, love Emily Blunt in “The Young Victoria.” Usually so alert and thoughtful on camera, the actress is stifled by the bland dramatics and fussy styling of Jean-Marc Vallee’s royal biopic; a practised scene-stealer herself, she gets a taste of her own medicine as Rupert Friend walks off with the film, in an underwritten part to boot.

    Meanwhile, the film that was supposed to be her star-making vehicle (and awards breakthrough) instead got shrugged off by critics, as her name tumbled down the Oscar pundits’ lists.

    So why has BAFTA’s Los Angeles branch chosen this of all years to hand her the Britannia Award for British Artist of the Year?

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  • THE LISTS: Top 10 first-half releases that deserved better

    Ben Affleck and Jennifer Aniston in He's Just Not That Into YouAround this time last year, we did a mid-year stocktake of sorts, wherein the site’s various contributors named the best (and worst) of what the cinematic year had presented thus far. You may have noticed that we haven’t offered up a similar piece for 2009. Time constraints may have had something to do with it, but given the slow start we had to the year, I suspect regular readers won’t have found it particularly hard to pick our favorites from the crop.

    As we’ve made clear on these pages, Kris and I are united in our admiration for such 2009 releases as “Public Enemies” on the large end of the scale, and “Sugar” on the much, much smaller end and, of course, “The Hurt Locker” somewhere in between. On our own individual tangents, Kris loudly declared his love for “Star Trek,” while back in May I went to bat for Olivier Assayas’s gorgeous “Summer Hours” – with the caveat that it wasn’t a 2009 release for me at all.

    (Release dates play havoc with such lists – using the U.S. release calendar as my guide, I could just as well hand year-best status to something like “Hunger,” if I hadn’t already done so in 2008. Even in the list below, I’ve technically cheated three times by including films that saw the light of day in my neck of the woods last year.)

    In any case, all of these are films that, wonderful as they are, either have already built devoted critical and/or public followings, or (as in the case of “Enemies”) hardly need further exposure. (Do you really need one more critic this summer to remind you about the wonders of Pixar?)

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: ‘Fast’ cash

    Fast & FuriousI have recently unearthed an internal industry memo.  It reads:

    Dear Studios,

    If you’d like us to pay to see your franchises, you must bring back all the cast members that starred in the original.  Do not worry about changing the plot too much, we liked what we saw that first time.  You don’t even need to change the title, just get rid of those definite articles that waste marquee space.  If you follow our demands, we will show up in droves.

    Signed, America

    That explains how “Fast & Furious” was able to make $72.5 million over the weekend.  That’s stronger than both the $50.9 million of the original and the $60.1 million debut of its first sequel.  It’s better than any other film from 2009 so far and any other film that’s ever debuted in the month of April.  By a mile.  For Paul Walker and Vin Diesel, what seemed like desperation now looks like smart business sense.  Legs will be atrocious but it doesn’t matter.  $300 million worldwide seems like a certainty at this point and Hollywood may start looking at April a little differently.  Anybody that shelled out $10 to see this has no right to complain about anything Hollywood puts out ever again.

    A film with good reviews opened as well but since there were no car chases in it, sixth place and $6.0 million is all it could muster.  The film is “Adventureland” and despite Miramax’s attempts to market it like a raunchy, broad teen comedy, audiences saw through all that and the film performed like a coming-of-age drama.  Legs could be decent but they’ll have to be tremendous for the film to even reach $20 million.

    Another new face appeared in the top 10, bringing up the rear.  Overture expanded “Sunshine Cleaning” to 479 theaters and earned a solid $1.9 million.  The Sundance pick-up has set itself up to finish slightly better than Overture’s indie-that-could from last year, “The Visitor,” but don’t count on any Oscar attention.  The grosses aren’t near enough to wipe away the mediocre reviews.

    In its second week, “Monsters vs. Aliens” dropped an understandable 44% and crossed the $100 million mark today.  Despite a slower start, it should have no trouble fending off “Fast & Furious” and lay claim to the title of highest grossing film of the first quarter by the time May rolls around.  As for the film most had pegged for that honor, the news gets grimmer and grimmer.  Already out of the top 10 and struggling to double its debut, “Watchmen” is being met with shrugs throughout the world and has amassed only $67 million overseas.  “Bride Wars” has made $54 million so you do the  math.

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