This December is heavy with major movies — Zero Dark Thirty, This is 40, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Django Unchained and Les Misérables — that are literally (use the bathroom first) and metaphorically big. As they dominate the year-end conversation, it seems like a good moment to to call out some films that may not earn many mentions at award shows and top ten lists, but nevertheless charmed, entertained or impressed me throughout the year. more »
Congratulations to Hollywood for taking back the weekend from pop stars extant, dead or otherwise and shattering the record for Valentine's Day weekend movie attendance. What a great time to be alive! Ahem. Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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Two supernatural thrillers joined a pair of spooky holdovers in the top five of this weekend's box office, where one of the world's biggest stars was no match for the low-budget telepathic shenanigans of Team Chronicle. And, er, what happened to Drew Barrymore? Your Weekend Receipts are here.
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The allegory-rich Chronicle opens with a kind of generational statement: “I bought a camera,” senior class punching bag Andrew (Dane DeHaan) says, “and I’m filming everything from here on out.” Andrew is talking to his father (Michael Kelly), a drunkard ex-fireman who punishes his son for the stress of caring for his dying wife, though the announcement is meant for us as well. Chronicle fits into the growing genre of “found footage” films, though that becomes just one formal element of many director Josh Trank meshes together to put a new spin on the subject of teenage alienation and its more extreme social side effects.
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