01: 'American Sniper' Tops Super Bowl Weekend; 'Paddington' Holds on for #2

American Sniper stayed on top for the third straight weekend, taking in $31 million to set a Super Bowl weekend record (the previous high was the Miley Cyrus concert movie back in 2008). Sniper's total now comes to $249 million, seemingly still on track to beat Guardians of the Galaxy and Hunger Games for the highest grossing movie of 2014, and now the biggest war movie ever, beating Saving Private Ryan, which grossed $216 million in 1998. In second place was Paddington with $8.5 million, which has held quite well since it came out, probably because of the lack of family film alternatives in theaters recently.

A close third was the time-traveling movie Project Almanac, which I have to admit I'd never even heard of before today. Whatever this movie was, it suffered from a lack of advertizing and poor reviews (36% on Rotten Tomatoes), while the Kevin Costner drama Black or White came in fourth, with $6.5 million (that also got bad reviews, coming in at just 33%). Rounding out the top five was J-Lo's The Boy Next Door, which earned $6 million for a $24 million total.

Top 5:

American Sniper- $31.9 million
Paddington- $8.5 million
Project Almanac- $8.5 million
Black or White- $6.5 million
The Boy Next Door- $6.1 million

In limited release, the Oscar movies held pretty well, as Birdman sees its total gross come to $33 million, The Theory of Everything hit $30 million, and Boyhood pushed past $25 million. But boy do the producers of next month's Oscars show have to happy about American Sniper's box office success, considering the low totals of most of the nominees this year. Next weekend it's the Wachowski siblings' long delayed Jupiter Ascending, which looks set to be a disaster on an epic level, but it's competing for that title with the Jeff Bridges sorcery movie Seventh Son, so we'll see which one has a leg up with next year's Razzie nominations there. Happy Super Bowl Sunday everybody and go Seahawks!!!

'How to Train Your Dragon 2' Wins 6 Annie Awards; 'Imitation Game' Takes the Scripter

Okay, so we now have some real predictive guild awards for categories besides Best Picture to deal with. First up it's the Annies, where How to Train Your Dragon 2 dominated, taking six statues, which I honestly think gives it a huge leg up in that Animated Feature race at the Oscars. The Annies are normally a pretty good precursor for that, and even though they actually awarded the first HTTYD back in 2010, they went all in for the sequel this year too. I'd bet on that one now for sure.

Animated Effects in Animation: Big Hero 6
Animated Effects in Live-Action: Edge of Tomorrow
Animated Short: Feast
Character Animation in Live-Action: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Character Animation in Animation: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Voice Acting: Ben Kingsley, The Boxtrolls
Storyboarding: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Production Design: The Boxtrolls
Music: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Editing: How to Train Your Dragon 2
Writing: The Lego Movie
Directing: Dean DeBlois, How to Train Your Dragon 2
Best Animated Feature: How to Train Your Dragon 2

Meanwhile, over at the USC Scripter awards, which gives out its prize to the adapted screenplay and the source material it's based on, they chose Graham Moore's script for The Imitation Game and Andrew Hodges' biography of Alan Turing. I expected that, so I'm not surprised, and the scripter is a very good predictor of Adapted Screenplay, although Imitation Game's biggest competition, American Sniper and Whiplash, weren't nominated here, but that's still a boost for it. Finally, the Art Directors Guild announced tonight for production design as well.

Contemporary Film: Birdman
Period Film: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Fantasy: Guardians of the Galaxy

This one is harder to use as an accurate predictor, because they separate into genres, but frankly that production design award is one of the easiest to call- it's going to Grand Budapest Hotel, no question.

'Boyhood' and Grand Budapest Hotel' Take the Eddies

The guild awards continue, as the ACE Eddies were handed out last night. Budapest beat Birdman for Musical/Comedy while Boyhood took the drama award over American Sniper. This is the first showing of industry support for Boyhood, after losing the PGA and SAG last week. That plus the fact that the editors chose not to award Birdman is fairly significant, I think. This could well be the first time in 7 years that the PGA misses in Best Picture. The DGA is still the most important guild to announce, and that's next week, but if Linklater prevails at DGA, I'm sticking with Boyhood to win the Oscar, and predicting that PGA was a fluke this year.

BEST EDITING IN A DRAMA FEATURE: Boyhood
BEST EDITING IN A COMEDY/MUSICAL FEATURE: The Grand Budapest Hotel
BEST EDITING IN AN ANIMATED FEATURE: The Lego Movie
BEST EDITING IN A DOCUMENTARY FEATURE: Citizenfour

REVIEW: "Dear White People" (2014) & "Love is Strange" (2014)

Two more films that came out of last year's Sundance film festival and made something of a splash on the indie circuit in 2014 dealt with social issues in terms that were at once low key and meaningful in their own ways. The first was Dear White People, from first time filmmaker Justin Simien- a very ambitious debut attempting to explore race relations on college campuses, but in a satirical fashion that in this day and age can sometimes makes its points better than other, more serious formats (see Key & Peele, The Daily Show, etc).

Set in the fictional, upscale Winchester University, Dear White People follows several different characters charting the territory of living in white society in the present day (which is a nice change on its own, as most race related movies prefer to dwell in the long ago past). Most interesting are the ideas and issues it brings up in the form of these characters, all of whom are more conflicted than they would like to appear. Tessa Thompson stars as the radio DJ of a show that advocates for radical racial identity politics, but secretly struggles with overcompensating for her mixed race background, her white boyfriend, and feeling that she in particular must choose one side or the other (hence, she's ironically name Samantha White). There's also the gay, Star Trek and Robert Altman loving Lionel (Tyler James Williams), who feels utterly out of place with both the black and white students, the former whom he's not "black enough" for and the latter who like him but casually run their fingers through his afro when in his presence. Other major characters include the son of the dean, who is being pressured by his successful father (Dennis Haysbert) to assimilate with the white establishment for the benefit of his future in politics, and the girl who comes from the South Side of Chicago but wants to escape her "ghetto" past, only embracing it as a political tool to boost her fortunes with the dominant white frat house when necessary.

The movie is mixing up a lot of different issues that tackle racial identity head on, and that's what's interesting about it, but the points it tries to make are scattered at best. As a satire, it's not really funny enough or sharp enough to get one clear message across- although we know from the ending credits and various real life news stories that casual racism on campuses exists, in a troubling manner. What the movie does best is give us occasional insights into the issues of the assimilation of minorities in white society, especially in an environment where education and economic levels of all races are on the same level (for example, these are probably not the same kinds of immediate problems that residents of lower class, urban settings are facing on a day to day basis). The other film that deals with social issues is the wonderful Love is Strange, a quiet, moving, lovely little film about a couple, George and Ben (played by Alfred Molina and John Lithgow respectively), who've been together for 39 years, and decide to finally tie the knot in a low key ceremony in front of close friends and family. George and Ben live in a great apartment in New York City together, but after getting married, face a crisis when George is fired from his teaching job at a Catholic school (the archbishop having now been made aware of his marriage, even though everyone who worked with him knew he was gay), and the two can no longer afford a place to live.

Eventually they must turn to family to help them through this, and Ben is taken in by his nephew and his wife, while George stays with some much younger friends of theirs. The situation takes a page out of Make Way for Tomorrow by forcing a separation of the lifelong couple, but the details are slightly more contrived (it's never really made clear why they can't live together for example). Still, the acting from the two leads is sublime, and the careful interaction between the families so relaxed and natural, that you buy into everything they're selling. Ben and George are a real couple, one more devoted and more loyal to each other than any of a hundred straight couples you'd meet on the street. Ira Sachs, the director, seems to have a real personal connection to this story, which doesn't ever create false drama, even with a moody teenager living in the house of Ben's nephew, and Marisa Tomei shows again what a sympathetic and naturalistic presence she is onscreen as Ben's niece and a mother who has her own troubles within her marriage and family to confront. What you remember most from this film are the two men themselves, and the actors who bring them so much to life, and I was more touched by their complete and relaxed state of a life lived long and happily together than any other love story of the past year. It's all in the details, folks, and this one gets all the small things right, which add up to leave a very big impact.

Dear White People: * * 1/2 / Love is Strange: * * * 1/2

TRAILER: "Ted 2"

Ted 2 is coming! Yay, for everyone who's excited about that. I have to admit, I never actually saw the first Ted, so I'm out of the loop on this one. But it looks just as raunchy, gross and filled with inappropriate humor as any other Seth MacFarlane movie. No sign of Mila Kunis, as the token female seems to be Amanda Seyfried this time.

TRAILER: "She's Funny That Way"

Normally, I wouldn't think anything about this trailer made this movie look any good at all, but I have to keep an open mind because it's writer-director Peter Bogdanovich's first film in 13 years. He of course made Paper Moon, What's up Doc? and The Last Picture Show back in the 70's, and okay, fine it's not like he's made any great movies since then, but he also hasn't really made that many movies at all since that era, and I actually really liked The Cat's Meow from 2001 (which was his last feature film). This looks like an attempt at a genuine screwball/Woody Allen type comedy, so I'm going to at least be on the lookout for it. It comes out May 1st.

TRAILER #2: "The Rewrite"

This Hugh Grant romantic comedy looks like a throwback to the kinds of movies he used to do- hopefully it turns out decent. I miss the days when likable romantic comedies could actually be made- the term does not have to be synonymous with crap, you know. This one's coming out February 13th, right in time for Valentine's Day. I do like that it's an age-appropriate pairing for once (no Colin Firth/Emma Stone issue with this one).

REVIEW: "Citizenfour" (2014) Dir. Laura Poitras

If you're not necessarily someone who believes Edward Snowden was a hero or a patriot, or are not sure you believe in what he and other whistleblowers have been doing these last few years, the good thing about Citizenfour is that it's such a compelling and superbly made film that you can watch this without agreeing with it and still be entertained by it.

Laura Poitras was one of the three people in personal contact with Edward Snowden at the time that he decided to leak thousands of government documents that he stole from the NSA in 2013- and her new film shows us what it was like to be on the inside with the man in question, the one everybody was talking about as he dealt with the events of that week in real time. It's a fascinating and intensely gripping thriller, if not exactly revelatory, except perhaps about who Snowden is as a person. We all remember when this happened, it was less than two years ago- what Poitras' film shows us is what was going on on the other side. She pulls together footage of interviews with Snowden as he hid out in his hotel room in Hong Kong, while she and handpicked blogger Glenn Greenwald were the only people with access to him. He explains to them why he's doing this and why he thinks it's important- and he comes across as not disingenuous in his intentions, while also not exactly a firebreathing crusader (unlike say, the self-aggrandizing Greenwald, who spends the movie practically salivating at the chance to publicly take credit for his once-in-a-lifetime scoop).

We don't find out a whole lot about Snowden personally, and perhaps that's because he wanted it that way. What he thinks is the story, and the most important factor, is the content of the documents he's handing over to the journalists, and the revelations about widespread wiretapping and spying the NSA and other governments (the UK comes across just as bad if not worse) have been doing to their own citizens in the years after 9/11. This is a documentary with a clearly articulated point-of-view, and Poitras airs the arguments of Snowden, Greenwald and others who feel adamantly that civil liberties are being not just infringed upon, but systematically chipped away at. It's a debate that will be familiar to anyone who's been following the news for the last year and a half, and no real effort is made to indulge the other side of the argument ("national security" is a term practically scoffed at and dismissed entirely by Greenwald in one particularly long, sanctimonious lecture he gives to the Brazilian press late in the movie).

But films with a point of view can lead to better filmmaking, and the politics of this movie, while of course important and essential to our national debate, are beside the point no matter what side of the spectrum you fall on, because the movie is just so entertaining and frankly, exciting to watch. Poitras' footage being in real time allows us to feel the urgency and anxiety that Snowden felt as he sat around for days in that hotel room, waiting for the other shoe to drop. Her secret communications with him after he's smuggled out of the country give us a sense of anxious anticipation, felt on her side when she realizes she's being followed. And the various cameos by familiar figures like Julian Assange and Jeremy Scahill provide the plot with complications and twists as it makes a bigger point about the new atmosphere of crusading whistleblowers and civil liberties champions who promise to continue taking on powerful governments in the name of preventing what they see as potential dictatorships forming in an era where power is accumulated through secret surveillance.

The tension is expertly wrought and the movie is so professionally put together in the order of the actual chronological events that it feels less like a documentary and more like a real life conspiracy thriller. For the entertainment value alone, this is a great movie to see- and whether or not it teaches you anything new about the state of government surveillance in our society (for me it didn't), it still raises the questions and keeps the debate relevant, which is indeed a worthy goal.

* * * 1/2

TEASER: "Fantastic Four"

So here's the teaser for the Fantastic Four reboot coming in August. Gotta say, it looks pretty generic to me. I bet it won't be all that much better than the one that came out in 2004. The director is Josh Trank, who did Chronicle, but nothing about this teaser looks exciting in the slightest.

'Birdman,' Eddie Redmayne, Julianne Moore Win at SAG

So there you have it- the movie that seemed like the logical SAG ensemble winner has won, but the bigger surprise to me is Eddie Redmayne stealing this award from Michael Keaton. The SAG winner for Best Actor almost always wins the Oscar (the last one who didn't was when Johnny Depp won for Pirates of the Caribbean in 2003), so that Best Actor race is really close. Unfortunately (and even though I think it's a bullshit win), with the Globe, SAG and very likely BAFTA to come, I'm probably going to have to swallow the bad taste in my mouth and predict Redmayne for the Oscar now. Gross (I may have mentioned before how bad Theory of Everything is, and I don't intend to stop dissing it as Redmayne gets closer to the statue that should belong to literally any other nominee in that category. Seriously, go Bradley Cooper, even). The other winners went as expected.

BEST ENSEMBLE: Birdman
BEST ACTOR: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything
BEST ACTRESS: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

As for what this means for Best Picture, well...I have to admit, SAG + PGA is a pretty powerful combo. With those wins, it's clear that Birdman has the support of the industry, and now it comes down to DGA, historically the strongest Best Picture predictor of the guilds. If Linklater wins, I'd say Boyhood is still in the running, and the votes are very close between that and Birdman. If Inarritu wins, then yeah- I think it's all over and Birdman will definitely win the Oscar as well. All eyes turn to the DGA now (which hasn't even voted yet), and is set to announce Saturday, February 7th.

BOX OFFICE 1/23-1/25: 'American Sniper' Stays Strong with $64 Million

The box office beast that is American Sniper kept chugging along this weekend, dropping a miniscule 28% to bring in another $64 million to pass $200 million in two weeks. That's pretty amazing- clearly the buzz, Oscar nominations, and now all the controversy and partisan political bickering it's brought up in the media has led to increased interest. I think there's no doubt now that it will quite easily become the highest grossing movie of 2014, beating both Guardians of the Galaxy and Hunger Games to do so (even though it will have made most of its money in 2015). For me that's actually a good thing, simply because it's not a superhero/franchise movie or sequel- and it shows that that original, adult-oriented movies can and will connect with the public if there's interest. That's a good sign for the future too.

The other new releases this weekend didn't do much, aside from J-Lo's The Boy Next Door, a cheap thriller which made it to No. 2 with $15 million. Good for her, but expect it to vanish by next week, as these kinds of January releases do. George Lucas' animated film Strange Magic opened soft with just $5 million, and Johnny Depp's Mortdecai becomes his latest flat out bomb, coming in with a terrible $4 million. Depp seems to be in career free fall; maybe his mob drama Black Mass later this year will be a return to form? The rest of the top five were holdovers, with Paddington doing fairly well as the family audience movie of choice.

Top 5:

American Sniper- $64.4 million
The Boy Next Door- $15 million
Paddington- $12.4 million
The Wedding Ringer- $11.6 million
Taken 3- $7.6 million

Several of the limited release Oscar indies came back into theaters this week to receive their nominations bumps, but other than American Sniper, the highest grossing of the pack is now The Imitation Game, which crossed $60 million and landed in 6th place with another $7 million- it's still on track to cross $100 million by Oscar night. Most of the new arthouse releases had disappointing openings this week, including Jennifer Aniston's Cake, which probably would have benefited from a nomination for her, especially as it got dreadful reviews overall. Come back next week for what will undoubtedly be American Sniper's continued reign, because it's another pretty dead weekend for new releases, with only the thriller The Loft opening, along with Kevin Costner's drama Black or White.

'Birdman' Pulls off an Upset Win at the PGA

Wow. After last year's first ever tie, the PGA gives us another shocker when the movie no one expected had a chance at winning the top prize actually pulled it off. Seriously, most assumed this was Boyhood, but if not that then The Imitation Game, The Grand Budapest Hotel, or maybe even American Sniper (producers like box office success, after all). But Birdman? Things just got very interesting.

BEST ANIMATED FILM - The Lego Movie
BEST DOCUMENTARY - Life Itself
BEST PICTURE - Birdman

It was actually a surprising night all around, as the PGA also rewarded the two nominees in Animated and Documentary feature that didn't receive Oscar nominations. But what does this mean now? Well, to me it signals that Boyhood's support is soft, and clearly vulnerable to an upset. I told you before, the PGA winner has matched Oscar's Best PIcture the last six years in a row, because they use the same kind of voting system. That means Birdman has to be considered a real possibility now, and the other guilds become more important as well, just like they were last year. Does Birdman pull off the SAG win tomorrow, or will it be something else, confusing things even more? Can Linklater still win DGA, or does Inarritu suddenly come out on top? The last time the industry significantly breached from the critics and Golden Globes was when The King's Speech took out The Social Network back in 2010. This may be the beginning of another year like that one...but I have to say, even with this shocking upset, Birdman would still be one of the weirdest, most bizarre Best Picture winners ever. Then again, it is about Hollywood people, so maybe that makes up for all the dark stuff? Come back tomorrow to see if SAG throws another wrench into this now very close race.