Susan Sarandon Stars in 'The Meddler'

It's been a long time since Susan Sarandon headlined a movie, hasn't it? Now she's starring in the new film by Lorene Scafaria, director of indies Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist and Seeking a Friend For the End of the World, as an older mom getting back into the dating scene. It actually looks kinda cute, but I may be giving it the benefit of the doubt, because Seeking a Friend was totally underrated and ought to be seen by more people.

REVIEW: "Zootopia" (2016) Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman. Dir. Byron Howard and Rich Moore

If there was ever a time when we needed a film to reaffirm the values of diversity, tolerance, acceptance, empowerment and rejection of bigotry and stereotypes, I'd say it was now, wouldn't you? And to have that film be an expertly fashioned, completely entertaining buddy cop movie and neo-noir from the Mouse House itself, that's nothing other than a complete triumph, and a totally unexpected one at that.

To say that Disney's 55th animated feature film has more on its mind than yuks and warm fuzzies is an understatement, and yet it gives you all of that and more. An original idea from directors Rich Moore (Wreck-it Ralph) and Byron Howard (Tangled), takes the premise that the animal kingdom has evolved thousands of years past the "savage" days of the Stone Age, and now predators and prey occupy the same lands as anthropomorphic creatures who dress snazzy, speak English, use iphones and go to work, same as us. But things are not perfect, because they suffer from the same kinds of prejudices and preconceived notions that will feel all too familiar to those of us that live in the human world.

Our heroine is Judy Hopps (voiced by Ginnifer Goodwin), a bunny rabbit from the country who more than anything wants to grow up to be a police officer, get off the farm, and move to the big city of Zootopia, where animals of all stripes live in supposed harmony together. But her parents discourage her from those dreams, telling her there's never been a bunny cop before, and to settle for what she can most realistically achieve- selling carrots on her family's farm with her 235 brothers and sisters. Judy doesn't take that lying down though, and of course grows up to graduate from the Academy and become the first bunny (re: female) cop of Zootopia, where she is surrounded by bigger, more aggressive mammals (re: men) and demoted to meter maid immediately. As she struggles with attempting to break the glass ceiling of her own profession, she comes in contact with Nick Wilde (Jason Bateman), a sly fox and con man whose own species renders him labeled with all kinds of adjectives from shifty to deceptive and untrustworthy, even by Judy herself, who fears the long antagonistic history of foxes towards rabbits. Their relationship sparkles with friction and dry, snarky exchanges from a perfectly cast Bateman who provides Nick with an instantly appealing, sarcastic personality, a tragic backstory of his own, and visually resembles a CGI version of Disney's Robin Hood from the old 1973 classic.

Nick and Judy get caught up in a missing mammals case which leads them through the underbelly of Zootopia (ala Chinatown or L.A. Confidential) as they happen upon the various denizens of each beautifully detailed and aesthetically rich district of the metropolis that caters to all kinds of animal life and habitats. The plot unravels a complicated conspiracy being strewn by those at the very top, meant to render the city's minority predator population feral as power is consolidated by those with fearmongering methods and an agenda meant to sow strife and discord among the citizenry. Fear always works, as one official proclaims, and eery rallies occur on the news as species turn against each other and yell "we want our city back..." does any of that sound familiar to you? It's hardly veiled commentary. This is a movie that wants to confront these issues, to give kids a funny, colorful and visually dazzling entertainment with gags referencing everything from The Godfather to Breaking Bad. But it does this while also making sure, through no uncertain means, to deliver a message of female and minority empowerment while rejecting the fear and racism stoked by those who seek to divide us and even that which is buried within our own psyches as a result of the long and painful history of our own evolution. I couldn't love this movie any more if I tried. It's Disney's best film in at least twenty years and could not have arrived at a better moment in time. Go see it. You’ll get more out of it than the kids do.

* * * *

BOX OFFICE 3/04-3/06: 'Zootopia' Scores a Huge Opening

The wonderful new Disney film Zootopia scored the studio's biggest ever opening, coming in with 73 million over the weekend, which beats Frozen's 67 million opening in 2013. If you're thinking Pixar has had bigger debuts you're right, but this is Walt Disney Animation Studios we're talking about. Helped by stellar reviews and an "A" Cinemascore, it knocked Deadpool off its throne and has the family market to itself at least for the next month until The Jungle Book opens. The other new release, London Has Fallen, opened to 21 million, under the 30 million opening of the original, which went on to gross 98 million a few years ago.

Deadpool fell to third, bringing in 16 million and crossing 300 million total domestic, while Tina Fey's Whiskey Tango Foxtrot fell flat with 7.6 million, way under expectations of a double digit debut. Rounding out the top five was Gerard Butler's other movie Gods of Egypt, which has only made 22 million so far.

Top 5:

1. Zootopia- 73.7 million
2. London Has Fallen- 21.7 million
3. Deadpool- 16.4 million
4. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot- 7.6 million
5. Gods of Egypt- 5 million

The only significant specialty release this week's was Terence Malick's badly reviewed and long delayed Knight of Cups, which made just 56k in four theaters. The Best Picture winner Spotlight, increased and has now crossed 41 million, making it yet another Oscar winner to not be widely seen by the public. Next week it's 10 Cloverfield Lane, the horror sequel to the JJ Abrams produced hit from a while back, so we'll see if there are any fans who've been awaiting for this to come along. See you then.

10 Animated Movies for March

It's a new month and with it comes a new theme here at The Movie Seasons. This month is dedicated to animated film, and with Disney's Zootopia set to take the box office by storm this weekend, I think it's appropriate. We have ten of my favorite animated films in the March movie page, complete with full trailers, from Disney and Pixar classics to some select Japanese anime picks and a very underrated film from Henry Selick, above. So head over to our Monthly Movie page to read about the theme of animated films and click here for the full list of ten. Happy movie watching!

First Look at Pedro Almodovar's New Film 'Julieta'

Now this on the other hand, looks good. Almodovar's last movie was pretty much dismissed, but he's not the kind of director who misses often, and this one looks to be back in his wheelhouse. I don't know when we'll get to see it, however. It's coming out in Spain in April, but nothing yet on release dates for other countries. Maybe it will show up in Cannes though.

Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig in New 'Ghostbusters' Trailer

This is one of the most hyped and anticipated comedies of the year, but I don't know. Does this trailer seem extremely underwhelming to anyone else? There's nothing particularly funny about it, everything just seems to fall flat. Not to mention the energy seems off, somehow. Kristen Wiig of all people looks like she just plain doesn't want to be there. I hope this is just a bad trailer and that the movie turns out to be a whole lot better, but I half wonder if the fact that the previous Feig/McCarthy collaborations all being R-rated might have something to do with the listlessness in this one, which is PG-13. Huh.

Zoe Saldana Stars as Nina Simone in 'Nina' Biopic

Not to judge based simply on a trailer of course, but the big reaction today to this one seems to be that Zoe Saldana was pretty egregiously miscast as the singer Nina Simone. It's hard to disagree after watching this.

New Trailer for Pixar's 'Finding Dory'

I realized as I watched this trailer that I could not possible care less about Dory or this movie. The joke about her short term memory loss was honestly never that funny to me, and everything else about Finding Nemo is what made it a good movie, not her. Sorry, Dory fans. I know I'm in the minority on that, but that's honestly how I feel about this character, so watching a movie where she's center stage? Not that interested.

George Kennedy 1925-2016

Oscar winner George Kennedy died today at 91, best remembered for playing "Dragline" opposite Paul Newman in 1967's Cool Hand Luke, for which he won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His other credits included Charade, Shenandoah, The Dirty Dozen, Airport and The Naked Gun series, while also appearing on the 1980's iconic nighttime soap Dallas as the villainous Carter McKay.

Recap and Notes on the Oscar Show

So, the Oscars came and went last night, and for once there were at least a few big upsets in the actual categories, which made me do pretty horrible on my predictions, but whatever. Last year was my best ever, so it was bound to be followed by my worst.

SURPRISES

Mark Rylance beat out Stallone for Best Supporting Actor. That was a huge bummer. The snobby Oscars went for the elitist choice, although from the beginning it had originally been hard to believe Sylvester Stallone would be an Oscar winner, but I was fooled by all those standing ovations, I guess. Too bad.

That Sam Smith Bond song actually won, which was probably the worst win of the night, by far. It was especially embarrassing after that Lady Gaga number brought the house down and was so moving with the assault survivors onstage with her. Awkward silence followed that win in the press room, apparently.

Spotlight wins Best Picture and Best Screenplay only. No movie has done that since 1952, and shows you how close the race must have been. This is also the result of the preferential ballot kicking in, although it didn't end up going to the PGA's choice. For the first time ever in a split year, SAG was the one that decided. Interesting. I personally think Best Picture ought to win a few more things to go along with it, but I guess no one really votes that way anymore.

Mark Rylance beats out Stallone

The show itself was okay. Chris Rock came out and gave a searing monologue that addressed the controversy head on, but the later comedy bits fell flat, especially the Girl Scout thing. I thought it was kind of noteworthy that he didn't even pretend that this whole thing was about "people of color," and instead just made it exclusively about the fact that black actors weren't nominated. It should be about including all minorities, but this is the way things tend to get talked about, which is kind of unfortunate, in my opinion.

Cool that Mad Max got six wins last night- tying the original Star Wars as the movie to get the most wins without getting Picture or Director. George Miller should have won too. And where did that visual effects win for Ex Machina come from??? It broke that long record for a non-BP nominee winning the category, but it wasn't Star Wars that did it. That was totally unexpected as well, since the movie won zero precursors for that and was made on a tiny budget.

That's about all I got this year. I wasn't too invested in the outcome, since my favorite movies were never in the running for anything. Hopefully next year the Academy can improve on the diversity issues, so we don't have a third straight year of outrage, and I still maintain my issues with some of these awards even being on the telecast- the shorts are impossible to predict and the sound ones really should be combined into simply one "Best Sound" category. Agree? And that's a wrap for me on Oscars 2016.

Inarritu wins again

'Spotlight' Wins Best Picture at the Oscars

Stunning everyone in the biggest Best Picture upset since Crash, Spotlight pulled off the win tonight, making it the first film since 1952's The Greatest Show on Earth to win Picture along with just one other Oscar for the screenplay. Wow. Inarritu became the third director to win Best Director two years in a row, Mark Rylance upset Sylvester Stallone's expected win to take Best Supporting Actor, and the award for Best Song did in fact go to one of the worst songs in the history of the category- that god awful song from Spectre that NO ONE liked. It was a night of mostly surprise winners and upsets, which means I got blown out completely in my predictions. I think this was my worst year ever, actually. I'll be back with my recap of the show and more details on the night's big shockers, but in the meantime here's the full winners list.

2016 OSCAR WINNERS

BEST PICTURE: Spotlight

BEST DIRECTOR: Alejandro Inarritu, The Revenant

BEST ACTOR: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant

BEST ACTRESS: Brie Larson, Room

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Spotlight

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Big Short

BEST EDITING: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Revenant

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST MAKEUP & HAIRSTYLING: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST ANIMATED FEATURE: Inside Out

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Son of Saul

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Amy

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE: The Hateful Eight

BEST ORIGINAL SONG: "The Writing's On the Wall," Spectre

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Ex Machina

BEST SOUND MIXING: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST SOUND EDITING: Mad Max: Fury Road

BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT: A Girl in the River

BEST ANIMATED SHORT: Bear Story

BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT: Stutterer

Leo DiCaprio is finally an Oscar winner

BOX OFFICE 2/26-2/28: 'Deadpool' Tops Another Slow Weekend

Deadpool once again came in on top this weekend, as the new releases failed to make a dent at the box office. The R-rated superhero comedy's gross has now reached 285 million, making it the third highest grossing R-rated film ever, with The Passion of the Christ still sitting out of reach at 370 million. Newcomer Gods of Egypt fell flat with horrible reviews and just 14 million on a 140 million budget, so expect that one to disappear quickly, and Eddie the Eagle, the real life inspirational sports drama made just 6 million for fifth place.

Another violent action release, Triple 9, didn't even crack the top five this weekend, while holdovers Kung Fu Panda 3 and Risen stuck around to round out the chart, with the former's total now equaling 128 million domestic. 

Top 5:

1. Deadpool- 31.5 million
2. Gods of Egypt- 14 million
3. Kung Fu Pands 3- 9 million
4. Risen- 7 million
5. Eddie the Eagle- 6.3 million

This Oscar weekend saw increases for the awards movies still playing in limited release, most significantly Room, which has boosted its total to 13.5 million, while Spotlight and Brooklyn are coming close to 40 million each. Even bigger studio films The Revenant and The Big Short held well this week, with The Revenant's gross now at 170 million, which to me is still amazing for the kind of movie that is, and I'm seriously tempted to credit Leonardo DiCaprio with all of that success, because I just don't see how a film like that does so well without the attraction of its star. Anyway, we'll finally be done with Oscar coverage after tonight, so come back for the complete winners list and my roundup of the show later on.