Weekend Thread | Actuals: Smile 22.6, DWD 6.85, TWK 6.8, Avatar 5, Bros 4.8

[DAJK]

After seeing Smile last night, I really kind of wish it was a genuine breakout. I think it’s my favourite horror of the year, and while not everything in it works, it has all the elements to become a contemporary horror megahit.

 

Even quality-wise, it’s basically The Ring meets It Follows, with a sprinkle of Mike Flanagan thrown in there.

[Eric the Ape]

13 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

On the other as pointed out by several others before me, it's lead can be quite nasty and on the Holier Than Thou side of things on Social Media. Hard to shit on half the country for how they vote and turn around and ask them for their money?

I mean Republicans and homophobes were obviously never going to turn up for this? Why would Eichner’s political opinions matter when the people he’s going after are repulsed by anything with icky gay stuff in it?

[filmnerdjamie]

6 minutes ago, ringedmortality said:

Also is it really an awards contender?

 

Outside of Davis and below the line nods, doubtful.

 

Although this is a cripplingly weak year awards-wise. Seemingly nothing on the horizon to stop The Fabelmans... except for maybe Top Gun: Maverick.

[Krissykins]

50 minutes ago, John Marston said:

 

Where is the Brad Pitt troll now? 😂

16 minutes ago, Flopped said:

 

Well rave reviews and Cinemascore aside, the movie is just ok. 

This made me lol 

 

8 minutes ago, Flopped said:

Yeah, no one wanted to see middle aged men talk about rimming and bottoming. That's the truth. Something like Love Simon (younger, less focused on sex) is more palatable. 

A gay film doesn’t have to be “palatable” to straight people. Gay men deserve a raunchy sex comedy, that’s what Bros is. It’s not something you have to “put up with”. We have the sexless stuff like Love Simon (which I love), Love Victor and Heartstopper, Bros and Fire Island are offering something a bit different. 
 

I’ve sat through plenty of straight sex comedies, where often the gay characters are stereotypes or just there to be laughed at.

[Flopped]

11 minutes ago, DAJK said:

After seeing Smile last night, I really kind of wish it was a genuine breakout. I think it’s my favourite horror of the year, and while not everything in it works, it has all the elements to become a contemporary horror megahit.

 

Even quality-wise, it’s basically The Ring meets It Follows, with a sprinkle of Mike Flanagan thrown in there.

 

I'm genuinely shocked by these reactions given all the great horror movies we've had this year. A plodding Ring knock-off. 

Also where were the jumpscares? I was promised jumpscares. A phone ringing too loud or a glass shattering do not qualify. I wonder if Paramount paid people to tweet about how scary it is. 

Edited October 1, 2022 by Flopped

[vale9001]

There are too many popular and mainstream movies with some oscar chances for Woman King to be an award contender.

Maybe in an another year butwith  top gun 2, Everything everywhere all at once plus Avatar 2 + black panther 2...

 

 

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by vale9001

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

I would hope it's not being suggested that a gay romcom can't possibly be "authentic" unless it's raunchy/R-rated? There have been successful romcoms across the MPAA spectrum (okay, maybe not NC-17).

 

And since when were romcoms ever "authentic", even with straight people? Even in the 1990s-2000s, they often presented a candy-coated fantasy version of reality, a lot of millennials watched them as children and got regrettable ideas about love and romance in real life as a result. But the apartments/houses/wardrobes sure did look nice...

 

Edited October 1, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl

[JustLurking]

29 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

I think it's two fold.

 

The subject matter was too off-putting for half the country and the marketing didn't justify why they shouldn't put that aside and support it. Came across like they were patting themselves on the back from the start. 

 

On the other as pointed out by several others before me, it's lead can be quite nasty and on the Holier Than Thou side of things on Social Media. Hard to shit on half the country for how they vote and turn around and ask them for their money?

 

But ultimately do I think homophobia was at play? Normally I wouldn't play that card but... yeah. I do.

 

Everyone is at fault on this one.

The marketing didn't really do much of anything to attract straight audiences to the film, so saying that those that didn't come out in support of it are homophobic just seems tone deaf to me.

[filmlover]

It feels incredibly silly to blame Bros' flopping on homophobia when even its target audience of gay men barely showed up to see it either.

 

At the end of the day, romcom is clearly a genre that depend on star power more than others. The Lost City did well earlier because of that, and Ticket to Paradise (which has already made more from its early overseas start than Bros will make in total worldwide) will likely follow in a few weeks thanks to the Clooney/Roberts pairing. 

[vale9001]

17 minutes ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

I would hope it's not being suggested that a gay romcom can't possibly be "authentic" unless it's raunchy/R-rated? There have been successful romcoms across the MPAA spectrum (okay, maybe not NC-17).

 

And since when were romcoms ever "authentic", even with straight people? Even in the 1990s-2000s, they often presented a candy-coated fantasy version of reality, a lot of millennials watched them as children and got regrettable ideas about love and romance in real life as a result. But the apartments/houses/wardrobes sure did look nice...

 

 Yeah but this movie just doesn't have a target. It's not appealing for gays and with this i mean they have a lot of other comedies and and lgbt moviws so it's not the event they tried to sell.

 

And it's a fact for me mainstream audience just love reassuring gay stories and as someone said some post ago this is better when gays are teens or very young people.

 

Not gay people are more attracted to gay stories about coming out, true stories about gay people emarginated and with empowering gay characters. As white people love black stories about the same kind of things and less real modern day black stories.

 

This year they produced a new Queer as folk series (deleted after one season), a new very explicit gay show about adult gays with Neil Patrick Harris on Netflix. Their impact was very low, especially outside a gay target.

This happens for every gay product about real gay life and adult gay people. 

 

What was a phenomenon?. Heartstopper, a series about gay teens being cute. 😇

Edited October 1, 2022 by vale9001

[DAJK]

25 minutes ago, Flopped said:

 

I'm genuinely shocked by these reactions given all the great horror movies we've had this year. A plodding Ring knock-off. 

Also where were the jumpscares? I was promised jumpscares. A phone ringing too loud or a glass shattering do not qualify. I wonder if Paramount paid people to tweet about how scary it is. 

I dunno, I jumped a fair amount of times lol

[KC7]

15 minutes ago, BoxOfficeFangrl said:

I would hope it's not being suggested that a gay romcom can't possibly be "authentic" unless it's raunchy/R-rated? There have been successful romcoms across the MPAA spectrum (okay, maybe not NC-17).

 

And since when were romcoms ever "authentic", even with straight people? Even in the 1990s-2000s, they often presented a candy-coated fantasy version of reality, a lot of millennials watched them as children and got regrettable ideas about love and romance in real life as a result. But the apartments/houses/wardrobes sure did look nice...

 

 

Authentic in the sense that it's told by and from an actual gay man's perspective. Yes, the director is straight, but there are simply things in this movie that feel more true to life than you would, or have, seen in gay men's stories written by, and sanitized for, those who aren't gay men, even beyond sex. It's all in the details.

 

And yes, romcoms are an inherently fake genre, but they can still feel more authentic within their context. For instance, "When Harry Met Sally" feels a lot more authentically New York than a lot of romcoms set there. It captures a voice and perspective that feels truer and more authentic even within its genre.

[filmlover]

Also don't think this has been mentioned but Bullet Train hit $100M yesterday. Good run (and another hit for Pitt) after many seemed eager to write it off at the beginning.

 

Edit: it was, just got lost a bit lol

Edited October 1, 2022 by filmlover

[vale9001]

30 minutes ago, Krissykins said:

Where is the Brad Pitt troll now? 😂

This made me lol 

 

A gay film doesn’t have to be “palatable” to straight people. Gay men deserve a raunchy sex comedy, that’s what Bros is. It’s not something you have to “put up with”. We have the sexless stuff like Love Simon (which I love), Love Victor and Heartstopper, Bros and Fire Island are offering something a bit different. 
 

I’ve sat through plenty of straight sex comedies, where often the gay characters are stereotypes or just there to be laughed at.

 

 

Trust me they are already a loooot of them.

This movie was sold as something new because they really want to make a multi target kind of success. You can see cleary in all the promotion they made. 

[ringedmortality]

11 minutes ago, filmlover said:

The Lost City did well earlier because of that, and Ticket to Paradise (which has already made more from its early overseas start than Bros will make in total worldwide) will likely follow in a few weeks thanks to the Clooney/Roberts pairing. 

 

I'd say on top of the star power, both The Lost City and Ticket to Paradise are more escapist.

[Ethan Hunt]

39 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

. Seemingly nothing on the horizon to stop The Fabelmans... except for maybe Top Gun: Maverick.

What lmao

[filmlover]

Just now, ringedmortality said:

 

I'd say on top of the star power, both The Lost City and Ticket to Paradise are more escapist.

True. That's another reason (the promise of exotic scenery) why Crazy Rich Asians was so big four years ago.

[JustLurking]

53 minutes ago, filmnerdjamie said:

 

Outside of Davis and below the line nods, doubtful.

 

Although this is a cripplingly weak year awards-wise. Seemingly nothing on the horizon to stop The Fabelmans... except for maybe Top Gun: Maverick.

Uh, Tár and Banshees of Inisherin got amazing critical reception,  Women Talking and Living also got pretty strong response iirc. Babylon looked great to me and there'll be probably something else that I'm forgetting. It really isn't all that barren at all.

Edited October 1, 2022 by JustLurking

[TwoMisfits]

After all this discussion, I think the story of Bros is when you make a movie that targets directly only a singular smaller demo, you better turn that demo out to the max if you want to cover your budget and make any money.

 

The Women King was the same type of smaller demo target movie that turned out its demo to a huge degree, so it will cover its budget and make money.

 

Bros just really didn't...at all.  And it's gonna lose money.

 

PS - I'm probably part of the problem.  I actually had free tickets to Bros for Wednesday, and even for free, I didn't find the time in my schedule to go.  It just didn't draw me in to any part of the trailer.  And when you've got a full active life with kids in the fall, you better have something worth drawing me in...

[BoxOfficeFangrl]

41 minutes ago, vale9001 said:

 Yeah but this movie just doesn't have a target. It's not appealing for gays and with this i mean they have a lot of other comedies and and lgbt moviws so it's not the event they tried to sell.

 

And it's a fact for me mainstream audience just love reassuring gay stories and as someone said some post ago this is better when gays are teens or very young people.

 

Not gay people are more attracted to gay stories about coming out, true stories about gay people emarginated and with empowering gay characters. As white people love black stories about the same kind of things and less real modern day black stories.

 

This year they produced a new Queer as folk series (deleted after one season), a new very explicit gay show about adult gays with Neil Patrick Harris on Netflix. Their impact was very low, especially outside a gay target.

This happens for every gay product about real gay life and adult gay people. 

 

What was a phenomenon?. Heartstopper, a series about gay teens being cute. 😇

It seems like there is a huge middle ground between "YA coming out" and "dark/very explicit", though? Not everyone wants their romance with a side of raunch. But I get how it can feel like people are being told not to be "too gay" for public consumption. 

 

I wonder how Spoiler Alert will do at the box office. It's not a raucous comedy, but it's a romance where the lead actors are out. It's based on a true story, but I can still picture it getting bashed somewhere on Twitter for "conforming to tropes" or something.

Edited October 1, 2022 by BoxOfficeFangrl