Magic in the Moonlight

So I reviewed Woody Allen's most recent film after seeing it in August (that review can be found here), but recently I've had a few more thoughts about the film and what might have contributed to making it the utter disappointment that it was.

First I must admit that I believe Woody Allen to be great filmmaker. I can't say I've seen many of his films, probably not even his best ones, but the man does have a lot of talent in creating characters and working with actors to bring those characters to life. I loved Blue Jasmine and the absurd-yet-heartbreaking work that Allen and Cate Blanchett accomplished. Allen is also undoubtedly on of the most prolific directors of all time. He has directed forty-four feature length films, and hasn't gone a year without releasing a film since 1982. He has also won four Oscars out of a total of nineteen nominations. Oh, and he turns eighty next year. Regardless of whether or not his films are your cup of tea, you can't deny that Allen is a master storyteller.

However...

Perhaps the soon-to-be-octogenarian should reflect upon his last four films and consider a new strategy. In 2011 he gave us Midnight in Paris, which quickly became his highest grossing film and picked up four Oscar nominations including a win for Original Screenplay. His follow up to that was To Rome with Love, a critical and box office flop. But from those ashes rose Blue Jasmine, which received three Oscar nominations, including Cate Blanchett's win for Best Actress. And of course he follows it with this year's Magic in the Moonlight, which sparked no magic with critics or audiences.

I recognize that his long career has featured many duds, but this recent trend leads me to make the following suggestion:

Dear Mr. Allen,
Please stop making bad films every other year.
Why not, instead, take a vacation?
Spend some time at the beach. Join a bridge club.
Take cooking lessons at the local AARP.
And then, when you have a film worth making,
make it good and we will love it.
You're smothering us with your occasional mediocrity.
Maybe take a lesson from Terrence Malick?
Sincerely,
Someone who wants you to make good movies.

Kudos to you if you've stuck with me through the rambling, because now I'm going to share that thought about Magic in the Moonlight that recently occurred to me:

The text of the film is a meta analysis of the film itself.

What does that mean? In the film, Colin Firth plays an illusionist and debunker of fake spirit-mediums who is asked to prove that the charming and beautiful psychic played by Emma Stone is a fraud. Allured by her beauty and charm, Firth's character begins to fall in love with Stone's, and (with the help of his supposed friend) concludes that she can in fact commune with the deceased. He discovers the betrayal and realizes he was correct in assuming that she was a fraud, though he still loves her and is willing to leave his fiancee for her.

One could read the film as asking both critics and general audiences to undergo a journey similar to Firth's. The film is acknowledging that the audience is cautious, too often lured in by Allen just to be disappointed. But with beauty and charm, surely the viewer will be swept away (and maybe the deception will be aided by a few soft critics?). But even if you discover the truth - that the film is a shallow impression of what we expect from Allen - maybe, just maybe you'll still be enraptured by the film's beauty and charm.

Does that happen? Of course not. The film is all facade, even unapologetically so. Colin Firth's character is wooden and unlikeable, and not even the charming and beautiful Emma Stone is able to rescue this huge disappointment of a film.

But what are your thoughts about Allen's latest, or his career as a whole? Should he slow down, or is sitting through Allen's mediocre work the price we have to pay in order to see his great films?

Weekend Preview: Mint Chocolate Chip

Thursday PM Update:

Early reviews of City of Bones are tearing up the film as mundane, overly dependent on CGI, and just a bad adaptation in general. Considering the hype going into this weekend, an opening day around $3 million (right between Beautiful Creatures' $2.5 and The Host's $5.3) really is a kiss of death for the series unless it kills overseas. The film will be lucky to end up with $20 million for its five day opening.

The year's fourth YA adaptation will try to make box office magic this weekend, but can it overcome the demons that brought down Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters? Also: Lionsgate brings out their latest horror flick You're Next; The World's End, the final installment of Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy, lands in around 1,400 theaters on this side of the pond; and The Grandmaster makes its domestic debut in seven theaters. And Sony Classics makes a last minute change to add Blue Jasmine's nationwide expansion to this weekend's schedule.

YA fantasy adaptations are usually pretty difficult to predict. For every Harry Potter, Twilight, and Hunger Games there are several Beautiful Creatures, The Host, and Percy Jacksons, and those are just the flops from this year. These book series have large fan followings, but that obviously isn't always enough to perform well at the box office. Those three films opened to $7.5, $10.6, and $14.4 million respectively. In order to secure its sequel prospects, City of Bones needs an opening weekend above $20 million and a five day start (Wednesday to Sunday) around $45 million.

Lionsgate is definitely trying to cash in on this year's wave of blockbuster low budget horror films with You're Next. The year's top three horror films (The Conjuring, Mama, and The Purge) have already grossed a combined $264 million, but only cost a total of $38 million to produce. Including Evil Dead and Texas Chainsaw 3D, the year's top five horror films have all had opening weekends north of $20 million. All signs seem to be indicating that You're Next will continue this trend, so I'm predicting an opening weekend around $25 million.

The first two installments of the Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy (Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz made a combined $37 million domestically. Edgar, Simon, and Nick have been steadily getting more well known on this side of the pond since those films, especially due to their involvement in Tin Tin, Scott Pilgrim, Paul, and Star Trek. Plus Martin Freeman's role finally got bumped up from cameo to co-star. Unfortunately it does have a few red flags. The film's release is much wider than the first two (607 and 825 theaters), but still pretty low compared to the weekend's other new releases. And the film's title is a little too close to This is the End, June's end of the world comedy that opened to $20 million and is still inching asymptotically toward $100 million. I don't think The World's End has much of a chance of matching that opening, but it should open around $15 million.

If Blue Jasmine continues to follow in the footsteps of Woody Allen's highest grossing film, Midnight in Paris, then he is going to be very happy this weekend. When Midnight expanded nationwide, it grossed $5.8 million from 944 theaters. Blue Jasmine is set to expand into around 1,200 theaters this weekend and has a good chance at grossing above $6 million. And if it holds as well as Midnight did, it should easily dethrone Midnight as Allen's highest grossing film.

Lastly, Weinstein is bringing China's The Grandmaster to domestic audiences. It will be pretty tough for it to gross more than $2 million this weekend since it's only in seven theaters, but it's already set to expand next weekend and should have a good run once it reaches audiences nationwide.

Tune in next week to see if thrillers Closed Circuit and Getaway can steal audiences from One Direction.

Weekend Preview: Wolverine is Back

This weekend marks the fifth time that Hugh Jackman has donned the adamantium claws to turn his box office foes into mince meat. Also: indie hit The Way, Way Back is set to expand nationwide into 886 theaters, and Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine opens in six theaters.

So obviously The Wolverine is going to take first place this weekend. It has no competition from new nationwide releases, and last weekend's winner The Conjuring should see a sharp second weekend decline despite good reviews. The mutant anti-hero's last outing made $85 million in its opening weekend but didn't make much of a splash critically. Wolverine has always been one of the most popular X-Men characters, so Fox shouldn't have any trouble getting comics fans into the theater. The real question is whether four years is enough time for general audiences to be interested in seeing another standalone film. If general audiences bite, The Wolverine could end up around $70 million for the weekend. If not, I would expect this to become the worst opening X-Men film with around $50 million.

After grossing over $5 million in limited release, Sundance darling The Way, Way Back expands nationwide this weekend. Fox Searchlight has marketed it as "A new comedy from the studio that brought you Little Miss Sunshine and Juno," clearly in the hopes of duplicating their box office successes. However both of those opened to much higher per theater averages in limited release: $52,999 for Sunshine and $59,124 for Juno, while Way Back opened to only $29,094. Sunshine went on to earn $5.6 million in its first weekend in wide release and Juno earned $10.6 million. So $5 million will probably be the upper limit for Way Back this weekend.

Two years ago Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris opened in six theaters to $599,003 on its way to a record high gross for the writer/actor/director ($56.8 million) and an Oscar win for Original Screenplay. After Allen's To Rome with Love fell flat critically and at the box office, he is definitely looking to reverse that trend with Blue Jasmine. If successful, he could score himself a couple more Oscar nominations as well as one for lead actress Cate Blanchett. An opening weekend above half a million will definitely help their chances.

Are you traveling to Japan with Hugh Jackman this weekend or sticking with something a little closer to home?

Tune in next week for another round of ridiculous with The Smurfs 2 and some Denzel Washington/Mark Wahlberg action in 2 Guns.