In Contention

Tag: Gentlemen Broncos

  • Seconded

    From Telegraph critic (and Berlinale buddy par excellence) Tim Robey’s neat festival roundup:

    Maybe they’ll bestow a specially bonkers Golden Bear to mark the occasion [of their 60th anniversary] – for instance, to the one film I walked out of, the Japanese hopeful, Caterpillar, in which a mute war veteran with no arms or legs gets frisky with his unduly appalled wife. As a friend quipped, once we’d snuck out of this mangily shot and edited exercise in Lars von Trierian erotic masochism, “Spare us the whole paraplegic Kama Sutra, already.” Then again, Werner Herzog is presiding over this year’s jury, so all bets are off.

    That friend, I’m pleased to say, is me. (And I somehow share his fear that the jury will disagree with us tomorrow. I say that in lieu of any predictions.) Tim also joins me in the, shall we say, select club of “Gentlemen Broncos” fans. Read the rest here.

  • “Chevalier…”

    Jemaine Clement in Gentlemen BroncosThe film is history across the pond, but having just seen Jared Hess’s “Gentlemen Broncos” in the Generation strand of the Berlinale, I feel obliged to briefly counter the thoroughly undeserved critical and commercial kicking the film received back in fall 2009.

    Because I’m astonished to find Hess’s creatively chaotic stew of literature, movies-within-movies and vintage power balladry the most sweet-natured and most consistently hilarious comedy of last year.

    I was never a “Napoleon Dynamite” disciple. And in light of reviews even harsher than those for the dire “Nacho Libre,” it’s fair to say I wasn’t looking forward to Hess’s latest. Indeed, I wasn’t planning on seeing at all; I only ducked in to seek refuge from the embarrassing Competition entry I’d walked out of next door. (More on that later.)

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  • SUNDAY CENTS: That was it?

    Michael Jackson's This Is It*All historical figures cited are adjusted to today’s dollars

    Michael Jackson’s concert footage was finally released upon the public amid a whirlwind of hype that caused many, including myself, to get a little carried away. The documentary grossed $21.3 million from the three-day weekend, second only to “Fahrenheit 9/11” for docs, and $32.5 million since opening on Wednesday.

    Compared to what Sony must have thought it MIGHT get, this is a disappointing result, but compared to what was spent and what type of product this actually is, it’s still phenomenal. If it wasn’t for the fluke juggernaut that was “Hannah Montana/Miley Cyrus: Best of Both Worlds Concert,” this would be the biggest result ever for a concert film. As it stands, people like me have egg on their face, but Sony will still be raking in a tidy profit when it’s all said and done as the film grossed a cool $101 million in its first five days worldwide.

    “Paranormal Activity” continued to expand but saw it’s weekend gross decline for the first time with $16.5 million and second place. Halloween landing on a Saturday is usually box office poison, but the supernatural flick bucked the trend somewhat and now has almost $85 mil in the bank. Believe it or not, if it can keep chugging along, it will become the first straight horror movie to top $100 million since “The Grudge” in 2004 and the first R-rated horror to do it since “Red Dragon” in 2002.

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