In Laman's Terms: How Nine Days became an accidental, but poignant, tale about living through the COVID-19 pandemic

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

SPOILERS FOR NINE DAYS AHEAD

Nine Days premiered at the 2020 edition of the Sundance Film Festival. The fact that it was able to premiere exclusively in a theatrical capacity, with the idea of a virtual premiere a laughable notion, is an indicator that it took place in some of the final weeks before the COVID-19 pandemic forever altered the American movie landscape. Like any of us, none of the artists behind Nine Days could’ve predicted what was about to come and how everyone’s lives would be upended.

However, the film feels all the more relevant when viewed through the lens of how COVID-19 has affected everyday life. It’s a testament to how much authentic emotion and human experiences Nine Days channels that it could accomplish a feat it could’ve never imagined. A parable about the virtues of existence that would’ve been emotionally resonant under any circumstances has only garnered extra layers of depth and relevancy.

Nine Days focuses on Will (Winston Duke), a figure who helps figure out which prospective souls go on to actually inhabit planet Earth. Having previously been a living person himself, his only exposure to what’s going on among everyday humans is through videotapes told through the eyes of people growing up. These glimpses into existence have given him a bleak view of humanity as he refers to the very act of living as being akin to going to war.

When Will isn’t watching these videos, he spends his time toiling away in the isolated house that he never leaves. Sometimes he’s making small experiences for souls that don’t get to Earth, other times he’s fixating on the sudden death of a woman named Amanda. Whatever the case, Will keeps his distance from the people around him both physically and emotionally.

Will’s detached nature was never meant to evoke the experiences of living during the COVID-19 pandemic. Writer/director Edson Oda‘a primary intent with these withdrawn qualities of Will was to provide a contrast to characters like Kyo (Benedict Wong) and Emma (Zazie Beetz), who carry more optimistic perspectives on the world of the living.

However, in the process of portraying Will like this, Edo also crafted a perfect stand-in for an average spectator in the COVID-19 pandemic. An isolated human being whose keenly aware of the fragile mortality of other people and whose only way of connecting with “real life” is through what he see’s once screens? How can one not get flashbacks to being stuck in lockdown during the pandemic? Edo’s depiction of Will is as prophetic as it is thoughtful.

Something else Edo perfectly captures in Will’s disposition is the inevitable cynicism about humanity that can emerge during this ongoing health crisis. How can one not look at a crowd of people protesting any measures taken to curb the pandemic or politicians instituting bans on mask and not develop a glib outlook? So many times during this pandemic, it feels like humans haven’t squandered opportunities to rise to the occasion so much as they’ve lit them on fire.

The disparity between this kind of outlook and more glass-half-full visions of humanity are constantly being pitted against one another in Edo’s screenplay. Taking a cue from the sparse dialogue-driven works of Samuel Beckett among others, Edo both challenges and deeply understands the kind of bleak mindset that can emerge in the wake of a tragedy akin to the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of the most thoughtful demonstrations of these conflicting mindsets clashing comes during a dinner where Kane (Bill Skarsgard) remarks that the most disgusting thing he’s seen in his time viewing humanity is a pedophile who murdered two little girls. He remarks that this is the norm for behavior on Earth, which Emma rebukes with her contrary perception of humanity that’s much more hopeful.

“Why are you focusing on this” Emma inquires to Kane, to which he responds “How’re you not?”

Nine Days understands how bleak perceptions of humanity can manifest, hence why it doesn’t demonize either Kane or Will. It understands how easy and logical it can seem to see only the worst parts of the human race as a condemnation of the entire planet. How can one turn on the news in the pandemic to discover the latest anti-vaccine nonsense and not feel some frustration with the wider world?

But Nine Days also takes the time to show the quiet wonderful things of existence, the sort of details that we all may have taken for granted before the pandemic. These are initially represented solely by Kyo, who lingers on the video screens in Will’s living room that show humorous or romantically touching sights rather than the ones that feature horrific sights. Soon, though, this perception is manifested by Emma, particularly in a closing scene where she reveals to Will that she’s left writing across his house of all the happy memories she’s had in this domicile.

Her notes, sketched on the floor, walls, and fenceposts, don’t refer to anything huge. Small things, like walking barefoot or sharing laughs with Kyo, are what she’s scribbled down and are at the forefront of her memory. These are the kind of throwaway aspects of existence that one grows to appreciate after spending so much time indoors. Who needs to have exorbitant riches, wings, or anything fantastical? After a few months in lockdown, all I wanted was to share a meal with my friends or feel the breeze against my face while walking to a class at my college.

These are the things Will and all of us pre-pandemic either never really appreciated or even outright avoided. After all, appreciating those intimate qualities of other people can put us in places of extreme vulnerability. As Will learns while grappling with the sudden departure of Amanda, that kind of connection can hurt just as much as it fills up the soul. It can be easy for Will, and those us just trying to make it through another day in the pandemic, to decide the right course of action is to remain distant from the world.

But a character like Emma doesn’t just point Will towards the glorious things hiding in plain sight, she also chips away at the pandemic-induced cynicism of the viewer. Connecting with others or appreciating those minute qualities can lead to heartbreak, but they can also lead to unspeakable amounts of joy. The thought of a worldwide pandemic shutting everything down and reorienting everyone’s worldview was never even close to being on the mind of Nine Days and its creators. And yet, thanks to the intimate storytelling approach and the richly human performances, the film itself is a perfect reminder of the joys of everyday life and bonding with other people.

In Laman's Terms: Five Biggest Takeaways from Black Widow's Box Office

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

This past weekend, the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie in two years opened in theaters around the world. Black Widow finally hit the big screen and the film managed to generate solid box office results. But as with everything happening in the world of COVID-19, this debut now begs the question of what its larger significance is for the world of theatrical exhibition as a whole? Well, there are plenty of significant things one can examine from this opening, including how it reflects the world of domestic cinema as well as what Disney's investment in the future of theatrical-exclusive releases could be.

Theatrical cinema still packs a wallop

Watching opening weekend grosses constantly go up over the last seven weeks has been quite impressive. Before May 2021, no domestic title released after the pandemic began opened to over $35 million. Then, A Quiet Place: Part II debuted to $48 million, F9 zoomed to $70 million, and now Black Widow has opened to $80.4 million. Those last two numbers are particularly impressive since they're on par with pre-pandemic opening weekend numbers for summer blockbusters. The significant increases across these bows, along with the fact that all combined titles grossed over $100 million this past weekend, demonstrate that theatrical cinema is still valuable and packs a mighty financial wallop.

Even better, it looks like this ongoing recovery won't be just limited to the last seven weeks. The near future slate of releases is full of further blockbusters from a variety of genres that could totally attract moviegoers. The big screen has always had a significant presence in the entertainment landscape and the strong opening weekend numbers from titles like Black Widow showcase that this is just as true as ever. 

We're still in recovery mode and that's ok

Black Widow's opening was behind the debuts of all other Marvel Cinematic Universe features since July 2015 save for Ant-Man and the Wasp. That would normally be a DEFCON-5 level problem, but under the circumstances, it doesn't look like there's anything to worry about. None of those other MCU titles from the last six years had to deal with a simultaneous premium-video-on-demand release or the lingering effects of COVID-19 or the majority of movie theaters being closed in Canada. With all these factors at play, it's apparent that Black Widow's debut is totally fine. 

It's also an indicator that the domestic box office is in an ongoing recovery mode. Luckily, this is still allowing films like F9 and Black Widow to open to over $70 million, but it does mean we'll have to wait two or three months for domestic titles to crack $100 million. Once more films engage in theatrical-only releases, like A Quiet Place: Part II and F9, and audiences become re-engaged with the idea of new theatrical titles debuting on a weekly basis, something resemble normalcy at the domestic box office will re-emerge. Until then, we're in recovery mode basically until the end of August (Candyman will kick off the norm then of major tentpoles largely getting theatrical-exclusive titles).

Reliable franchises are emerging unscathed...but what about the smaller films?

Fast & Furious and the Marvel Cinematic Universe are emerging from this pandemic largely on par with their pre-pandemic box office performances. That's cool to see given how much of a boost both of their most recent entries have given to the worldwide box office. However, everyone largely assumed beloved big-screen franchises would emerge from the pandemic largely unchanged. After all, those are the kind of films Hollywood and general moviegoers alike have been shifting more and more of their focus to in recent years. That's a welcome but certainly expected turn of events.

Where the uncertainty comes in is in how smaller titles will fare on the big screen. So far, no major indie titles released in the last three months have managed to take off. However, that's partially because these films have gone way too wide right away and have also covered more niche material (like the band Sparks) rather than more mainstream storytelling material that's been the backdrop of the biggest pre-pandemic indie hits. Plus, certain movies have left an impact financially without a Marvel Studios logo, such as the solid numbers drummed up by the documentary Summer of Soul or the enduring appeal of The Truffle Hunters, which will soon crack $500,000 domestically despite never playing in more than 105 locations.

PVOD makes films extra frontloaded

The individual Marvel Cinematic Universe movies have been remarkably consistent in terms of how well they play from day to day, with the most frontloaded non-Avengers title (in terms of how much Thursday night box office plays into overall weekend grosses) previously being Ant-Man and the Wasp. That title has now gone to Black Widow, which made nearly half of its opening weekend from just its opening day. Given that metrics from moviegoers don't indicate any drastically different word-of-mouth than your typical entry in the franchise, what gives?

Partially, this is likely due to many general moviegoers still being hesitant to venture out into a movie theater, leaving die-hard MCU fans and those comfortable with that environment as the primary audience for Black Widow. That's a sizeable demographic, clearly, but it also explains why Black Widow opened to $80 million instead of the $90-92 million debut its opening day would've suggested had it played like a normal MCU movie. An even greater culprit, though, is probably that premium video-on-demand debut on Disney+. People who wanted to see Black Widow in theaters saw it right away while a chunk of general moviegoers who would've seen it on Saturday and Sunday watched it at home.

The good news is that Black Widow still scored a sizeable, even by pre-pandemic standards debut, so this is basically splitting hairs. Unless you cost over $300 million like Justice League, a $70+ million bow under any circumstances is great. But if Hollywood wants to go even higher in the next few months, it'll have to commit to theatrical exclusivity. As a sidenote, this would also explain why only one Warner Bros. 2021 release has cracked $30 million on opening weekend. Poor In the Heights got boondoggled in its theatrical run by its distributor refusing to commit to a big-screen experience.

20th Century Fox may prevent Premier Access from catching on

Let's not beat around the bush: Disney announced, for the first time ever, exact revenue from one of their Disney+ Premier Access titles. Black Widow made $60 million for Disney through PVOD sales on Disney+. With the norm established of Disney blockbusters getting simultaneous theatrical and streaming debuts, the question hovering around the entertainment industry the last two days is whether or not this becomes the new normal for Disney. The company has not announced further updates on the matter in the days since Black Widow's box office got reported. Meanwhile, advertising for Disney's next two blockbusters, Free Guy and Shang-Chi, have utilized "only in theaters" in their respective marketing materials.

The former title might be part of a detail that keeps Disney sticking to theatrical-only titles, at least for now. Free Guy, like all 20th Century Studios titles until the end of 2022, has a pay-TV deal with HBO. They cannot be put on Disney+ or Hulu, if Disney forgoes a theatrical release, the revenue will go to HBO instead. Thus, Disney's sort of forced to give these movies a theatrical-exclusive release for the time being. It's why Disney hasn't given any 20th Century Studios titles* theatrical releases in 2021. Disney projects like Cruella and Jungle Cruise can make up for any lost theatrical revenue through PVOD releases. 20th Century Studios films like The King's Man cannot.

With this studio being forced to stay theatrical-only due to contractual issues, it's likely Disney will be keeping its other major theatrical features exclusive to the big screen for the time being too. It's not impossible to imagine Disney just making Premier Access the norm for non-20th Century Studios titles (the studios lack of commitment to theatrical releases in the first pieces of marketing for Encanto and Turning Red is certainly worrisome). But it's also hard to imagine Disney executives explaining to Kevin Feige that Death on the Nile is more fitting for a theatrical exclusive release than Eternals. At the moment, it looks like 20th Century Studios could get Disney to return to theaters, but the success of Black Widow on PVOD means that it's unlikely the studio will permanently abandon this method of release.

* A pair of movies (Nomadland and Summer of Soul) have gotten 2021 theatrical runs from the companies sister studio, Searchlight Pictures.

In Laman's Terms: 5 Biggest Takeaways from F9's Opening Weekend

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

After months of uncertainty for the domestic theatrical exhibition market, F9 delivered the kind of opening weekend many thought wouldn't be possible after the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.  Opening to $70 million domestically, it was a debut that seemed like a blast from the past, if the past was 2019. The biggest domestic box office debut in 18 months, it was a solid sign, coming hot off the similarly noteworthy domestic debut of A Quiet Place: Part II, that domestic movie theaters can still thrive even after a long health crisis keeping them closed.

But we're not out of the woods yet when it comes to bringing theatrical moviegoing to anything resembling a new level of normalcy. The debut of F9 is full of good news but also full of interesting developments that aren't inherently good or bad, they're just reflections of the volatile state theatrical moviegoing is in currently. These aren't restricted to just the domestic marketplace either, F9 is a film released all across the globe and its box office performance also functions as a reflection of how international box office territories are also faring in revving up theatrical moviegoing again.

Theatrical-only openings rule

So far, the two biggest opening weekends of 2021, and the two that feel like they belong to the box office landscape before a pandemic shook everything up, are A Quiet Place: Part II and F9. What do the two titles have in common? Opening exclusively in theaters. Forgoing a simultaneous streaming/PVOD debut doesn't automatically make your movie a hit (oh hi The Hitman's Wife Bodyguard) but it clearly doesn't hurt. Keeping things confined to the big screen emphasizes your movie as an event and shows a commitment to the artform of theatrical exhibition.

What'll be interesting to see now is the performance of Black Widow, which is apparently tracking for an $80+ million opening, even bigger than the debut of F9. That would be in spite of the film getting a simultaneous PVOD debut on Disney+. Still, Marvel Cinematic Universe movies are a rare breed, audiences have been conditioned to head out to movie theaters to watch these films for over a decade now. It'll be different for Jungle Cruise, which will likely get its domestic box office heavily impacted by a simultaneous PVOD launch if Cruella coming in way behind other live-action Disney remakes is any indicaiton.

The international box office is still recovering

 While the domestic box office is showing signs of returning to pre-COVID-19 levels, several international territories have a long way to go. Case in point, the United Kingdom. Whereas F9 only dipped 29% from the opening of The Fate of the Furious domestically, in the case of the United Kingdom, the film opened to $8.4 million, a 52% decline from the opening of Fate. What's intriguing, though, is that this F9 opening still provided a boost for the territory. According to Deadline, F9 set three single-day records for a movie released during the pandemic in the U.K. Similarly, openings in Mexico and Brazil were also down from Fast of the Furious but set records for titles released during the pandemic.

This indicates a hard truth movie studios will just have to swallow; things are gonna be smaller for a little while. Not minuscule (wouldn't you like to wake up with $8.4 million in your bank account?) but down from pre-pandemic times. What's important is putting stuff out there in movie theaters that get people into seats and recovering from there. Oh, and most important of all is keeping people safe, that goes without saying, so if people are staying home out of fear of catching COVID-19, well, I say that's a net positive. Clearly, the theatrical exhibition isn't going anywhere after nearly a year-and-a-half of uncertainty. It can hold on a little longer as the international box office continues to recover.

Patience pays off

Right from the start of the pandemic, Universal announced that F9 would be delayed a whole year to the summer of 2021. It was an anomaly among the major American movie studios, who largely delayed titles like Mulan or Wonder Woman 1984 to just three or four months after their initial release date. However, Universal understood better than anyone just how long-lasting the consequences of this pandemic would be. Whereas other movies had to keep bumping their release dates time and time again to accommodate just how all-consuming the pandemic was, F9 was able to stay cozily in the summer 2021 spot, without wasting a lot of marketing dollars in the process.

In the process, F9 has proven the value of patience. Studios that are quick to dump titles to streamers or plop them in too early of a release date are only doing a disservice to themselves and moviegoers. Universal showed that the way forward in the pandemic isn't to panic but to exhibit restraint. Whereas Warner Bros. took drastic moves like that simultaneous HBO Max release plan that alienated filmmakers, Universal had faith in the big screen and their titles and just let things simmer. They may have had to wait for a big box office hit, but the majorly impressive opening weekend of F9 indicates that the wait was worth it.

Moviegoing has returned to being countrywide

During the pandemic, movies that did get a theatrical release, like The War with Grandpa, generally made most of their business in Southern states, namely Texas. In the last three months, with California and New York City reopening their multiplexes, those locations have proven fruitful but they haven't been rampantly popular for all titles. This is a contrast to pre-COVID-19 times, when business for movies that topped the domestic box office tended to have appeal all across the individual parts of North America.

That status quo got reignited with F9, which had its most lucrative theaters from all across the domestic marketplace. Southern states like Texas still contributed a large sum to the movies gross (Texas was one of the five highest-grossing states for F9) but the wealth was spread across a multitude of indoor theaters across the nation rather than just concentrated in a handful of areas. This is how you get $70+ million openers again in the domestic theatrical space.

Tentpole blockbusters are back (for now)

In the summer of 2020, Entertainment Weekly published a piece proclaiming that the blockbuster as audiences previously knew it was dead. This was due to the difficulties of filming large-scale movies under the conditions of COVID-19 as well as the uncertainty of those costly endeavors managing to make their budgets back through a potentially slimmed-down theatrical exhibition sphere. The long-term prospects of these films is uncertainty, but F9 makes a pretty good argument that blockbusters aren't going anywhere. 

Thanks to these kind of films being attached to franchises being have an attachment to as well as positive memories of watching in a movie theater, it shoudln't be a surprise blockbusters like F9 are thriving domestically. It also bodes well for titles like Black Widow and The Suicide Squad opening in the next month or so, which are also attache to long-running franchises. While the blockbuster seems to be on better than ever legs domestically, it should be noted that these are not the only kind of movies that have or should be playing in movie theaters. 

The recent strong box office of foreign-language titles like Dad I'm Sorry and even this weekend's strong opening weekend of I Carry You With Me show that audiences will also turn out for smaller-scale works if they look appealing. Right now, though, the spotlight is on big-budget project F9 and it's opening weekend reinforcing the faincnial viability of blockbuster projects.

In Laman's Terms: Micro-Review of Recent Watches (Serpico, Hard Eight, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and more!)

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

In the last two weeks, I've been swamped with all kinds of responsibilities. They've all been the most exciting kind of duties that range from working on pieces for websites like Collider to finishing up assignments for my second semester of Graduate School. Doing all these exciting things has still left me enough time to watch movies but not enough time to write full-fledged reviews of them. For this week's In Laman's Terms, I thought I'd do something I've never done in the seven-year history (wow that's weird to type) of this website. I'll do small one-paragraph reviews of some films I've seen recently. These are bite-sized takes that aren't super organized but just give you a general impression of the films I've watched in the last two weeks. 

With school done, I'll try to make time for traditional reviews of movies I've watched lately like Mr. Turner and The Mauritanian. Until then, let's begin with the mini-reviews...

HARD EIGHT

Paul Thomas Anderson exploded right onto the filmmaking scene with this directorial debut that shows all the confidence and vigor of a longtime auteur. Despite limiting its focus to just four characters and a handful of locations, I couldn't turn my eyes from the screen in Hard Eight. It's as magnetic to watch as a great poker game. Much of the props here must go to Phillip Baker Hall in a transfixing lead performance as a guy you can never seem to get a read on. Hall works wonders in keeping a consistent affect but always challenging your perceptions of who his character is and what he's capable of. Oh, and what a great one-scene appearance by Phillip Seymour Hoffman!

ROCKS

Here's another great film from a foreign country that's available to watch on Netflix right now but has never received any sort of promotion. Don't let the lack of advertising fool you, Rocks is already one of 2021's highlights. The titular lead character is a teenage girl struggling to hold onto her brother when their mother is suddenly absent from their lives. Director Sarah Gavron always captures the plight of Rocks in a manner that reads empathetic, not exploitative. Plus, the scenes where Rocks is just hanging out with her friends just radiates with authentic joy. Gavron imbues complexity into these proceedings by refusing to corner Rocks and her brother as just characters defined by their poverty. They're multi-faceted beings more than capable of headlining well-made motion pictures like Rocks.

EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP

Looking back on the initial reception to Exit Through the Gift Shop, I'm shocked by how much of it focused on whether or not the film is "real." Personally, I would be more shocked if such a ludicrous story was falsified, reality is so often stranger than fiction, ya know. But it's also just weird that the validity of the story was the primary focus rather than the filmmaking. That's extra tragic since Exit Through the Gift Shop is such a well-crafted documentary. Even if you're like me and a total novice when it comes to street art, the whole story is easy to follow. Rooting things in the story of an avid filmer-turned-street artist helps lend a sense of universality to the proceedings. The escalating absurdity of things as the primary focus of the film begins to put on his own ramshackle art show is impossible to look away from. Exit Through the Gift Shop starts out as a look at seedy nighttime rebellion before becoming a tragic farce about how easily the means of subversion can be co-opted for monetary gain. There's so much to unpack here, why wasn't that the central focus of Exit Through the Gift Shop's initial response?

CHOP SHOP

Writer/director Raman Bahrani is a rare modern American filmmaker unafraid to tackle the thorny subject of class. He explored this matter to great effect in the underappreciated 2015 gem 99 Homes and he dives into the subject again with his 2008 feature Chop Shop. This is the story of youngster Alejandro "Ale" (Alejandro Polanco), who works odd jobs to earn money to buy a food truck he's convinced will bring financial stability to the lives of himself and his sister. Bahrani opting to tell this tale with unknown actors adds an extra sense of realism to the proceedings. It's like we're getting a glimpse into reality itself rather than movie stars emulating a Xerox copy of reality. Similarly impressive is how Bahrani conveys the quiet tragedy of Ale's life. He has no time to be a kid, American society has put so many financial expectations on a person who isn't even a teenager. The grimness of this situation infuses Chop Shop with a somber atmosphere chillingly in touch with reality.

SERPICO

The worst part about Sidney Lumet's Serpico is how relevant it is 50 years after its release. The story of a cop (Al Pacino) looking to weed out corruption in the cops at his New York precinct, Serpico is less of a movie about one guy charging against injustice. It's more the story of a man trying to get grains of sand from not falling through his fingers tips. Endless difficulties face Pacino's protagonist as he tries to do the bare minimum of good behavior as a cop. Serpico uses the grim aesthetic permeating New Hollywood movies of the early 1970s to convey how corruption is everywhere, the debauchery in the police force doesn't end there. Like I said, horrifyingly relevant to the modern world. On a happier note, also carrying enduring qualities in Serpico is Lumet's tremendous filmmaking, which adds a lot to the paranoia-drenched atmosphere, and Pacino's magnificent lead performance. Movies as good as Serpico are hard to coe by

In Laman's Terms: Predicting the ten biggest movies of Summer 2021!

An image from Peter Rabbit 2, a movie that isn't on this list. 

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Boy, it feels good to do this again.

Yes, with Guy Ritchie's Wrath of Man opening in wide theatrical release on Friday, the Summer 2021 moviegoing season is actually going to happen! The first big tentpole releases will only come three weeks later than usual (A Quiet Place: Part II and Cruella are dropping over Memorial Day rather than the first weekend of May), but otherwise, we've got a slew of theatrical features on the way! Yay!

With that in mind, it's time do something I love to do but wasn't able to do last year due to the COVID-19 pandemic; a column predicting the biggest movies at the summer domestic box office! As I've done in year's past, I'll be predicting the ten biggest movies of the season. Unlike in year's past, I'm not gonna predict opening weekend and domestic grosses. We still have so little data what theatrical moviegoing will look like, it doesn't seem to fair to try to attach specific figures to these titles. Predicting what films will end up being the biggest of the summer, though, that feels totally fair! 

So why don't we begin with the predictions by looking at my projections for the tenth-biggest movie of the season?

Easy A (2010)

10) Cruella

Here's a movie that probably would have done significantly better in pre-COVID-19 times. Live-action Disney remakes have been largely successful (save for the occasional Dumbo) and combining Oscar-winner Emma Stone with an iconic figure like Cruella DeVill probably would have been enough to print money. The fact that it was set to open over the Memorial Day holiday weekend where Aladdin worked like gangbusters in 2019 once looked like an extra dash of gravy on a juicy pile of mashed potatoes. 

However, the pandemic has changed everything and that includes Cruella's box office prospects. Now, the film looks a little riskier. Will audiences turn out for this when A Quiet Place: Part II is an option? Horror movies and family movies usually don't compete with one another but given that both Quiet and Cruella are PG-13, it looks like they may overlap more moviegoers than expected. The marketing for Cruella has also been more subdued compared to past live-action Disney remakes and it's even unclear how many movie theaters will even play the picture. It's easy to imagine Cruella doing strong numbers under many circumstances, but right now, this looks poised to be one of the lower-grossing Disney remakes. 

Remember when we were getting a Jungle Cruise movie starring Tom Hanks and Tim Allen?

9) Jungle Cruise

I'm not sure there's really much demand for Jungle Cruise, a movie that looks like a hodgepodge of Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and The Mummy with some African Queen tossed in. However, this is just the kind of movie audiences do like seeing Dwayne Johnson in, family-friendly titles heavy on laughs and explosions. Having Emily Blunt as his co-lead straight after her turns in A Quiet Place and previous Disney title Mary Poppins Returns also sweetens the pot. 

It also doesn't hurt that its late July release means it'll be the last family-friendly movie of the summer (except for the Paw Patrol movie) and that it'll be Disney's first movie since Onward in March 2020 to debut exclusively in theaters. I'm still not sure there's enough uniqueness in either the marketing for this movie or room in the summer 2021 family movie marketplace for Jungle Cruise to become the next Pirates of the Caribbean. Still, it does have some strong ingredients in place to suggest it can reach enough audiences to become a decent performer for the Mouse House.

8) In the Heights

If there's any movie that looks poised to be a big sleeper hit, it's In the Heights. A film adaptation of the beloved Broadway musical, In the Heights already looked to poised for box office glory last year thanks to the increased pop culture presence of its writer, Lin Manuel-Miranda. But now, in summer 2021, it feels like the quintessential movie people will wanna see on the big screen. A peppy tone? Check. Lots of spectacle? Also check. A hopeful aesthetic? Triple-check. The fact that early word-of-mouth from those who've seen In the Heights is that the movie delivers the good could give it killer advanced buzz too.

Even the mid-June 2021 date feels absolutely perfect for the title, since it'll give it two weeks of space between both A Quiet Place: Part II and F9. And, yes, having post-Hamilton Manuel-Miranda around as a prominent part of the marketing should only be extra helpful to this movie standing out in the marketplace. The stage is set for In the Heights to dance its way to a triumphant box office run. Basically, expect this one to sell far more than 96,000 tickets in its domestic run. 

7) Hotel Tranylsvania: Transformmania

The newest (apparently last?) Hotel Transylvania movie, Hotel Transylvania: Transformmania, is about to be a very big fish in a very small pond. With PIXAR and Illumination moving their Summer 2021 titles out of the season, that leaves this new Sony Pictures Animation title as, by default, the biggest fully-animated kids movie of the season. Given that the Hotel Transylvania movies have been remarkably consistent in their domestic box office performance up to this point, there was always little chance this one suddenly took the series to Ice Age: Collision Course levels of disastrous domestic box office.

Still, with no other fully animated titles to compete with, this new film can be assured to maintain the majority of its predecessor's domestic gross even with COVID-19 still impacting the theatrical landscape. The marketing on this one hasn't started yet, so it's hard to tell if it'll have as distinct of a hook as its predecessor's cruise line storyline.  At the moment, though, the Drac Pack look poised to be one of the biggest movies of the summer and fill an animated kids movies void in the Summer 2021 marketplace. 

6) A Quiet Place: Part II

Keep that noise down! A Quiet Place: Part II is almost here! The first Quiet Place was already a gigantic smash hit in its 2018 box office run. Just before the pandemic shut everything down, A Quiet Place: Part II looked poised to do the same thanks to impressive box office tracking figures. 14 months later, it looks like A Quiet Place: Part II is still set to be a hit, even if nobody's expecting it to live up to either the first movie or that initial box office tracking from March 2020.

Even prior to the health crisis, the ads for this sequel smartly made sure to emphasize fresh story details like the presence of Cillian Murphy's new character and flashbacks to when the monster-informed apocalypse first began. Those ingredients plus goodwill from the first movie made A Quiet Place: Part II pretty much a financial slamdunk from the get-go. Now, though, the film could be extra appealing to audiences not only as a long-awaited feature but also as something you have to see in the theater. The original Quiet Place was a lot of fun to see with a crowd on the big screen. A Quiet Place: Part II could get a lot of mileage out of those fond memories in its domestic box office run.

5) Space Jam: A New Legacy

Everybody get up now, it's time to predict how Space Jam: A New Legacy will do at the box office. Really, though, if there's any slam-dunk (no pun intended) at this summer's box office, it's Space Jam: A New Legacy. LeBron James is a beloved sports stars. Space Jam is a seminal movie for a certain generation. Plus, the trailers for the sequel haven't just promoted a new Space Jam movie, they've also taken a cue from Ready Player One in simultaneously promoting a whole slew of other familiar pieces of WB IP.

All these qualities, plus the fact that 2021 Warner Bros. movies are overperforming like crazy, all point to Space Jam: A New Legacy being a massive hit. Could it crack $200 million domestically? Under normal circumstances, I'd say heck yeah. The first one, adjusted for inflation, made $162 million domestically and that one didn't have 25 years' worth of hype behind it. Crossing that threshold is more of a question mark in a theatrical landscape rocked by COVID-19. If any movie could do it, though, it'd be a Space Jam sequel. Moviegoers are ready to slam and jam, it seems, and that desire will result in one of the biggest movies of the season.

4) Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

Up to this point, the biggest movies of all-time that have opened over the Labor Day weekend frame are Halloween and Final Destination movies. That all changes this year as a big-budget superhero movie calls the holiday weekend home for the first time. Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings will debut on September 3 and there's no question it'll help redefine what a successful Labor Day weekend release looks like. True, no Labor Day movie has ever crossed $100 million domestically before but none of those previous releases were massive Marvel Studios blockbusters.

The first trailer for Shang-Chi already generated lots of hype and it feels like a guarantee that, even by early September, the glow of returning to theaters will have enough pull to lend an extra layer of specialness to Shang-Chi. The lack of direct connections to Avengers sequels like Black Panther and Captain Marvel had will keep it hitting from the box office highs of those two inaugural solo Marvel Cinematic Universe films. Even a domestic total closer to Doctor Strange than Guardians of the Galaxy, though, would make Shang-Chi one of the biggest movies of summer 2021. Take THAT, Rob Zombie's Halloween! 

A shark! 

3) The Suicide Squad

Nobody liked the 2016 Suicide Squad but it still made over $320 million domestically. That made it a big hit but that negative reception meant an inevitable sequel would have to do more than just say "the Suicide Squad are back!" So far, the marketing for The Suicide Squad has dedicated itself to doing just that by emphasizing the presence of new director James Gunn, a radically different tone, and a slew of new characters, including King Shark. So far, responses to the trailer have been widely positive, the red-band trailer broke viewership records, and IMDB users have declared the feature their most anticipated movie for 2021.

There is the fact that, unlike its predecessor, The Suicide Squad is simultaneously debuting on HBO Max, but that doesn't seem to be impacting the box office of Godzilla vs. Kong and Mortal Kombat, why should it hinder a DC Comics juggernaut? Lingering COVID-19 concerns and negative associates with that first movie make it likely this one opens below the first Suicide Squad but don't be surprised if this legs it out to a slightly higher overall domestic gross. Those Nathan Fillion fans are gonna come out in droves, that's gonna make all the difference at the box office.

An image from a crossover between The Nanny Diaries and Midsommar

2) Black Widow

The Marvel Cinematic Universe returns to the big screen for the first time in two whole years in July, the longest gap of time between installments of this franchise since the MCU began. The film that kicks things back off is one audiences have been demanding for years, a Black Widow solo movie. Being the lone female Avenger for so long made Black Widow a highly-recognizable figure and that only got even more true in the wake of her memorable sacrifice in Avengers: Endgame. Now, this highly-publicized feature is offering moviegoers a chance to explore the origins of this character.

Prequels tend to make less than sequels that just continue a story on in a linear fashion, but the MCU's always breaking box office norms, so don't expect that to be too much of an issue here. More pressing, though, is whether or not releasing Black Widow on Disney+ as a PVOD title will hurt its domestic box office run. Those simultaneous HBO Max launches haven't hurt Warner Bros. titles in 2021, but again, we're in uncharted territory. Who knows how this will shake up. Still, never bet against Marvel, whose incredibly successful Disney+ programs like WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier have proven that audiences haven't forgotten the franchise in its big-screen absence. The consistent box office track record of MCU films plus the long-awaited nature of Black Widow means it'll probably beat out all other summer 2021 titles...except for one!

1) F9

The first big-budget blockbuster to exclusively hit domestic theaters in nearly a year and one of the rare Summer 2021 titles to not have a simultaneous streaming run? F9 is already much like Stacy's Mom in how it has got it going on. However, Universal isn't just resting on the laurels of a post-COVID-19 theatrical landscape to carry this newest Fast & Furious adventure. The presence of John Cena as the new villain is already a great new gimmick as are memorable set pieces involving magnets and rockets. There's also the fact that this is the movie where fan-favorite character Han (Sung Kang) returns from the dead and the final trailer indicates that Dominic Toretto's family is finally headed to space.

All of these qualities mean that F9 has a lot more going for it in its marketing than the previous series installment, The Fate of the Furious, ever had. Still, will that all be enough to get it the top spot at the summer 2021 box office domestically? I think it could, especially since, again it'll have more exclusivity playing in theaters, and its release date times it to the 4th of July holiday. All those extra days of being the only blockbuster in town when people are off work should give it an extra boost to its box office engine. Watch out for F9, this one could end up surpassing Furious 7 to become the highest-grossing entry in the franchise domestically. 

In Laman's Terms: Where does the domestic box office go after Godzilla vs. Kong?

 

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Much like the Backstreet Boys, the domestic box office, over the last weekend, came back.

Godzilla vs. Kong opened to an exceptional $48.5 million over its first five days of domestic release. It can't be stressed enough just how impressive that performance is. Over just five days, this blockbuster exceeded the lifetime domestic grosses of all but two movies that have opened since the pandemic started. It's guaranteed to cross $100 million domestically, the first time a domestic release will cross that mark since Sonic the Hedgehog in February 2020. It was surreal to see, an opening that could have come straight out of pre-pandemic times, and that was with Godzilla vs. Kong playing in over 1,000 fewer theaters than the average pre-pandemic blockbuster! 

So what happens now?

It's an understandable question. The domestic box office was never built on just one title, it's always needed multiple titles to thrive. So it is with the 2021 domestic box office. The good news is that more major titles are on the way to movie theaters. Mortal Kombat arrives in two weeks while a new Guy Ritchie film, starring post-The Meg/Hobbs & Shaw Jason Statham debuts two weeks after that. Memorial Day weekend currently appears to be the frame where things really heat up at the box office. Both Cruella and A Quiet Place: Part II are not just set to open there, they've both already kicked off their renewed marketing campaigns. Right after that, a barrage of new releases will hit theaters as studios finally get to release their summer 2020 wares.

It's an exciting prospect to see unfold as someone who would gladly admit they prefer the theatrical experience to all other forms of consuming films. Streaming isn't inherently "lesser than", viewers who can only consume media at home due to medical, personal, or any other kind of reason are just as valid as any other viewer and there are certainly problems with the theatrical experience related to access to the disabled community. But on a personal level, I just love the movie theater for all films. Getting a chance to be cut off from the world for two hours and let a massive canvas for storytelling wash over me, it's like nothing else on the planet. 

Well over a year of not being able to go to a theater regularly has only enhanced my intense desire to go back to a theater rather than diminish it. I've been able to catch up on a lot of great filmmaking thanks to streaming during the pandemic, don't get me wrong. But months of having to deal with clumsy Wi-Fi, buffering issues, the lack of pre-1990s cinema on the majority of streaming services, all of that has reminded me that a novel way to appreciate films at home is not a replacement for the idiosyncratic theatrical experience. Judging by those Godzilla vs. Kong numbers, it appears I'm not alone in that feeling. 

Of course, the domestic box office isn't out of the woods yet even with one successful opening, though, the good news is, it's definitely gotten over one major hurdle. After all, if Godzilla vs. Kong is a hit, imagine what the new Fast & Furious or Marvel movies will do in a couple month's time. However, there's totally the possibility of Godzilla vs. Kong being a fluke while there's also the issue of studios like Disney refusing to fully commit to the theatrical experience. It's bad enough Disney insisted on cruel terms to theaters for showing their movies before the pandemic but now they're just randomly dumping PIXAR movies like Luca onto Disney+? What a knife to the heart.

(For the record, I'm actually not opposed to Disney offering Cruella and Black Widow as PVOD titles on Disney+. We're still in a pandemic, not everyone around the world has access to vaccines or feels safe about to going a theater. Giving viewers the option to watch those films either at home or in a theater makes sense. But just shoving Luca to Disney+ only? That doesn't help anyone. Not theatrical exhibition employees who need new films, not customers who are deprived of options, and not the hundreds of artists who worked on Luca for 4-5 years and deserve to have their work seen on the big screen.)

While many movie studios are more concerned with filling out the pockets of their richest employees than helping the theatrical exhibition industry, the success of Godzilla vs. Kong, as well as several foreign-language titles like Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba the Movie: Mugen Train, shows that the theatrical experience is alive and well. It's a phenomenon that's existed for over a century and it's no surprise that, so far, it doesn't look like a pandemic has wiped out this form of communally watching art. I'm hopeful for the future as well as for the idea that Godzilla vs. Kong's box office is no fluke but rather a harbinger of even better days to come.

In Laman's Terms: Ten countries that have never been nominated for Best International Feature Film

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

"It's a little strange, but it's not a big deal...the Oscars are not an international film festival,  they're very local," - Bong Joon-ho circa. October 2019 on the Academy Awards and its longstanding reluctance to recognize foreign-language cinema

The Academy Awards have a lot of blindspots. Movies directed by filmmakers of color don't get anywhere near enough recognition. No documentary has ever been up for Best Picture. And then there's foreign-language cinema, which always struggles to get recognized at the Oscars outside of the Best International Feature Film (previously the Best Foreign Langauge Film) category. In recent years, the Oscars have improved in this department, with four foreign-language directors getting recognize at the last three Oscars ceremony. Oh, and a little movie called Parasite redefined the game by taking home the Best Picture trophy. 

But that doesn't mean the Oscars have totally gotten over all of their foreign-language cinema biases. On the contrary, there's still a lot of hurdles to go when it comes to the Oscars fully recognizing all corners of world cinema, even in the Best International Feature Film category itself. You'd think this would be the oasis for all foreign-langauge cinema but a number of countries have faced difficulty getting recognized in this category ever since it was officially established in 1956. For instance, it's likely not a shock to discover that all but one of the ten most nominated countries in this category are ones with predominately white populations (Japan being the only holdout).

That's just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the problems with the Academy Award's Best International Feature Film category, which has long ignored some of the most impactful film industries on the planet. In this piece, we'll look at ten countries that have never been nominated in the Best International Feature Film category. Through examining the unique film industries and submitted movies for each country, one can get a clearer picture of just what the Academy has snubbed for so long.

(One note before going forward: the process for determining The process for selecting nominees for Best International Feature Film begins with each country submitting one local movie to the Academy. From there, all those submissions are whittled down to a shortlist of 9-10 movies. Finally, five movies are chosen to be the nominees at that year's Academy Award ceremony.)

Vitalina Varela

Portgual

Portuguese has constantly submitted titles for Academy Award consideration dating back to 1980 when they submitted the film Morning Undersea. In fact, with 37 movies submitted for Oscar consideration over 40 years, Portugal holds the most distinction of being the country that's submitted the most movies to the Academy Awards without ever scoring an Oscar nomination. These submissions have included acclaimed titles Vitalina Varela and Alice. Portugal's exclusion is particularly interesting due to it being a European country and entries from that continent tend to dominate this category. Unfortunately, that tradition has not extended to works hailing from Portugal.

The Yacoubian Building

Egypt

Cinema hailing from the continent of Africa has often struggled to garner much Academy Award recognition. In the history of the Best International Feature Film category, only 10 features hailing from a country located in Africa have managed to score a nomination. One of the many byproducts of this exclusion is that Egypt has never managed to score a nomination in this category. Interestingly, this is in spite of the Egyptian Academy submitting to the Oscars titles that aren't afraid to chase bold material. Whereas countries like China have often submitted sanitized movies for Oscar consideration, Egypt's Academy has openly endorsed controversial films like The Yacoubian Building. Such movies have generated their fair share of worldwide acclaim, but sadly, such provocative titles have not garnered the affection of the Academy Awards.

Manila in the Claws of Light

Philippines 

The film industry of the Philippines has, like any country (including America) had its fair share of struggles over the years. Specific troubles faced here include the fact that this industry ceased to exist ner the 1941-1945 Japanese Occupation as well as a period for much of the 1990s where the emphasis was placed on commercial films rather than artsier fare. Despite it all, the Philippines film industry has produced countless masterpieces, including the 1975 classic Manila in the Claws of Light. Unfortunately, the Philippines have also never managed to score a Best International Feature Film nomination. Partially this is due to some of countries' most acclaimed films (like Manilla) not even being submitted for consideration in the category. However, much of this exclusion lies in the Academy's long-standing difficulty with recognizing cinema starring and from Asian artists.  

Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives: Thailand's 2010 submission for Best International Feature Film

Thailand

With the 2010 feature Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, Thai filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul crafted one of the most acclaimed movies of that year. The surrealist storytelling here was challenging as it was engaging. Unfortunately, the Oscars have largely failed to recognize avant-garde narrative filmmaking even when it comes from America, let alone when it's in a foreign language. No wonder, then, that Uncle Boonmee failed to not only score a Best International Feature nod, it didn't even make that year's shortlist of contenders. It's a disappointing event that reflects the larger struggles that both Thai cinema and filmmaking from many Asian countries have faced in garnering Academy Awards recognition. No wonder, then, that Weerasethakul decided to stop being an Academy Awards voter, though that was due to struggles with the system of being a voter rather than directly connected to the Academy's inability to recognize Thai cinema.

The Liberator: Venezuela's 2014 submission for Best International Feature Film

Venezuela

Venezuela has submitted movies on-and-off to the Academy Awards since 1978, but they've never scored a nomination, though the 2014 submission The Liberator did make the shortlist for Best International Feature Film that year. Part of the issue has been that Venezuela was erratic in submitting titles to the Oscars during the countries golden age of cinema in the 1980s. Meanwhile, the 1990s saw them regularly sending off titles for Oscar consideration despite this being an era widely seen as a weaker period for Venezuelan cinema. Still, that discrepancy doesn't explain away why the resurging 21st-century Venezluen filmmaking scene hasn't been recognized by the Academy Awards. Meanwhile, the country's long history of being the home for acclaimed motion pictures like Isla de sal makes it extra baffling that the Academy Awards have never found a way to recognize Venezuelan filmmakers even outside of the Best International Feature Film category. 

Indonesia

In a fascinating piece for Southeast Asia Globe, writer Mark Adnum does a deep-dive into the Indonesian film industry, which is in the middle of a resurgence. However, as Adnum notes, that industry struggled for much of the 20th-century, with the 1990s being a particularly grim period for locally-produced cinema. However, modern Indonesian cinema, as the author notes, is not short on gifted auteurs. That explains why, save for 2008 and 2015, Indonesia has submitted a feature film for consideration for the Academy Awards' Best International Feature annually since 2005. Unfortunately, the Oscars have failed to recognize this country's artistic contributions, which have included works like the critically-acclaimed 2018 movie Memories of my Body. Indonesia has stepped up its game considerably when it comes to filmmaking. Why isn't the Academy stepping up its own game by recognizing this country?

Omar Killed Me: Morocco's 2011 submission for Best International Feature

Morocco

While Morocco has frequently been used as a lavish backdrop for American and European cinema, it's had far less luck scoring any kind of major Academy Awards recognition for its own cinema. The countries homegrown cinema dates back to 1958 while the country itself has offered up 16 submissions to the Academy Awards for its Best International Feature category. The closest the country's come to making it to the Oscars stage was with the film Omar Killed Me, which was one of 9 films shortlisted for the Best International Feature category in 2012. Otherwise, Morocco cinema has been largely ignored by the Academy Awards. In addition to the ceremony's own troubles with recognizing African cinema, Morocco's submissions to the Oscars have also struggled due to difficulties to make much noise at the pre-Oscar film festivals. A festival like Cannes can be where foreign-language titles leave a mark that lasts until award season, but much like the Oscars, such festivals have largely ignored modern Morocco films like The Unknown Saint.  The exclusionary practices of the Oscars are not just limited to that awards show.

Jaque Mate: Dominican Epublic's 2012 submission for Best International Feature Film

Dominican Republic

Films hailing from the Dominican Republic have managed to make award season waves in some respects, such as the 2012 title Jaque Mate, which scored a handful of nominations at the Palm Springs International Film Festival and the Washington D.C. International Film Festival. Sadly, that same luck has not translated to the Academy Awards. Granted, the country has only made 10 submissions to the Academy Awards, with all but 3 of them being since 2010. Though this lower number of submissions makes their exclusion slightly less egregious, it's still disappointing that smaller film festivals have managed to recognize the Dominican Republic's contributions to cinema while the Academy Awards have constantly failed to do so.

Laal Kabootar: Pakistan's 2019 submission for Best International Feature Film

Pakistan

To look at the history of Pakistan's film industry is akin to going on a rollercoaster; it's full of ups and downs. While the country has produced its fair share of classics, for decades, the Pakistani film industry ground to a halt. Let Nadeem F. Paracha from Dawn say it better than I ever could: 

Contrary to popular belief, the collapse of the Pakistan film industry was not a gradual process. In fact the crumbling was a rather sudden happening. In July 1977 the populist regime of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto (Pakistan Peoples Party) was toppled in a military coup masterminded by General Ziaul Haq...Zia’s was a reactionary dictatorship...One cultural symptom of [the] social and cultural roll-back [in his dictatorship] was the abrupt collapse of the Pakistani film industry...Another prominent reason for the Pakistani film industry’s growing commercial and creative woes was the implementation of a new censor policy...By the early 2000s, an industry that once produced an average of 80 films annually was now struggling to even churn out more than two films a year...

With decades of turmoil for this industry, it's no wonder that Pakistan cinema never made it to the Academy Awards, especially since the country never even submitted features for Best International Feature consideration from 1963 to 2013. However, Pakistan has proceeded to submit a movie every year since 2013, including positively-reviewed features like Laal Kabootar. The rollercoaster ride that is the history of Pakistan's cinema has led to a modern-day film industry full of challenging and acclaimed features. It's time the Academy Awards recognized artistic works from a film industry that's managed to endure through incredible hardship.  

The Orator: New Zealand's 2011 submission for Best International Feature Film

New Zealand

New Zealand has left a pretty large imprint on the world of modern cinema. Not only is it the place where many blockbusters engage in principal photography, but iconic modern directors like Peter Jackson and Taika Waititi hail from this country. Yes, New Zealand has made an undeniably large impact on the medium of film...so how come the country's non-English language titles have been excluded from the Oscars? The Best International Feature Film category has never seen fit to nominate the six movies New Zealand has submitted for consideration in this category. Given the minimal amount of submissions and the fact that English-language titles from the country (like Whale Rider) have managed to garner Oscar nominations, New Zealands exclusion from this category isn't exceedingly egregious. Still, even New Zealand is clearly not impervious to the double-standards the Oscars have for English-language and foreign-language titles. 

In Laman's Terms: Academy Award Nomination Thoughts

 In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

As someone who usually complains endlessly about Academy Award nominations this year I...actually was generally pleased with the nods?

Oh sure, there were snubs a-plenty (Da 5 Bloods, gone, but not forgotten!) but I was surprised that the good outweighed the bad this year, with some actually pleasant surprises, like both of Judas and the Black Messiah's lead actors getting in for Best Supporting Actor. Considering the Academy has done a terrible job in the past of recognizing Asian actors through snubbing the casts of Slumdog Millionaire and Parasite, it was also nice to see two Minari cast members score acting nods.

Best of all, the Best Director category gave us our sixth and seventh women to ever be nominated in the Best Director category! Chloe Zhao and Emerald Fennell, take a well-deserved bow for your tremendous feats! Zhao's especially impressive because she's the first woman of color to be nominated in the category! Women of color filmmakers have been a staple of cinema nearly since its inception (hi Madame C.J. Walker), so it's appalling they haven't been recognized until this point. Still, here's to hoping Zhao has broken down the doors and we'll see far more recognition for women of color filmmakers in the future.

Another takeaway I had from these nominations was in the Best Picture category, specifically what studios were responsible for these titles. Due to movie theaters being closed for 2020 many, myself included, though the streaming services would trample traditional theatrical studios in the BP category. Variety even penned an article in November pondering if Netflix would secure the most BP nominations for a single studio in an Academy Awards ceremony! Both Netflix and Amazon had a massive presence at this year's Academy Awards, but neither dominated the BP field. Netflix got two nominations, same as last year, Amazon got their first in four years.

Meanwhile, five of this year's eight Best Picture nods came from traditional studios, including old stalwarts like Sony Pictures Classics and Searchlight Pictures. Even Warner Bros. scored a BP nod with Judas and the Black Messiah. This isn't meant to be a "streaming sux!" declaration, Netflix's presence in nearly every category this year shows an impressive level of versatility on their part. I just find it interesting that, even in a year where theaters were closed, traditional movie studios were still alive and kicking.

Meanwhile, my only severe grievance with this morning’s Oscar nods (beyond the appalling omission of Welcome to Chechnya in Best Visual Effects in favor of Mulan) is the disappointing reminder that the Academy is still really bad at recognizing Black filmmakers. Thank God Judas and the Black Messiah got into Best Picture, but it was the only Best Picture nominee this year directed by a Black filmmaker. Then there's the Best Director category, which has only ever seen six Black nominees, five of which came about since 2008. It would’ve been wonderful to see Judas director Shaka King or other notable qualifying directors like Regina King, Radha Blank, Garrett Bradley, Spike Lee, Channing Godfrey Peoples, Melissa Haizlip, George C. Wolfe, Ekwa Msangi and countless other artists make it into this category. 

The lack of recognition for Black artists extended into categories like Best International Film, where films Night of the Kings were snubbed. To be seriously fair, Black artists weren't entirely erased this year at the Academy Awards, as seen by several of the Best Original Song nominees and a number of acting nods. However,  the biggest categories like Best Picture and Best Director are clearly still struggling to recognize the massive amount of Black talent out there in the world. The presence of two women in the Best Director category in a single year is proof the Academy Awards can evolve and improve. It's high-time, though, such improvements were used to honor artistry from Black filmmakers.

Anyway, though, overall, not a bad crop of Academy Award nominees at all. I especially liked a lot of little pleasant surprises that cropped up in the nominees for the 93rd Academy Awards, like Aardman scoring a place in the Best Animated Feature category as well as Thomas Vinterburg snagging a Best Director nomination for Another Round, always cool to see foreign-language filmmakers in that category! It also looks like I have a couple of movies to catch up on, like The Father, Another Round, and...oh man, I have to catch up on Hillbilly Elegy now, don't I? 

In Laman's Terms: forget COVID-19 movies, musicals are the future of post-pandemic cinema

In Laman's Terms is a weekly editorial column where Douglas Laman rambles on about certain topics or ideas that have been on his mind lately. Sometimes he's got serious subjects to discuss, other times he's just got some silly stuff to shoot the breeze about. Either way, you know he's gonna talk about something In Laman's Terms!

Like Doctor Manhattan talking about the regular o'l mortal humans of Earth, I'm tired of all these COVID-19 movies.

We've already gotten Songbird and Locked Down but each day seems to bring news of a new feature film fixated around the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Judd Apatow is doing a movie about actors trying to social distance during the pandemic. There's a whole slew of movies about the whole GameStop "Stonks" thing that will inevitably focus heavily on COVID-19. On and on the list goes as Hollywood is convinced that this terrifying event that's cost hundreds of thousands of lives across the globe can be turned into entertainment. Tell me, when this is over, who is going to want to go to a movie theater and pay cash to see a movie about a cataclysm they just experienced? 

The future of movies isn't movies about the COVID-19 pandemic. But that doesn't mean this health crisis won't impact what kind of movies audiences will want to see. In fact, there's a genre of filmmaking that could be the perfect outlet for escapist entertainment in the wake of the pandemic.

The musical.

This is a genre of entertainment that's always proven to be useful in helping people to escape the worries of harsh reality. Just look at how much the genre flourished in the wake of the horrors of World War II. The grim noirs of the 1940s were surpassed by glitzy musicals where Judy Garland and Gene Kelly sang their way into people's hearts. While the genre went into dormancy by the time the late 1960s arrived, it managed to sporadically attract audiences with titles like Grease before staging a full-fledged comeback with Chicago in 2002. Since then, the musical has been back, but usually, as a Christmastime treat for maximum award season visibility. Aside from live-action remakes of animated Disney movies, it's rare to see musicals outside of December.

An annual treat could become something more dominant in a post-COVID-19 landscape, partially because of how studios seem to be committed to musicals. The massive box office success of original musicals La La Land and The Greatest Showman has gotten studios eager to replicate that success. In the Heights, Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Cyrano, Dear Evan Hansen, and West Side Story are all set for 2021 releases. Beyond those titles, Little Shop of Horrors, Sunset Boulevard, Spamalot, and Wicked are all in development. Some of these are being adapted because Hollywood loves familiar names and those are all apparent in the cases of Wicked and West Side Story.

Inadvertently, though, these musicals could be perfect for a post-pandemic climate. For starters, musicals are movies that, when done right, can make lift your body up with energy and joy. How can you not wanna tap your toes to Life's a Happy Song? How can the lyrics in any song written by Howard Ashman not make you smile? Musicals can convey as many tones as there are stars in the skies but Hollywood loves upbeat musicals. Those are the kind of movies that could be the perfect antidote to the pandemic blues. I know I've turned to revisiting the musical numbers from Velvet Goldmine and Hedwig and the Angry Inch plenty of times during quarantine. The chance of seeing new vibrant set pieces on the big screen that could make my soal sing would be enough to get me to buy a ticket.

Even better, though, is how the musical is a genre that can't be done alone. I mean, just the genre of the round song requires multiple people to be properly executed! Plus, so many musicals are about people uniting and working together. Doesn't a movie about people being friends and working together while singing jaunty tunes sound just divine right now after being cooped up in our homes for a year? The same can be said for the dazzling choreography in the best musicals. Which would you rather watch, people making the same "toilet paper is gone lol!" jokes in a pandemic-themed comedy or the next The Boys Are Back?

And then there's the simple point that the best musical movies are a joy to watch with a packed house. It's not the same glorious experience as watching these things as live theater, but God, watching people get enamored with musicals is a magical experience. People applauding after individual musical numbers. Moviegoers humming their favorite tunes as they leave the theater. Best of all though is that unspoken sensation as the movies going on. Everyone's united in being totally enraptured in watching what's going on on-screen. Just as the characters in a musical are united in a common goal, so too are the audience members united in a love for what they're seeing.

That level of wall-to-wall unity will be at the forefront of the minds of movie studio executives as they try to get theatrical moviegoing to return to some level of normalcy in the coming months. Clearly, one way they're trying to accomplish this is by greenlighting a whole lot of movies that explicitly involve the pandemic. I have no problem with thoughtful auteurs like Ava DuVernay or Richard Linklater making character pieces that evoke this health crisis. But Locked Down alone makes the idea of further genre entertainment lamely covering the COVID-19 pandemic sound like a disaster.

How about instead giving me and moviegoers' everywhere vibrant musicals that remind us of the joys of unity, belting out our deepest desires and plain o'l fun? That sounds like the perfect antidote to the last nightmarish year of dealing with this health crisis. The musicals have managed to be a respite from reality in the past, it's time for the genre to do that once again!