Pottersville Is Strange Yuletide Fare That Embraces Sentimentality Over Laughs

We typically cast Michael Shannon in dark, foreboding roles that take advantage of the man's ability to play intense characters so well. But Shannon can play different kinds of characters equally well too, just look at last years Midnight Special which has him deliver some of his best work as a man just looking to get his super-powered son to safety. For Pottersville, Shannon steps into the realm of comedy, an area he's not entirely inexperienced in (he was in the David Wain spoof comedy They Came Together as well as having a key supporting role in The Night Before) and one he could flourish in given the right project. Pottersville...is not that project.

Paterson Is A Splendidly Gentle Tribute To Everyday People

"Everybody's got a story" sounds like the kind of corny thing you might find inscribed on a wooden book trinket in a Cracker Barrell, but honestly, it is the truth isn't it? Everybody's living their own individual lives, going about their business as they try to do the best they can. Sometimes their stories have triumphs, sometimes they have grand defeats while most days they just have days filled with normalcy as one page of their flips to the next. And when we all manage to interact, sometimes in small ways, sometimes in more overt ways, our individual stories manage to briefly intersect and impact each other.

Jeff Nichols Small-Scale Sensibility Works Like A Charm For Loving

Loving is a departure from some of director Jeff Nichols past few movies in quite a few ways, most notably in that this one takes more cues from his 2013 film Mud rather than his other 2016 film, the incredibly underrated Midnight Special, in terms of its story scope being very much grounded in reality. That more down-to-Earth approach ties into another crucial element that differentiates Loving from past Nichols movies, this one's actually based on a true story. The tale of Richard Perry Loving (here played by Joel Edgerton) and Mildred Jeter Loving (Ruth Negga) attempting to live a life together as a couple amidst prejudice against interracial real life is an event that really transpired, which offers new storytelling challenges that Nichols handles with the level of craft we've all come to expect from him.

Take Shelter Review (Classic Write-Up)

Why hasn't Take Shelter gotten more recognition in the half-a-decade since its release? This 2011 Jeff Nichols movie got super positive reviews upon its initial release, so it's hard to call it "underrated" per se, but it does feel like the film doesn't come up enough in cinema-related conversations, especially when it comes to movies depicting mental illnesses. Then again, maybe I shouldn't be shocked Take Shelter is an underrated motion picture considering it stars two of the most talented yet undervalued actors in Hollywood and is written and directed by a man by the name of Jeff Nichols.

Batman And Superman Are No Match For The Boss While Hardcore Henry Gets Slaughtered

Twas not Doomsday nor Lex Luthor nor Darkseid that took down Batman v. Superman at the box office. No, Melissa McCarthy was the one to end the box office reign of those two superheroes, with her newest movie taking the number one spot at the box office with $24.5 million. That's a 15% increase from the opening weekend of Tammy, though that one burned off demand by opening on a Wednesday. It is noticeably lower than the bows of Spy, Identity Thief and The Heat, though the smaller $29 million budget of The Boss means Universal probably aren't sweating bullets over this box office performance.

Zootopia Is Number One Movie At The Box Office Three Weeks In A Row While Allegiant Falls And Midnight Special Hopping

A little movie called Zootopia continued to easily rule the box office with a hearty $38.9 million in its third weekend of release, a 24% decline from last weekend. That's a pretty spectacular number for a movie's third weekend, placing it as the seventh biggest third weekend of all-time, putting it ahead of the third-weekend haul of box office juggernauts like The Dark Knight Rises, Iron Man 3 and Avengers: Age of Ultron. Zootopia has now grossed $202.7 million domestically, and with no new family movies entering the marketplace for another 4 weeks, it ain't slowing down anytime soon.