Reverse Angle: Even the losers get lucky sometimes.
Even the losers (get lucky sometimes)
With most kids back in school, the summer moviegoing season is essentially over. So let’s play our seasonal game of Critical Hi-Low.
When does nine equal four? When the Kevin Spacey-in-a-cat’sbody comedy “Nine Lives” scratches out a mere 4 percent positive rating on Rotten Tomatoes. “The Darkness” (not to be confused with the “fresh” “Lights Out,” which had 77 percent) also earned a 4, but had fewer two-time Oscar winners headlining its cast.
Among limited releases, conservative documentarian Dinesh D’Souza’s latest, “Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party,” matched those studio efforts with an un-fantastic 4. Despite consistently savage reviews — “2016: Obama’s America” earned a 25 and “America: Imagine the World Without Her” an 8 — D’Souza’s films do find their audience. Their viewer ratings are consistently in the 70s and 80s (84 for “Hillary,” or 80 higher than the critics’ number) and their grosses very high for documentaries.
To see the trailer for “Nine Lives”: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_jHA97HzhxE
To see the trailer for “Hillary’s America”: https://youtu.be/ Bxn5I6tnU_Y
We are the champions (Queen did not approve this headline)
Three summer films hold 99 percent ratings — all indies: “Don’t Think Twice,” “Hunt for the Wilderpeople” and “Love and Friendship.” They have collectively grossed about $19 million domestically.
Among major releases, the three highest-rated are “Finding Dory” (94 percent), “The Nice Guys” (91) and “Captain America: Civil War” (90).
“Weiner,” chronicling the rise and fall of Democratic Rep. Anthony Weiner, is the highest rated documentary
of the summer, at 96 percent. Its entire run was outgrossed 20 times over by “Sausage Party’s” opening weekend.
Perhaps D’Souza fans will relish that.
To see their trailers: “Don’t Think Twice” is at https:// youtu.be/9RFTpObS95U
“Hunt for the Wilderpeople” is at https://youtu.be/XGj3AogT9EM
“Love and Friendship” is at https://youtu.be/KhvyupqNhL8
“Weiner” is at https://youtu.be/ LCoI3DdstZw
Trivia question
Which of these summer releases currently holds the highest rating (80 percent) on Rotten Tomatoes: Woody Allen’s “Café Society,” “Captain Fantastic,” “The Conjuring 2,” “Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping” or “The Secret Life of Pets”?
I’m with her
The filmmaking community organization Slated recently released an infographic examining statistical differences between male and female filmmakers in nearly 1,600 films screened in the U.S. from 2010 to 2015. Some of its reasoning is dubious — essentially favorably comparing Lupita Nyong’o to George Clooney as box office forces in its graphical representation. But it makes an interesting point about exposure: Even among films budgeted under $25 million, those directed by women appeared, on average, on one-third as many screens as those made by men.
Limiting the analysis to that budget line eliminates the tent-pole effect (comic-book movies, for instance, have so far all been directed by men … Patty Jenkins’ “Wonder Woman” is due next year) to focus on a range in which the footing might be more even. Yet, maledirected films still averaged 646 screens versus 242 for female-directed.
This outlines an important piece of the equality puzzle: exposure. If audiences don’t have anywhere near an equal opportunity to see such films, how can they become a habit? With fewer opportunities, how can female filmmakers prove themselves to decision makers at studios? There’s only one Kathryn Bigelow, so far.
With so few at-bats, every failure to get a hit disproportionately affects their batting average. Think of the postmortems for Melissa McCarthy’s career after one non-blockbuster, “Tammy.” And “Tammy” grossed five times its budget ($100.5 million versus $20 million). Matt Damon, for instance, has had 10 films fail to hit $100 million worldwide and had eight straight fail to cross the $100 million threshold domestically, and he didn’t get catty remarks about his career being over.
Looks like there’s a lot more riding on “Wonder Woman” than there should be. And considering DC’s track record so far — and whispers of a troubled production on “WW” — that’s quite a row to hoe.
Marvel Studios is reportedly looking at female directors for “Captain Marvel,” which already has Oscar winner Brie Larson in the lead. Sadly, that film isn’t due until 2019.
The Slated infographic is at http://bit.ly/2byNXVN.
Trivia answer
“The Conjuring 2.”