#ivan goldfinch

[saleszulu76]

Vanya Shchiholov in ‘Quid Masculinum’ by Dylan Perlot for The Flow House, July 2018

[barnbridges]

to be very frank with everyone, donna tartt's novels read like a very good mix of russian and us-south literary tropes. tolstoy meets faulkner is the best i personally can come up with. which, if you like particularly one or the other, is great, but they can sometimes work against her.

[guys-moments]

IVAN GOLDFINCH

[glittertimes]

Goldfinch (2019) / Take Me With You (Andrea Gibson) / Tomboy Survival Guide (Ivan Coyote)

[di4bl4-c0mpl3x]

BOOKS I WANT TO READ

-The new me (Halle butler)

-The silent patient (Alex michelides)

-The language of fanaticism (Amanda montel)

-A room of one’s own (Virginia wolfe)

-Norwegian wood (murakami)

-The picture of Dorian gray

- All the bad apples (folwley-Doyle)

-They never learn (layne fargo)

-The poppy war (R F Kuang)

-Baise-Moi (Virginie Despentes)

- Some kind of happiness (Claire L)

-Her body and other parties (Carmen Machado)

-Luster (Raven Lailani)

-Happy Hour (Marlowe Granados)

-Ghosts (Dolly Alderton)

-Dead poets society

-Alone with you in the ether (Olivia blake)

-Queens gambit

-Last words from montmarte (Qiu Miaojin)

-The perks of being a wallflower

-Turtles all the way down (John green)

-The yellow wallpaper (charlotte Gilman)

-Nausea (Jean Paul Sartre)

-Of dogs and walls (Yukio Tsushima)

-Hamlet

- Brain on fire by Susanna Callahan

-The Art of starving by Sam J Miller

-So sad today by Melissa Broder

- Looking for Alaska by John Green

-Are you listening by Tilly warden

-Bluet by Maggie Nelson

- The woman destroyed by Simone Beauvoir

- The white book by Han Kang

-Vegetarian by Han Kang

-It ends with us by Colleen Hoover

- We were liars by E Lockhart

- Beyond good and evil by Nietzsche

-The death of Ivan Ilyich

- Love me at my worst by Michaela angemeer

- The perfect gas by Emma Rous

- Girls of a certain age by aria alderman

- Severance by Ling Ma

- The art of war

- The story of philosophy by will Durant

- The war of world HG Wells

- We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

- Why am i so clever fredich Nietzsche

- A clockwork orange

-In praise of shadows by Jun’Ichiro Tanizaki

- The cruel prince

- Seduction by Robert Greene

- Hereditary by Ari Aster

-The witch by Robert eggers

- Normal people by sally roone

- I am watching you by Teresa Driscoll

- Her by Brittany king

- Before she lied by Adrienne Leigh

-If we were Villains (M L Rio)

BOOKS I HAVE

-On earth we’re briefly gorgeous (ocean vuong)

-Just kids (patti smith)

-The little friend (Donna tartt)

-Death in her hands (otessa moshfeg)

- Speak (Laurie Anderson)

-The secret history (Donna tartt)

- The goldfinch (Donna tartt)

-Eileen (moshfeg)

- A little life

- Girl interrupted

-Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

-The trouble with being born

- Eileen by moshfeg

-The 48 laws of power

- Gone girl by Gillian Flynn

-Death in her hands by moshfeg

[wingsofhcpe]

Shadow & Bone Daemon AU ;; Heartrender Husbands

Ivan // polar bear . Fedyor // goldfinch .

-

(We've been talking about a Daemon AU in the discord server ever since yesterday and now I'm thinking about it too hard. @buffaluff also made some adorable art based on that AU, check them out!)

[saleszulu76]

Vanya Shchiholov (Ваня Щиголёв) by Billy Coleman, st. Danny Santiago, mua Crystal Gossman, for The Fashionisto, March 2017

[buffaluff]

sooooo good morning quick daemon AU sketch whoops. spawned from a brilliant group chat discussion, bless you all. we had settled (haha get it) on Ivan having a bear daemon named Værge (meaning “guardian” in Danish) and Fedyor having a goldfinch daemon named Solya ☀️ (all of that genius goes to everyone else, i just offer the pencil & paper)

And to explain the swap here:

[moranjpg]

complimentary to my 2021 reading list, here‘s what i‘ve been reading in 2020 (minus american gods, because i gave it away already)

my faves this year were tiger in the smoke, stone butch blues, thirteen storeys and the wicked cometh! Close up and honorary mention to the great gatsby and nach uns die pinguine for the extra gay representation :)

[ID: ten books, most of them in German, piled up on a white wooden bed table. The english/original titles from top to bottom are: The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy, Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg, Töchter by Lucy Fricke, Charley‘s Web by Joy Fielding, The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, Nach uns die Pinguine by Hannes Stein, Thirteen Storeys by Jonathan Sims and The Wicked Cometh by Laura Carlin. End ID]

[shesarainbow]

Favourite Books of 2020

War Cry by Wilbur Smith

The Archer by Paulo Coelho 

A Story of Love and Darkness by Amos Oz

Jewish Stories and Tales by Elena Kostioukovitch

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

The Diary of Ma Yan by Pierre Haski 

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway

Love Story by Erich Segal

The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevskij 

Morgane by Michel Rio

Red Square by Martin Cruz Smith

Elephant Song by Wilbur Smith

A Farewell to France by Noël Barber

A Sportsman’s Sketches by Ivan Turgenev

Farewell to Autumn by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz

Katherine by Anya Seton 

Tennison by Lynda La Plante

The Vampyre by John Polidori

Semper Augustus by Olivier Bleys

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

The Dwelling Places of a Happy Homecoming by Leena Lander

Shangai Surprise by Tony Kenrick

The Belkin Tales by Alexander Pushkin

Heart of a Dog by Mikhail Bulgakov

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens

[gertsog]

TSAPTSARAP** for Playboy Ukraine 

 by bestix Danniel Rubinshtein 

 with  bestix Valeriia Karaman Ivan Goldfinch @wasssabidi Elizabeth Treigerman 

KYIV 2021

[videoclubs]

tagged by @underbetelgeuse thank you so much 🥺

RULES: answer the following questions! You can only use each movie once:

Favourite movie: its the hardest! probably stand by me

Movie that makes you remember your childhood: suprisingly a knight's tale bc i used to love it so much when i was little

Favorite Tom Hanks movie: toy story

Movie that makes you cry: the last one was portrait of a lady on fire

Favourite 80’s movie: ferris bueller's day off

Favourite comedy: mean girls

Favourite sports movie: i, tonya

Favourite courtroom movie: in the name of the father

Favourite war movie: im not a big fan of war movies but maybe ivan's childhood

Favourite animated movie: howl's moving castle

Favourite horror movie: i have watched like 3 or 4 horrors and two of them were it and it chapter 2 so i dont have any lol

Most overrated movie: la la land shshsj don’t kill me

Favourite gangster movie: i dont think ive watched any

Movie you can watch over and over: lady bird or and then we danced

Movie with the best soundtrack: phantom thread/les misérables

Most embarrassing movie you love: the goldfinch hjsfksdhfksd

Favourite Christmas movie: home alone

Favourite sequel: back to the future 2

tagging @lillehammer1994 and @enter-srodulv but only if you want to! 🌻

[omgreading]

JOMP Book Photo Challenge: September 1st, TBR This Month

The remaining five books in the Harry Potter series Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling, Jack Thorne, and John Tiffany The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt, September’s read for Overbooked book club Hollow City by Ransom Riggs Library of Souls by Ransom Riggs Great Expectations by Charles Dickens The Road by Cormac McCarthy One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn The Prince and the Pauper by Mark Twain

[jondalars]

movies, tv shows, and books of 2019

((as before, * is a rewatch/reread; currently watching; can’t get through))

The Man in High Castle (s1)

Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Derry Girls (s1, s2)

A Series of Unfortunate Events (s3)

Zone One by Colson Whitehead

The Good Place (s3, s4)

A Simple Favor (2018)

You (s1 & *, s2)

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins

Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik

No County for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy

The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) *

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story (s2)

Nox by Anne Carson

FYRE: The Greatest Party That Never Happened (2019)

Picnic at Hanging Rock (s1)

Law & Order: SVU (s1, s6, s7, s19)

The Word by Irving Wallace

Abducted in Plain Sight (2017)

The Magicians (s4)

Roswell, New Mexico (s1)

Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart

Sharks in the Rivers by Ada Limon

Antigone by Sophokles trans. Anne Carson

Dangerous Beauty (1998)

Swiss Army Man (2016) *

Bright Dead Things by Ada Limon

Then We Came to the End by Joshua Ferris

Velvet Buzzsaw (2019)

The Lobster (2015) *

Damsel (2018)

Eros: The Bittersweet by Anne Carson

Surrogates (2009)

The Umbrella Academy (s1 & *)

Maine (2018)

The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden

Misfits (s1*, s2*)

The Favourite (2018)

Mary Queen of Scots (2018)

We the Living by Ayn Rand

The Inbetweeners (s1*, s2*, s3*)

Persuasion (2007)

Persuasion (1995)

Plainwater: Essays and Poetry by Anne Carson

My Best Friend’s Wedding (1997) *

Troubling a Star by Madeleine L’Engle

Queer Eye (s3, s4)

Inherent Vice (2014)

Schitt’s Creek (s1, s2, s3, s4, s5)

Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back) (2018)

Short Term 12 (2013) *

Saint Joan of Arc by Vita Sackville-West

Manchester by the Sea (2016) *

Isn’t It Romantic (2019)

Vampire Academy by Richelle Mead *

Love & Friendship (2016) *

Mother! (2017)

Colette (2018)

Anthem by Ayn Rand

The OA (s1*, s2)

Frostbite by Richelle Mead *

Game of Thones (s8)

The Case Against Adnan Syed (s1)

The Odyssey by Homer trans. Emily Wilson

Sula / Song of Solomon / Tar Baby by Toni Morrison

The Kings of Summer (2013)

Cherrybomb (2009)

Zimna wojna (2018)

Shadow Kiss by Richelle Mead *

Roswell (s1*, s2*)

Homecoming (2019)

Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour (2018)

Gerald’s Game (2017)

Blood Promise by Richelle Mead *

Wine Country 2019

Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (2019)

mid90s (2018)

The Yellow Handkerchief (2008)

Beautiful Boy (2018)

Zombieland (2009) *

What If (2013) *

Death at a Funeral (2007)

The Society (s1)

The End of the F***ing World (s1*, s2)

Pride and Prejudice (1980)

The Crystal Castle by Mary Stewart

Fleabag (s1 & *, s2 & **)

Train to Busan (2016) *

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood *

John Wick (2014)

John Wick Chapter 2 (2017)

Spirit Bound by Richelle Mead *

Chernobyl (s1)

What We Do in the Shadows (s1)

Game Over, Man (2018)

Young Adult (2011) *

Welcome to the Rileys (2010) *

Nausea by Jean-Paul Sartre

Dead to Me (s1)

Always be my Maybe (2019)

When They See Us (s1)

The Perfection (2018)

Good Omens (s1)

Chasing Happiness (2019)

Black Mirror (s5)

What a Girl Wants (2003) *

Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016)

Ali Wong: Hard Knock Wife (2018)

I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson (s1 & *)

The Americans (s1, s2, s3, s4, s5, s6)

Murder Mystery (2019)

Somewhere in Time (1980)

Killing Eve (s2)

The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood *

Semiosis by Sue Burke

District 9 (2009) *

Oprah Winfrey Presents: When They See Us Now (2019)

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History by Elizabeth Kolbert

The Box (2009)

Russian Doll (s1)

The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand

Knowing (2009)

The Hate U Give (2018)

The Case of the General’s Thumb by Andrey Kurkov

The Power by Naomi Alderman

Minority Report (2002) *

Bad Times at the El Royale (2018)

Airplane! (1980) *

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018)

Swiped (2018)

Scare Tactics (s4)

The Week Of (2018)

The New Romantic (2018)

The Immortalists by Chloe Benjamin

The Kissing Booth (2018)

The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson

Dark (s1*, s2)

Love, Rosie (2014) *

Suite Francaise (2014) *

P.S. I Love You (2007)

The Jane Austen Book Club (2007)

5 to 7 (2014)

Man Up (2015) *

The Clapper (2017)

Laggies (2014)

Penelope (2006) *

Little Italy (2018)

The Brothers Bloom (2008) *

Secret Obsession (2019)

What Happened to Monday (2017)

Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone

Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson

Battlestar Galactica (s1*, s2*, s3*)

A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess *

Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger *

What the Living Do by Marie Howe *

The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Milan Kundera *

Vile Bodies by Evelyn Waugh

Players by Don DeLillo

The Spy Who Dumped Me (2018)

Crashing (s1 & *)

Booksmart (2019)

Us (2019)

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum  (2019)

High Life (2019)

Stalker (1979)

The Raven Boys by Maggie Stiefvater *

Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison

Skins (s1*, s2*, s3*, s4*, s5*, s6, s7*)

Mr. Penumbra’s 24-Hour Bookstore by Robin Sloan

Plus One (2019)

Compliance (2012)

Love Alarm (s1)

Suicide Room (2011)

The Dream Thieves by Maggie Stiefvater *

A  Failed Performance: Short Plays & Scenes by Daniil Kharms trans. C Dylan Bassett and Emma Winsor Wood

The Boys (s1 & *)

Cassandra: A Novel and Four Essays by Christa Wolf

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018)

Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy

Well-Intended Love (s1)

Blue Lily, Lily Blue by Maggie Stiefvater *

1983 (s1)

Abyss (s1)

Twilight by Stephenie Meyer *

The Goldfinch (2019)

We Have Always Lived in the Castle (2019)

The I-Land (s1)

The Good Earth by Pearl S Buck

Hemlock Grove (s1*, s2*, s3)

Midsommar (2019)

Warm Bodies (2013) *

Submarine (2010) *

The Raven King by Maggie Stiefvater *

Tess of the d’Urbervilles by Thomas Hardy *

Black Light by Kimberly King Parsons

When Death Takes Something from You Give It Back: Carl's Book by Naja Marie Aidt

The Memory Police by Yoko Ogawa

We Cast a Shadow by Maurice Carlos Ruffin

After (2019)

Unbelievable (s1)

Sanditon (s1)

American Spy by Lauren Wilkinson

Some Freaks (2016)

The Last Czars (s1)

I Am Not an Easy Man (2018)

The Politician (s1)

Austenland (2013) *

Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen *

Tall Girl (2019)

Superbad (2007) *

When We First Met (2018) *

Newness (2017)

Persuasion by Jane Austen *

Jenny Slate: Stage Fright (2019)

Charmed (s1*, s2*)

New Moon by Stephenie Meyer *

Will and Testament by Vigdis Hjorth

Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez *

The King (2019)

The Crow (1994)

American History X (1998)

Brothers (2009) *

Let It Snow (2019)

Fire in Paradise (2019)

The Knight Before Christmas (2019)

The Great British Baking Show (s7)

Golden State by Ben H. Winters

A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen

Jiro Dreams of Sushi (2011)

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte *

Dangerous Liaisons (1988)

His Dark Materials (s1)

Les affames (2017)

The Cell (2000)

Voices from Chernobyl: The Oral History of a Nuclear Disaster by Svetlana Alexievich

Boy Erased (2018)

Die Velle (2008)

Harold and Maude (1971) *

Late Night (2019)

The Report (2019)

Annihilation (2018) *

A Bigger Splash (2015)

Like Crazy (2011) *

A Dangerous Method (2011)

Severance by Ling Ma

Parasite (2019)

Illness as Metaphor by Susan Sontag

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

American Psycho (2000) *

Marriage Story (2019)

The Moviegoer by Walker Percy

Bojack Horseman (s6)

Knives Out (2019)

Miss Stevens (2016) *

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books by Azar Nafisi

Ночной Дозор (2004)

My Suicide (2009)

The Witcher (s1)

Life with Jeeves by P.G. Wodehouse

Strip Search (2004)

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

Look Away (2019)

Sucker Punch (2011)

Galaxy Quest (1999) *

Mystery Men (1999) *

Russian Ark (2002)

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn *

The Dirt (2019)

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

Almost Famous (2000) *

Rocket Science (2007)

[saleszulu76]

Vanya Shchiholov (Ваня Щиголёв) by Molly Cranna, Jan. 2017

[weekendwarriorblog]

The Weekend Warrior 11/19/21 - GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE, KING RICHARD, TICK, TICK...BOOM!, C’MON C’MON, THE POWER OF THE DOG, THE LAST WAVE, AND MORE

We’re just one week away from Thanksgiving and the box office has slowly been recuperating, although we’re only one new COVID spike away from it all come crashing down again, even with kids starting to get vaccinated. With that in mind, we have two movies that should be very popular with audiences that decide to get off their butts and go into movie theaters, as well as more movies vying for awards.

Before we get to this week’s column, I just want to mention that the excellent indie drama, Freeland (Dark Star Pictures), starring Krisha Fairchild, will hit VOD this Friday. It’s one of my favorite movies of the year, and you can read my Below the Line interview with directors Mario Furlani and Kate McLean here.

The biggest release of this coming weekend has to be Jason Reitman’s GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE (Sony Pictures), the sequel and reboot to his father Ivan Reitman’s 1984 comedy classic and its own 1989 sequel. This one introduces a group of new, younger Ghosbusters, but not in a bad way, as these things often tend to just annoy the older fans while trying to attract younger and newer ones.

Many will remember (how can anyone forget?) that in 2016, Sony and director Paul Feig tried to reinvent Ghostbusters with a remake that gender-swapped the characters to star his Bridesmaids stars Melissa McCarthy and Kristen Wiig, as well as Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones -- the latter three all Saturday Night Live vets. People are still arguing about whether the movie was good or bad or a success or not, but it did open with $46 million and grossed $128.3 million domestically, which really isn’t that terrible.(Though I guess that depends really on how much it cost.)

Before we get to the cast Reitman put together, let’s look at his own filmography with his biggest hits being 2007’s Juno ($143.5 million domestic gross) and 2009’s Up in the Air ($83.8 million), both of which were also Reitman’s most nominated movies in terms of awards. (Juno writer Diablo Cody won the Oscar for her script.) Otherwise, Reitman has had difficulties surpassing the $16 million mark with his movies with 2014’s Men, Women and Children, starring Adam Sandler, being one of his most notable bombs. It also ended his run with Paramount Pictures, as his next movie, Tully, was released by Focus Features, and then The Front Runner (a movie that should have done much better) being released by Sony’s Tristar Pictures.

Reitman still has a credible enough rep that he could put together a decent ensemble cast led by Paul Rudd, who has mainly been flourishing from his appearances in various Marvel movies, including the box office blockbuster, Avengers: Endgame, and its predecessor, Avengers: Infinite War, although Rudd’s Ant-Man and its sequel, Ant-Man and the Wasp, are still two of Marvel’s lower-grossers. (Even so, production has already started on a threequel that will delve further into the Marvel Multiverse and something called “Quantumania.”) In fact, Rudd’s co-star, and the other main adult character, Carrie Coon, has also been part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, playing one of the supporting villains in Infinite War. Coon has also received rave notices from appearances in David Fincher’s Gone Girl, Steven Spielberg’s The Post, and last year’s thriller, The Nest. In other words, she’s a well-respected actress who is great in everything.

When we get to the younger cast, we have Finn Wolfhard, best known for his role on the long-running and popular Netflix series, Stranger Things, but who also jumped to movies with the successful It and its sequel. He’s also appeared in bombs like The Goldfinch and The Turning, and I’m just too old and out of touch to know whether he’s considered a box office draw ala Timothée Chalamet. His sister is played by Mckenna Grace, a young superstar we first met in the Marc Webb movie, Gifted, but she’s also earned a rep playing a younger version of the lead character in Captain Marvel, Malignant, and even the animated Scoob! Still, she’s had quite a few leading roles for someone her age, plus she appeared in the Lifetime movie, The Bad Seed, for which she co-wrote and is producing the sequel. She’s only 15 years old.

It’s a good cast that also includes relative newcomers like Celeste O’Connor and Logan Kim, and maybe, possibly, a few of the cast members from the original Ghostbusters movies? (I’ll never tell, although I think Annie Potts has been in the trailer already.)

So, like so many other franchises/reboots/sequels or whatever you want to call them, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be relying very much on nostalgia and the fanbase of the original movies to want to go out and see this movie in order to see how it connects (and it DOES connect, much more than that 2016 movie). That fan interest is what’s going to drive business on Thursday and Friday and how fans react to Reitman’s movie will govern how the movie fares after opening weekend, especially on the important Thanksgiving weekend where it faces Disney’s latest animated movie (and the first released theatrically in some time). Interestingly, Sony decided to premiere Ghostbusters: Afterlife at a panel at New York Comic-Con, surprisingly the thousand plus attendants.

Maybe it’s silly to think that Ghostbusters: Afterlife might open with the same amount as the 2016 movie, especially considering COVID and any skepticism the fans might have with this new direction, but you know what? I’m going to say that it opens around the same amount, somewhere in the low to mid $40 million this weekend. It should also have fairly decent word-of-mouth so expect it to have a nice Thanksgiving bump next week, and it should stick around at least until the Dec. 17 release of Spider-Man: No Way Home.

I reviewed the movie over at Below the Line, and I also interviewed director Jason Reitman.

The other slightly smaller but still quite significant release is KING RICHARD (Warner Bros.), starring Will Smith as Richard Williams, the father of tennis superstars, Venus and Serena Williams, and this is a full-on Oscar-seeking biopic that could not only get Smith his third Oscar nomination as an actor but also his first nomination as a producer since King Richard is definitely Best Picture material.

There isn’t a ton to say about the movie other than it’s Smith’s first feature since 2020’s Bad Boys for Life with Martin Lawrence, which ended up becoming the biggest movie of last year when COVID hit in mid-March and movie theaters in NYC and L.A. were shuttered, not to reopen until March of this year. That opened with $62 million, a nice bump over its 2003 predecessor, which opened with $46.5 million, and it went onto gross $206 million, domestically. Presumably, it could have done better if not for the COVID shutdown.

That movie’s success is further proof that Smith is a bonafide A-lister who can bring people out into theaters, although he’s had more than a few disappointments, as well, including 2019’s Gemini Man and 2016’s Collateral Beauty. But if you put Smith into a big studio blockbuster like Disney and Guy Ritchie did with Aladdin in 2019, you can have a big hit, and that one opened with $91 million and ended up grossing $355 million domestically.

Besides having Smith as a selling point, it’s also about two of the last couple decades’ biggest tennis superstars, ones who helped get African-Americans in a sport that was predominately white for far too long. There haven’t been a ton of movies geared towards that audience this year other than maybe Space Jam: A New Legacy, which opened with $41.8 million and grossed $70 million in theaters, and the Aretha Franklin biopic, Respect, which only made $24.3 million after opening with $8.8 million, and who knows if that’s even in consideration for awards anymore?

What’s interesting to me is that this is the most high profile movie directed by Reinaldo Marcus Green, who really impressed me with his first feature film, Monsters and Men, which I saw at Sundance, although I wasn’t nearly a fan of his most recent movie, Joe Bell, starring Mark Wahlberg, which was released earlier this year. I definitely think he showed potential as a filmmaker, and that really comes through with how well King Richard plays for audiences.

While it’s not likely that King Richard will open nearly as big as some of Smith’s biggest hits, and it’s dealing with the same issues with most of Warner Bros’ releases this year, one being COVID, the other being its day-and-date release on HBO Max, that will probably keep this from opening over $20 million. I do think that it will open in 2nd place with roughly $14 to 16 million, acting as counter-programming to the very white Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and this could also bring in some parents with younger kids who are fans of Venus and Serena Williams… and yes, Will Smith, too.

Mini-Review: Like some of my favorite movies of the year, I really wasn’t sure what to expect from King Richard, maybe because I don’t follow tennis and really didn’t pay much attention to Venus and Serena Williams as they were making waves in the professional tennis circuit. I obviously knew who they were but knew almost nothing about their background or how their father pushed them HARD to get them so good.

In that sense, a lot of King Richard is new to me, and whether not it’s all true or the type of artistic license we frequently see with these biopics, that doesn’t really matter to me since it’s an entertaining story, and Reinaldo Marcus Green does such a good job in directing it.

Of course, one can only start talking about this movie through the performance by Will Smith, who always amazes when he does something serious like Ali or The Pursuit of Happyness, and it’s impressive how he can separate that aspect of his acting from the “Big Willy” Smith guy who stars in blockbusters of various sizes and qualities. His portrayal of Richard Williams seems a little quirky at first due to his accent and ticks, but that grows on you, as does his single-minded personality to really push his girls to really excel at everything they do. Maybe it’s not a surprise when you realize that the Williams live in the Compton section of Los Angeles, and they’re fighting against the odds of the local criminal element tending to

But there’s no question that Venus and her younger sister Serena are superstars in the making, although at a certain point King Richard mainly focuses on Venus defying the odds, getting professional training (from an absolutely hilarious character played by Jon Bernthal), and eventually goes pro but only after three years without playing a match.

It all makes more sense if you watch the movie, for sure, but it’s driven by the fact that the story of the Williams sisters is just one for the ages, since they don’t come from the normal background i.e. rich, white kids, and yet, they are just masters of the game of tennis. I’m not even sure that I can say that there’s been a lot of tennis movies that I’ve loved, so this also works in that sense as the pacing between the family drama and the sports action just works so well.

If I were reviewing this for Below the Line, I might mention more of the crafts, particularly the editing, but I do have to mention the terrific score by Kris Bowers, who also scored Green Book, Space Jam: A New Legacy… and Green’s Monsters and Men, and I’m not sure you could find three more different movies. (He also was nominated for an Oscar last year for the doc short, A Concerto is a Conversation.) The film is also shot by a true legend in Robert Elswit and edited by another Oscar nominee in Pamela Martin (The Fighter, and Battle of the Sexes, probably the last tennis movie I liked). Seriously, if you have any doubts how important having a good below-the-line team on your movie, then look no further than King Richard.

But even if you just want a great story, told in incredibly entertaining fashion, than King Richard really is one of the best movies you’ll see this year, an incredibly inspiring and inspirational film with Smith’s best performance in years.

Rating: 9/10

Might as well get to the top 10 which should pick up a bit from last week.

1. Ghostbusters: Afterlife (Sony) - $42 million N/A

2. King Richard (Warner Bros.) - $14.4 million N/A

3. Eternals (Marvel/Disney) - $12.1 million -55%

4. Clifford The Big Red Dog (Paramount) - $10 million -40%

5. Dune (Warner Bros.) - $3.2 million -42%

6. No Time to Die (MGM) - $2.5 million -45%

7. Venom: Let There Be Carnage (Sony) - $2.4 million -40%

8. Ron’s Gone Wrong (20th Century) - $1.4 million -38%

9. Belfast (Focus Features) - $1.3 million -27%

10. The French Dispatch (Searchlight) - $1.1 million -38%

Opening in select cities on Friday is C’MON, C’MON (A24), the new movie from Beginners and 20th Century Women filmmaker Mike Mills, this one starring Joaquin Phoenix as radio journalist Johnny, who goes on the road with his young nephew Jesse (Woody Norman), whose mother (Johnny’s sister, played by Gaby Hoffman) hopes the two of them will bond while travelling. Instead, Joaquin ends up taking Jesse all over the country as the two learn more about life through the other’s eyes.

I saw this at the New York Film Festival as well, and enjoyed it about as much as I have Mills’ last few movies, maybe even more at times, but that might just be because he shot a lot of the New York City scenes in my very own neighborhood, including the pizza place across the street from where I live. (Maybe that’s TMI to share?) I wanted to review it but just ran out of time, but instead, you can learn more by reading my interview with Mike Mills over at Below the Line.

Honestly, this was always going to be a tough week to pick a “Chosen One,” because both King Richard (above) and The Power of the Dog are likely to be in my Top 10 for the year, but we also have a late entry in the running. Netflix actually opened the Lin-Manuel Miranda directorial debut, his adaptation of the musical TICK, TICK… BOOM! In select theaters last week, but I didn’t get to see it until Monday night at the New York premiere. It stars Andrew Garfield as Jonathan Larson, the up and coming New York City composer who is anxious about turning 30 without having had a musical on Broadway like his idol, Stephen Sondheim. Jonathan’s girlfriend, Susan (Alexandra Shipp), is tired of him wasting time on a musical that might never happened and neglecting their relationship, but he gets more support from his childhood friend and roommate Michael (Robin de Jesus) and his coworkers at the Moondance Diner.

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from Miranda’s directorial debut, because I’m by no means a musical buff like some of my friends. I was familiar with Rent, but only from the Christopher Columbus movie, which was not good. I definitely had respect for Larson from the success of that musical and how it’s such a specific New York City story, and in many ways, Tick Tick Boom is the same. It’s definitely more biographical, and you can tell how some of the things that happen to Jonathan and his friends would ultimately influence the writing of Rent. It’s also kind of perfect for Miranda to be involved with this one, because he, too, knows what it’s like to be a struggling musician trying to get your first musical produced, and it just so happens that Miranda has followed both Larson and Sondheim onto greatness.

Because I’m not an avid Broadway buff, I probably could identify maybe 10% of the beloved Broadway stars making cameos in Miranda’s film. While I would have been perfectly fine with unknowns, it was fun to sit at the New York premiere at the Schoenfold Theater and hear all the Broadway illuminati applauding every single appearance.

But Miranda also proves that he’s quite an able director, and things like the film’s NYC is handled so well -- whether it’s the recreation of the now-defunct Moondance Diner or Jonathan’s tiny studio apartment --- that you know that Miranda is a true New Yorker, and maybe that’s as much as anything else what it takes to bring Larson’s musical to the screen.

But I also have to give huge credit to Garfield who gives a performance unlike anything he’s done before. I mean, the guy can sing and he just gives an amazing performance that includes everything that’s necessary to bring a Larson musical to life.

Tik, Tik… BOOM! Is just an extraordinary directorial debut from an individual who has come to define the term “musical” over the past decade and a half. From In the Heights to this and all the songs he’s been writing this year, I cannot imagine that Miranda is well on his way to capturing the world of film as he has with stage.

Rating: 9/10

This week’s “Chosen One” could very well have been Jane Campion’s THE POWER OF THE DOG, which opens in select theaters on Wednesday, because that is right up there in terms of the best movies I’ve seen this year. Although Netflix was nice enough to invite me to the New York Film Festival premiere, that was over six weeks ago, and I really needed a refresher since I have had so much on my mind since seeing it. Since I wasn't able to see the movie again before this column's deadline, a review just doesn't seem meant to be.

Basically, it stars Benedict Cumberbatch as Phil, a rancher who is travelling across the country with his brother (Jesse Plemons). At one stop, they both have their eye on a widow, played by Kirsten Dunst, whose effeminate son (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee), is constantly being bullied by Phil’s men, but he soon forms an uneasy bond with Phil. That’s really all I’ll say about the movie for now. I want to see it again before writing a formal review, but it’s definitely in my Top 10 for the year.

Also, Halle Berry makes her directorial debut with BRUISED (Netflix), which will play in select theaters starting Wednesday and then hit the streamer on November 24, and honestly, I have not been able to get a screener or screening from Netflix, so I won’t have a review of that one either. In it, Berry plays mixed martial arts fighter Jackie Justice, who leaves the sport in disgrace, but is convinced to take part in a far more brutal underground fight by her boyfriend and manager (Adan Canto), which grabs the attention of a fight promoter (Shamier Anderson). Would have loved to see this in a screening but wasn’t invited and my attempts to get a screener have also fallen on deaf ears. I just don’t get it.

Yes, there’s a lot of good movies opening this week, including Matthew Heineman’s doc THE FIRST WAVE (NEON/National Geographic Films), which is one of about a half dozen great National Geographic docs being released this year. Heineman is probably best known for being the Oscar-nominated director of Cartel Land, and this film is just as striking. If you haven’t guessed, the “first wave” in the title is the first four months of COVID hitting NYC, and Heineman and his (presumably small) crew were following a number of doctors and nurses and patients at a facility in Long Island as they deal with all the nightmares of being hit by this pandemic that so many were learning about as they deal with the patients suffering. It’s quite a wonderful movie that spends quite a bit of time with a number of those who are almost literally at death’s door, as their families and the nurses try to keep the alive and then get them rehabilitated to go back out into the world. Sure, there are a few deaths, but thankfully, none of the “hero patients,” and the movie also follows one doctor as she ends up getting involved in the Black Lives Movement that hit the streets of New York after the murder of George Floyd. This might seem like a fairly dour (not really) or serious (probably) subject on which to make a doc about, but it’s great to see a movie set in my own neck of the woods (more or less) after a number of fairly decent docs that have been made about how COVID hit China months earlier.

Hitting theaters in New York and L.A. this Friday is the doc, THE REAL CHARLIE CHAPLIN (Showtime), from directors Peter Middleton and James Spinney (Notes on Blindness), which looks at the one and only Charlie Chaplin with access to the Chaplin archives for recordings, home movies and behind-the-scenes material which heps put together the story of the iconic silent film legend. Of course, I have not had a chance to watch this yet, but it certainly looks like something worth checking out. I also haven’t seen the doc KURT VONNEGUT: UNSTUCK IN TIME (IFC Films), which seems just as straight-forward from its title. It’s directed by Robert B. Weide and Don Argott, and it opens at the IFC Center in New York and other theaters.

Romanian filmmaker Radu Jude’s BAD LUCK BANGING OR LOONY PORN (Magnet) is a movie I’ve been trying to watch for some time and just haven’t gotten to it. It’s about a school teacher named Emi whose career and reputation is under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked onto the internet, but she refuses to meet the demands of parents to have her dismissed.

Also opening Friday and on VOD is Lee Haven Jones’ THE FEAST (IFC Midnight), a very rare horror/genre film in the Welsh language, this one which debuted at the SXSW Film Festival earlier this year. It involves a young woman who is hired by an eccentric family to serve their guests at a dinner part at a remote house in rural Wales, unaware that death is on the menu.

Another movie that certainly seems up my alley is Geeta Malik’s INDIA SWEETS AND SPICES (Bleecker Street), which stars Sophia Ali as Alia Kapur who returns to her family’s New Jersey home after years away at college and befriends Varun (Rish Shah), the handsome son of the new owners of the local Indian grocery, inviting his family over to dinner. Like I said, sounds like my kind of thing.

Opening at the Metrograph Friday is Christopher Makoto Yogi’s I WAS A SIMPLE MAN (Strand Releasing), a ghost story told in four chapters set in the countryside of north shore O’ahu, Hawai’i. I think this premiered at Sundance, and I missed it there and still haven’t had time to watch it.

Next week, Thanksgiving! Disney is opening its 60th animated feature, Encanto, while Sony reboots a video game franchise with Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, and Lady Gaga and Adam Driver star in Ridley Scott’s House of Gucci. We’ll see if I can get my column done by Wednesday next week. Sigh.