Weekend Box Office: The oldies push Downton Abbey to the top spot

[ms_mmelissa]

Weekend Box Office Estimates: #DowntonAbbey $31m; #AdAstra $19.2m; #RamboLastBlood $19m https://t.co/IgKoRwCoCf pic.twitter.com/djj1M4sncx
- Box Office Mojo (@boxofficemojo) September 22, 2019

Comments

[ms_mmelissa]

I saw Hustlers and I fucking loved it. I think that if the script was a touch tighter that this would be a classic but as it is it's funny wicked, amazing, boundary breaking etc. I went in thinking this was a straight heist movie and was so touched to see it was a movie about friendship and sisterhood. Also how amazing to see two woc of different ethniticities (both over 30!) shown as colleagues and friends???

Honestly the whole thing was 100% heightened by the two lead performances. Jlo was legit fantastic. Like she really brought her dancing experience to the forefront because the way she strutted and moved told you everything about that character. I saw some people saying that Constance did nothing here and I couldn't disagree more. She really sells the boring inset convos between her character and the journalist. You can feel the love, pain, jealousy and anguish when she's talking about Ramona especially when she's desperate to know what Ramona has been saying about her.

God and that final moment when we see Ramona [Spoiler (click to open)]
and how far she's fallen that she's carrying everything important to her in a tiny little clutch and she has a picture of child Destiny/Dorothy and she talks about how they could have saved each other? And then she PUTS THEIR PICTURES TOGETHER SO THEY'RE FACING EACH OTHER??? I died. So beautiful.

I really hope the critics push Jlo to an Oscar nom. This is 100% one of those cases where I think the movie isn't being taken seriously because it's about women but this is easily the type of movie where if the genders were flipped there would be Oscar buzz for everyone.

I also saw Yesterday which was lightweight and pretty cute. A lot of critics seemed angry that this didn't push the concept of "what if everyone forgot the Beatles" further but I thought it basically delivered on the trailers and was just a nice lighthearted movie (also FML I now have "I Wanna Hold Your Hand" stuck in my head.

I really loved the joke of [Spoiler (click to open)]
those two people catching Jack out for stealing Beatles lyrics but being grateful for it and then chastising him for changing "Hey Jude" to "Hey Dude".


Kudos to Boyle for being one of the few white male directors who consistently casts poc in leading roles that don't "demand" it. Himsesh Patel was a great find.

[djbbgoose]

Yeah ia about Constance. I felt she really sold the “present” scenes but in the past scenes especially in the club at the beginning imo she felt a little out of place, but that may have been an intentional choice to heighten her newness. She just didn’t come off as someone with a ton of sex appeal imo

[ext_2955702]

I think that's the point? She's really bad at this. Like she does it out of necessity truly whereas Ramona THRIVES in it. All she does is dance at the beginning for the creepy CEO. Everything else she's basically Ramona's business partner.

[ms_mmelissa]

^this

but that may have been an intentional choice to heighten her newness. She just didn’t come off as someone with a ton of sex appeal imo

I think the movie scripted it well. She was never a great dancer. She was lucky to be one of Ramona's charity cases.

[megalixer]

I def. interpreted that as intentional. The character is constantly in situations that she feels uncomfortable in, not just in the past at the club but also when she's helping drug the men or even while talking to the journalist. she only really loosens up around her grandma and around mothering-mode ramona, which makes complete sense given her backstory.

[ext_2955702]

Listen, that last scene... whew. My legit actual abandonment jumped OUT for real.

[fakevoices]

I saw Hustler and I think it was really good but I think we're pushing for Jlo's oscar. If anything, I think Constance was better

[bttrsondaughter]

Brad Pitt got Oscar buzz for a role that is completely dependent on his ~movie star charm~ for OUATIH. He literally does nothing in that movie. But that whole ~movie star~ thing is being used to belittle JLo’s legitimately great performance in Hustlers. Honestly if she was white she’d be getting Lady Gaga style Oscar buzz.

[ms_mmelissa]

UGH yes, I SO agree with you. Sometimes I hate when people coast to Oscars on their star performance but this was a perfect marriage of actor and part. I thought Wu was great too but this is a total moment for Jlo.

TBH I know that if she was white it would improve her chances but I'm not really sure it would improve that much because strippers + predominantly female cast + directed by a woman are always going to be "dings" to a voting body made up of old white men. Look at ASiB, there were like barely any women. Dead/absent mothers, all of Gaga's friends were men, all of her and Cooper's characters coaches/colleagues/family were men. Outside of Gaga there was Halsey and David Chapelle's character's wife and they got a line and that's basically it.

If women, especially woc were taken seriously the movie + Scafaria/Wu/Lopez would all coast to noms with probably a few more random ones like screenplay thrown in. But I would def be happy settling for just a Jlo nom.

[bttrsondaughter]

You’re very write that even if she was white the movie is way too female for the Academy and award bloggers/predictors to even like. Look at Lady Bird. It was constantly belittled by everyone and the phrase “not an Oscar movie” got thrown around so much. The same is happening with Hustlers and will keep happening. It’s infuriating. If Wolf of Wall Street got nominated for five Oscars, then Hustlers should get at least seven Oscar noms

[dedebee]

Totally agree about Constance. J.Lo was the standout but she provided the emotional core of the entire story.