Friday Flicks: ‘A Fantastic Woman’, ‘Winchester’, ‘The Cage Fighter’
Thank God it’s Friday! It’s the end of another week filled with scandals, revelations, and some very unsurprising box office results. Yes, Dwayne Johnson‘s Jumanji reboot enjoyed another week of success, having amassed worldwide cumulative revenue of $822 million and thereby becoming Sony‘s fifth-biggest box office return to date.
Meanwhile, Insidious: The Last Key scared its way into becoming the highest-grossing international entry into Blumhouse‘s franchise, earning $81.1 million to date. Disney‘s Star Wars: The Last Jedi has continued to grip the box office too, surpassing $700 million at the international market for a worldwide total of $1.3 billion.
Behind the scenes, you guessed it, the sexual harassment scandal remained at the forefront of the headlines, with both Harvey Weinstein and Woody Allen getting the spotlight treatment (but not for reasons they’d hoped).
This week, Weinstein dug up some emails from Ben Affleck and Jill Messick, attempting to use them to refute claims made by Rose McGowan, who alleges the disgraced Hollywood film mogul raped her at the Sundance Film Festival in 1997. However, he was trumped by the release of McGowan’s docuseries Citizen Rose and tell-all memoir Brave, in which the actress details her attack.
Elsewhere, Allen found a friend in Diane Keaton, who took to Twitter to defend the Manhattan director amid allegations he sexually assaulted his adoptive daughter Dylan Farrow. However, it was short-lived, as producer and director Judd Apatow (The Big Sick) was quick to hit back, having pointed out the director’s unsavory “affair with a 19-year-old when he was 54 who was also his daughter’s sister.”
Now let’s step away from the dread, conflict, and sexual harassment dominating Hollywood with FD‘s selection of the best films to catch this weekend. Follow the raw and touching story of a singer ravaged by grief in A Fantastic Woman; unearth the secrets of the Winchester Mystery House alongside Helen Mirren, and watch a family man risk it all in The Cage Fighter.
A Fantastic Woman (Sony Pictures Classics)
on limited theatrical release now
Hailed as “trans cinema’s breakthrough moment“, Sebastián Lelio’s A Fantastic Woman, recently nominated for the Best Foreign Language pic at this year’s Oscars, offers an evocative portrait of a transgendered Chilean woman. Rising star Daniela Vega (The Guest) takes on the role of Marina, a waitress and singer whose life is plunged into disarray following the death of her older boyfriend (Francisco Reyes). Instead of giving up hope, Marina is forced to confront his family and society, fighting to show them who she is: complex, strong, forthright, fantastic.
Watch the trailer for A Fantastic Woman
Winchester (CBS Films)
on wide theatrical release now
Helen Mirren finds herself trapped in America’s most haunted house in this fantasy-horror from the Spierig brothers. Inspired by real events (as so many of these movies seem to be), the plot focuses on Sarah Winchester, heiress to the Winchester fortune and owner of the Winchester Mystery House. Sitting on an isolated stretch of land outside of San Francisco and constructed in an twenty-four hour a day, seven day a week mania for decades, the house appears as a monument to a disturbed woman’s madness. But Sarah is not building it for herself, her niece (Sarah Snook), or for the troubled Doctor Eric Price (Jason Clarke) whom she has summoned to the house. She is building a prison, an asylum for hundreds of vengeful ghosts, and the most terrifying among them have a score to settle with the Winchesters . . .
Watch the trailer for Winchester
Braven (Saban Films)
on limited theatrical release now
Jason Momoa takes on the role of Joe Braven and earns his hunk status once again. Director Lin Oeding‘s feature debut tells the story of a humble logger residing along the border between the U.S. and Canada, who is forced to do everything in his power to protect his family against a group of deadly drug runners. Little do the elite runners know, the unassuming man they’ve encountered has an impressive bite. Jill Wagner (Splinter), Garret Dillahunt (No Country for Old Men), Zahn McClarnon (Into the West), Stephen Lang (Don’t Breathe) make up the supporting cast.
The Cage Fighter (Sundance Selects)
on limited theatrical release now
In this hard-hitting documentary from Jeff Unay, a blue-collar family man and ex-MMA athlete breaks the promise he’d made to never fight again. Now forty years old with a wife and four children, Joe Carman risks everything as he returns to the fighting cage and faces his past head-on. He trains secretly, but as he contends with a series of increasingly worrying health questions, the question arises: how much is he willing to risk to keep fighting? A true-life tale of resilience that unfolds with all the drama of fiction, The Cage Fighter is a riveting look at the demons that drive a man to push himself to the limit.
Watch the trailer for The Cage Fighter
Before We Vanish (Super LTD)
on limited theatrical release now
Acclaimed horror director Kiyoshi Kurosawa (The Cure) reinvents the alien movie in this unique and profoundly human tale of love and mystery. In Before We Vanish, the director’s twentieth film, three aliens travel to Earth in preparation for a mass invasion. By taking over the bodies of humans, the visitors rob the hosts of their essence – good, evil, family, belonging – leaving only hollow shells which are all but unrecognizable to their loved ones. Equally hilarious, thrilling, and profound, Before We Vanish addresses the eternally enigmatic question of humanity: what is love? Stars Masami Nagasawa (Our Little Sister), Ryûhei Matsuda (The Raid 2), and Hiroki Hasegawa (Shin Godzilla).
Watch the trailer for Before We Vanish
24 Frames (Janus Films)
on limited theatrical release now
For what would prove to be his final film, director Abbas Kiarostami (Certified Copy) gave himself an immense challenge: to create a dialogue between his work as a filmmaker and his work as a photographer, merging the two art forms to which he had dedicated his life. To reconstruct the moments before and after a photo is taken, Kiarostami selected twenty-four still images – most of them based in nature – and digitally animated them into subtly evolving vignettes, creating a series of poignant studies in movement, perception, and time. All in all, 24 Frames is a graceful and beautiful farewell from one of the giants of world cinema.
