2019 Favorites IV • August 30, 2019
Ready or Not 🏹 & The Farewell 🇨🇳
It’s Friday, so you should get off the couch and into a theater! So, for the final installment of our 2019 favorites series I’m changing it up and recommending not one, but two (!!!) movies playing in theaters right now.
Family, am I right?
Ready or Not
IN THEATERS NOW
What it’s about: Grace (Samara Weaving) and Alex (Mark O’Brien) are head over heels for each other. So, when Alex’s family asks Grace to take part in the family tradition of playing a game of hide and seek on their wedding night, she obliges. Little does she know that this eccentric — and deadly — game of hide and seek has a sinister purpose.
Why it’s great: While the plot description doesn’t make Ready or Not sound like a movie someone would describe as happy, it is diabolically funny — and violent and bloody. Ready or Not is a takedown of wealthy elites who’d rather die before losing their fortunes. And like Get Out and You’re Next before it, it’s so satisfying to watch — as depraved as that is. However, it’s not sadistic. The movie is careful to spell out why the Le Domas family — who made their riches through a gaming “dominion” and maybe something darker — deserves what’s coming to them.
The key players:
🎬 Matt Bettinelli-Olpin & Tyler Gillett (V/H/S)
🖋 Guy Busick & R. Christopher Murphy
🎭 Samara Weaving, Adam Brody, Mark O’Brien, Henry Czerny, Andie MacDowell
The details: ⏳ 95 minutes // 🇺🇸 U.S. // 📝 My full review // 📺 Trailer
Fun fact: Seventeen different versions of Grace’s wedding dress were used in the film to show the passage of time and her progression through the night.
The Farewell
IN THEATERS NOW
What it’s about: When Billi (Awkwafina) finds out that her grandmother “Nai Nai” (Zhao Shuzhen) has stage four lung cancer she doesn’t hesitate to fly back to her hometown in China, which she left at the age of six with her parents. The complication is that her entire family has hidden Nai Nai’s true diagnosis from her and instead are visiting under the guise of a wedding. In reality, they’re there to say goodbye to her and be with her one last time.
Why it’s great: The Farewell is a movie of dichotomies — Chinese culture and American culture, parents and children, mourning and celebrating, youth and old age — that appropriately straddles the line between drama and comedy. Even during dramatic moments, it seems that there’s always something fun going on in the background to remind us that everything in the movie is based in love.
It’s so difficult to make the exploration of emotions and family strife entertaining, but director Lulu Wang was able to pull it off by avoiding the melodramatics and instead focusing on the characters, their experiences, and their relationships to each other. It’s the best movie of the year so far.
The key players:
🎬🖋 Lulu Wang
🎭 Awkwafina, Tzi Ma, Diana Lin, Zhao Shuzhen, Jiang Yongbo
The details: ⏳ 98 minutes // 🇺🇸 U.S. // 📝 My full (personal) review // 📺 Trailer
Fun fact: The movie is based on Wang’s real life. Yes, they really did lie to her grandmother about her diagnosis. Her grandma’s real life sister even plays herself in the movie.
In movie news:
🎃 ABC Family — I refuse to call it Freeform — will air Hocus Pocus 2️⃣7️⃣ times during their classic 31 Nights of Halloween marathon. Well, there goes my October.
7️⃣ Paramount will be distributing Aaron Sorkin’s second film as a director, The Trial of the Chicago 7. Oscar winner Mark Rylance and surprising non-Oscar winner Frank Langella will join previously announced stars Sacha Baron Cohen, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Jonathan Majors.
I know the 2020 Oscars aren’t even here yet, but this sounds like an early contender for the 2021 ceremony.
😢 In a bit of sad news, The Paris Theater — the last single screen theater in New York — closed its doors. Support your local indie theaters, ya’ll.
choire@ChoireNYC is down to about three things that I still have a romantic passion for (if we exclude a few special bodega cats)indiewire.comParis Theatre Closed: New York City’s Last Single-Screen Cinema Shuts Its Doors
10:41 PM · Aug 29, 20197 Reposts · 109 Likes
And that’s it for the first week of this newsletter! Thank you for reading. If you have any feedback, reply to this email or DM me on Twitter — I’d love to hear from you.
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Thanks for reading,
Karl (@karl_delo)
Happy Friday and have a fantastic long weekend! 🎉
We’ll be back on Monday with a new theme. Here’s a hint:
