Mott the hoople roll away the stone

In 2016, Trump tapped into white fear and resentment in a state that lost the most jobs in the century’s first decade. Michigan workers hemorrhaged a whopping 17 percent of their jobs, totaling 806,000, almost double that of the next state, Ohio. Many of the lost positions were auto-industry union jobs with good benefits that allowed generations of Michigan blue-collar workers to enjoy great medical care and enough cash left over to buy a cottage up north. Trump’s angry rhetoric managed to win him the state by a mere 10,000 votes out of 4.6 million cast. The story wasn’t just Reagan Democrats returning to the GOP; it was a 12 percent drop in black turnout. Some of it was expected without Barack Obama on the ticket, but the magnitude of the lost votes suggested that black Michiganders were giving up on a government that had been taken away from them in Flint and Detroit, and gave so little in return. Now the same beat-upon community was enduring a pandemic and being … [Read more...] about Battleground Michigan: Inside the Fights Over the President and the Pandemic

Ecstatic. That’s the one emotional character Disney execs left out of the film, because they knew they were going to be the ones personifying that feeling come Sunday when they count Inside Out’s money. The Pete Docter-Ronaldo del Carmen directed film is on track to post the second best Pixar bow of all-time with an estimated $83M $89M to $92M  in 3,946 playdates as of this AM’s industry figures, behind Toy Story 3’s $110.3M and ahead of the ani house’s last feature toon, 2013’s Monsters University ($82.4M). The last 14 Pixar pics opened at No. 1 and IO is gonna end that streak. Oh, boo-hoo (or, as Ray Romano joked in his stand-up bit to his wife: “Go cry on a pile of money”). Pixar films have a 4.1 multiple when it comes to their opening-to-final cume, and everyone loves this one with an A CinemaScore (Pixar’s ninth A) and a 98% Rotten Tomatoes, so expect IO to play for some time, even when … [Read more...] about ‘Jurassic World’ Beats ‘Avengers’ As The Fastest Pic To Cross $400M – Update With Top 20

His experience in Cannes was enlightening and “quite paradoxical.” He felt he was “reflecting a totally Hungarian situation” in the parable, but when the festival selected it, “the movie started growing and growing and I realized maybe Hungary is not so far and this fear of the unknown is quite common in Europe, with the same world lack of solidarity.” The film’s next festival appearance will be in Sundance’s Spotlight section and it will then open in March in the U.S. Representing Hungary in the Oscar race is bewildering, “I don’t know if it’s a serious game or if it’s a David Lynch movie,” laughs Mundruczo. “To be frank it means a lot, especially for Hungary. Istvan Szabo won (in 1981) and there have been none since then.” As a European auteur, Mundruczo says he’s “quite safe, but it’s still a limited market. The Oscars mean a new market and a new audience for me to talk … [Read more...] about Foreign Language Oscar Shortlist: A Preview Of Possibilities, Part 3

Stewart went on to discuss his new movie Irresistible, which pulls back from day-to-day politics to focus on what he described as the “incredibly enriching and robust and corrupt and corrosive system” of campaigns. Noah asked if he saw any way for that system to be stamped out or overhauled, and Stewart said there were activists and aspiring politicians that made him optimistic for the future. … [Read more...] about Jon Stewart Talks COVID-19 Deniers, Hope for America’s Political Future on ‘The Daily Show’

Once he was done with the Pixar slate, which also includes Toy Story 4 in a “brand new chapter that’s very personal,” Lasseter switched gears to Walt Disney Animation Studios. He marveled that it had been 10 years since he and partner Ed Catmull had taken over WDAS. “When we came in, we realized there was tremendous talent.” So they “redefined the culture to make it filmmaker driven.” Now, he says, after such mega-hits as Frozen and Big Hero 6, “Walt Disney Animation Studios is back. Ed and I always believed what would heal this studio — because it was quite broken when we came in, the morale was really low — what would really heal it is if we can make a movie to be a really big hit. These guys are on fire now.” … [Read more...] about Disney/Pixar Spotlight On ‘Finding Dory’, ‘Good Dinosaur’ & More Charms Cannes