As Kevin Costner’s bloated “Horizon: An American Saga – Episode One” hits theaters with underwhelming expectations, IndieWire has published its 100 Greatest Westerns list, and Screen Talk co-hosts Anne Thompson and Ryan Lattanzio rank our own top five Westerns. We share two films out of our ten choices, which include oaters from gifted filmmakers including Alejandro Jodorowsky, Anthony Mann, Robert Altman, Howard Hawks, Sam Peckinpah, Martin Ritt, John Ford, and Sergio Leone.
Yes, we left out Budd Boetticher and Nicholas Ray. Our bad!
Elsewhere: box office bonanza! Not only did Yorgos Lanthimos’ “Kinds of Kindness” do well at the specialty box office (opening to $350,000 in five cities, the biggest platform opening of the year), but in its second weekend “Inside Out 2” exploded, heading for a likely $1 billion worldwide total. That’s Barbie” territory. Pixar far exceeded expectations with this sequel.
And the good news continues as Sundance hit “Thelma,” a gentle revenge thriller starring 94-year-old June Squibb, scored $3.2 million with the widest release (1,290 theaters) Magnolia Pictures has ever launched.
Also opening last week was another Sundance pickup, “Fancy Dance” (in select theaters, and heading to AppleTV+ this week), starring Lily Gladstone as an indigenous woman searching for her missing sister. Gladstone is terrific in this well-mounted and moving family drama.
This week, the prequel “A Quiet Place: Day One” opens, with Michael Sarnowski (“Pig”) taking the reins from John Krasinski after Jeff Nichols fell out. The alien invasion stars Lupita Nyong’o and an adorable cat.
Watch the full episode above or listen to it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous episodes here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk
