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Not sure if we are your cup of tea? Come take a look as we have all the answers to your questions! Click here to view our frequently asked questions! Frequently Asked Questions What is Cup of Tea Critiques? Cup of Tea Critiques is a platform that examines movies and television series—especially independent cinema—through a critical lens, helping audiences decide if a film or show is their "cup of tea." What types of films and shows do you focus on? The site focuses on independent and under-the-radar films and TV shows—not typically seen in mainstream theaters or widely advertised—though they are broadly available on streaming platforms. How are reviews presented on the site? Reviews analyze story, character depth, themes, and aesthetics. Instead of ratings or likes, each review is tagged with a type of tea that conveys the feel and substance of the content. What’s the purpose of the “tea brew” tags? The tea tags give readers a sensory sense of the content—like mood or tone. For example, “barley tea” might indicate dialogue-heavy fare, while “ginkgo biloba” might signal something light. Do you provide a guide to understanding the tea tags? Yes—a legend on the site describes each tea used in their reviews, helping readers understand what the tag means. Can I request a review of my film? Yes—Cup of Tea Critiques will evaluate your film (for a small fee). Deployment details appear on the site. Is there a podcast associated with the site? Yes—there's a weekly Cup of Tea Critiques Podcast that dives into film genres and industry trends, offering clarity and guidance for aspiring filmmakers. Is podcast content legally compliant? Yes—the podcast invokes “fair use” under U.S. Copyright law (Section 107) when discussing copyrighted films and series for social commentary and criticism. What kind of interactive content do you offer? The site features the weekly games "Tuesday Trivia" and "Crossword Wednesday," with fun movie and television questions for visitors to enjoy. Do you interview industry professionals? Yes—Cup of Tea Critiques conducts interviews with filmmakers, composers, directors, and other industry professionals, such as Derek Magyar, Greg Sgammato, and others. How can I subscribe to updates? You can subscribe by providing your first name, last name, and email, and agreeing to the terms and conditions on the subscribe page. What legal notices or policies should I be aware of? The site includes a Fair Use Notice affirming that reviews reside under fair use for social commentary. It also incorporates pages for Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, and Cookie Policy.

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Lawmen: Bass Reeves distinguishes between fear and respect < Back Lawmen: Bass Reeves distinguishes between fear and respect 101 Studios, 2023 45 minutes Creator: Chad Feehan Reading Time: 6 minutes 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Lawmen: Bass Reeves Saddle Up (9QA0KKDY5QU5JQER) 00:00 / 07:36 Masala Chai Movies and TV shows about toughness and athletic competition Rosemary Movies and TV shows with intense action Reba Chaisson 2023-12-22 Lawmen: Bass Reeves , the 2023 Paramount+ limited series based on a true story, puts the notions of fear and respect front and center. The intense, action-filled story follows the life and career of a Black deputy U.S. marshal in the postbellum South. Recently freed from enslavement, Deputy Marshal Reeves has been hired by Judge Parker (Donald Sutherland) to travel his Southern district to catch people wanted for serious crimes such as robbery and murder. A self-assured and deeply religious man, Bass, played by David Oyelowo ( Selma , The Butler ), traverses Arkansas and what is now Oklahoma perched atop his horse. Combined with his badge, the two place him at a physical and social focal point that forces his captives and others to look up to him and acknowledge his position of authority. Indeed, much of the 8-part series shows Reeves on his horse with his badge visible, likely creator Chad Feehan’s goal of presenting a stark contrast to the previously low social level Reeves was relegated to when slavery was a legal and accepted practice just a few years prior. For historical context, after the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863, the South underwent Reconstruction from 1867-1877. During this period, Blacks were granted citizenship and the right to vote with the 14th and 15th Amendments, respectively. Public schools and colleges were constructed for Black students, and Black men were elected to state legislatures in the South with some even serving in Congress. This was a tenuous period with many White people still reeling from the forced release of their centuries-long grip of Black people that they had become accustomed to seeing as objects and legally treating as property. Thus, the idea of a Black man freely traversing the South arresting people with the power of a marshal's badge is, to say the least, astounding, not only for some White people in this era, but even for some who are Black. For many White Southerners, a Black lawman challenges their views of where Black men are situated relative to White people in the socially constructed racial hierarchy. Conversely, Black people view Reeves as misguided, a traitor even, for arresting “his own,” particularly when the crimes were justifiable. One Black man, for example, whom Reeves arrests for killing a former enslaver, insists the man deserved it. The man explains that the enslaver vowed to kill his people before he set them free. So, when he received the news that enslaved persons had been emancipated, he locked them in their cabins and burned them all alive. For this, Reeves’s captive asserts he has “no regrets” for killing the man and insists he would “do it again.” While clearly moved by the story, Reeves’ view is that the question of his captive’s innocence or guilt is not one for him to decide but rather one for the court. He refers to Bible verses alluding to God as the Judge and the one that his detainees must ultimately answer to. Like a focused automaton, his job, in his view, is to capture and bring them in so they can have their day in court. Reeves is guided by a set of principles that dictates how he goes about his work. But he expects, perhaps naïvely, that other lawmen operate according to a similar moral code. We see this when his assistant, Billy Crow, played by Forrest Goodluck ( The Revenant , The Miseducation of Cameron Crowe ), is distracted during a mission and ends up shooting a fleeing suspect who regrettably dies. Reeves’s facial expression conveys his annoyance with his young assistant, who later asks him if he is going to fire him. Reeves removes a bullet from his gun, pulls his horse up next to Billy’s, and tosses the bullet to him. Perplexed, Billy asks, “A bullet?” Reeves simply responds, “Each one a man’s life.” This happens more than once during the series where Reeves becomes dismayed at the irresponsible decisions, even of an overzealous peer. Because Reeves is fluent in the Choctaw language and familiar with Indigenous territories in the South, Marshal Sherrill Lynn, played by Dennis Quaid, asks for his help in finding a Choctaw man wanted for arrest. When Marshal Lynn disrespects a Choctaw woman in her home and later sets fire to the suspect’s home, burning him alive, Reeves is disgusted with his behavior. He forcefully confronts Lynn and reiterates that the goal of their job is to bring in suspects and allow them their day in court. Married with four children, Reeves asserts that he would rather continue to till the unyielding land on his farm and risk his family going hungry than work with such a man. He then promptly mounts his horse and rides off. Lauren E. Banks plays Reeves’ wife, Jennie, who holds down the fort at home guided by principles similar to those of her husband. It is unusual for women to be represented as strong back in the day. But the series depicts this in Jennie Reeves who at one point tells an imposing pastor and dinner guest that he is preaching his questionable wares to the wrong house. White women as well are often depicted as feminine and fragile, but we see them differently in the series as when Bass Reeves informs a blind woman that her husband is dead. Showing no surprise, she responds, “I take it you found him in some woman’s bed” – brutal forthrightness that leaves Reeves speechless. We also see female depictions deviate from their typical representations when a sex worker reading a book during her break explains to Billy Crow facts about the world she has read about and seen firsthand. This scene challenges his assumptions that her identity is solely that of a sex worker and her entire adult life has been spent in a brothel. Chad Feehan’s production reminds me a lot of the strong themes and meticulously crafted characters in Taylor Sheridan’s works, who coincidentallly is an executive producer on the series. Sheridan's Yellowstone is a contemporary Western-style drama series with seemingly bigger than life characters like John Dutton and Rip Wheeler, respectively played by Kevin Costner and Cole Hauser. Like Deputy Marshal Reeves, John Dutton has a North Star, a set of principles that guide him. In Dutton’s case, it is to keep his 750,000 acres and destroy everything and anyone who attempts to infringe upon it. Bass’s principles, on the other hand, can best be described as moral or spiritual in nature. Collins Dictionary defines respect in several ways, but they all culminate into this: courteous consideration and regard for someone’s wishes, rights, or customs, and the deference or dutiful regard for law and moral principles. Understanding this, people who give respect are not necessarily looking for it in return, but this is nonetheless a by-product of treating others respectfully. In the 1982 movie, 48 Hours , Eddie Murphy’s 20-year-old character jokes that a Black man with a badge is a person White people fear most. But Reeves isn’t at all interested in being feared by anyone. He is, however, invested in respect. Indeed, there is a difference, a big difference between the two. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Learn about Cup of Tea Critiques, an online hub for Proof of Concept & Insightful Movie Reviews designed for film and TV enthusiasts. Click here if this sounds like your cup of tea! Welcome to Cup of Tea Critiques® Cup of Tea Critiques examines movies and television series through a critical lens. Our main focus is independent cinema—films rarely talked about, found in mainstream theaters, nor advertised on billboards. However, they are broadly available on streaming platforms and can be watched from the comfort of your own home. The shows consist of stories from across the globe—often important, funny, and entertaining stories—that captivate and inform, expose you to underrepresented perspectives, stimulate your thoughts, and facilitate discussion. Reviewing elements like story, depth of character, aesthetics, and themes, we develop a synopsis and denote it with a tea brew that evokes a feel for the work. So, instead of likes, ratings, emojis, or thumbs up or down, our reviews are tagged with a type of tea that, based on its benefits, gives you a sense of the show's feel and substance. In the mood for a lot of dialog? Maybe a movie tagged with a barley tea is just for you. Prefer something light? Perhaps a show tagged with ginkgo biloba is what you're looking for. Don't worry, we provide a legend that describes every tea we use. So, what movie or show are you in the mood for? Reading the review and noting the show's brew will help you decide if it's your "cup of tea." ® chris@cupofteacritiques.com Hi! I’m Chris reba@cupofteacritiques.com Hi! I’m Brandon brandon@cupofteacritiques.com Hi! I’m Reba Subscribe to receive email alerts for new movie and television critiques. Follow us on our Facebook, Instagram , and Letterboxd pages.

< Back Conclave highlights the elusiveness of infallibility Indian Paintbrush, 2024 120 minutes Director/Writer: Edward Berger / Peter Straughan and Robert Harris Reading Time: 9 minutes Conclave Over the Years (T5KTL7QBINSTAQET) 00:00 / 11:27 📷 : Used with permission, Theo Peng https://www.instagram.com/mrtheodorepeng/ https://x.com/mrtheodorepeng Honeybush: Nonfamily dramas with strong adult and/or socioeconomic themes Sage: Movies and TV shows with low-key characters Reba Chaisson 2025-01-31 I was raised Baptist and my church felt like my second home. In addition to choir rehearsal and Bible Study during the week, I was there every Sunday with my family from 9:00 to 1:30. I stopped going to church when I went to college and actually felt liberated from the more than half-day Sunday service. So, when we broached the topic of declining church attendance during a graduate seminar in the late ‘90s, I humorously speculated that long services could be the reason for the decline. Church attendance has been shrinking since the 1990s. Gallup studies this phenomenon regularly. Its most recent report shows that 30% of people in the U.S. attend religious services on a weekly basis, which is down from 42% 20 years ago. Adding to this phenomenon, Pew Research reported in 2009 that 17% of people claimed to be agnostic, atheist, or “nothing in particular.” Ten years later, 1 out of every 4 indicated as such. Individuals and families are often blamed for problematic social phenomena. But I’ve been considering what responsibilities the institutions themselves have for declining attendance and perhaps even diminishing faith? As I watched Conclave , these decades-old questions began to swirl in my mind once again. Conclave ’s inciting incident is the sudden death of the sitting pope. Ralph Fiennes headlines the film as Cardinal Lawrence, the pope’s dear and trusted friend. Soon after arriving at the Vatican, Lawrence learns of the Holy Father’s written order that he lead the Catholic church’s traditional conclave to select a new pope. Distraught but touched by his friend’s trust, Cardinal Lawrence carries on his duties by first summoning all the cardinals from across the globe to the Vatican for the proceedings. Consulting with Lawrence is Cardinal Bellini, a close friend and confidant of he and the late pope’s, played by Stanley Tucci. In case you’re unaware, a conclave is the process whereby Catholic cardinals appoint a new pope after the one in office has resigned or passed away. During this time, the cardinals are sequestered to the Vatican’s campus to avoid any outside influences on their decisions. The meeting itself is held nearby in the Sistine Chapel, where the cardinals' exchanges and votes are kept secret, and their notes and ballots are burned at the end of each session to ensure their inviolability. Black chimney smoke from the burnings signal to Catholic faithful that a decision on a new pope has not yet been reached, while white smoke indicates that a pope has been selected. The process can run from days to years. During their stay, each cardinal has a private room in the large dormitory on the Vatican’s campus. They eat meals together in an airy, spacious dining hall, while dressed in clean and starched robes and zucchettos. Isabella Rossellini plays the tough, stubborn, and protective Sister Agnes in Conclave , who leads the group of international nuns called in to support the cardinals’ domestic needs in the form of cooking and cleaning. Interestingly, their role is little different than that of most women in the secular world. That Sister Agnes is tight-lipped, stern-faced, and has few lines in the film signals the nuns’ narrow and traditional functions in the midst of a group of men with prestige and who each has authority over them. We know this for sure when she cracks a slight smile as one of the cardinals acknowledges the sisters during a prayer over the food, thanking God for the sisters who prepared it. On the one hand, the gathering of the cardinals brings to mind domestic and international college students converging on campuses for the start of fall semester. Like predominantly White college campuses, the Vatican has a predominance of White cardinals with a smattering of cardinals of color. Together, like students, the group is diverse in nationality. On the other hand, the setting feels like a high school with a strict dress code and beginning its first week of classes for the semester. Early on, there are smiles, hugs, and a bit of catch-up after the summer away from one another. And over time, they form cliques, secrets are revealed, and voice is given to what were once implicit biases. Quickly, we learn from this film that what we often view as perfect in religious institutions is far from it when we get to observe the goings-on in its inner sanctum. The movie reveals that conclave proceedings are more like politics than a process we might imagine as steeped in prayer, humility, and melancholy. While the cardinals are serious about the task at hand, for many, their own aspirations to be king — oh, sorry — pope, are top of mind. And those who insist they have no such ambitions, well, we learn differently not only when their names suddenly appear on the ballot, but especially as their names begin to drop in the number of votes they receive. When Lawrence suggests to Bellini early on that he is likely to succeed the pope, Bellini is modestly surprised and insists he doesn’t want it. But when his voting numbers begin to slip, he becomes indignant about the people who move ahead of him on the ballot. He even accuses Lawrence of wanting the papacy for himself despite his name not appearing on the ballot. So much for being close friends! Different from Bellini’s initial modesty, other cardinals are not shy in expressing their desire to be head of the Catholic Archdiocese. Cardinal Tremblay, who is played by John Lithgow, not only insists he should be the next pope, but he has a cadre of cardinals who agrees with him and votes in his favor. When Lawrence asks Tremblay if there is any truth to an allegation he learned from a priest who came to see him at the Vatican, Tremblay responds as if he’d been accused of blasphemy – “Oh God, of course not!” But as he does with others who throw their zucchettos in the ring, Lawrence instructs his assistant to conduct a background investigation on the cardinal. When he confronts him with his findings, Tremblay is forced to moderate his arrogance and swallow his indignation. Cardinal Wozniak, played by Jacek Koman, is openly racist and xenophobic, once even proclaiming in his native Italian, “We tolerate Islam in our land, but they revile us in theirs. What we need is a leader who believes that we are facing a true religious war. … We need a leader who fights these animals.” While this sounds more like a military zealot than a priest, Wozniak too has a cadre of cardinals who sides with him and casts votes in his favor. But when his bigotry is confronted by an unlikely source, his run too is short-lived. Even the Black cardinals get behind Cardinal Adeyemi, an ambitious cardinal from Nigeria played by Lucian Msamati, who insists he deserves the opportunity to be pope. But Lawrence finds that he too has blemishes on his record. Watching Conclave made me realize why conclaves can last years. It is an endless search for perfection among fallible human beings, none of whom began their lives as adults or priests. The process reinforces the ever-present somber reality that infallibility is both elusive and an illusion, that we must recognize we are works in progress and strive to be better. The film suggests, however, that strict adherence to the rules of the church is required and that there’s no margin for error when it comes to the papacy. This lack of flexibility could help explain why people seem to feel alienated from religion and religious institutions. While they are not one and the same, they both manifest in the lack of church-going. It makes you wonder, then, if the church itself is lacking in a relatability factor, where its leaders present themselves as pure and infallible and the congregation by contrast is made to feel like heathens. An interesting aspect of Conclave is the difficulty in locating the villain in the story. Coincidentally, COTC recently recorded a podcast on the different forms that a villain can take. In it, we also pose a question regarding audiences’ patience to watch films where the villain is not readily obvious. On the one hand, Cardinals Tremblay and Wozniak can be considered the villains for their dishonesty and bigotry, respectively. But perhaps the villain is less obvious. In his background checks and confrontations with cardinals, Cardinal Lawrence is determined to honor the late pope’s trust in him. But his efforts can also be viewed as a desperate fight to keep evil out of their sacred space. In this sense, he is not fighting the cardinals themselves; rather he is fighting the lust for power, which has the potential to corrupt the church throughout if that kind of power wins. From this perspective, power is the villain rather than the individuals themselves. Cardinals Tremblay and Wozniak behave poorly because they have been infected by a thirst for power that can ultimately fracture the church if they ascend to the role of pontiff. Given what is at stake, Lawrence’s wariness and diligence are warranted and admirable. At the same time though, it suggests he is in pursuit of an infallible human being, or perhaps just the appearance of one. I love movies that give you a glimpse of places and processes we would not otherwise see or experience. The value of Conclave is that it helps us appreciate Catholic clergy, or clergy in general, as flawed people, much like everyone else. What distorts this view, I believe, are the religious institution’s frequent adorning of accoutrements like crosses, starched robes, hats, and even certain colors (i.e. the notion of white for purity) to mask their imperfections and present themselves as holy, unbiased, without ambition, and always upright. We lowly parishioners can’t possibly measure up. Perhaps this is just naïvete on my part, but I wonder how clergy might modify their presentation to make themselves more relatable to the people they serve. Maybe this could be the beginning of making church feel like a second home again. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

Fair Use Policy Fair Use Notice The movies and TV series listed and discussed on the Cup of Tea Critiques website (https://www.cupofteacritiques.com/ ) are copyrighted productions. Cup of Tea Critiques refers to them for the purposes of social commentary and constructive criticism of the productions’ content, which constitutes "fair use" as codified in section 107 of U.S. Copyright law.

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< Back Between the Temples makes us laugh at our deepest fears Fusion Entertainment, 2024 111 minutes Director/Writer: Nathan Silver Reading Time: 6 minutes Between the Temples Bright Sunny Day 00:00 / 06:44 📷 : Licensed from Shutterstock Oolong: Movies and TV shows that make you laugh or involve physical activities like dance and exercise Barley: Movies and TV shows with a lot of dialog Chris Chaisson 2024-08-31 A few weeks ago, my Apple watch broke as I was exiting the metal detectors at a Dodgers game. As annoying as it was, my good mood allowed me to view it as the loss of an accessory, both replaceable and insignificant. What hurts far more and is far longer lasting is losing an ability that allows you to express creativity. Any talent that you have fostered and developed a fondness for can probably be taken away very easily. Our lifestyle is probably much more fragile than we realize on a day-to-day basis. Nonetheless, a way to bounce back from losing a hobby or calling can be to devote yourself to service. Endow someone else with the ability to do what you no longer can. Such is the premise of Nathan Silver’s newest indie project, Between the Temples . Jason Schwartzmann plays Ben Gottlieb, a widowed music teacher and cantor who abruptly loses his singing voice. Already experiencing the loneliness of carrying on without his life partner, Ben must now cope with the loss of a lifelong enjoyable pastime. Seeking counsel from the town rabbi (Robert Smigel) does not prove entirely helpful, and his two mothers (Dolly De Leon and Caroline Aaron) can be overbearing. A confrontation at a bar leads Ben to reunite with his grade school music teacher, Carla Kessler (Carol Kane, The Princess Bride ). Ben catches up with her and decides to train Carla to sing at her own adult bat mitzvah, curing his loneliness while providing him with the zeal to pass on his abilities to someone else. On paper, Between the Temples sounds like a downer premise. The film revolves around grief, depression and anxiety. However, it takes all of these negative concepts and wraps them in a hilarious bow, largely thanks to its characters. Ben’s behavior lets you know how he is feeling right off the bat; within the first ten minutes of the movie, he lays down in the middle of the road. When a truck comes along and stops, he begs for it to roll over him, but instead he just ends up getting a ride home. For much of the script, Ben finds himself in one uncomfortable situation after another thanks to misunderstanding and ulterior motives. In the opening scene, his mother suggests that he see a doctor. While the obvious interpretation is that he sees a doctor for health purposes, Ben is quickly ushered into the living room to meet a doctor as a potential date. The protagonist being put on the spot in the opening scene provides a perfect tone-setter for the rest of the comedy. Nathan Silver uses the camera and visual effects to convey the anxiety each character feels in their social engagements. Not only does he include an abundance of close-ups, but they are accompanied by a slow zoom in to heighten the discomfort. Similarly, many scenes consist of overlapping, sometimes unintelligible dialogue, which contrasts sharply with the often “perfect” dialogue we hear in films. Characters tend to speak clearly and uninterrupted in films, and if they are cut off, they immediately stop talking so that the other person is clearly heard. It tends to work for movies, but our real-life verbal exchanges are not always so seamless. While Silver’s tactic is at first jarring, it quickly becomes very relatable and plays into the theme of imperfection. Lastly, Between the Temples possesses a very grainy cinematography, despite the modern digital advancements. Many independent films make this aesthetic choice even today; as before the age of digital cinema, low-budget indies likely had a grainy appearance due to the lack of a budget to clean them up. Though Temples is set in modern day, this nostalgic look fits the film’s premise given that the protagonist reconnects with someone from his childhood and occasionally takes trips down memory lane. Like many strong comedies, Between the Temples contains its fair share of recurring gags. For instance, a specific bartender/waiter keeps reappearing in different establishments as himself, with his appearance usually following an unrelated laughable moment. By the halfway point of the film, he has Ben’s go-to beverage down pat. Another gag is the basement door at Ben’s place, which won’t stay closed and emits an unsettling creak noise every time it gradually reopens. Just as with the bartender, the door serves as an annoying add-on to a scene where tensions have already been heightened. The creaking noise is often used at the conclusion of scenes that are not even taking place at Ben’s home, again emphasizing the heightened tension of what just occurred. Many years ago, I had a professor tell me that the reason characters in a sitcom can exhibit mean-spirited behavior towards each other and not alienate the office is because no matter what, there is always an undercurrent of shared love amongst them. In Between the Temples , no one is particularly cruel to Ben; they just put him in a series of uncomfortable situations where he finds himself spitting out non-kosher food, chasing his childhood self on an acid trip, or having an impromptu blind date in his living room. It is clear that despite Ben’s struggles and unpredictable escapades, the people around him want the best for him. Their constant efforts, however bad or misguided, provide the movie with a heartwarming feel and many belly laughs. Premise-wise, the closest comparison is Sound of Metal , a Riz Ahmed-led movie about a drummer losing his hearing. However, the mood of Between the Temples more closely replicates a film such as Wes Anderson’s 2001 film The Royal Tenenbaums about a quirky family being reunited under the same roof. While the performances aren’t quite as monotone or deadpan, the characters in Between the Temples exhibit a fondness for one another and just lack the ability to express it; or, at least, successfully. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

< Back How Do We Measure Box Office Success Considering the Value of a Movie Chris Chaisson 12/18/21 Reading Time: 5 minutes 📸: Photo from Pixabay In recent years, pandemic notwithstanding, the box office has seen record numbers from blockbusters. Despite the prevalence of pirating, many of the highest grossing movies in film history have been fairly modern. The year 2019 set a record for global box office earnings with $42.3 billion. Though this number clearly dipped in 2020, the film industry had seen increased profits despite a plethora of other increasingly popular options for entertainment. Many factors contributed to these unprecedented turnouts. For one, the advancements in visual effects and sound quality make the movie-going experience more appealing, specifically for the biggest action movie franchises ( The Fast and the Furious , Transformers , Marvel , etc.). Additionally, the largest movie theater chains have opened new branches over the years and scaled up their venues to attract customers. Not only are the marquees and glass windows bigger and fancier, but the concessions have become more diversified. Some theaters have even carved out space for restaurants near the entrance and acquired liquor licenses to entice those of age. All these tidbits lead to the biggest contributor to increased box office numbers: movie tickets cost more now . A trip to the movies used to be a fun activity for a group of teenage friends or a young couple that didn’t have money to make more expensive plans. Enthusiastic cinephiles would hang out at the movies all day, maybe taking in two or three flicks and just hanging out with their buddies. What the box office represented culturally has since changed. Now, between the tickets and the concessions, going to see The Avengers cost about as much as going to see the Yankees. The year I was born, 1989, the average price of a movie ticket was $3.99**. While my hands weren’t big enough to hold four dollars at the time, that price provides evidence of a time when attending the movies was a less grandiose experience. Today, the average movie ticket price is $9.16**, and the most popular theater chains are all charging much more. Likewise, many venues have increased the number of private screenings and Q&As in recent years, which are primarily attended by members of the industry or patrons who spend the most money there. Research shows that 11% of the U.S./Canada population accounts for nearly half of all tickets sold, and frequent moviegoers tend to have more key technology products. Both findings reflect a possible class distinction on who attends the movie theater most frequently. As the future of cinema holds more rewards programs, QR codes and email confirmations, movie theaters likely won’t return to the minimally staffed, dollar-matinee feel that they had in the past. Many of them have simply embraced more upscale branding efforts. Whether good or bad, the modern and lavish atmosphere of the Cineplex makes box office sales difficult to compare to the era of more simplistic, communal venues. Returning to the discussion of the highest grossing movies, can we judge a movie’s popularity solely by what it grosses now? Once we account for the change in the cinematic experience as well as ramped up marketing efforts through T-shirts and theme park rides, Orson Welles seems to have been at a competitive disadvantage. What if we judged movies less by the dollar amount and instead checked the ticket stubs? How many tickets were actually sold for any specific motion picture? This re-examination of a movie’s earnings could highlight films that achieved extreme popularity when cost of living was low and other films that simply benefited more from inflation. Though not a perfect equation, I would suggest taking the dollar amount a movie grossed and divide it by the average ticket price of that year. Click the charts below to see what the Highest Grossing Movies vs. Movies with the Most Ticket Sales looks like. Chart by Gross Sales .pdf Download PDF • 133KB Chart by Tickets Sold .pdf Download PDF • 132KB There are very few surprises in these two tables as a whole. The most popular movies are the highest budgeted and most well-marketed, regardless of what measure you use. Nonetheless, contrasting dollar amounts against the number of tickets sold illustrates that some of the most popular movies would be even higher on our list if they had premiered after the industry-wide renovation of modern cinema. For instance, despite an exorbitant dollar amount for American Sniper , the film benefited significantly from an increase in ticket prices. Conversely, the original Star Wars was incredibly popular but premiered at a time when movie tickets were less than $3. Had Titanic been released after theaters introduced their expanded menus and 4K screens, it may have set attendance records never to be broken. Cultural shifts never stop happening, so the future remains to be seen. Maybe movie theaters will scale back down as everyone retreats to their HBO Max accounts. Or maybe they’ll continue their upward trajectory and offer lobster dinners with Courvoisier to wash it down. Either way, it’s always worthwhile to think critically about the record-breaking statistics being thrown in your face. But right now, time for a matinee. 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< Back Birth / Rebirth provides a glimpse into desperate measures and maternal instincts Shudder, 2023 98 minutes Director/Writer: Laura Moss Reading Time: 6 minutes Birth/Rebirth The Great Beyond (ZZZSS9HONAADPC4R) 00:00 / 05:42 📷 : Pixabay Yarrow: Movies and TV shows about illness or set in hospitals or similar medical institutions Dandelion: Movies and TV shows with heavy subjects Chris Chaisson 2023-09-04 Zombie apocalypse movies and TV shows have experienced much success over the last couple of decades. While they have compelling action sequences and allow us to ponder how we would survive in such a universe, these works rarely present the undead as anything other than collateral. Most of the time, the main characters do not spend much time dwelling on the fact that the creatures used to be real people who meant something to their friends and family. It would therefore be refreshing to see a more individual, character-focused story of a revived being, and what sort of desperate actions a loved one would do to keep them alive again. Director Laura Moss’s debut feature Birth/Rebirth presents just such a story. Birth/Rebirth follows Celia (Judy Reyes, Scrubs ) and Rose (Marin Ireland, Hell or High Water ), a maternity nurse and a pathologist, respectively, thrust together when Celia’s 6-year-old daughter Lila unexpectedly passes. What appears to be a mix-up prevents Celia from seeing the body and making funeral arrangements. Needing closure, Celia tracks down Rose and discovers that she has taken Lila’s body to her apartment and is attempting to re-generate it with her makeshift medical equipment. Celia moves past her initial shock and joins the effort to keep her daughter alive. As new issues arise, Celia and Rose discover what lengths they will go to in order to accomplish reviving Lila. The synopsis of this new Shudder original lends itself to comparisons with Frankenstein . However, Birth/Rebirth offers a more emotional angle that makes its leads seem more like empathetic characters rather than mad scientists. Celia not only grieves the loss of her daughter but suffers immeasurable guilt from being too overworked to pay proper attention to Lila’s illness. Though her first reaction to what Rose is doing is disbelief and possible disapproval, Celia changes her tone and views Lila’s revival as a chance at redemption. The themes of motherhood and the need to protect one’s child at all costs comes through in her subsequent actions. To highlight this, the film depicts Celia as the only parent, having birthed Lila through in-vitro fertilization (IVF). While it could have been easy to write the father out of the picture in a number of ways, this particular method feels important, as it puts the focus entirely on a mother-daughter relationship and not the failings of an absentee parent. Rose’s differing intentions, despite having the same goal, lay the foundation for much of the film’s conflict. Unlike Celia, who has considerably more social skills and interdependence, Rose clearly does not like or desire human interaction. She perceives those around her more as potential subjects than human beings. Her emotional detachment comes through early in the film during an interaction with a barfly, with whom she engages in a sexual act simply for a sample of his sperm. Ultimately, the effort she puts into reviving Lila stems from her own preceding scientific experiments more than any need to reunite a mother and daughter. As the film progresses, the audience learns of the deep-seated trauma that influences Rose’s demeanor and motives. While the film does not have the jump scares, indiscriminate killing and other typical tropes of a sci-fi horror film, Birth/Rebirth ’s scare factor does benefit from exceptional sound design. Between sound supervisor Bryan Parker, composer Ariel Marx, and sound editor Doug Moss, director Laura Moss’s brother, the film’s audio consistently creates unease in the viewer and highlights the uncomfortable nature of the co-leads’ decision-making. The noises both in the music and in the background of any given scene complement the visuals in making the audience feel that they are in a hospital room at all times. Such sounds include struggling to breathe, the beeping of machines, and the random creaking and thumping that exist in many other horror movies. While these sounds tend to be associated with life or an unwelcome presence, Birth/Rebirth uses them to signify the battle for continued life. Much of the horror that the film provides is in its morbid realities. Though there is a little bit of pseudo-science and some supernatural elements to make the story come together, a big takeaway from the film is how much our well-being rests on the assumed integrity of medical professionals. Were they to have ulterior motives, any civilian could have their health severely compromised with possibly no repercussions. Additionally, as we see with Celia’s behavior early in the movie and at times later on, many nurses are profusely overworked and hanging on for dear life. Between the volume of patients and long shifts that she and Rose contend with, it becomes clear that they are susceptible to both honest mistakes and malicious intentions that serve their own agendas. Frankenstein may be the easiest comparison to Birth/Rebirth , but a more recent similar film would be the 2014 sci-fi drama Ex Machina . In the critically acclaimed Alex Garland film, a young programmer is invited to partake in an experiment at a remote location where he evaluates the human qualities of a robot with artificial intelligence. Upon arrival, he experiences strange behavior from both the anti-social CEO, the only other person there, and the robot itself, Ava. The programmer must get to the bottom of what is going on before the situation turns deadly. While Birth/Rebirth has less of a hi-tech feel to its aesthetic and a revived human subject rather than a robot, both have a clash of personality between their co-leads and question what it really means to be fully human. Previous Next Sign-up for new reviews, exclusives, deep dives, and more First name Last name Enter your email here I agree to the terms & conditions Sign-up Thanks for joining us!

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