movies

Alex Marshall, writing for The New York Times:

“Clergy,” a new movie by the director Wojciech Smarzowski, starts with three priests drinking vodka until they can barely speak. One then drives drunk to a parishioner’s apartment and mumbles his way through the giving of last rites.

The picture of Poland’s priesthood only goes downhill from there. The priests steal money from their congregations, spy on each other, and exploit their connections with politicians, journalists and the police.

But much of “Clergy” focuses on one issue: Clerical child abuse, which the movie says the church covered up. In one scene, it incorporates accounts from real people who say they were abused.

This may not sound like the plot for a blockbuster movie — let alone one that features a heavy dose of comedy — but “Clergy” is a smash hit in Poland. It opened on Sept. 28, and more than 1.7 million people saw it during its first week, according to Kino Swiat, the movie’s distributor. That is a huge figure for a country of 38 million.

I thought that our current “democratic” government wound actually ban it outright.

Brian Truitt:

Lisbeth Salander, the punk hacker anti-heroine from the late Stieg Larsson’s Millennium book series, is returning to the big screen in The Girl in the Spider’s Web, scheduled to hit cinemas October 5, 2018. But Dragon Tattoo stars Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig won’t be returning as Salander and journalist Mikael Blomkvist. A new cast is being picked for the adaptation directed by Fede Alvarez (…)

“Lisbeth Salander is the kind of character any director dreams of bringing to life,” the filmmaker said. “We’ve got a great script and now comes the most fun part – finding our Lisbeth.”

I was skeptical of the movies with Mara and Craig after reading the books. But I watched them. They weren’t as good, but the casting was near perfect, especially Rooney Mara, playing Lisbeth. I’m sure Fede Alvarez will have a lot of fun looking for a new Lisbeth, but I won’t be enjoying his final work, unfortunately — don’t want to spoil the previous films.

Todd Cunningham:

“Deadpool” opened at No. 1 in 60 of the 61 markets in which Twentieth Century Fox rolled it out and, as it did in North America, shattered multiple records along the way.

So what country opted for something other than Marvel’s foul-mouthed bad-ass with a bad attitude played by Ryan Reynolds?

That would be Poland, no joke.

When we make the international news, it’s usually because of something stupid like this.