Opening this Weekend

Terminator:  Dark Fate

Harriet

Motherless Brooklyn

Jojo Rabbit

Parasite

Dolemite Is My Name

Arctic Dogs

Box Office Predictions

  1. Terminator: Dark Fate
  2. Joker
  3. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
  4. Harriet
  5. The Addams Family (2019)

What You Should See

So I was trying to think of words to express how unexpectedly good I’m feeling about this weekend at the movies, and for some reason the first and second that came to mind were “wowee” and “zowee”.  I don’t know where those “words” came from exactly, but I’m standing by them for how well they express my genuine excitement for many of this weekend’s new movies, though I’m not feeling confident enough in them to just lead with them without explanation.  And thus this paragraph was born.

Anyway.

If you’re like me and you’ve felt like there hasn’t been much to get excited about at the movies lately, prepare to be confronted by the exact and precise opposite as a lot of the movies I’ve been looking forward to all year open this weekend.  Y’know, like, the good, original movies?  The ones that most people won’t see and will have never even heard about because they put no effort at all into finding good, original movies because they’re too flapping their gums about how bad all new movies are and how Hollywood is out of original ideas.

But you and I?  We know better, don’t we.

This weekend’s biggest new release is Terminator:  Dark Fate, which, yes, is a quasi-reboot sequel, but it’s looking like the first new Terminator since the second one, so I have no hard feelings with it.  And yeah, I’ll probably be seeing it this weekend.

More interesting, though, is that Jojo Rabbit, the Taika Waititi Nazi comedy satire that would be a crime for you not to see (See what I did there?  Or did you not see?) is finally showing in Edmonton at the downtown Landmark and North Edmonton Cineplex, and I’m calling it a must see.  I feel much the same way about Parasite, the Korean-language dark comedy from celebrated director Bong Joon-ho (Okja, Snowpiercer) playing at the downtown Landmark and South Edmonton Common that I’m also calling a must see.

A little bit lower on the list are Motherless Brooklyn, a 50s-era crime drama that marks the directorial debut of actor Edward Norton, and Harriet, a biopic on Harriet Tubman, both of which I’m at least mildly interested in, and Dolemite Is My Name

will start playing theatrically this weekend at Metro Cinema, which is precisely the reason I didn’t mention in our last Predictions & Predilections that you could have (and still can) just see it on Netflix.

Oh, and then there’s Arctic Dogs.  I fear if were to waste any more time talking to you about that one, I would just be bringing the mood of the whole room down.  So just remember, that’s at least two new movies — Jojo Rabbit and Parasite — for you to make sure to see both for the sake of their quality and originality and because you’d be a hypocrite not to see them since you claim to be so tired of sequels and remakes, two to four more — Terminator:  Dark Fate, Motherless Brooklyn, Harriet, and Dolemite Is My Name — you should at least consider in the weeks ahead, and one animated movie you and I have never heard of before this moment and will never make mention of again.