I pose the thought because this weekend I finally saw (twice) "Good Night, and Good Luck," easily the best film I've seen since "Fahrenheit 9/11." David Strathairn was eerily exact in capturing Murrow's riveting, grave-as-the-grave broadcast style, but his astonishing performance was just one of many compelling elements in a movie that was earnest without being sanctimonious and serious without being pompous.</blockquote>
None of the "serious Hollywood films" of last year -- Good Night, and Good Luck, Syriana, and Munich -- did all that well commercially.
Good Night, and Good Luck Production Budget: $7 million TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $31,558,003 61.8% + Foreign: $19,534,564 38.2% = Worldwide: $51,092,567
Syriana: Production Budget: $50 million TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $50,720,347 55.2% + Foreign: $41,100,000 44.8% = Worldwide: $91,820,347
Munich Production Budget: $70 million TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $47,403,685 37.5% + Foreign: $78,921,244 62.5% = Worldwide: $126,324,929
While the "serious films" were getting nominated for awards, larger numbers of people were flocking to see Fun with Dick and Jane: Production Budget: $100 million TOTAL LIFETIME GROSSES Domestic: $110,332,737 55.3% + Foreign: $89,141,259 44.7% = Worldwide: $199,473,996
Fun with Dick and Jane is actually a pretty good film, though the ending (the protagonist -- a white-collar middle-management man who loses his job and with it almost everything -- cons the big bad CEO -- who pushed him and his fellow workers into deep trouble -- into doing the right thing against his will) is not as interesting as what precedes it: a story of financial disaster -- especially getting behind mortgage payments and receiving a foreclosure notice -- that hits a middle-strata working-class family in the aftermath of an Enron-like corporate fraud. In it you see one of the few sympathetic portrayals -- perhaps the only one in a big-budget film -- of undocumented day laborers on screen (among whom the down-and-out protagonist finds himself and with whom he gets rounded up by La Migra).
Inside Man -- which illustrates Brecht's question in The Threepenny Opera: "What's breaking into a bank compared with founding a bank?" -- seems to be doing well at the box office: <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/03/26/entertainment/main1439613.shtml>.
Good for Spike.
-- Yoshie <http://montages.blogspot.com/> <http://mrzine.org> <http://monthlyreview.org/>