First, one of the big stars of this year's "Annie" is Jamie Foxx's apartment.
Based on New York City real estate, this apartment markets around $90,000,000. It's roughly a three bedroom with big living areas. Yeah, you're going to have to see the movie to grok what $90,000,000 buys you, getting way up off the streets.
Then there's Quvenzhané "Hushpuppy" Wallis. You can do worse than "kuVON-zhu-nay." This material in "Annie" is nowhere near as challenging as her part in Beasts of the Southern Wild. If that character had been an adult, you'd want somebody like Naomi Watts or Cate Blanchett to carry it off. A whole world gets mirrored in her reactions to events including her father's illnesses, a hurricane, going to a bar to see a woman, and death. It's not a part where she could throw out kid-tricks and "act." Instead of a trained professional, when they did the shoot, she was a six-year old.
For "Annie," she's ten. She finds ways to have fun, taking the audience along with her.
Put her in the frame with Jamie Foxx. With Cameron Diaz. (Honestly, with anybody.) She's the one being generous, making room in her phrasings so they get to work their characters and build up the scene. That's the sort of thing Meryl Streep and Lupita Nyong'o learned going to Yale as undergraduates. (I mean that seriously.)
The audience this morning loved her. A slew of middle-class white wives and kids mostly. A few older folks. They chose "Annie" over the penguin movie and the various armageddons.
And yes, Jamie Foxx does billionaire. And he does it sane. He's not a Trump. He's not a Koch. He's more like a buff Bloomberg, minus 20-odd years on the odometer. The man oozes it that his character likes having the big money.
So what do we have here ??? A new "Annie" with a number of new songs, wonderful dance numbers. Kids, kids, lots of kids. The first batch could fill out the Bill de Blasio family to an even seven, no problem.
The audience loved it. And that's the America I'm a part of. But I cannot imagine an audience of Teabaggers seeing this "Annie." Maybe they'd write it off as propaganda -- plus not believing that Quvenzhané is a real, breathing human being.
From down there near to NOLA. A child, still.
ECONOMICS: "Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb" cost $127,000,000. "Annie" cost about half at $65,000,000 and took less to advertise. They're doing about the same at the box office. Both are solid entertainments.