Weekend Box-office: June 8-10, 2012

There is a moment in “Inside Llewyn Davis,” the new Coen brothers film that stormed the Palais Saturday, when a the owner of Manhattan's Gaslight club circa 1961 asks Davis what he thinks of the four Irish sweater-clad singers performing.  Davis, a struggling folk singer with an edge, ponders the question. “I like the sweaters,” he says.  You can imagine Joel and Ethan Coen cracking up at that line.  Appearing in a press conference after today’s screening, with more laughter on the panel than any other press conference heretofore, Joel said, “You can tell from the film that we have enormous respect for folk music, which is not to say that there aren’t funny things about folk music.” Indeed: The army private with a down-home innocence and a Jim Nabors voice (Stark Sands); the urban Jewish singer wearing a cowboy hat and a new, out-west name (Adam Driver); the sincere neatnik singer and friend Jim (Justin Timberlake) whose wife Jean (Carey Mulligan) exudes ethereal

Ben Affleck hosted last night's season finale of Saturday Night Live, and jumped right into ribbing "Argo" as well as his Oscar acceptance speech. This is the fifth time that Affleck has hosted SNL, but after a flashy celebration of Justin Timberlake's fifth time hosting, no one made a fuss about welcoming Affleck into that club. Affleck did well feigning disappointment and resisted mentioning "Argo" until almost two full minutes into his monologue. After famously saying that marriage is work in his Oscar acceptance speech, he brought his wife, Jennifer Garner, to dispel naysayers who criticized his characterization of their relationship. They were adorable together.  Picking through similar material, one of the best sketches of a relatively mediocre night involved a send-up of "Argo." One of several departing SNL regulars, Fred Armisen played Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who wanted to set the record straight about Iran's role in the plot. In this movie, "Bengo F#*@

A trailer from Jean-Pierre Jeunet's "The Young and Prodigious Spivet" has emerged, and it seems seems that the director is once again aiming to capture the lovely and curious quirks of an introspective mind, as he did with "Amelie." Adapted from Reif Larsen's debut novel, "The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet," it follows a brilliant 12-year-old cartographer who hitchhikes alone from his home in Montana to Washington D.C. to accept a prestigious award. The text was praised for its extensive use of maps, charts, sketches, and images accompanying the text--a visual device that the film seems to employ as well. The movie stars Helena Bonham Carter, Kathy Bates, Dominique Pinon, and newcomer Kyle Catlett as the young Spivet.  Then two trailers from Cannes give a glimpse of two competition features on the Riviera. Arnaud Desplechin's talky "Jimmy P," stars Benicio del Toro as a Native American WWII veteran whose diagnosis of schizophrenia is examined by a French psychoanalyst

"Star Trek Into Darkness" opened atop the U.S. box office, though its debut didn't quite make the jump to warp speed that Paramount Pictures executives expected.

"Star Trek Into Darkness" opened atop the U.S. box office, though its debut didn't quite make the jump to warp speed that Paramount Pictures executives expected.