COMMUNITY IS EVIL
Reunion Newsletter [10.25.24]
Buncha stuff this week. New Cuaron. New Smile. Menendez. Penguin. Anora. Thoughts on all below. I still have not gotten around to finishing the Joker 2 piece, because b2b fests still, and more and more events constantly. Just haven’t had computer time beyond the random writings you’ll read here. If you want though, my IG rant yesterday is basically the Joker 2 ideas. It’s about people subscribing to ideas vs. forming their own individual opinions. I was very scared by the crowd in a tech x film company screening this week. Made me feel like everyone comes to the community to find their personality and opinions. That’s the end of the world for me. Society provides safe housing for mindful individuals, not communities. Communities without mindful individuals bring down society. If people make choices based on the community alone, without doing their own work as individuals, society collapses. The event wasn’t for Letterboxd, but it had me thinking about things like Letterboxd. And Shotdeck. Crowd sourcing choices is the end of everything. We must make our own choices. That’s the beauty of it all. This goes beyond movies, but of course destroys movies.
Pod with Sam Pressman this week, talking about his new fund. It’s a hybrid of equity and crowd models, he’ll explain better when you listen. Sam’s producer of lotsa movies, taking the reins from his legendary father Ed Pressman. This week, they’re in the news with the American Psycho reboot by Luca Guadanigno. Luca really loves Bret Easton Ellis, doing Shards also. These join Baz Luhrman’s new Joan of Arc as the most sought after castings in recent memory. Every single actor of all time is going to line up behind Jacob Elordi but please no to play Patrick Bateman and Robert Mallory. Imagine a River Phoenix and Brad Renfro combo. Oh my God. Imagine Caleb Landry Jones. I don’t believe I’m the first to say it, but imagine a woman playing the character as a man. I haven’t really seen Hunter Schafer, so I don’t know if they’re good, but the idea is soooo cool. What if Patrick Bateman spoke a different language than everyone else in the movie? So much you could do with this.
Anora is out. It did well first week, but the fear is it’s a one-week-wonder. Give it legs. Go see it. Tell your friends. This one’s for all of us. This is for all the film-first folk. Movie-movies. Enjoy it and lift it up.
Overheard behind me at a screening was about to start last night ‘he was in that movie Easy Rider, and he was the bad guy in Blue Velvet, Dennis something.’ This was a very film centric screening, hosted by an industry company, like the kinds of people who would be there exclusively work in film. I turned around, the guy was like 32-ish, mustache, mullet, hat with words on it, he’s holding up his phone Googling as I turn. ‘Are you looking for Dennis Hopper?’, I say with absolute disgust. He felt totally normal about this, enough that he did not even sense the tone of my question. He went on, ‘oh yeah, that’s the guy, we were trying to name actors that compare to Barry Keoghan.’ Anyway, the phrase popped into my head that I felt as if I were inside a Letterboxd. It was a not actually a Letterboxd event, but might as well have been. The cult-like nonsense adopted by these people, in the name of ‘community,’ whatever that means, I felt so grossed out. I had to leave after and skip out on the dinner + drinks. I couldn’t talk to these people. I hate what they represent in film culture. They’re sheep and they’re toxic as hell. They follow and jump on anything. They all live in desperate existential terror of missing out. History is whatever gets upvoted, and can reinvent itself day to day. Attention and likes decide meaning. They make no efforts to establish nor comprehend their individuality, and instead seek all answers in the group. They come to the group entirely new, fresh, agape, and they receive whatever it is their predecessors decide for them. The idea of ‘original’ is so many steps removed, let’s not even talk it down. They are so far from behind able to produce anything connected to another person that will contribute any value or understanding to that person, that will connect them deeper to another person. Their only means of connection is through subscription. Through sameness. They do the same thing as another, they feel connected to the other. As long as they continue to do the same things, they feel connected, and resolved. Should they ever come out of synch with the ‘community,’ their entire sense of self will collapse. Should this ‘community’ be relied upon in the slightest to support society, much less culture, any form of dissent or difference poses a universal existential threat. With people like this, and communities like this, society only continues to exist so much as everyone follows. #wattba
At bottom also are a lot of thoughts on new releases. A lot. Scattered as usual. Connected here and there. Or not.
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
REUNION EVENTS
A ton of events were just announced. As usual you can click the link above for more info and tickets or [click right here].
Thursday was opening night of La Cocina, and I host on Sunday. Come join, the movie is beautiful black+ white must be seen in theater.
Our screening of Citizen Weiner was packed, and great party. 360+ tix sold. Amazing room. Congrats to them. Watch the movie soon on VOD. So many more events coming, and more I’m announcing, I just haven’t had time to solidify things.
OCT 27: 7PM w/ Q&A at Angelika Village East [Get Tickets]
NOV 4: ARRI + Brooklyn Directors next week w sg, Andrew Wonder + Destyn Fuller-Hope. [Apply]
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