EVERYTHING SUCKS EXCEPT THE KNICKS
Reunion Newsletter [12.19.25]
Welcome to the upside down, where everything sucks EXCEPT for The New York Knicks.
Holiday party last night was so nice. I had zero expectations, thought I’d stay for an hour, as I’m still recovering from a mini surgery, ended up there til late, was great seeing many friends. It felt great to hear about lots of people’s ongoing projects, and just be surrounded by a bunch of NYC movie and theater folks.
Two pieces below on all the bad stuff happening to Jews, and then my thoughts on Avatar. Skip the Jewish one if you don’t wanna hear about that stuff, sincerely, I know you come here for movie talk, and not gonna lie, it’s not that.
Before I get into it…a few quick thoughts on stuff happening. Week started off baaaaaadddddddd. But Knicks picked us all up. Victory for humanity. Victory for the light. What a week for The New York Knicks. Wow. Last night’s comeback + game winner felt even more elevated. Anyone who was mad, insisting we not celebrate the cup win because it’s not real…well we followed that up with a shorthanded W vs the guys who knocked us out last year. MSG will be ROCKING tonight!
Something major happened in football last night. I am not really sure what. I have intentionally frozen myself off to football for a decade plus, just like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. I make great effort to not hear their music, and not know about football. But it did reach my radar that something insane happened last night, and it seemed pretty riveting. I’m not gonna dive in, but respect and congrats to the people die hards who must’ve had a really fun watch. I relate deeply because I feel that way for Knicks and Yankees.
One Battle After Another with grandma for the final IMAX 70mm screening was again transcendent. That makes 7 viewings for me.
The Shining IMAX was incredible. The opening shot of the mountain roads got an audible WOAH *GASP* out of me. What a picture. Lotsa thoughts on this viewing. Cool timing too because Eyes Wide Shut has become the go-to Xmas movie, so it’s become Kubrick szn. That and the NY Mag article recirculating the ideas into the mainstream. My Reunion holiday party last night had a group buzzing about these conspiracy theories as if nobody’s ever talked about them before. Actually I’m totally into that. Let the new generations discover for themselves, have their own Who Killed Laura Palmer? obsessive arcs like I did long ago. I’m psyched IFC Center is showing Twin Peaks, I’ll be sure to catch one at least. I love all the headline repertory cinema. So much fun. So cool traversing generations, giving people like me refreshes on whatever my understanding was before, seeing through new eyes. It’s so so fun to get all these again.
Happy Hanukkah. Was with a Rabbi whose Chabad classmate was killed on Sunday. Talked about how we hope this week of Hanukkah illuminates greater meaning for us as it progresses. It started so dark. Symbolically, this is entirely in line with the actual story of Hanukkah. “Festival of Lights” doesn’t refer to the common story we tell, where the oil lasted longer than it was supposed to. That aspect is anecdotal in the text, and not even mentioned in every telling.
The LIGHT refers to shining light on Jewish people. The victory, the definition of light, was autonomy without assimilation. The story is not only about some specific battle some specific Jewish family (Maccabees) fought and won against great odds. Hanukkah celebrates the end to a long series of events whereby people attempted to prevent Jews from living as Jews.
We started Hanukkah with a father and son firing on a public celebration of the holiday, a (still at large when I typed this) gunman shooting up a Jewish classroom, and a Jewish son killing his Jewish parents (only tangentially psychologically and culturally relevant as a Jewish story, but a universally relatable horror as well, but notable that before we knew what happened, we assumed it was antisemitic, that is the condition we exist in). NYC incidents didn’t get national attention, but some joined in on the fun, like a subway choking and street stabbing with Jewish racial epithets yelled, and the burning of a Jewish restaurant. Someone mentioned another killing too this week but I’ve lost track because honestly who even has the time amirite
Judah Maccabee and his peers won the Jews 200ish years of autonomy without assimilation. The Jewish Temple in Jerusalem was burned a few generations later. Today, 2000ish years later, we’re left with our Wailing Wall, and an underground spot to get as close as possible to ‘the holiest of holies.’ The Reform and Conservative Jewish usage of the word “temple” is a misnomer. Synagogues were meant as satellite temples for Jews to gather and worship who didn’t live in Jerusalem. They’d make the trek three times a year either way, and worship at the actual Temple. But now we only have our satellite Synagogues. One can call a spade a heart all they want, they still hold a spade. Many of these Jews also light their Menorahs next to Christmas trees.
The Holocaust was recent enough that survivors were killed Sunday.
I encourage one to, even as an exercise, consider Israel a symbol only. Remove historical understanding, remove right and wrong, remove moral relativism. Think only about what you want to happen and what is happening. Consider Israel—again only for an exercise so as not to be confused for apologizing for or wiping any wrongdoing—consider Israel as a symbol, and its role in the recent darkness wrought. Holocaust survivors were killed on Sunday. Unlike Judah Maccabee, whose descendants worshipped in King Solomon’s Temple for a while, we’re less than a full generation away from the most recent attempt to wipe the earth of Jews. I respect the moral and political problems surrounding Israel. But those problems are now invoked to trigger and justify Sunday’s events. Israel’s existence is extremely problematic for the homeostasis of the human race. Again, I recognize that. I love Israel, but I respect that we have a lot of work to do to figure out how to love Israel while making sure others are taken care of and loved. While that challenge, the most difficult worldly challenge of our time, remains unresolved…recognize that gunmen storm a beach and fire on Jews as punishment for the lack of resolution to the Israel question.
Again again again again…the Israel question, the Palestine question…all of it…must be resolved…top priority of the human race right now (other than Disclosure)…but…recognize that there are people out there pressuring this resolution with killing. Their killing knows no parameters. This kind of killing is not subject to laws and punishments surrounding war crimes. You cannot protect yourself from this kind of killing by being the kind of Jew they want you to be, or by hiding your Judaism, actually this kind of killing does not even spare you if you’re not Jewish. This kind of killing targets you even if you are not Jewish, because it wants everyone invested in getting what it wants. This kind of killing serves the master only of chaos. The message is that if we do not give them what they want, anyone can die at any time. That’s what I mean by the exercise of considering Israel as a symbol. Israel is invoked as the rationale to put us into an existence whereby a group of people demand we live under threat of being killed at any time, in the name of that symbol.
I don’t seek special treatment for Jews. My words should not be more relevant to Jews than anyone else. The reality is many Jews respond to Sunday’s events by erasing or hiding their Judaism, in whole or in part. People respond to threats by erasing or hiding their identity in whole or in part.
Hanukkah, the story and holiday, is about people being free to live as themselves and celebrate that life.
Think about free expression. Colbert and Kimmel. Who’s gonna steer Warner movies. The Kennedy Center. All part of the same conversation. Diluting meaning. Compromising valued structures. Boycotts. One person responds to the challenge by refusing to attend an artist’s concert. Another person responds to the same challenge…by shooting up a beach holiday celebration. Two people in the same kind of meeting, they agree, they both leave choosing to take action. They walk out of that room with the same response, one’s action is only taken to greater extreme. When we suppress Kimmel, we tell people we’re vulnerable to pressure. One form is censoring jokes, another form is shooting up a beach holiday celebration. It’s all part of the same process, you all matter, every micro decision sends energy in one direction or the other. This is what Hanukkah is about.
Avatar. Who is this for? Was my main question while slogging through four hours in seat A18 front row center of IMAX’s flagship screen. Why does he want to do this? Another thought.
Right after the movie, I had dinner with a young person who, apparently, answered the first question. I’d already hypothesized, but they proved it. They love ‘the world,’ and want to spend as much time in it as they’re offered. Avatar 3 is like a Netflix miniseries. If that kind of storytelling appeals to you, so does this movie.
It’s like a video game. I don’t watch any of these shows nor play many games because I lack interest nor patience for this form of storytelling, but this is the big ticket for another type of audience.
To me, the appeal of storytelling is the exploration of a an idea. Let’s ask a question, let’s explicate that question, let’s arrive at a conclusion. Storytelling is like an essay. Intro, body body body, conclusion. I liked that five paragraph essay format I learned as a kid. Intro paragraph cites one central thesis, with three examples of it, and the three middle body sections align. The conclusion provides a deeper or larger meaning to the context explored prior. I dig all that.
Avatar and Netflix 8 hour series are like video games, where you do get the punchy intro, and you do get the finale…but in between you get body body body body body body body body body… They make flashback episodes. We take on every minor characters’ point of view. Avatar is like they sit in a room and just toss out ideas of things their characters can do. They don’t necessarily serve any grand purpose, it’s just like oh yeah I’d love to see what it feels like when these two characters talk alone. Serving those two characters talking alone does not extend any kind of thesis nor central question to the overarching story, it’s just a thing that can be done, so Cameron decides to do it. If you come for a beginning middle end story, this is nothing. If you come to just bask in ‘the world’, it’s heaven.
I heard an interview where he referenced this before I saw the movie, so it stood out. He thinks these shot-reverse-shot dialogue scenes of different character combinations are visceral and emotional, they’re breakthroughs for him. They’re nothing to me. It’s not thrilling to me to just see these random characters who serve no force, no tension…talk. I don’t care. There are examples of this kind of storytelling where the combo of two unexpected characters is the thing that breaks open the narrative or the central idea, but that’s not what happens here. It’s just like…oh let’s get two mothers from different cultures together and see what that feels like. That’s fine and all, but it’s sorta like Substack essays. You can write about that, sure. But is it important? Must the world know what you think about this general topic you have no vital POV on? That’s what we did in school, literally. We picked a lens by which to analyze an art work, ie write an essay about, I don’t know, David Lynch’s Twin Peaks through the prism of the Nez Perce tribal history. That’s cool, but the world doesn’t need to read your college essay. Must the Avatar audience know what it’s like for two characters from two imaginary cultures to talk to one another about a universal topic? I don’t know, I mean, sure, it’s a thing.
It’s why I love God of War and Last of Us 2, but stop playing Red Dead Redemption and even Death Stranding—I’m sorry, I don’t mean to blaspheme, but I never finished Death Stranding, either of them, but I did finish I think all the Metal Gears. The GoW and LoU are a continuous story, every sequence builds upon the last, leading toward an end that doesn’t deviate. The latter have kick ass openings, and eventually get back to the important stuff, but then have you just do endless missions in the middle. You learn the gameplay through the story parts, then you do that gameplay for literally like 100 hours, minor variations on the same things…then you get back to the progression for the final sprint of the game. I can’t get through the 100 hours of repetitive missions. I do not care. But people do. They see those as the reward for getting through the kind of training of the beginning and end. They see the beginning as acclimating and teaching you how to do this world, and the reward being that you get to live in that world, now that you know the skills and language and all. I’m different. I want the story, the progression, the constant distillation and revelation. So while I LOVED og Avatar, new Avatar is a slog.
The Cameron question. I think he’s like Coppola. They just want to have fun. He says it clearly in Megadoc to Shia Labeouf. When they’re fighting, he asks Shia if he knows why he’s doing it. Shia goes through the deep ideas. Coppola eventually reveals he just wants to have fun. These guys had massive success long ago—critically, financially, culturally. These guys had the most monoculture hits when there was monoculture. What would be the appeal to them to attempt to make a smaller footprint, on a culture that does not value this kind of work? Money isn’t motivating, they’re set for life. The thing they do, which they’ve already done, is no longer treated the way it used to be treated. They could make their best, most culturally relevant, films today…but get a comparably muted response. The life Coppola gets from Godfather, and Cameron got from T2, we don’t even need to use Titanic or og Avatar, just Terminator 2 even…if Cameron made a better more culturally relevant more than T2 today, he would not get nearly the response he got in the 90s. So why even think about it? Instead, he opts to have fun. Fun, to him, is this COMPANY that is Avatar. He talks about it all the time. Listen to his interviews. He talks about the massive family around these movies that have been together for now two decades. And he talks about the degree of difficulty of their production. For James Cameron…the action is the juice.
I thought while watching this…work smart, not hard. Or better, work smart first, and also work hard, but don’t work hard if it’s not smart. Cameron sets up challenges for himself just for the sake of it, and the reward is simply completion. I do not care about the superior water filming techniques between this movie and 2009, nor the glistening skin or whatever. That does not advance the experience of watching this movie. Maybe there’s a viewer, like the one I talked to last night, who cares about that, but they cannot be the majority. The call to action for him is this challenge that’s really just about his experience. The advancements in technology and difficult filming techniques do not make a better movie. They could, if those techniques were required to meet a story need. But that’s not what’s happening here. He’s coming up with technological advancements and forming the story and shoot around implementing them. Not the other way around. There is no story here. The story is just living in the world. It’s the exact same thing as the last movie, we just shift around some of the dialogue. Instead of this person being standoffish to that person, it’s a different pair. I mean, we even get the exact same showdown with the family in the exact same location, followed by the exact same mano-a-mano brawl. This is nothing.
Avatar is for the people making Avatar, who really really really want to make Avatar. And it’s for the audience who want to live in the world as long as someone will serve it.
A few more scattered thoughts I jotted down in my four hour front row center IMAX experience that was entirely unmoving. It’s just a gigantic screensaver. The Nolan preview with the armored guy standing in the door is infinitely more thrilling. Even Chris Pratt or whoever the Chris is in the Marvel movie just holding a baby is infinitely more thrilling than the CGI of Avatar. The Shining, from 1980, is infinitely more visually spectacular on IMAX.
How does this generate the same revenue as Avengers? How does Marvel’s infinitely greater cultural footprint not amount to greater revenue? I don’t get it. Nobody talks about or cares about Avatar, or at least if they do, they’re not represented in society much. Meanwhile, Avengers and Taylor Swift are the biggest things in the world…so how do they make the same amount of money? I don’t get it. Beyond box office, does Avatar make comparable ancillary income too? Do people buy Avatar toys as much as MCU? I just can’t understand. And I speak as a massive fan of original Avatar. I just do not care for this return. I’m not a huge Marvel fan either, but I fully recognize the appeal. I get super hyped on that “Avengers…assemble” climax any time I rewatch it. I get it. But I do not get any rush from watching new Avatar.
I want a super cut of all the Spider dialogue. How is this the main character of the biggest movie in the world? How stupid are we? The people around me did love it, so I guess we’re really really stupid.
New Avatar shares endings with Megalopolis and One Battle After Another. We get a ‘we are all one human family’ final shot. And then we get a dedication to the producer who passed away during production. Rest in peace Adam Somner and Jon Landau.
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
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THE NEWS
The important stuff on the important stuff. TL;DR + links if you want more.
Billy Crystal, Albert Brooks, Martin Short, Larry David & More Remember Rob Reiner Together: “There Is No Other Director Who Has His Range” [Deadline]
Avatar: Fire and Ash Is Too Little, Too Soon [Premiere Party] (written before I watched the movie, kept it, see my mindset going in) What a huge simple but novel concept. 'Too little, too soon.' Huge idea, beautifully summarized. I felt it fine to get a new Avatar 13 years later, that didn't really do anything for me that re-watching the original Avatar wouldn’t give me. He decided to go back, make more, basically a new episode in a tv mini series. Just more. There was nothing added with the second. But I didn't mind going. I watched it a few times. I wished he would have done something else with his time and resources, but truly, I enjoyed watching Avatar 2, and it's his choice what he wants to do, not for me to comment further. But now we're into a third, and allegedly a fourth and fifth and who knows. If this third does not add anything, if it's just another episode in the huge visual cinematic extravaganza version of a tv miniseries, thats really wasteful. I have zero interest in the continued story this movie was telling. After watching it a million times, I would have to work hard to tell you what the story even is. It’s immaterial at this point, thats not what stayed with me. The world is what stayed with me and I enjoy returning to that world by rewatching 2009's Avatar more than the sequel, as even visually nothing in the new one moved me further. The visuals of the original hold up, are still thrilling in a cinema today, and I rewatched it a few years ago on IMAX 3D to confirm that. What's most disappointing about the whole thing is we're de-eventizing this franchise in a way, and cinema in general. It was a big event having another Avatar movie in theaters. A few years ago. Part two. Part three? Already? There was no cliffhanger leaving us yearning to learn the fate of the characters, I don’t even know who's who anymore, nor care. It's just another visual extravaganza, of which the original suffices. I don’t know what the point of all this is. What the drive is. Cameron seems sharp as hell, very in tune with culture and technology. I don’t know why he takes all of his know-how and turns it into more Avatar nonsense. I was such a huge fan of the original, thought it deserving of every award--above Kathryn Bigelow and The Hurt Locker. I'll be there for opening day IMAX still, but I could not care any less.
The Best Shots of 2025 [The Ringer]
The Best Films of 2025 [TNY]
Tom Cruise didn’t want to ask Donald Trump for a favor to get his outer space movie off ground [Page Six] HERO.
Tom Cruise and Alejandro González Iñárritu’s New Movie Titled Digger, Sets October 2026 Release Date [Variety] He’s dancing. Oh man. Best Picture + Best Actor + Best Cinematography 2026. Even in a year when Nolan has a movie.
Jafar Panahi and Abbas Kiarostami Retrospective Set for IFC Center [IndieWire]
Indie Studio Mubi Restructures Leadership; Around A Dozen Staff Exiting Company [Deadline] Lotsa major end of year executive moves that impact our indie film ecosystem.
Range Media Partners Indie Film Head Jessica Lacy Expected to Depart After Sundance [Variety]
Warner Bros launches specialty division led by former Neon exec Christian Parkes [Screen Daily]
Sony to Acquire Control of Peanuts in $457 Million Deal [Variety]
Neon Buys Gen Z Road Thriller It Ends Following SXSW Debut [Variety] Really good movie, glad this got a really good home finally.
Will the Oscars Make Room for ‘Difficult’ Women? [NYT]
From Kristen Stewart to Scarlett Johansson: Inside the Actress-to-Director Wave This Awards Season [Variety]
Leonardo DiCaprio Tells Jennifer Lawrence He’s Never Rewatched Titanic as They Discuss Going Deep in One Battle After Another and Die My Love [Variety] As weird as these conversations get. So much uncomfortable subtext. Haven’t checked the comments but I imagine they’re ugly.
Godzilla Minus One Maker Toho Setting Up European HQ In UK & Buying Anime Limited [Deadline]
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
WHAT TO WATCH
NEW RELEASES
Avatar: Fire and Ash [wide]
James Cameron Doesn’t Care About a “Cultural Footprint” [The Ringer]
The Housemaid [wide]
Marty Supreme [limited]
Is This Thing On? with special guests [Angelika]
Resurrection [FLC + IFC] 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Cover-Up [Film Forum]
Atropia with director in person [IFC]
*ROB REINER TRIBUTE*
When Harry Met Sally, Rob Reiner tribute [Angelika] 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
ON FILM
Nouvelle Vague in 35mm [Roxy]
To Die For in 35mm [Roxy]
The Leopard in 35mm [Metrograph] 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
The Godfather Part II in 35mm [Metrograph]
Eyes Wide Shut in 35mm [Metrograph]
Battleship Potemkin in 35mm [Metrograph]
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in 35mm [Metrograph]
Catch Me If You Can in 35mm [MoMI]
A New Leaf in 35mm [MoMI]
Breezy in 35mm, with intro by programmer Cristina Cacioppo [MoMI]
Crossing Delancey in 35mm, with screenwriter Susan Sandler [MoMI] 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
REP CINEMA
Christian-Jaque’s Who Killed Santa Claus?, new 4K restoration [Film Forum]
Five Easy Pieces, new 4K restoration [Film Forum]
Amadeus, 4K restoration [Roxy]
Hardcore [Roxy]
A Girl is a Gun in 4K [Metrograph]
Johnny Mnemonic in B&W, with director Robert Longo in person [Metrograph]
McCabe & Mrs. Miller in 4K [Metrograph]
Foxy Brown [MoMI]
HOLIDAY AT THE MOVIES
Hundreds of Beavers, holiday show with actor Mike Wesolowski + actor & fight coordinator Jon Truei [IFC]
National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation in 35mm [Quad]
The Nightmare Before Christmas in 4K [Metrograph]
Gremlins in 4K [Metrograph]
Holiday Fleischer Cartoons [Metrograph]
The Muppet Christmas Carol [Metrograph] + [MoMI]
Carol [Metrograph]
NEW SERIES
Seriously Sandler series [Paris]
Wonderful and Strange: The Complete Twin Peaks [IFC] Crazy that we live in a time now where this happens. It’s wonderful. I remember how hard it was for me to track down those VHS tapes back in the day. It was such a thrilling experience, the anticipation, the concern about finding the next one, it was so precious. I NEEDED it. I prefer my experience to just having it play down the street in its entirety. It’s a wonderful thing to experience it in full with a theater of people, in a condensed window like this. But the wonder and insanity of my first watch had so much more allure.
COMING SOON
DEC 25:
Testament of Ann Lee in 70mm. [Angelika] This movie is real damn good.
JAN 1:
Megalopolis New Years Day screenings at Alamo. 🍿🍿🍿🍿
JAN 7:
The Secret Agent Network series [FLC]
Including Close Encounters of the Third Kind in 70mm.
STREAMING
It Was Just an Accident [VOD]
Megadoc [Criterion Channel] 🍿🍿🍿🍿
Mistress Dispeller [VOD]
One Battle After Another [HBO MAX] 🍿🍿🍿🍿🍿
Put Your Soul on Your Hand and Walk [VOD]
Relay [Netflix]
The Running Man [VOD]
Song to Song [Netflix]
ON OUR MIND
I don't know if this is the flex he thinks it is but its funny still.
A$AP Rocky x Tim Burton.
30th Anniversary of Heat.
William H. Whyte’s cult classic The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces restoration is being released in January.
Memories of the Cinerama Dome.
The Straight Story coming to 4K.
Watch the On Cinema finale online.
