MOVIES KILL PEOPLE
Reunion Newsletter [12.20.24]
This week is made for movie going. Go to the movie theater every day. Movie hop. Eat lots and lots of popcorn. See some kids movies. See some serious movies. Read some subtitles. Watch some anime. Check out the Bollywood movie that literally killed audiences. Literally. The stars made a surprise appearance and a stampede resulted in fatalities. People are even jumping from windows because of it. That’s how much people can (and should) love movies. To the death. We don’t have to die. Nobody here cares that much. You can watch all these movies without fear of death. Unless you’re a CEO or something.
Brutalist 70mm screenings are sold out even at 10:45pm (gets out at sunrise I guess). Pretty cool. So many movies out right now. Weird because we had nothing for months. Again, why didn’t Nightbitch come out in early November? Nosferatu coffin popcorn is on sale at Regal theaters even though it’s not out for another week. Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point is getting great response as it streams for IFC on AMC+. I feel like it kinda plays better as a streaming movie, because it’ll allow people to flow in and out of the world. I could see people putting this movie on while cooking. It’s a comfort movie. Nickel Boys, is all over. The Return is still on a few screens. September 5 has a few screens. Day of the Fight is out, despite limited hype. Film Linc has great options. Los Frikis is in Times Square. Oh, Pushpa 2 is the killer movie by the way. The first one is epic.
I’m choosing not to use the alternative headline that this is the most shameful opening weekend of all time with Sonic 3 and Mufasa dominating screen counts. I’m more ok with Sonic, which I just will never think about, and I understand pays Jim Carrey money, which is good. But the Barry Jenkins Mufasa thing is gross.
Gazer trailer is out. February 21st via Metrograph Pictures. Very cool launch year for Metrograph, getting lots of year-end recognition for Good One.
Berlin and Slamdance lineups announced. Remember Slamdance is in wretched Los Angeles now. So if it ever struggled to be special, well, now, it’ll just be another thing happening. I get why they did it, security, but this was a sad resignation. Los Angeles either needs AFI to regain relevance in the festival calendar (not only old Hollywood bros like Zemeckis and Eastwood) or it needs a new festival. Slamdance moving there isn’t gonna do it. Sundance shorts lineup out. A buncha friends.
Luigi looks incredible back in NYC. I can’t believe this is real. It looks like Michael Mann produced the arrival. The people who made Wicked need to look at those shots. Whoever produced the perp walk knows how to backlight. Woah.
Lots more thoughts down at the bottom.
WhatsApp groups for Sundance and all things film: https://chat.whatsapp.com/IyBoiqu89TLJ5tZWSqek1R
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
NEWS
The important stuff on the important stuff. TL;DR + links if you want more.
Luigi Mangione Documentary in the Works From Alex Gibney, Anonymous Content [Variety] Gibney leading the charge, Ryan Murphy surely to follow.
Second Luigi Mangione Documentary in the Works From Amanda Knox Producer [Variety] A second Luigi doc has hit development…pathetic. He’s taking tips from IG DM’s. Smart actually, but also dystopian in where this heads.
Pretty sure I saw an announcement for a third too. But we’re good.
The Southampton Playhouse Taps Maria A. Ruiz Botsacos, Eric Kohn for Leadership Roles [Variety] Psyched for this. Buncha friends involved. I'll be there a lot!
Sundance Film Festival Reveals 2025 Shorts Program with 57 Films from 28 Countries [IndieWire] A nice overview of the shorts programs this year.
Berlin Film Festival Unveils Panorama Lineup With New Movies by Denis Côté and Ira Sachs; Berlinale Special Titles Include Islands, Honey Bunch and Köln 75 [Variety]
Here’s a Hollywood Twist: Streaming Success Runs Through Theaters [NYT] Duh.
Amazon’s Christmas Theater War: Deploying Dwayne Johnson’s Red One to Prime Video after only 27 days has angered the theatrical industry and raised a pertinent question that will define this next hybrid era: Can Amazon leverage movie theaters more than theaters can leverage Amazon? [Puck]
Academy unveils 10 shortlists for 2025 Oscars: Emilia Perez leads the field [Screen Daily] Basically all the stuff you would expect. Alien: Romulus the movie that should have gone straight to streaming is going to get nominated for Oscars. Ugh.
Spotify fires back at Drake: streaming platform says it has “no economic incentive for users to stream ‘Not Like Us’ over any of Drake’s tracks.” [Music Business Worldwide] I really do not understand what Drake thinks he'll achieve here. He's right about so much of this. But...this was literally my job in 2015. For Drake. We made him win the Meek Mill fight. We rigged everything. It wasn't corruption, it was curation and production. "Not Like Us" was better and Kendricks argument was better. So everyone pushed the song and narrative. The system is built for that and supposed to be. The system is a meritocracy up to a point, and then it's a form of oligarchy. Drake benefits from this literally more than anyone in history given the hundreds of millions he got when Apple Music launched.
U.K. Indie Film Distribution Hits Breaking Point as Santosh Saga Exposes Market Crisis: It’s an ‘Utter S—-show’ [Variety] Santosh is the UK Oscar submission with a very hectic distribution situation. There are other foreign Oscar submissions without distro at all. In U.S., Santosh is with Metrograph. Article talks about On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, a similar situation where UK has been chaotic but U.S. was with A24 early. Perhaps it's a question of capital. A24 exists because of capital. So does Metrograph in part (also diversification of a business model). These U.S. companies are not operating on a strict profit and loss measurement but at least for windows with a goal to scale at all costs (within a ceiling). The goal for these U.S. companies is to reach a peak, to spike something. To hit critical mass. Then once they establish they can win best picture and gross $100mm on a budget of 20% that, some bank will give them money as if they can do it everyday. To see if they can, at which point they of course cannot, and the company either pivots into another business, or goes away. With Netflix this was always the plan and they had the new business already lined up. That was build the customer base through DVD, then pivot to streaming. I don't know what U.S. film distributors pivot to. Because it's not like Santosh and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl will make significantly more money in U.S. vs UK. And why else would UK companies be skittish and U.S. bold?
Los Frikis Review: Cuban Punks Infect Themselves with HIV in a Jarringly Sweet Coming-of-Age Story from the Directors of The Peanut Butter Falcon [IndieWire]
Harris Dickinson and Hollywood’s New Leading Men [The Cut] In a rare moment where we have some promising leading men after quite a drought.
Leos Carax on It’s Not Me, Reclaiming Bowie’s ‘Modern Love,’ and the ‘Worst Failure’ of Pola X: ‘I Would Like to Be a Dictator’ of Images [IndieWire] Never realized Noah Baumbach denied the influence of Mauvais Sang on his "Modern Love" running dance sequence. That's insane. Makes me hate Baumbach more than I already did.
SZA Drops ‘Lana’ Teaser Video Starring Ben Stiller, Long-Delayed Album Will Be Released on Friday [Variety] Stiller being at the center of this is hilarious. The TDE people are out to destroy year end list media culture.
Rowan Atkinson Returning To Netflix For ‘Man Vs Baby [Deadline] No idea what this is—let alone that it’s a sequel to another Netflix series. But Atkinson is a comedy giant.
I dreamed I hung out with him last night. He was really upset about this. His wife convinced him to do it, but he was experiencing ennui about all things.
Why Big Hits Like Wicked, Beetlejuice 2 and Twisters Still Struggled at the International Box Office [Variety] Why are we pretending these bad movies would have any hold in international markets where the franchises mean nothing.
Cynthia Erivo and James Mangold to Be Honored at Sundance Film Festival Gala [Variety] Weird, man.
The Worst Movies of 2024 [Variety] Most embarrassing article of the year. Shameful. Update: There are like 50 of these since this dropped.
2025 film festivals and markets calendar [Screen Daily]
The Best Undistributed Films of 2024 [TFS] Someone pick these movies up!
VARIETY INTERVIEW THOUGHTS
Demi Moore and Amy Adams Embrace The Substance Body Horror and Women Who Get Angry: Society Has Us Believe ‘That’s Not Attractive’ [Variety] Inclusive of all ages of humans, I have a bigger crush on Demi Moore than I think anyone else in the world. I stood next to her at Hamptons Film Festival and turned down the opportunity to meet her because I would just flip out I thought. She's incredible. That night actually I saw Nightbitch which was great. Impacted me a lot, taught me a lot. Really felt like it told the postpartum story in a way that ignores the box checking, and aims to humanize and translate in a challenging but relatable way. Great job. Amy Adams has some major major roles in her career and many more to come. I hope Demi Moore gets more meaty roles moving forward. I actually hated The Substance but she was great in it. Love that she's getting this attention regardless.
A really nice chat. Happy Pamela Anderson is getting the shine for 5 minutes while all these Los Angeles people say it was a long time coming, before they forget about her promptly come February and stop pretending they remembered her ever. I hope she gets more roles than just this, and hope it turns into a cool chapter of art, vs what happened with Mickey Rourke where we got a Marvel movie and then he went back to posting body builders on social media. It’s crazy we never got even one good Mickey Rourke role post-Wrestler. I know of one script that would’ve done it, but it was abandoned. The big difference between Rourke and Anderson is that this isn’t a renaissance for Pamela Anderson. This is the first time she’s played a serious role like this. I’d have thought she was capable of being sculpted into something meaningful at any time, but nobody took the initiative. Mickey Rourke though, was the best leading man of his era until he fell off. He has classics he left behind to get lotsa plastic surgery and box and talk about toxic masculinity things. This role should have come for Pamela Anderson 20 years ago. As an icon, there is so much text to her presence, and it’s a shame nobody did anything with it until now. It’s been stewing for 30+ years since Barb Wire. Bravo to Gia Coppola for crafting this. I haven’t watched yet, but excited to. Jewish Mikey Madison is great. So happy she’s getting this shine. So much more to come. Not much need be said about her, as it’s all out there and going to be for a long time. Bright future ahead for her. This interview is more about Anderson, and I hope it’s the first of many. It’s cool watching this after Angelina Jolie. Anderson shares her poise. Pablo Larrain crafted the perfect Jolie role this year, and Coppola gave that to Anderson. It’s tremendous. Maria and Last Showgirl should be played as double features. I hope more filmmakers are crafting roles for her.
Mikey Madison Declined an Intimacy Coordinator on Anora, but Professionals Say There Should Always Be One: Actors and Directors ‘Can’t Speak for How Every Extra Felt’ [Variety] All of these Actors on Actors / Directors on Directors interviews are so weird. The Mikaela Madison Rosberg controversy where she said she turned down an intimacy coordinator and people on the world wide web decided she doesn’t get to decide (consent) things for herself…I’m surprised a huge detail is being left out of the chatter. I might be wrong, but I believe Sean Baker and his producer / wife Samantha Quan are both licensed intimacy coordinators, and they offered the Anora cast additional intimacy coordinators, and they said it was unnecessary. So it’s not that intimacy coordinators are optional, I don’t think they are. It’s that the filmmakers went to the trouble of training and licensing themselves to have the option of a lean set should they want or need, and their cast were down to stick with that plan and maintain a small, more private set. People love to reference that the IC isn’t just for the actors, but for the crew, but that’s honestly a real reach. Yes, technically true. But not on Anora. This is a tight knit group of friends who have worked together before. The idea of bringing in a new person, with energy and culture and temperament they cannot vouch for…sounds way more potentially uncomfortable for Madison and Mark Eidelstein. I hope Sean Baker claps back at the keyboard jockeys and tells them to STFU. Or let Samantha Quan do the talking in this case perhaps.
Brady Corbet and Sean Baker on Why It’s Hard Shooting Movies Like The Brutalist and Anora in America and Why Obsessing Over Box Office Is Trump Coded [Variety]
SUBTSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
Write your spec scripts now. This is a cool article.
WATCH
Homestead [wide] Another religious movie from the crazies at Angel Studios but this is a post-apocalyptic one? I’m kinda interested. This might be my first religious fanatic visit to the movies.
Two animation nightmares:
Sonic 3 [wide]
Mufasa: The Lion King [wide] Jenkins finally out of his misery at least.
And a good animated movie.
Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl [Film Linc + IFC]
The Room Next Door [Film Linc] I hated this movie so much.
Herzog’s Theater of Thought [Film Forum]
The Magnificent Ambersons in 35mm, The New World in 35mm, Hardcore w/ Paul Schrader, Elle, Megalopolis, and more at [Roxy]
Curators’ Choice 2024 [MoMI] Some great pics this weekend and next. Post Christmas trip to Arrakis in 70mm?
See It Big: Let It Snow [MoMI]
JAN 3: SE7EN returns to theaters in IMAX for its 30th anniversary.
JAN 19: New York Jewish Film Festival 2025—lineup has been announced on [Film Linc]
STREAMING
Andrea Arnold’s Bird coming to [MUBI] on the 23rd.
MORE TOMORROW
January on the [Criterion Channel]
ON OUR MIND
From Darkness to Light documentary recording that aired this week on TCM. This will likely never come out otherwise. Illegal download here, highly recommend. One of many sorta holy grail film history stories, but…for reasons…this will disappear. Premiered at Venice. [Twitter]
Loser behavior.
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Conversation w/ Joel Kim Booster, Michaela Watkins, Justin Kuritzkes.
Maestros of Giallo dinner party.
A24 and SG trolling me further with this Queer print for sale. [A24 Store]
Deeper Into Movies Top 20 of 2024. Well done. Ours next week.
Stay winning O’Shea Jackson Jr.
Could be cool. Their first movie was expertly crafted nonsense. But maybe they can elevate and maintain the craft.
THREAD: Some thoughts in the wake of the 4K release of Interstella 5555 [Twitter]
What the fuck is this?
When you see the new Superman trailer…
The TL;DR of what it means is that movie people hate James Gunn…some guy tried to get him canceled for offensive past tweets while he was making one of the Marvel movies…he got fired…actors protested and he got hired back I think…or maybe he went straight to DC to direct Suicide Squad or something…and then he eventually got handed the reins of DC universe or whatever. And now he’s directing Superman. So the sabotage backfired and the man has more power than ever.
CONT. FROM ABOVE
Brats the Andrew McCarthy doc not on Charli XCX, but on “The Brat Pack” of the 1980s. Demi Moore is in it. Swoon.
I watched Brats. So funny. Demi Moore is incredible of course. Andrew McCarthy is a super traumatized guy. It’s such a strange thing, like all these people basically being like…yeah, it’s totally a thing, yeah, we all agree, we, just, don’t care, and never did. And Andrew McCarthy waited 30 years to validate all of this. There’s no real revelations. You can watch it as a curio of the era, or you can watch it as a sorta psychological exploration of McCarthy’s insecurity. It’s a nice watch all in all, sincerely, it’s just a weird thing to do.
Kraven and the failure of B superheroes:
It’s really annoying seeing the analysis after Kraven: The Hunter failed miserably at box office. So many takes saying this failure is about how audiences don’t want B characters, B movie stars, etc. No. They don’t want garbage movies.
Audiences responded to Venom with Tom Hardy, an actor who nobody that watches idiot comic book has heard of (no they didn’t watch because he played Bane nor Max, they don’t identify him that way)…because Kelly Marcel and he came up with a novel and fun entry point and character. The movies were dumb but fun. Probably the best escapist nonsense comic book movies of the whole era. You don’t need to know anything going in, you don’t need to think while watching, and you don’t even have to wash off after, because you already forgot. But you had fun for the two hours. That’s why Venom was successful.
Audiences responded to Deadpool, still a B character even after the movies, because Ryan Reynolds successfully made it into a comedy with heart, along with the action guys from The Matrix and John Wick and whatnot going off on their craziest ideas.
Sony never had a decent serious comic book movie outside of Spiderman. They attempted a few times, they all sucked. That’s it. Simple as that. Kraven would have been Black Panther, and Aaron Taylor-Johnson would have been Chadwick Boseman…if it were good. But JC Chandor abandoned his epic goat three movie career beginning (Margin Call, A Most Violent Year, All is Lost)…with a garbage Netflix action movie, and a garbage comic book action movie. He got lost himself. Same with Morbius and Madame Web. Jared Leto and Dakota Johnson are absolutely sufficient movie stars enough to carry a franchise…if it’s good. You cannot argue that Tom Hardy is bigger than them, and that’s why Venom got to three very successful movies, vs their failing to land one. These are really stupid takes that are driven by weird ulterior motives to steer the narrative and industry in preferred directions. Almost ideological. Or down the line, it’s the straight up sheep following ignorant takes.
It’s a pair of ulterior motives I guess. Nobody at the studios wants to say they did a bad job, made bad movies, and that’s why they failed. They aren’t arguing they made good movies…they’re just making the focus that the movies failed because X, Y, Z, other than bad writing, bad directing, bad acting, bad production, bad studio exec development, etc. So they skip the criticism by arguing the movies would have failed anyway. Not true. Kraven has a wide open runway right now for adult action movie. It’s up against a buncha kids movies. If it were good, people would’ve showed up. And the critics just want different kinds of movies, because they’re generally less powerful within the Marvel machine. They can’t really break a movie, nor kill it. It’s not like critics made Venom a success, but they couldn’t kill it either. Audiences dug it, and they showed up, critical approval or not. Journalists, outside for the few Marvel fanboy bro journalists, don’t want these movies to dominate culture anymore. Critics are very important when it comes to thinking person’s movies. And even just original movies in general. Studios have managed to cut straight to audiences with these franchises. It’s become a game of…this thing is gonna go, do you want in or not? Ie they select what channels and people will be part of their marketing, if it’s not one it’ll be another. There is no counter balance. So a buncha journalists hop on the bandwagon, and receive clicks and relevance and access in return. Those who don’t parrot the studios directives are just not invited, and their negative takes have little impact. Journalists want to go back to a world where they steer audiences toward good stuff and away from bad stuff. So they argue it’s a systemic and directional failure, not just that the movie failed because audiences hated it, irrespective of what it’s certified critical reception was.
The Netflix year-end movies. Not the movies of year-end on Netflix. “The Netflix.” Important distinction.
Maria is great. Watch Maria. I watched it again this week since it’s streaming.
I really liked Anna Kendrick’s Woman of the Hour. Autumn Best is really good. Solid scenes with actual thought put into the visual landscapes. Well cast.
Finally watched Emilia Perez.
The plot of a German opera in the style of an Italian opera. It doesnt hit very hard. Is it officially based on an opera? I didn’t see. It said original I think. I agree with the approach to race through the beats, make everything flow in that classic Hollywood surreal way where every single scene is entirely expository yet also embody it with spectacle. And the story is special enough to be worth making and mean something. But it just doesn’t hit hard, and it’s arguably offensive and dangerous. The treatment of such literally deadly serious topics with such frivolity has upset actual Mexicans such as Rodrigo Prieto. The movie surrounds two major life or death topics—narco state and trans lives. I think the thinking here was along the lines of Roberto Benigni’s Life is Beautiful, but I think it lands closer to Jerry Lewis’ The Day the Clown Cried. The presentation leads one to feel levity around these topics, that it’s not that bad, almost a fantasy. Kinda like Wolf of Wall Street without the downfall, given that the 10 minute run time downfall is a total copout.
They wait until the final 20 minutes to introduce conflict. It’s pure fairytale prior. The suspense for me did not lie within wondering if the past would come back to haunt them, it was more thinking about the filmmakers, if they would maintain this nonsense fairytale, or if they would inject any realism or darkness. They avoid all realism and darkness by copping out and making the wife be the problem, for all of 10 minutes. No past violence comes back. No cartels. Nobody asks about the money nor this person’s history, despite the publicity. The kids are not characters. Nobody’s really a character. Zoe Saldana starts the movie complaining about her work being the sewer and her love life the desert, continues that, ends with taking care of her friend’s kids. We’re left to tell ourselves that resolves her? Because that’s where the movie ends. And everyone else dies. And that’s it. I don’t really know what else to say. It’s so light. So easy.
This isn’t spectacle nor suspension of disbelief. This is taking very serious horrific topics and making them light. I think it would be one thing if Mexicans did it, but why do these random people need to? Jacques Audiard is French. Zoe Saldana is from New Jersey. Karla Sofia Gascon is from Spain. Edgar Ramirez is Venezuelan even though he’s played every ethnicity of Spanish speaking human. What’s up with Edgar Ramirez’ career that he does this? Is it just that he respects Audiard so much to play a less than one-dimensional character who impacts the action of the narrative perhaps more than anyone, without actually getting to do anything. Three scenes, probably five lines. Get this. The most Mexican person in the movie is Selena Gomez!!! She’s part Mexican, from Texas, and kinda spoke Spanish as a kid allegedly.
My position on the whole who gets to tell stories argument is…whoever does a good job. I get really annoyed when non-Jews play Jewish roles, and make Jewish story movies…except when they’re good. Like I read that Joe Estherhaz book about his developing the Judah Maccabee story for Mel Gibson, and even with all things considered, I wish we got to see that movie. It would have been amazing. Mel Gibson, racist asshole he is, is a fantastic actor and director. His Judah Maccabee movie would have ROCKED. I get more antsy about this when an interloper decides to tell someone else’s story…and does a bad job…or disrespects them. That’s the issue here. The movie does not hone in on the essence of either of these conflicts and reveal anything for us. It’s a pretty random setting and narrative for a spectacle movie. The spectacle is just fine too. Nothing classic. Like the benefit duet number where Saldana dances on tables…it’s fine…but not a reason to make this movie.
I wasn’t excited for this one, hence why I skipped it at Cannes, and waited this long to watch, and yeah, it’s not much. Zoe Saldana is as good as she can be, and as good as she’s been, since she’s otherwise generally a cartoon. I really do like her attitude in the musical scenes. Karla Maria Gascon is so cool in act one, but afterwards lacks anything. She’s just a vessel for the action and feelings to continue. She lacks any conflict whatsoever, being a kinda omniscient figure who can do anything without consequence. Until there’s inexplicable consequence, because the movie has to end somehow. Saldana has all the emotions of the movie, but doesn’t get to resolve them. Selena Gomez is one dimensional. The girlfriend has no reason to exist.
Carry On. It's no Rebel Ridge. But it's get-through-able. It's a better movie if it starts with the scene where he shouts all the instructions at Deadwyler as he runs away. There's a cool Parallax View kinda movie in there if Egerton dies and all she knows is that burst of info she scribbled notes on. And she got one piece slightly wrong or backwards or something and she sees something that makes her realize and she puts together that it's a different flight or something. I know Netflix wouldn't give us this but the aftermath with Deadwyler haunted by the partial info she can't put the rest of the pieces together on...that's the cool movie. And she hunts down Jason Bateman eventually. That's the movie we wanted. Funny Taron Egerton doing his Tom Cruise running impression with the black shirt. I feel so bad for Danielle Deadwyler that she had to act opposite Sofia Carson. These are people in different stratospheres. Deadwyler deserves to get paid the money but she should be up for awards annually. Sofia Carson is a Disney channel person I think. Just unfortunate pairings. Even for that one scene.
No Good Deed (I think that’s what it was called, I honestly can’t remember and don’t care to check). I watched a little of the Lisa Kudrow Ray Romano show because I wanted to see Denis Leary. It’s crazy how things get written with buzz words and trending topics and phrases into the scripts. It must be so strange acting in these, like normally if you get a line a little off, it’s no big deal, it’s about saying the essence of the communication. In a show like this, well, a Netflix show, no word is arbitrary, because they need to signal to the kids that they talk like them. You can’t use synonyms or paraphrases. You have to talk exactly like the Netflix tells you to talk. Wild there’s no checks and balances against them using a flip of the Succession score as their theme music. It’s cool how much Linda Cardellini works. She’s good. Cool to see her making out with Shane from The L Word. The reversal of types, with Cardellini playing the wacko and Shane—default world name apparently Katherine Moennig—playing the straight (still gay, just straightforward) is really fun. The guy who talked weird in the Jake Gyllenhaal Apple show is really fun to watch play a totally different type here. Impressive. His mom is awesome too. The only pair who absolutely do not work, like they’re on a different show, is Ilana Glazer and Poppy Liu, their banter is entirely adults trying to talk Gen Z written by AI. Would be really cool if someone built a comeback role for Luke Wilson. He’s fine here, but totally underused. Meanwhile his brother is playing Matt Rife’s dad in basically the Travis Scott movie. Jesus Christ. The Hitler Kudrow joke is incredible. And overall, the Jewish references are really good. Denis Leary really elevates the whole thing. Ray Romano is really good, I wish he did more. His movie at Tribeca was really nice. I don’t even remember if it was released.
Thank u for this correct Emilia Perez take