TALK IS CHEAP, MOTHERF*CKER
Reunion Newsletter [4.25.25]
REUNION LIVE #2 is TUESDAY MAY 6. It’s everything I realized I could do from last time…done on purpose this time. Midway through making the first one, I realized all the pieces connected and shared common threads, themes…this one I built it from scratch that way. I’m really excited about the cast I’m collaborating with, and the night will close with a piece from filmmaker Alexandra Qin that ties it all together. It’s crafted be a complete thought—a question with an answer. Like a movie, but told through different pieces that play off one another. I’m very very excited to show it to everyone. I hope the room is just as crazy packed as last time because the performances will rely on it. It’s gonna be heavy, gonna be wacky, gonna be weird. Hope to see you there.
Also, we just added a special one night only screening of Gazer with filmmakers Ryan J. Sloan and Ariella Mastroianni on April 30, including a scene from the film performed live from our first event, followed by a Q&A. Get your tickets!
A few thoughts on Knicks playoffs.
I always get annoyed when I see “[X] vs. Everybody” shirts. There should only be “Detroit vs. Everybody,” that’s the original, and it means something. When people rip it off, it just makes life stupid. Detroit truly is versus everybody. The city has had such a tough go of things, there’s truly nowhere with a comparable history, the slogan is amazing, and I wish people would stop stealing Detroit’s flavor.
That being saaaaaaiiiiddddd…last night was truly a remarkable potentially historically disastrous Detroit vs. Everybody including specifically the New York Knicks moment. In game 3 of the playoffs in Detroit, with .5 on the clock in the 4th, Knicks up 2, Jalen Brunson’s father and coach very clearly told him to miss the final free throw. The idea is Detroit gets the rebound, and has no time to call a time out, they must haul a full court shot right away, very low odds. Should he make the shot, they have a chance to inbound the ball and catch-and-shoot for the tie, still low odds, but very doable. Brunson intentionally misses the FT as the entire arena was knew he would…Knicks clear out of the box to avoid a foul…Detroit guys go for the rebound. The clock should not start until Detroit touches the ball. Everybody knows this, especially the scorekeeper in the Detroit arena. Yet, while the ball was in the air, long before anyone touched it, the clock started and the horn went off, ending the game, nullifying Detroit’s chance at getting a final shot off. Scoreboard malfunction is I believe the ruling, and since it was imminently Detroit ball, they get it on an inbound, and the clock resets. So now Detroit gets the inbound Knicks were trying to avoid, and on top of that, have a chance to win the game on their catch-and-shoot, rather than tie the game, had Brunson made the FT. Thankfully, Detroit throws the ball away and squanders the opportunity, and Knicks win anyway. But the point is the Detroit scorekeeper intentionally prematurely sounded the buzzer to avoid the game ending on the rebound, knowing they would reset the clock and give his team back the ball. This doesn’t happen at MSG. This happens in the arena constructed of Detroit vs. Everybody energy. Honestly, good for them. But I’m happy it didn’t work out. NYC would have started a nuclear war with Detroit and Techno would cease to exist. Sorry for people who don’t care about this, but woah, it was a wild moment.
The Talk is Cheap Motherf*cker subject alludes to my rant at bottom.
— Sean Glass @sdotglass
EVENTS (reunion.eventive.org )
April 30: Gazer @ Village East Angelika featuring Reunion Live short film [Tickets]
May 6: Reunion LIVE 2 [RSVP]
May 27: Reunion LIVE Actors Showcase [RSVP]
June 2: Reunion LIVE Tribeca [RSVP]
NEWS
The important stuff on the important stuff. TL;DR + links if you want more.
Sophie Thatcher and Charles Melton Join Nicolas Winding Refn’s Her Private Hell at Neon [Variety] FINALLY. This is news at the top of the food chain for a certain kind of person.
George Lucas and Steven Spielberg to Present Francis Ford Coppola’s 2025 AFI Life Achievement Award [IndieWire]
Francis Ford Coppola Unveils Megalopolis Graphic Novel [THR]
Cannes adds 16 films to Official Selection including Lynne Ramsay, Kristen Stewart, Ethan Coen titles [Screen Daily]
Short films and La Cinef Jury and selections of the 78th Festival de Cannes [Cannes]
TCM Classic Film Festival To Open With George Lucas And The Empire Strikes Back & More Popular Blockbusters Than Ever From Jaws To Back To The Future To Superman [Deadline]
How the TCM Classic Film Festival Is Programming to Draw in Social Media Enthusiasts, Multi-Generational Audiences and Major Guests [Variety]
Kanopy Is Releasing Its First Original Movie — and It’s Still Free with a Library Card [IndieWire]
The AI-generated movie What’s Next opens a fresh debate over AI filmmaking [Polygon]
‘Remain’ – Cover & Plot Reveal for M. Night Shyamalan x Nicholas Sparks Novel & Movie Collaboration [Bloody Disgusting]
Asghar Farhadi Sets Paris-Shot Film Parallel Tales With Isabelle Huppert, Virginie Efira, Vincent Cassel, Pierre Niney & Adam Bessa [Deadline] Also huge awesome news, not quite NWR level of excitement for proto-edgelord kids in their late 30s / early 40s like me, but still a big one. Cannot wait to see what he does with this cast.
Festival Programmers Pick Their 19 Favorite New Films Still in Need of Distribution [IndieWire]
Southampton Playhouse Announces Annual Gary Cooper Festival [IndieWire] Great to see the Southampton Playhouse already in full swing.
SUBSTACK RECOMMENDATIONS
WATCH
New York African Film Festival, May 7-31 [More Info]
The Lower East Side Film Festival, May 1-5 [More Info]
The Legend of Ochi [now wide]
Until Dawn [wide]
The Accountant 2 [wide] The inverse of everything we’ve become accustomed to, a movie that I would not go to a movie theater for, yet it’s exclusively in theaters, but I’d happily put it on to fall asleep to at home. This is exactly what Amazon Prime should be streaming as movie-of-the-week vibes.
Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith rerelease [wide]
Magic Farm, w/ filmmakers in person [Angelika]
On Swift Horse [Angelika]
April (Winner Special Jury Prize, 2024 Venice Film Festival) [Film Forum]
8 1/2, new 35mm print [Film Forum]
Drop Dead City, w/ filmmakers in person [IFC]
Pink Narcissus, new 4K restoration [IFC]
Withnail and I [IFC]
L.A. Rebellion: Then and Now series [Film Linc]
SEE IT BIG: STUNTS! series, featuring Cliffhanger, Police Story, Jackass, The Raid, and more [MoMI]
A Weekend with Tom Gunning: The Attractions of Cinema series, featuring films by Ken Jacobs, Stan Brakhage, M, and Flirt + Film Comment Live [MoMI]
MAY 1: I Know Catherine, the Log Lady [IFC]
MAY 2:
Pavements [Film Forum]
Bonjour Tristesse, w/ filmmaker in person [IFC]
Vulcanizadora [IFC]
MAY 9:
Caught by the Tides, w/ filmmaker in person [IFC]
STREAMING
Havoc [Netflix] Action auteur Gareth Evans returns to the (small) screen.
Babygirl [MAX]
Conclave [Prime]
No Other Land [Online]
Gladiator II [Prime]
Freaky Tales [VOD]
Tendaberry [MUBI]
Coming Soon to MUBI: Twin Peaks: The Return
ON OUR MIND
Great bit about music vs. film at 30 min mark.
Sinners 70mm IMAX film strip.
READ: Fun City: NYC Gets its Close-Up by J. Hoberman [Criterion]
Clickhole’s funny take on the Mikey Madison Star Wars news from last week.
Roger Deakins’ upcoming book, Reflections on Cinematography, is up for preorder.
Martje Grohmann on Werner Herzog.
Chicago getting a proper IMAX theater.
I have this filmmaker I’m trying to help sell their movie, and we want to do a buyers screening, invite distributors, press, programmers, etc. This person at this venue wants to book us for a talk, but not a screening. I asked pretty directly…why they care about the talk more than the screening. They explained that people feel really lost in the creative, and the talks help them feel more connected. So basically, the choice is to target the lost people over those actually making movies and steering the industry. That’s generous and all, but WTF ARE WE DOING WHEN WE VALUE TALKING ABOUT MOVIES OVER MOVIES!??!?!?! I’m sorry but are you F&$KING kidding me?
These people’s parents need to explain what’s happening to them. Back in the day, getting your proverbial foot in the door was extremely difficult, involved an impossible to predict or parse process around skill and luck. When you got your foot in the door, you knew what room it was, you knew who invited you (or allowed you to sneak in), you knew what to do upon entry. There were clear values and terms around how you stay in the room, move up a floor, or lose access to the whole building.
Now, barriers to entry don’t exist, everyone can get in touch with anyone, and we all have access to premium cameras and editing software. So with those things, people declare themselves FILMMAKERS!!! Or CREATIVES!!!! And they expect that with that declaration…work and fortune and glory and purpose and satisfaction will come. Not how the world works. Process is important. Thresholds are important.
GATEKEEPING is important. Gatekeeping is necessary! We need challenges, friction, obstacles…to learn, to get better, to be strong. And we need all those things to help us figure out who does what. Systems exist for reasons. Systems need to be formed around reasons. A film studio was never built by a random group of strangers who independently declared themselves competent for various roles, and formed a company.
I clearly love the democratization of information, and connecting anyone interested to all aspects of the film ecosystem within my abilities. I do this ridiculously detailed overlong newsletter literally every week for no money. But the point is to provide tools and knowledge for people to empower themselves. Give people the tools, tell em how they’re used…and send them on their way. See what they bring back from the hunt. Those who return with harvest for the village, they’re our hunters, and let’s supercharge those hunters and give them what they need to become the best possible hunters they can, rally around them, support them, enjoy the fruits of their labor—MOVIES!!! The others figure out different roles. We don’t need to provide therapy (fireside chats???) for those who aren’t good hunters. Just do something else! I’m sorry. Just. Maybe. Do. Something else. Either find the role in the film ecosystem you’re really good at, support the filmmakers, or…again, I’m sorry…you may have to consider doing something else. I cannot stand this participation trophy ecosystem we live amongst where everyone has unlimited chances to do anything they feel like doing, regardless of skill or result.
Stop listening to f*cking podcasts. Stop reading this dumbass newsletter too honestly. Who tf cares what I have to say? I’d rather you come to the show where I make things than read this. Go make your f*cking movie already! Stop networking. Movies are not for complacent people. It’s really really really hard—and it should be! If you’re gonna listen to some podcasts, go listen to Ryan Coogler, there’s 10+ interviews floating around from this past week on Sinners. Listen to the specific stories he tells about football, his dorm room, his neighborhood, Circuit City, couches he slept on…his foot in the door stories are so articulate. It’s incredible. Recognize the trajectory this person took. Find your version of that. Resonance! Everything this man went through that brought him to make Sinners was about resonance. He seems to have been floating around the world his whole life just feeling. When something resonated, he recognized that, examined, and made something of it. That’s the artistic process and human condition. Do that! Notice there are zero Ryan Coogler origin anecdotes about going to a networking event or industry talk and having an a-ha! moment. That stuff will numb your soul and just takes up space.
