Déjà who?
In This Week's Edition: Dev Patel crushes some skulls for a purpose and we have a case of Catholic horror repeat.
THE QUOTE 🎬 💬
“Well, whatever you do, however terrible, however hurtful, it all makes sense, doesn't it? In your head. You never meet anybody that thinks they're a bad person.”
hint: there’s a new TV series starring the “hot priest” from Fleabag coming out soon that’s based on the same book as this movie
THINK THOUGHTS 💭
Well shit, I think it’s actually happening.
Paramount is selling Paramount. …..? Right, which part. Well, if the reporting is true, all of it. As in the movie studio (Paramount Pictures), the broadcast network (CBS), the cable channels (BET, MTV, Nickelodeon, Showtime, Paramount Network), the streaming service (Paramount +) and everything else Shari Redstone’s father, Sumner Redstone, cobbled into one giant media company (context: the Redstone family, of whom Shari is the head, owns the controlling shares of Paramount Global, even though it’s a public company, thus, they essentially own it).
Except “giant” doesn’t appear to be giant enough these days when you’re competing against even larger conglomerates (see: Disney and all it’s massive brands, the WB Discovery duo etc.). And yet that’s not stopping David Ellison, the head of Skydance, a production company which has worked closely with Paramount (Pictures) over the years to make big movies like the Mission: Impossible franchise and Top Gun: Maverick, from engaging in exclusive talks to acquire.
But wait, how does a little ol’ production company buy a massive entertainment corporation you might ask. Well, you’ve probably heard the term “nepo babies,” but have you heard of “billy babies?” You haven’t, because I just made it up. But they’re essentially nepo babies, but instead of getting a guaranteed movie audition, they get dollars. Billons of them. See, David Ellison’s father is Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle. And he rich. Like rich rich. No, like suuuuper fuckin rich rich. And Larry gave his son some money back in the day to start his producing efforts. I know nothing of the financial details, but it’s been around for 20 years so David probably hasn’t completely screwed it up. And thus his father is apparently helping to bring together the capital for this much larger deal.
But so what, one massively rich person is selling a thing to another massively rich person. Whoop-dee-fuckin-doo. Well, one big aspect is that everything seems like it’ll be sold together. But why is this better than it being sold off into parts you might ask. First off, it’s hard to say it still won’t happen even if Skydance completes the deal. But assuming it doesn’t all get split apart, plenty of people will be pleased in the fact the status quo will be retained in some fashion. Sure, there are new owners, but it’s still someone who seems to want to own and run a media company vs an investment firm who may try and maximize every asset for a return.
But honestly, I know people get nostalgic for things like the Paramount (Pictures) lot and would hate to see it turn into just a backlot where you shoot stuff and not an entire working studio. Or even the days where studio heads “controlled” the town and not activist shareholders. But I think any trepidations are more just that people are uncomfortable with things being different. Because the good old days weren’t necessarily that good. I mean hell, the fact I even have to distinguish between all the various forms of the brand “Paramount” says things have been different for a long time.
Plus, do we think the average consumer, even going back to the initial days of Hollywood, really truly cared who, or what was providing them the entertainment? Do you think they thought about it much? I’d guess not too much. I know there’s a subset of people who do, especially those who work in Hollywood, but ultimately people want to be entertained and someone’s gotta entertain them. And maybe it’ll be a dude with a really rich father, or maybe it’ll be a board of directors. Either way they’ll probably both keep mining “IP” until the consumers stop buying that shit.
But regardless, changes, they are afoot.
🦶(← a foot!)
NEWSY BITS 👾
‘Matrix 5’ in the Works With Drew Goddard as Director, Lana Wachowski as Executive Producer (full article): it’s not at all surprising and kinda surprising at the same time. “Not at all” because of course a studio wants to keep a popular franchise active. But “surprising” because the last movie wasn’t received all that well by fans so there’s some pretty big risk in having fans go “….k?” upon release. I’m curious if only from a sociological perspective. - Variety
EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) 📝
The Old Oak - the final film from British director Ken Loach, known for earnest “small” stories about the working class - this time he follows a connection built between a group of Syrian refugees and the denizens of a small town that’s in rough shape. Most of the reviews say it’s yet another solid effort, even if it may be a bit overly sentimental for some. Playing in Limited Theaters Friday
Música - a kinetic musical rom-com based on the life of writer / director / star Rudy Mancuso (a dude you might know if you spend too much time on the internet) who has a form of synesthesia where sounds in the day turn into rhythms in his head. Sounds distracting. Turns out it is. But based on the few reviews so far it also forms the basis for a pretty compelling movie. Playing on Amazon Prime this Friday
Parachute - good chance you’ve seen or know of Pitch Perfect. Which means you probably know Brittany Snow, who, in her first time directing, tells the story of a (potential?) couple - Courtney Eaton from Yellowjackets and Thomas Mann from Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - who may love each other, but not themselves. Some pretty good reviews saying it’s somewhat messy, but ultimately well acted and emotionally resonate. VOD this Friday
NOTABLE NEW RELEASES 🎟 & 📺
Monkey Man
The story behind the story for every movie that comes into existence is so much more than one can explain in a silly little blurb. Sure, there are the massive movies greenlit on a studio head’s whim, but even they still likely have to travel a dark and circuitous path before they ultimately reach the bright lights of the marquee.
On the surface, you might look at Monkey Man and go “oh, cool, another John Wick clone.” Which is an understandable, if not entirely accurate assessment. And it’s one writer, director and star Dev Patel is keenly aware that people will be making as there is a wink and a nod to that franchise contained within this movie.
But to hear Patel tell it, he’s worked for over ten years to make his India set revenge tale. A decade which saw the movie shutdown by “the bullshit,” a loss of shooting locations and stunt coordinators, a broken hand, getting acquired AND dropped by a distributor (Netflix), finding another (Universal) after Jordan Peele saw / loved it and ultimately culminated in a standing ovation at its SXSW premiere (which was followed by a load of great reviews) and an adorable story about representation.
And in all that time, yeah, John Wick became a massive franchise. And you can imagine Patel cribbed a few ideas from the Keanu Reeves led series, but he also borrowed from Bruce Lee and other cult action movies like The Raid - although he says Lee was his main inspiration as he identified with him on account of their non-white heritages and sinewy frames.
But Patel wanted to bring something original to the genre as well. A sort of cultural purpose. In interviews he’s talked about how he wanted to make not just an action movie, but one that conveys a message about the massive inequities seen in India at large - both monetarily and culturally - and a sense of place for his ethnic homeland. To that end he framed his character’s journey around Hanuman, a god in Hinduism which (surprise) resembles a monkey, but stands for a number of honorable traits like: Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Devotion and Self-Discipline (thanks Wikipedia).
Uh, Latham, that all sounds really cool and all and I’m very happy for Mr. Patel, I really am, but just wanna check in and ask… am I still gonna get a ton of cool fight scenes where people’s faces get smashed in repeatedly until they should be unrecognizable piles of flesh?
You bet your italicized question asking ass you will.
Phew, ok, awesome. Carry on.
Honestly, I think that’s about it. Feel like with the above and a quick gander at the hyped up trailer, you should have you decision making material. Enjoy my friend.
Out: Friday
Where: Theaters
Details: 1 hr 53 mins | R | 🍅: 93%
The First Omen
Whenever the discussion of two movies that have seemingly very similar plot lines releasing in close proximity to each other comes up, my mind always goes to the 1997 duo Dante’s Peak and Volcano. Which is weird, because I haven’t seen either of those movies. I don’t know, the brain imprints what it imprints. 🧠🤷♂️ But there are plenty other examples of Hollywood competing with itself by releasing two like movies in the same calendar year, e.g. A Bug’s Life & Ants, Armageddon & Deep Impact, Friends with Benefits & No Strings Attached. (twenty smackers1 says you can’t tell me which pretty couple starred in which movie correctly for the latter two without googling)
I’m not sure where The First Omen and Immaculate, released just two weeks ago, will settle in my grey matter, but in this exact moment, I honestly have a difficult time telling them apart. I mean I understand one stars “it” actor Sydney Sweeney and the other is a prequel to the classic Omen, but beyond that all I see is nuns, a (typically) shady Catholic church, and the notion of some damn demon baby that’ll like eat your skin off and shit (I may be exaggerating. although maybe not).
But this doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing and even makes a lot of sense. Because what these two movies have in common, the notion of an outside entity forcing women to conceive against their will, we (as in the people who live in the same country I do) all have in common now. Because you can’t escape the timing of the movies’ releases and current political events, i.e. the (bullshit) overturning of Roe v Wade.
So go to one of these Catholic body horror movies, hell, go to both, scare yourself and let out a wail in the safety of a darkened theater. It doesn’t matter if it’s out of fear or out of frustration. Maybe after a bit of artistic catharsis you’ll feel better.
Or maybe not, but at least you’ll have kept your mind off of things for a couple hours.
Out: Friday
Where: Theaters
Details: 2 hrs 0 mins | R | 🍅: TBD
TRAILERS! ⏯
Cuckoo - a full trailer for the Hunter Schafer (from Euphoria) and Dan Stevens movie that looks like a mashup of artsy horror and a modern self-aware dark comedy.
Unfrosted - For Jerry Seinfeld’s directorial film debut he chose… a battle over the creation of the Pop-Tart? Yup. Don’t worry, he got LITERALLY EVERY COMEDIAN EVER to join him. So like, that’s cool I guess.
and by smackers, I mean kisses 😚