What is film?
It's a question that's getting increasingly trickier to answer.
THE QUOTE 🎬 💬
“Close your mouth, please, Michael. We are not a codfish.”
hint: sick burn from the coolest nanny to ever nanny
THINK THOUGHTS 💭
In addition to the usual, I have an additional film recommendation this week.
Except the term “film” is being used quite liberally here. It’s a video created by a couple of journalists at the Wall Street Journal and a few AI platforms.
It’s only a few minutes, but it is much more robust than what could’ve been created six months ago. Surrounding the piece the journalists give context on how they built it and their intent behind creating it. As with many things AI at this point, especially video based, it’s more “look at what this could do!!!” than “look at what this did is actually did.”
But while what these AI platforms can create is impressive, it’s still generally, well, bad. What you’re watching is the potential for emotion, not actual emotion.
Google is to “blame” for the flurry of recent videos as they recently launched a tool that allows you to create 8 second videos - with audio (←a significant change).
But while it’s only been a few weeks, everything I’ve seen so far has been yeah, pretty bad. But bad is relative. Maybe bland is a better word. The common term that’s being bandied about on the internet is “slop.” The WSJ team said they worked hard to create something beyond that, something with heart. But it’s still slop imho.
Now, that doesn’t mean things will stay this way for long. It was only around a year ago that Will Smith couldn’t not eat his fingers while eating pasta. So I expect the quality to increase rapidly, but as we’re seeing with AI, it’s still very much about intention. You can ask AI to create something emotional, but if you don’t imbue it with actual emotion…
Slop in, slop out as they say (do they say that?).
NEWSY BITS 👾
Memorial Day Box Office Record Breaker! ‘Lilo & Stitch’ Debuts to Massive $183 Million, ‘Mission: Impossible’ Scores Series-Best $77 Million - “Lilo & Stitch earned more in four days than Snow White did during its entire box office run.“ Recency bias from moviegoers, clearly. - Variety
Christopher McQuarrie Says He’s Cracked the Story for ‘Top Gun 3’: “It’s Already in the Bag” - McQuarrie has directed the last four Mission Impossible movies and wrote Top Gun: Maverick. - The Hollywood Reporter
Why Is IMAX Suddenly Everywhere? - “suddenly” is the definition of hyperbole, but it does feel like we’re seeing it more. And you are, because it’s intentional. IMAX and studios are working together to promote the format (which is murky at best as to what “IMAX” means) in *ahem* large part because it’s a more profitable format. - The New York Times
As George Lucas’s ‘Starship’ Museum Nears Landing, He Takes the Controls - I just saw this walking back from an Angel City FC (soccer) game a couple weeks ago. And as the article notes, I have no idea exactly what it’ll end up being, but I’m still all, “that looks pretty, I wanna go.” - The New York Times
NOTABLE NEW RELEASE(S) 🎟 & 📺
Mountainhead
What is it about watching really really really rich people that fascinates us? Is it so we can feel some power over them, i.e. judgement, since it so often feels like the mega-wealthy have an outside influence on the world around us?
Wouldn’t you think we’d want to avoid watching a pseudo version of Rubert Murdoch, the five time married owner of News Corp, bastion of conservatism, and family? Yet Succession was a popular show. And the creator of that show, Jesse Armstrong, made a movie, called Mountainhead, also about disgustingly wealthy people. Well, not people. Tech-bros. Who aren’t really people, right? They’re billionaires! They can’t have feelings. Cuz they have money. Right?!
I feel like that’s the kind of mentality you want going into this one. Personally I’m not in the “if you’re uber rich you’re automatically a shitty person” club. Now that doesn’t mean rich people can’t be shitty. They’re humans after all…
But I think you should let people show you who they are. And you’ll get that chance as these four tech-bros (Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman, Ramy Youssef and Cory Michael Smith who just starred in Saturday Night as Chevy Chase) congregate in a house named after an Ayn Rand novel.
While they’re writing their net worth across their nipples in the snow, the rest of the world starts to crumble around them. In large part because of them. But they’re rich, so they’re fine. Right?!
Guess you’ll have to watch and found out.
And judge of them of course.
Out: Saturday
Where: Max HBO Max
Details: 1 hr 43 mins | R | 🍅: 79%
Karate Kid: Legends
If you go back far enough, you’ll find a common ancestor between humans and chimpanzees. Just a cool 13 million years, give or take a few million.
You probably to don’t have to go back that far, but same goes for Kung Fu and Karate. In fact, Karate likely originated as a form of Kung Fu way back in the day.
Which means that even though the 1984 The Karate Kid (which duh, centered on Karate) and the 2010 The Karate Kid (which, counterintuitively, but yay brand equity, focused on Kung Fu) dealt in different forms of martial arts, they are at the core, the same thing.
And they really were! The ‘10 edition was a direct remake of ‘84, just set in China with Jackie Chan as the Mr. Miyagi stand in and Jaden Smith as the new Karate Kung Fu Kid. And it did really well. Made a bunch of money. Happy fun times for all.
But then the Cobra Kai show happened and the original storyline that started with Ralph “Crane Kicker” Macchio became hot again too so the producers were like, we need to merge these things that are the same, but different (yay intellectual property).
And this is that baby. It’s almost as if chimpanzees and humans merged back into one common animal. Which almost makes it sound like I’m promoting beastiality. I am not.
I’m just saying the thing that was once one thing, which became two things, is now one thing again. Which means it’s really just that first one thing again.
Got it?
Which means you’ll get bullies, training montages, scolding teachers, things going on and off again and yes, some Karate. And a bit of Kung Fu.
Woo hoo.
Out: Friday
Where: Movie Theaters
Details: 1 hr 34 mins | PG-12 | 🍅: 54%
Bring Her Back
Not gonna lie. When I first watched the trailer for this one I was like “Ummm creepy stuff, k, mom wants dead daughter back, ok ok, yup, fucked up VHS videos, mm hmm mm hmm, more creepy stuff, empty pool, more creepy stuff, stuffed animals aaand ok what the fuck was that?” Kinda reminded me of a more hardcore Australian Pet Sematary if I’m being honest.
Obviously after reading a bunch of reviews I have a better sense, but not like a massively better one. That’s in large part because critics say Bring Her Back, to use modern vernacular, is very much “vibes.”
But Latham, aren’t all movies trying to create a vibe?
Somewhat! But many movies are far more plot driven. And while this movie does indeed have a plot - orphans whose dad died suddenly, get adopted by woman (Sally Hawkins) who becomes increasingly more wacko - this one doesn’t seem like it’s trying to get you from point A to point B. It’s trying to get you to point crap your pants.
And it sounds like it just might do that (lots of love to theater workers 💩)!
It seems to be becoming a trend for directors Danny and Michael Philippou, this crap inducement, who “graduated” from YouTube videos to direct Talk to Me, another horror movie, where teenagers basically opened a portal to hell by engaging with a creepy hand figurine.
One difference here is that they have Sally Hawkins, an actor generally known for her achingly sweet and charming performances (see: The Shape of Water and the first two Paddington movies) who, per critics, almost single handedly creates the vibes as the adoptive mother. She’s apparently just that unnerving.
And isn’t that what you want from your horror movies? Coming away disturbed and needing to check your underwear in the bathroom post credits?
Out: Friday
Where: Theaters
Details: 1 hr 39 mins | R | 🍅: 91%
EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) 📝
Tornado - the director of Slow West, a great modern western is back (after a friggen decade) with his next movie. Also a western of sorts, but set in Britain and involving a revenge seeking daughter of a samurai. The reviews say it’s got some style and performances worth noting, but the plot may be a bit too thin for some. - Limited Movie Theaters Friday
THE WEEKLY TRAILER PLAYLIST ⏯
Good Fortune - Aziz Ansari’s directorial debut. Although it was almost his second - he was making a movie with Seth Rogen and Keke Palmer (also in this movie), but production was shut down after “inappropriate behavior” occurred on set involving Bill Murray. What does that have to do with Good Fortune, a movie about a “low rent” guardian angel helping out a dude see the good in life, but kinda fucking it up? Not much! But don’t you feel informed?
Elio - Pixar’s latest is gonna be out of this world. Literally.
KPop Demon Hunters - ummm, the title kinda says it all.