Thankful 2020
November 26, 2020
November 26, 2020
November 24, 2020
November 18, 2020
Sing it! We are floating in the Mini-Me *Oscar season. Some people are happy. Some less so. But it is undeniable that this is not just a two-month delay in the way things normally are (except at Netflix… and not really even there). We are in a shrunken season, with as many players that are […]
November 12, 2020
Working my way through DOC NYC 2020 this last couple weeks, I realize the multiple factors that are setting reactions to documentaries. First, there is content, and how each of us connects to that material. Something we didn’t know about something that fascinates us is always the “best” film. Something we know a bit about […]
November 9, 2020
Phew. The last time I wrote about the film and television industry, aside from Twitter, was three full weeks ago. Actions have taken place in the industry, but nothing foundational has really changed since then. That doesn’t mean that the losses haven’t hurt and the wins haven’t soothed all of us. NATO still should get […]
October 18, 2020
An article this weekend by A.O. Scott at the New York Times and a thread on Twitter by Ted Hope got me riled up. The Scott article is a mélange of consumer and critic judgements about the theatrical experience combined with assertions of how theatrical is seen within the finance of the industry, with almost […]
October 1, 2020
1. Mank – Your likely winner.NomadlandTenetDuneNews of the World C’mon C’mon (no date yet)ConnectedHillbilly ElegyThe Trial of The Chicago SevenThe United States vs. Billie Holiday Possible Slot ReplacementsSoulNo Time To DieMa Rainey’s Black BottomThe Outpost
September 30, 2020
I was as generous as I could be. 38 movies seems to be the maximum that could be in contention for everything but Shorts, Animation, International, and Documentary. This includes 6 titles that are not currently scheduled to premiere this year, in theaters or out, or which have no announced their awards ambitions. Now… remove, […]
September 23, 2020
And here we go… pretending that everything is normal as we take the small handful of movies that would be considered the lower tier of Oscar candidates, and even then, only a small part of that tier, and handing out Oscars like Sour Patch Kids (the here’s-a-sweet-for-your-oddball-screening candy of choice) because what the hell, we […]
September 17, 2020
Let’s look at the movie industry’s situation from another perspective. *The car renters of the film business are moviegoers.*The rental car companies of the film business are the production and distribution companies.*The renters and owners of the parking lots where the automobile waits for pick-ups-and returns is the exhibition business. You can’t force someone to […]
September 16, 2020
Let’s start again with… THE UNTOUCHABLES (alphabetical order, as of July) A Quiet Place II Black Widow Coming 2 America The Conjuring 3 Connected The Croods 2 Dune The Eternals Free Guy The King’s Man The Last Duel Mulan No Time To Die Soul Tenet Top Gun Maverick West Side Story Wonder Woman 1984 Okay. […]
September 16, 2020
I have avoided writing constantly about the immediate prospects of exhibition and studios because we didn’t get to the next significant event between the last Movie Content Scoreboard in July and the Tenet/Mulan experiments of the last couple weeks. I will deliver “Episode III – After The Fall” soon. But I wanted to keep the […]
September 8, 2020
The Academy under Dawn Hudson continues to be a slow-motion car wreck. It does one thing really well. It covers its ass. African Americans raged on Twitter about #OscarSoWhite. So The Academy responded by announcing its 2020 effort to bring more women and people of color into The Academy. Without getting into the problems of […]
September 3, 2020
The opening of Mulan, after a magic drone ride through the lush, green Chinese countryside with some wise male voice over about the story we are about to embark on, reminded me of Beauty & The Beast. The camera swoops into a Hakka walled village, establishing the town of personalities and, indeed, Mulan, who is […]
September 2, 2020
Now and again, after a lot of digging – and we are doing more digging than ever – you find a simple, perfect gem. Such is The Comey Rule. We have been down this road before. And not without some real aesthetic value. There is an entire series of films by Oliver Stone, but the […]
August 23, 2020
I thought it would be worth doing a deeper dive into Unhinged‘s weekend “win” because the trades are being indulgent in their coverage and this is the start of a few weeks, at least, of the effort to reopen theatrical. The most generous reading of the Unhinged weekend is that the film did $2,195 per […]
August 3, 2020
With the release of the Toronto International schedule a couple weeks ago, the unveiling of the Telluride un-schedule today, Venice’s refusal to do any streaming for media or anyone else, and New York announcing that it will open with a TV series (not unlike TIFF opening with a movie The Academy apparently won’t qualify as […]
July 23, 2020
I am beyond sick of reading about every minor move by any studio with any theatrical movie being hailed as a paradigm-changing event. It’s absurd. But I realized I haven’t broken down what there is and where it is likely to land. So here we go. I made a list of 107 studio releases (Disney […]
July 14, 2020
I started writing this two weeks ago. I was interrupted and never finished… for all the reasons I started writing it. I am not afraid to shoot off my mouth. I have strong opinions. And even if you disagree with my analysis, I have educated, researched opinions. But all the thoughts cascading through my mind […]
June 24, 2020
I love Jon Stewart. He is earnest and smart and funny and on the same side of politics as me. But he’s not a very good director. Not everyone has that skill set. And it shows in the most basic ways. How he frames a single, a two-shot, a joke. How he likes his films […]
| November 26, 2020
22 Weeks To *Oscar: The Politics
| November 24, 2020
It’s The Most Wacky Awards Time Of Year
| November 18, 2020
| September 8, 2020
DP/30 Audio: Bombshell, Jay Roach
| December 13, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Jonathan Majors
| December 4, 2019
DP/30 Audio: The Mustang, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
| December 4, 2019
