Head of Film Strategy & Development
@EDGLRD
. NYU prof. Cinema. New media. Space. Ex-IndieWire. Texan/Colombian/Seattleite/New Yorker. Former Blue Check.
One of my favorite moments from the
#Oscars
last night was when SPIDER-MAN: INTO THE SPIDERVERSE won and somebody in the row in front of me kept shouting “YES” throughout the speech and it turned out it was
@terrycrews
.
“How do you tell the Safdie brothers apart? Well, Josh looks like a yeshiva student who might shoot you, and Benny looks like a friendly dentist.” Adam Sandler
#NYFCC
Yes,
#RRR
was snubbed today by India, which did not select it as its Oscar submission. But the awards season journey for the movie is just getting started:
via
@indiewire
Revisited PARASITE tonight with a rapt audience in Williamsburg. When a certain character’s head hits the wall, someone in the audience yelled out, “CINEMA!”
#RRR
director
@ssrajamouli
says he started out making films for Indians and their reactions in theaters. “With RRR I saw the same kind of reception in the West…they were reacting the same way that Indians did.” Praises “the pure joy of watching the film in the theater.”
#NYFCC
Spoke to
#RRR
director
@ssrajamouli
about colonialist bad guys, finishing his action-adventure epic during COVID, and why he wants to make a Hollywood movie. This Best Picture contender gets a big IMAX screening tonight in LA:
@IndieWire
Kudos to this year’s NYU cinema studies majors. I was happy to record a message to this year’s grads, as did Christopher Nolan,
@rianjohnson
,
@edgarwright
, Karyn Kusama and others. Well deserved! Go change the world.
Wes Anderson, honored at Venice, says Spike Lee is one of the reasons he became a filmmaker. “I tried my best just to follow his roadmap, which didn’t work.” He adds “my movie today is only 40 minutes long so as soon as it gets rolling, it’s almost done.”
#Venezia80
Nice, searing
@BarryJenkins
speech at
#NBRawards
: “Literally right fucking now the president is talking about walls and borders...Fuck him.” He cites immigrant filmmakers Bing Liu, Chloe Zhao, and
@AlfonsoCuaron
.
READY PLAYER ONE feels like Spielberg watched a ton of Luc Besson movies and decided to outdo them. In terms of pure spectacle, it’s the most astonishing thing he’s done. Never underestimate Steve.
#SXSW
“I think we have to question if we’re arguing about the size of the screens or the size of the ideas.” Guillermo del Toro kicks off this two-day symposium on the future of filmmaking for the 75th anniversary of
#Cannes2022
.
@RealGDT
The whole damn world was talking about GAME OF THRONES, but the real masterpiece from this past weekend is the stunning Bill Hader-directed episode of BARRY.
ROMA is superb — devastating until it's life-affirming, gorgeous and enigmatic, loaded with so many subtle details that it actually makes sense to have it on Netflix so you can revisit it many times over. But at least try to see it on the big screen once.
I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is loaded with mysterious references — film, literature, theater galore — so I asked Charlie Kaufman to help explain it all. Watch this fascinating, cryptic movie first, then circle back for this primer on what it all means:
JOKER doesn’t reinvent the comic book movie, but it’s certainly the scariest one — a taut psychological thriller w/a few horror movie twists. Joaquin Phoenix, though, yikes: Looks like he stepped out of THE CABINET OF DR CALIGARI, or maybe he’s still trapped there. Astounding.
CAPERNAUM, a Lebanese drama from last year's
#Cannes
, grossed $1.6 million in the U.S.
It made over $12 million in China LAST WEEKEND.
WTF?
As the industry descends on
#Cannes2019
, I took a look at China's potential for arthouse cinema: via
@indiewire
Janes Baldwin’s IF BEALE STREET COULD TALK is a staggering achievement in lyrical storytelling loaded with ravishing visuals and rich with ideas. It’s impossible to read it without picturing a sumptuous cinematic experience. Barry Jenkins has made that movie.
#TIFF18
#RIP
Jean-Luc Godard, maestro of cinema, eternal badass. He challenged the world with images and chronicled its decline. He WAS the movies, and they will live forever.
“I don’t really understand what’s going on. Lady Gaga is here and now Jim Jamusch is giving me award. I’m in disbelief.” -Hamaguchi accepting
#NYFCC
for best film/DRIVE MY CAR. Says NYC birthed his favorite filmmaker, Cassavetes. Singles out Marshall Fine for his Cassavetes book!
Yeah, THE IDOL has the EUPHORIA vibes you might expect but it’s really more like somebody put BLACK SWAN, SUCCESSION, and SECRETARY in a blender and let it rip. Prepare yourself for quite the discourse…
#cannes
MARRIAGE STORY is an astonishing showcase for Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver, a terrific step up in ambition for Noah Baumbach, and a dark/funny/poignant evocation of the divorce process as a conduit to the paradoxes of life itself. via
@indiewire
Yes, yes, Adam Sandler rules. But the nerve-rattling fun of UNCUT GEMS is how it synthesizes every Safdie bros movie before it, from GOOD TIME to DADDY LONGLEGS to LENNY COOKE in a mesmerizing chronicle of desperate schemes...think MEAN STREETS meets Preston Sturges.
#Telluride
"We are living in a massive deforestation of film culture." Guillermo Del Toro on saving FilmStruck, with additional input from Edgar Wright and Alicia Malone:
@RealGDT
@EdgarWright
@AliciaMalone
Guillermo says “I love certain pirate entities. I am sorry. There are certain films we have to go to them to see because they are not available on Blu-ray.” Gaspar Noé: “Now it’s platforms or piracy.”
#Cannes2022
PARASITE didn’t just materialize in America. It took strategy and vision to get this movie as far as it did. At last night’s
#Oscars
ceremony, as the momentum picked up, I asked NEON co-founder Tom Quinn to explain things a bit:
Fox Searchlight just delivered a cake and an 18th century page boy with a “summons” to my office. Peak marketing season?
Whatever. Go see THE FAVOURITE.
At the Austin Film Society’s Texas Film Awards, Timothée Chalamet says he’s got “four unused speeches” from awards season. Tonight he presents to Armie Hammer.
#AFS
At a
#Telluride
party last night, director Bong Joon Ho revealed his two favorite movies at the festival — the Safdies' UNCUT GEMS and Kelly Reichardt's FIRST COW: "And they're so different!"
Richard Linklater’s APOLLO 10 ½ has been ruled ineligible for the Best Animated Feature Oscar. Linklater is appealing the decision, which he sees as both a bias against rotoscope and animation that isn’t just for kids. Exclusive deets:
Great story by
@tony_zy
on the way everything from
#BlackLivesMatter
protests to the GONE WITH THE WIND controversy have been discussed (and misrepresented) in Chinese media:
THE IRISHMAN is like a greatest hits album from a master of the medium. Yes, that’s a positive.
The artifice of de-aging is more feature than bug.
It’s not “slow.” It often moves like lightening & elsewhere it’s downright Bressonian.
This is not a review! Those are embargoed.
Dylan Marchetti, who ran the theatrical campaign for DRIVE MY CAR, sees potential for
#RRR
in categories ranging from Best Picture to Best Original Song
Paul Thomas Anderson! We spoke about a bunch of LICORICE PIZZA stuff, his secret social media presence (fyi
@letterboxd
), AMERICAN GRAFFITI, Daniel Day Lewis, dead actors he wants to work with, etc.
@licoricepizza
@IndieWire
TITANE is an absolutely wild and gratifying joyride, the Tarantino-meets-Cronenberg car-fucking father-son bonding movie you never knew you needed. Instant Palme d’Oil contender. Cinema with bite, and bonus points for resurrecting the Macarena. Good take below!
#Cannes
I know you’re sick of
#Oscars
coverage. But trust me. You will want to make time for this piece by Pedro Almodóvar recapping his experience over the past week.
I spoke to Nicolas Cage about
#MANDY
, a movie that’s amazing to watch on the big screen but is also on VOD like so much of his work. He knows that, and has accepted it. Also, he’s really not a fan of all those internet memes.
Weird package show up from
@neonrated
today. It needed a crowbar to open it. And if you haven’t seen PARASITE, this 180-pound gift will make zero sense. If you have...man, that actor had some serious upper body strength.
Flight attendant just told everyone on this Delta flight out of Key West to watch THREE IDENTICAL STRANGERS. These recommendations should be mandatory for all airline staff
BABYLON sure bathes in the bacchanal of Old Hollywood. My eyes were never bored; my brain is still catching up. But it has the best ending of the year, one of the all-time hat tips to the cinema.
“The last time I heard my name called aloud to receive an award was in grade 4 for the Peewee Bowling League.” -Brendan Fraser at the
#TIFF
Tribute Gala
BEAUTIFUL BOY doesn't go anywhere unexpected as it travels through various stages of addiction and family estrangement, but Timothee Chalamet and Steve Carell elevate the material in deep, haunting ways. A
#TIFF18
review:
Werner Herzog is celebrating his birthday at
#Telluride
but doesn’t want any well wishes. “Let’s not jinx it, my birthday is tomorrow! I could kick the bucket tonight!”
MANK is a peculiar labyrinth of a movie, a thrilling & unpredictable approach to deconstructing Hollywood history in its own language. No, you won’t get a definitive CITIZEN KANE backstory (& Orson emerges relatively unscathed); you’ll get a remarkable window into what it means.