We are joined by Erynne Hundley for this week’s enormous FF+ episode that features three spoiler-free reviews of films releasing this weekend, two conversations about new trailers, and one reveal and discussion of Disney’s new streaming service details and the wealth of content it will offer.
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LESSON #1: DIGITAL CHECKOUTS CAN BE LIKE THE OKLAHOMA LAND RUSH SOMETIMES— Avengers: Endgame pre-sale tickets went on sale this past Tuesday and, of course, set records on sites like Fandango and broke others. Some folks reported ease or even went the old fashioned route of walking up to the box office window in person (where there theaters were open early) while others were stuck in virtual traffic jams. The online rush, escalating wait times, and fast sellouts were not unlike when a highly sought after play or concert goes on sale only multiplied by every city in America. If you survived, congratulations. Go sell your tickets on eBay like some others and make some coin on a sucker or two!
LESSON #2: DISNEY IS BIGGER THAN YOU REALIZE— Feelin’ Film host Aaron White posted this excellent little piece from Cartoon Brew showing everything Disney now owns after its acquisition of 21st Century Fox. The visual infographic is astounding:
The organization and color-coding are fantastic and informative. If the entertainment holdings and properties inside the shape weren’t already humongous, I look at all of the little single-circle corporations on the periphery and my eyes open even wider. I don’t know whether to be fearful, impressed, or both.
LESSON #3: SUCCESSFUL MOVIES DESERVE THE FINANCIAL REWARDS THEY EARN— Well, it’s been a month since the trolls tried to badmouth and boycott Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel. How did that turn out? The movie soared past the billion dollar earnings mark this week. So much for the haters holding people back. In the March 15th edition of this column, I called this eventual success declaring “it seems like the louder they piss and moan, the larger the amount of success and love gathers in the other direction to put the ugly folks back in their place.” I’ll say it again. With loyalty and support like this, all toxic fandom is ever going to win is comeuppance.
LESSON #4: SCREENWRITERS NEED TO CRAFT MORE CREATIVE ENDINGS— I really enjoyed this column from Cracked by Daniel Dockery. He calls out a dumb, repetitive ending trope we’ve been seeing far too often for a long time. He summarizes and defines that ending as “The overwhelming enemy force is instantly thwarted via a very obvious, easily-exploited weakness.” Dockery is dead right. Look at A Quiet Place, War of the Worlds, Independence Day, The Avengers, Edge of Tomorrow, Mars Attacks!, Signs, and just about every Star Wars movie. I’m sure the list goes on. I’m with the author. Let’s get these endings right and better. I’m looking at you, Avengers: Endgame.
LESSON #5: TREAT YOURSELF TO A SCREWBALL COMEDY— With Shazam! yucking it up this weekend, might I suggest staying in the comedy genre with some old classics of the genre’s purest form. Dig through your disc and screaming sources for these gems from the 1930s listed by Netflix’s blog site. You deserve a treat, so indulge in a few with that checklist.
DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson and also on Medium.com for the MovieTime Guru publication. As an educator by day, Don writes his movie reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. He is a proud director and one of the founders of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle and a new member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over a year, he’s going to expand those lessons to current movie news and trends while chipping in with guest spots and co-hosting duties, including the special “Connecting with Classics” podcast program. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work.
In this week’s episode of FF+, we have spoiler-free reviews of Pet Sematary and Unicorn Store. We also discuss the first two episodes of the Jordan Peele produced reboot of The Twilight Zone. And lastly, we chime in with our thoughts on the first teaser trailer for Todd Phillips’ upcoming DC villain film, Joker.
New For You
Pet Sematary – 0:01:36
Unicorn Store – 0:08:49
The Twilight Zone – 0:18:38
(“The Comedian” and “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet”)
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LESSON #1: JORDAN PEELE IS THE FIRST JORDAN PEELE— I submit a new addition to the off-cited list of movie review cliches from Letterboxd user Erik Bazjert. I say it’s time to do away with labeling actors, actresses, or filmmakers as “the next _____ (fill in the blank with some classic performer or legend).” I get the want of complement, praise, and respect, but, more often than not, distinctions like that become a pigeon-holing crutch to the current performer and/or an lessening admonishment to the classic performer being cited. I say let people be themselves and stand on their own merit. For that reason, I love the clickbait headline clapback of Quartz film critic Adam Epstein. Us director Jordan Peele isn’t the next Spielberg or Hitchcock. He’s the first Jordan Peele. I love that strength and sentiment.
LESSON #2: FOR ONCE, A BIG COMPANY ADMITS A BAD DECISION— Disney absolution and re-hiring of James Gunn for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was not only best for business, but the right thing to do. Sure, maybe they were scared of a imaginary bottom line of reduced profits or the rancor of upsetting their roster of valuable stars, but, somewhere in the deep dark legal departments and decision-making conference rooms of The Mouse House, cooler heads and wisdom prevailed. It would be wonderful to have all of this be a Wikipedia footnote in the filmmaker and the future film’s past. But, you know all of this old noise will get drummed up again during the Vol. 3 press tour in two years when every soundbite-sucking microphone is going to want an opinion from all stakeholders on how this return came to be and ultimately turned out. Expect courteous pleasantries from everyone. The expose level stuff will have to be saved for someone’s memoirs.
LESSON #3: RESTRUCTURING WAS ALWAYS GOING TO COME— Speaking of Disney and its officially completed purchase of 20th Century Fox, don’t be surprised about the layoffs and restructuring that is already beginning with the shuttering of the Fox 2000 shingle led by Elizabeth Gabler. Click bait is going to call it an affront on women-led film and the death of another mid-budget production source. This counts as wait-and-see and par for the course. This is just the start and acquisitions like these always lead to cutting duplicates and redundancies. For example, watch Blue Sky get folded into Walt Disney Animation or Pixar or both. Changes like this were always going to happen. Be ready for more.
LESSON #4: YOU ARE LUCKY IF YOU LIVE NEAR AN ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE— One of the best movie theater outfits going just made their outstanding and classy niche even more attractive. The Texas-based Alamo Drafthouse brand is starting a “Season Pass” service where $20-per-month will grant you a movie a day. That pays for itself in three movies. The Alamo Drafthouse’s eclectic offerings have always impressed and hooked cinephiles and casual fans alike. One of the best just got better. If you live near one of their locations, do check this out.
LESSON #5: TRY SOME UNCONVENTIONAL HORROR— Circling back to the upcoming wave of Us, the horror genre will get a great deal of attention from audiences this month, both at home and at the theatres. If you’re like me and not a big horror fan, you probably need some offbeat horror suggestions to dip your toe into something different. The now-defunct Alcohollywood podcast published a very nice ten-film of “unconventional horror” films. Starting with the old James Whale/Boris Karloff Frankenstein, they have some great picks and buried treasures on there. Keep building the queue and wish list for your streaming services and library.
DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson and also on Medium.com for the MovieTime Guru publication. As an educator by day, Don writes his movie reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. He is a proud director and one of the founders of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle and a new member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over a year, he’s going to expand those lessons to current movie news and trends while chipping in with guest spots and co-hosting duties, including the special “Connecting with Classics” podcast program. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work.
In this week’s episode of FF+, we have spoiler-free reviews of The Hummingbird Project and Screwball, then discuss recent news surrounding Disney + and the Netflix vs. Steven Spielberg debate about awards legitimacy of films on a streaming service.
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Rate/Review us on iTunes and on your podcast app of choice! It helps bring us exposure so that we can get more people involved in the conversation. Thank you!
In this week’s episode of FF+, we review Dev Patel’s new thriller as well as documentary about the amateur boxing tournament known as Golden Gloves. We also react to two new Disney trailers and then share both our own picks, and some of our listeners’, for best movie cat.
or you can support us through Paypal as well. Select the link below and make your one-time or recurring contribution.
Rate/Review us on iTunes and on your podcast app of choice! It helps bring us exposure so that we can get more people involved in the conversation. Thank you!
Aaron White is a Seattle-based film critic and co-creator/co-host of the Feelin’ Film Podcast. He is also a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society. He writes reviews with a focus on the emotional experience he has with a film. Follow him on Facebook and Twitter to be notified when new content is posted.
LESSON #1: YOUNGER IS BETTER AND LONGER LASTING— Before you say “that’s what she said,” let me explain that I’m are talking about Batman. Word hit hard that Ben Affleck is retiring (i.e. passed over and forced out) from the role of the Caped Crusader, one he already entered while in his 40s (granted, they sought a veteran intentionally). Warner Bros. moves forward with the Matt Reeves-helmed The Batman for 2021and I’m begging they go younger. Don’t do another guy over 40 and don’t even do another actor in their mid-to-late 30s. Lock in a steady Batman in his prime and past his overly-told origin story in the starting age range of 25-29. Let that guy own the role for a decade instead of being interchangeable like bad underwear.
LESSON #2: THE INDEPENDENT SPIRIT AWARDS ARE LOOKING BETTER THAN THE OSCARS RIGHT NOW— Between the many harebrained decisions and non-decisions being made by the Academy and their show producers (awards during commercial breaks, go/no-go on song nominees) and their semi-questionable nominees, the Oscars are looking like a, pardon my French, a s–tshow right now. I look the day before the Oscars at the slate and schedule for the Independent Spirit Awards and I’m duly impressed. Those are true nominees of the best of film. That’s a red carpet and party I’d rather be at.
LESSON #3: NETFLIX KNOWS WHAT’S GOOD FOR THEM— Speaking of the Oscars, there has been an anti-Netflix sentiment for the last few years. This simmering industry stench of haters surrounds how Netflix’s streaming service does not commonly include theatrical distribution. One of the Academy’s rules for awards qualification is to have at least a soft theatrical release somewhere. Netflix has bent to that in small ways (Mudbound) and big ways (Roma). Well, their biggest bend of all dropped soon after Netflix snagged 15 total nominations when they agreed to join the MPAA. It’s an olive branch of commitment to make nice and do good by the industry that they are steadily part of reforming every year.
LESSON #4: NETFLIX KEEPS REMINDING US HOW AMBITIOUS THEY ARE— At the same time the streaming giant shows industry savvy, Netflix continues to stoke its hubris fires with the burning of subscription dollars (thanks, price increases!). Back at the end of December, Netflix announced its intentions of pacing to churn out 90 films a year with budgets as high as $200 million. That’s beyond huge. That’s bigger than Disney’s output. With every high profile acquisition, every word-of-mouth hit, and, more importantly, every influx of subscribers, Netflix becomes a bigger player. A critic like me or Aaron and Patch on Feelin’ Film could cover only Netflix films and fill a year’s worth of review quota.
YOU CAN’T BEAT FREE— Marvel is partnering with AMC Theatres to re-releaseBlack Panther for FREE at several locations during Black History Month. Folks, you won’t find a better price to see an Oscar nominee short of some library screening or summer kids club event at a daycare center. You get Ryan Coogler’s gem with all the bells and whistles of a real big screen. Go catch it again or for the first time.
DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson and also on Medium.com for the MovieTime Guru publication. As an educator by day, Don writes his movie reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. He is a proud director and one of the founders of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle and a new member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over a year, he’s going to expand those lessons to current movie news and trends while chipping in with guest spots and co-hosting duties, including the special “Connecting with Classics” podcast program. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work.
Plenty of regular everyday people make New Year’s Resolutions, but I think bigger entities, namely movie makers and movie moguls, need to make them too. Annually, including this eighth edition, have fun taking the movie industry to task for things they need to change, even if I get to do it every week in a different ranting way on “What We Learned This Week.” My cadence hasn’t changed. I have no false internet courage to be a Twitter troll. As always, some resolutions come true while others get mentioned and reiterated every year. A great deal of last year’s list is still relevant. Enjoy this year’s hopes and dreams.
#1: Don’t stop supporting minority voices.
2018 has been a banner year for indie film featuring themes, stars, and filmmakers of gender and racial diversity. This list is impressive: Searching, If Beale Street Could Talk, Blindspotting, The Hate U Give, Sorry to Bother You, Roma, The Rider, Revenge, Crazy Rich Asians, Madeline’s Madeline,BlacKkKlansman, Burning, Roxanne Roxanne, Nappily Ever After, We the Animals, Private Life, Widows, You Were Never Really Here, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Border, Support the Girls, Minding the Gap, Shoplifters, Destroyer, RBG, Hearts Beat Loud, Boy Erased, The Favourite, Bohemian Rhapsody, Collette, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Love Simon, Disobedience, Blockers, and many many more. Upvote your favorite films directed by women in 2018 on this Ranker. Hollywood, keep these doors opening. Don’t just do this for tokenism. The audiences will come.
#2: Disney, take your time with Fox properties you bought from Marvel.
A recent Kevin Feige interview became click bait when he said that Fox’s Marvel properties, mostly the Fantastic Four and X-Men universes, could be in their control within six months. Everyone (well, expect me) got out their abacuses and calendars to calculate how fast those new incarnations would arrive. My advice and resolution preached patience. Don’t just make these films because you can. Take your time and get them right. Fantastic Four has had two failed attempts. X-Men has had its soft reboot too and is already slipping. I have no doubt those characters are in the right place, but Marvel needs to hold off.
#3: Speaking of Disney, slow down with your own releases.
Have you seen the Disney release calendar for 2019? It’s insane. Their dominance, as if we already didn’t know, is unquestioned and it shows. I think it’s too much. When big releases are on top of each other like this, they feel more run-of-the-mill instead of special. I remember a time when there was only animated Disney film a year. It was huge, important, and it mattered. It’s hard to multiply care when there are a half-dozen or more between Pixar, Marvel, Star Wars, and their own house brand choices. Space them out. Build them up. Make them matter because they don’t come around all that often.
#4: Don’t show us another second of Avengers: Endgame
Those of you who follow my weekly column and the “soapbox specials” know that I’ve sworn off of trailers and have been encouraging people like a cinematic cult leader to do the same. I’ve simply seen too many and oversell their products and create unreasonable expectations which create the butthurt fans we have come to hate. Avengers: Endgame would be the perfect trailblazer. That movie doesn’t need a second of marketing to get our money. How awesome would it be if they stopped cold right now after the first trailer? Our frenzy of anticipation off of the small sample would create more buzz than any new footage. At the same time, the studio could pad their bottom with the reduced need to throw money into marketing, as well as merchandise too. Don’t even release an action figure until after the screaming and parent-tugging kids see the movie in April. Don’t hope for a frenzy. Create one.
#5: Vet your hosts and spokespeople
In the Twitter meltdown wake of James Gunn, Louis CK, Kevin Hart and more this past year, studio heads and showrunners need to do a better job background checking their hires. It shouldn’t matter as much as it turns out, but we’re seeing it does. Big outfits and corporations have too many PR employees and interns at their disposal to miss the large problems they have this year. When those flags come up, talk it out and have a plan before making final decisions and public comments.
#6: If you’re a celebrity, it’s time to get off Twitter
I think we’ve reached a point where we have to ask what the gain is from Twitter. Sure, it’s fun to see trends and maybe catch breaking news, but that’s for us anonymous people of the general public. If you’re a big star, do you really need the scrutiny just for a small PR and promotional bump that comes from social media accessibility? I don’t see the value if you’re an established celebrity or brand.
#7: Repackage the Oscars a better way
Speaking if Kevin Hart, the embarrassing panhandling for a new host and poor attempts to shoehorn new and silly categories creates the need for this resolution. I say don’t do even have a host at this point. Reduce the bits and focus on the awards. Here’s some perfect and generous math even with a host. Give the 24 categories 5 minutes each (3 to introduce it gracefully with deeper montages than mere quick mentions and 2 full minutes for each winner’s speeches) and that’s 120 minutes. Tack on 5 minutes to open with a welcoming monologue, 5 minutes to close with a thankful prologue, 3 minutes for the annual dead people roll call, and 30 minutes for required commercials to pay the bills. Easy peasy! You’re well under three hours, the awards are given rich room to operate, and nothing is forgotten except another hare-brained skit. As far as categories go, Best Casting and Best Stunt Work deserve inclusion. If you want to trade those for some technical awards being moved to the separate Science awards night, so be it, but don’t even try to devalue the whole show with a dumb and patronizing Popular Film award. Leave those awards for MTV.
#8: Respect Netflix
Speaking of the Oscars, much is being talked about on a perceived bias and beef the Academy has with Netflix films. They need to put it aside with tolerance for a new and viable distribution outlet that isn’t going away, especially if they keep landing high pedigree films like Roma and The Irishman. Movie moguls need to arrive at the learning curve television and their Emmy Awards have already put behind them where cable and streaming shows have equal footing and respect as network shows. Welcome the new guy better than you are.
#9: Netflix, please choose quality over quantity
Speaking of Netflix, you might need the same resolution as the one Disney got earlier. We get it. You have money and are spending it. You can freely drop films and splash any and every pot with them. The trouble is you have more bombs than winners. For every Roma and Bird Box, you have a dozen that never get attention because there are too many choices. I know, right? Who would have ever thought too many choices was a bad thing. Netflix, I see your strengths. You are revitalizing the midrange budget film market studios haven’t been making since the 1990s. You give indie films wider and better chances for visibility than they would at the shrinking number of arthouse screens. You have long championed documentaries. Do all that with a discerning eye and refined taste.
#10: Keep repackaging Adam Sandler
Speaking of quality over quantity, if you don’t count his voice work in Hotel Transylvania 3, 2018 was the first year in a long time without a theatrical release from Adam Sandler. That alone made 2018 a glorious year answering one of this column’s longest repeating annual resolutions to stop that man’s redundantly bad career. I say that while still being happy Adam Sandler’s recent unbound and R-rated Netflix comedy special has done so well. Give us that grown-up Adam Sandler. Bury the man child. Since Netflix is writing him checks, it’s up to them to remake Adam Sandler. Someday, we’ll be glad he’s back in the spotlight as a new man. The fear will always be him slipping back to the boorish slacker type that made him rich.
#11: Price point will always be the greatest trigger and hurdle simultaneously
This goes for all of the current streaming services out there and all of the ones still coming, especially Disney+. Each streaming service’s standalone price makes it highly affordable compared to the price of theater tickets for the whole family year-round or a bloated cable TV subscription. The devices like AppleTV, Roku, Google Chromecast, Amazon Fire, and more are all wonderfully affordable too. The hard part is if/when you feel like you need to have 4-5 streaming services in addition to the steadily increasing costs of high speed internet to make it all work. Then that number balloons. At some point, the overabundance of services and higher prices will break a common person’s budget. The services have to make sure they don’t reach that point.
DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson and also on Medium.com for the MovieTime Guru publication. As an educator by day, Don writes his movie reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. He is a proud director and one of the founders of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle and a new member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over a year, he’s going to expand those lessons to current movie news and trends while chipping in with guest spots and co-hosting duties, including the special “Connecting with Classics” podcast program. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work.
December and movie musicals go together like peanut butter and jelly. Did this long-awaited sequel satiate our hunger for enjoyable song and dance? We dig into Rob Marshall’s follow-up to the Disney classic and discuss one of our favorite topics, intertextuality, and whether MARY POPPINS RETURNS is really more of a sequel or remake.
Additional Music this episode: “Lord Knows / Fighting Stronger” (performed by Meek Mill, Jhené Aiko and Ludwig Göransson) and “Gonna Fly Now” (by Ludwig Göransson)
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