What We Learned This Week: December 25 – Final Edition

Posted on December 25, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

WHAT I LEARNED WRITING THIS COLUMN FOR THREE YEARS

LESSON #1: TAKE PEOPLE BEHIND THE CURTAIN— The entire goal of “What We Learned This Week” was to present, distill, translate, and, plenty of times, mock the wacky business side of the film industry. From tracking movie trends, showing off awards buzz, or flat-out following the money, I know I learn new things myself, even as a credential critic, every week about inner-workings of the competitive and petty Hollywood landscape and I hope you have too. I hope you’ve looked past the optics and into the dealings that make these entities and people tick.

LESSON #2: THIS IS A BUSINESS FIRST AND AN ART EXPOSITION SECOND— One of my favorite mantras to say also matches the heart of “What We Learned This Week.” I know it’s not all that nice to admit, but movies are a business first and an art exposition second. It’s been that way since they started selling tickets. Top to bottom, no one is in this industry for free. If they give something away for “free,” there are either strings attached to it or cache that will lead to spent money coming there way eventually. Personally, I’m here for the art, first and foremost. That puts me firmly in the “separate the art and the artist” camp where you’re never going to see me join a cancel culture movement for anyone or any entity. If Neo-Nazis or kitten butcherers make the best picture of the year, I’m going to watch it with open acceptance and consideration. I’m here for the movies, period, but I do the homework connected to this weekly column of following the trends and all those dealings to understand how and why the art is being made. To me, that’s being a discerning consumer as much as a lover of the medium. You can be and do both, and I hope I conveyed that well here in three years.

LESSON #3: CREATIVE BANKRUPTCY IS REAL— In seeing the volume of Hollywood news and trends over the years, I don’t want to report this lesson as true, but it’s really feeling that way, especially in this pandemic year where originality had a chance to shine with all the blockbusters scared away. For every Parasite there is a franchise sequel or remake that beats a dead horse. I get it. That stuff sells better than the risk-taking original stuff, but at some point that bubble is going to burst, if it hasn’t already with the diminishing returns of many franchises. There is always originality out there and buried treasure to find. I will always look further to see it, but I know dozens won’t. I just want to strap those people to a couch and show them something better than the junk they’re always buying.

LESSON #4: FAN SERVICE IS PART OF THE POINT— The hard part about Lesson #3, once again, is that that familiarity works and makes money. That kind of thing has come to be called “fan service” and it’s getting a bad name. In some cases, the cheap namedrops and blatant theatrics rightfully earn those groans and eyerolls. They’re lazy and reek of Lesson #3. There are some times, however, where fan service is precisely the point. If the creators aren’t connecting what is meant to be connected, then they’re doing some of their work wrong. It’s not that I can readily defend “fan service” after years of it, but more that I accept it as par for the course, so to speak. I know it’s coming and I’m over pissing and moaning about it. It makes people happy and it sells tickets, so it’s working.

LESSON #5: TRAILERS ARE HORRIBLE— From the consumer advocacy side of “What We Learned This Week,” I have chosen a few hills to die on and this is one of them. More trailers ruin a future movie experience than help it. I am convinced of that. The joy of complete, unspoiled, and unprimed discovery makes for a better movie experience every damn time compared to that mountain of BS expectations people start building thanks to overhyped and overcooked trailers. I posed a “no trailers” challenge to Feelin’ Film readers, listeners, and followers two years in a row and I hope I swayed a few people to watch less of those damn things. I promise you will like movies MORE.

LESSON #6: “EXPECTATIONS” ARE THE WORST— I will double-down on that matter of “expectations” from Lesson #4 to say this lesson title next. Expectations are not a movie’s fault. They are YOUR fault. Thanks to trailers, click bait social media, advance rumors, and behind-the-scenes scoop stories, you are allowing all of those very manufactured items to steer your tastes further than necessary. We have reached a place where we know too much about a movie before it comes out or, worse, the snark buries something before it even has the chance to try. Secrets are becoming more and more impossible to contain and clickbait feeds too much false news to go with it. Push yourself away from that trough, especially #FilmTwitter. Lower expectations on everything. Detox that junk out of your life, especially Twitter, and let a movie’s riches come to you.

LESSON #7: THE DIFFERENT DEFINITIONS OF “MASTERPIECE”— While we’re talking about hills to die on, I will reflect on what has become my most notorious one. “Masterpiece” was and still is an overused term by critics and fans alike, no matter how you define it, be that something of excellent quality or the single best work of an artist. It’s a word dropped too quickly and too carelessly. Some of that hyperbole for the sake of hyperbole then goes on to fuel some of those warped expectations from Lesson #5. Please do less of that. Reserve the term because it’s supposed to be important. You do that by having some f’n patience. Let a film breathe and age. Let it stand the test of time and build a legacy like a real masterpiece should. I’m going to keep being me and the kind of guy who will wait for an entire career to close before handing out masterpiece feathers. I hope you can too. Throughout my rants on this hill, which have subsided greatly since Dunkirk, if I have gotten any of you reading this to pause and think before using the word “masterpiece,” then that’s a mission accomplished for me. That’s the beginning of the necessary reflection. That’s classic “think before you speak” territory.

LESSON #8: PHYSICAL MEDIA IS UNBEATABLE— Take pride in those shelves at home, folks. The marketplace may be shifting to digital fronts and portability, but there will always be a place for physical media. Just like every vinyl record fan out there will tell you, movies look and sound better where you’re not chasing buffering or peak internet speeds. There will always be a place for physical media for the quality and their educational special features. A good audio commentary can be as spellbinding as the movie itself. You don’t get that watching a movie on your phone with earbuds. On a side note for this Feelin’ Film crowd. Thank you #DammitJacob Neff for making me buy more of it. Keep the wallet-destroying deals coming.

LESSON #9: THEATERS WILL BE FINE— Make no mistake, it’s been long enough in 2020 to finally admit that theaters are in the toilet right now. It’s not looking good and I feel like I have had to cover some type of bad news for movie theaters every week here in “What We Learned This Week” since March. Things may not get better soon or every next year, but theaters are going to be fine. They’re going to come out of this pandemic. There may not be as many. They may be built different or be owned by different entities than before, but they’ll be fine. All of these 2020 blockbusters continue to delay because theaters are still the #1 place to make the most money and also because that’s where movies will always look and sound their absolute best. The theater experience isn’t just a novelty. It’s the original recipe that isn’t going away. They’ve survived wars and recessions before. They’ll survive this one too.

LESSON #10: STREAMING HAS A GREAT DEAL TO OFFER— While you’re waiting for theaters, there is plenty to be consumed in the growing streaming wars happening between media giants. Someday adding all of the possible a la carte platforms may equal an old cable TV bill, but, for now, this is working splendidly. Streaming has become the top place for indie films, classic films, documentaries, and foreigh films to reach their widest possible audiences. Netflix and Disney are becoming the leaders, but Apple and Amazon will continue to grow their services. Watch also for the growing HBO Max footprint and whatever the controlling ownership of Disney does to Hulu. This bubble of collective affordability may burst someday, but it won’t be anytime soon.

LESSON #11: HOW TO BE A BETTER TALKER— Alright, those first nine lessons were the industry/trends stuff in the spirit of the column. I’m going to close with the personal learning experiences and they start here with talk. I want to thank Aaron White and Patrick Hicks for not only giving me this column space but for the opportunities to come on the mic for the Feelin’ Film programs. I bought my first Blue Snowball microphone because of this site and it’s been a boon for my skills. I still talk too fast and stumble plenty, but I’m better than I when I first started out.

LESSON #12: HOW TO BE A BETTER LISTENER— For those that don’t know, by day I’m a school teacher. That’s a profession where a teacher needs to damn near control everything about their classroom for the sake of management and authority. In that way, I can be a bulldog that steamrolls and does all the talking or typing. Hanging around in FF has made me a better listener. That’s another layer of “think before you speak.” It’s not that I’m unaware of divergent opinions. Quite the contrary. I hear them all the time, but seeing where they’re coming from is important. Any and all of us can use some practice in that department.

LESSON #13: HOW TO BE A BETTER CRITIC— Become a better talker and a better listener here in FF among a bunch of other fellow film critics has, without question, improved my professional work as a film critic. While working here, I cracked into Rotten Tomatoes as an approved critic, scoring a bucket list item I didn’t was possible. It is also here where I learned and then often shared that dynamite list of film review cliches from Letterboxd. I have vowed to avoid those tropes and the pull-quote hyperbole that comes from that bush league level of writing, even if that’s unpopular. I’ve gotten feedback that I’ve inspired a few others to do the same or even enter this official fray. In pausing on masterpiece labels, skipping trailers, lowering expectations, and bringing over the educator’s lens that works in a world where everything is evaluated to some degree, I’ve tightened by grading and rating tendences for the better. I have happily championed the prevailing notion that there are legitimate objectives to be found and recognized in all this art. I don’t buy that “art is entirely subjective” cop-out for one second and never will. I have also grown to feel obligated to stand for the best that my role as a film critic can be, especially in a consumer setting that questions their value anymore. That old adage that “anyone is a critic” fills social media and Letterboxd alike with a ton of voices. I have learned to do more, work harder, and aim to be better than the hot take artists. Sometimes that’s going to make me a film snob to some or, worse, just another white male in the groupthink, but I have sharpened myself to be consistent and produce work with integrity, even if it goes against the majority. I seek that with every review I write. I hope you can see that in my work.

LESSON #14: HOW TO STAY A MOVIE FAN— Oddly enough, the hardest part I have found about being a movie critic is trying to stay being a movie fan as well. If you sit back and ask, “Don, how could that happen when you see all the stuff you do.” That answer is good, old-fashioned work-life balance, and that’s another curtain I know I’ve peeled back here in “What We Learned This Week” from time to time. 90% of movies I watch are essentially “for work” as movies where I have a contingent press obligation to provide coverage. Sure, it’s cool that I get to see things early and for free. That access never gets old. But, believe it or not, doing this can become a grind and take up the time commitment equivalent to a second job, and one that doesn’t really pay. Being around the good folks here at Feelin’ Film has reminded me to still be a movie fan. The people in here got me to join Letterboxd and tackle blind spots, lists, and challenges together. They inspire me to make sure I still watch casual movies for fun without the notepad or laptop. Churning out reviews “for work” every week, I can forget to do that and being among fellow fans keeps me inspired.

LESSON #15: THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN “FAVORITE” AND “BEST”— The last occupational hazard I’ll speak of here probably also counts as another one of those hills I’m prepared to mount a tombstone on. Like Lesson #2, I echo this lesson sentence often because I’ve reached a point where being a film critic and a movie fan have their limits of being hand-in-hand. Being both isn’t always the same stance or energy. Some of this goes back to subjective vs. objective, but giving five stars to Schindler’s List and five stars to Top Gun are two different things and it can be a challenge of consistency. I hope you can understand, but I HAVE to separate favorites from bests. It’s how I make sense of the world wearing both hats as a critic and aficionado. I like to say “favorites won’t always be the best movies and vice versa, but when something is both, that’s when you have found something special.” That’s my kind of poster or poetry. If you get that, then you get me and I thank you for that.

LESSON #16: GIVE GOOD ADVICE— With each edition of “What We Learned This Week,” I made it a point to always end with recommendations in some shape or form. I’ll save my most personal one for this ending. I may be a writer, critic, teacher, and a movie fan, but I am also a husband and a father above all of that. Calling back to that work-life balance, every night away attending a movie out is a night I miss dinner and bedtime at home. Those are tough choices where I cannot say yes to every event and opportunity. The perks still follow me home. In these last three years, I’ve had my own two children (7 and 6) become true movie watchers who are starting to build their fan interest. I get to open those doors for them and I love it. I’ll be the guy that says, for as much as a good parent should read to their kids, educate them in movies as well. Sit with them. Chat with them after. Engage in those conversations. With my last recommendation, if you’re a new parent now or someday in the future, start the “Mozart Effect” of film scores in the crib, move to silent movies early, or follow this essential list charted by age from Entertainment Weekly. Be purposeful. Don’t just put your kids in front of a movie and leave to get a break. Go ahead and be The Onion article of that dad getting your kids to love uncool and out-of-date media.

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. His movie review work is also published on 25YL (25 Years Later), Horror Obsessive, 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 member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over two years, 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 previous “Connecting with Classics” podcasts. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work. (#150)

What We Learned This Week: November 30-December 6

Posted on December 4, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: #TRANSISBEAUTIFUL IS ALIVE AND WELL— First and foremost, bravo to Elliot Page and his future in Hollywood. May his story inspire others and fulfill those who live under undue fears. Page stands tall as a worthy figure to celebrate and deservedly so. I was happy to update the history of my Every Movie Has a Lesson website content to make the proper name and pronoun changes. There will be no deadnaming there or here. Educate yourself and add that responsibility to your own social media and conversation practices.

LESSON #2: THE THEATER-TO-HOME WINDOW IS JUST ABOUT DEAD— I have long cited in this column the shrinking amount of time between a movie’s theatrical release and its availability on home media. Back in the day, it used to be six months to a year. Somewhere in the advent of streaming platforms and VOD, it shrunk to 90 days and sometimes less. In huge industry news, Warner Bros. just made their own window zero days. For all of their planned upcoming 2021 film releases (not just Wonder Woman 1984 to end 2020), the studio will make them available in theaters and on their coveted HBO Max streaming platform on the same day. That’s a monumental shift in business, something definitely spurred by the present COVID-related circumstances where theaters are strapped, empty, dying, and immediately pissed by this move. Just like Disney+’s goal a year ago when it debuted, watch this bring a huge surge of new subscriber business to HBO Max when you’re promising chances to see the likes of Dune, The Batman, and more from the comfort of their own home.

LESSON #3: THIS IS A PIVOT AND PIVOTS ARE NOT PERMANENT— Call this big business move what it really is: a pivot, and one certainly necessary considering societal circumstances. Mark me in the group that wonders why it took this long for some large entity with their own streaming service to pull this trigger. Disney dipped its toe with Hamilton, Mulan, and Soul, but to say ALL for an entire year like WB is commitment to the pivot. Expect more moves to follow. Watch Universal put their stuff on their Peacock subsidiary. Maybe WB lets HBO Max absorb their DC Network and put everything under one service. Maybe Disney does more. Maybe Disney uses their controlling ownership of Hulu Plus to be the “adult” place for all the non-family-friendly content and the entire Fox library they bought. In any case, pivots are reversible. When theaters are viable again, business can pivot back to include them better. They are still the #1 place to make billions. When people can return to them, business will return to them too. They’ll be back. They just won’t be, and can’t afford to be, the same.

LESSON #4: MARK YOUR CALENDARS FOR AUGUST 2022— I’ve called it all year and I’m going to keep calling it now. If this pandemic keeps going longer, people stay away, and studios pivot to streaming, the large theater distributors are going to die off. As I’ve noted often in this column, they already are shutting down or circling bankruptcy. Theaters as we know them are not going to come back the same. What will they look like? Well, I think you need to mark your calendars for August 2022. With the old Paramount Decrees rescinded as of August 2020, studios can open and run their own theaters after a two-year sunset period. That’s August 2022. The WBs and Disneys of the block can pivot to streaming, sit back, and watch the AMCs, Cinemarks, and Regals bleed to death. They can buy them at their lowest point and rebrand them as their own with no old rules. They will look triumphant in 2022 when it’s the studios that “bring theaters back” with their own labels. Best of all for them, they buy out or shove away the middle-man profit sharing they’ve tried to squash for decades. Every dollar goes back to them. This column may not be here in August 2022, but, mark my words. If the landscape is able to re-open, this scenario is happening.

LESSON #5: INVEST A LITTLE MORE INTO YOUR HOME SETUP— In the recommendation closing slot this week, I’m going to turn to the home and not the watch lists. With all of this time spent now at home, improving your home theater setup is something you probably should have been doing since March. Add all the new streaming opportunities coming and now is the time to upgrade, even if you just missed the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. You don’t have to go full Magnolia quality, but there are many little DIY and piecemeal things you can do on the cheap. I currently have a 1080p projector that cost about $800 at the time. It gives me over 100 inches of screen size and has lasted longer than any physical monitor I’ve ever had. Projection is an awesome effect, and I’ll never buy another actual TV again. Even those new 4K-capable projectors in the $1200-1500 range will give you just as great of visuals as a TV of the same price and likely double the screen size. I know the prices of high quality TVs haven’t been better, but spring for the projector. You won’t regret it. After that, choose an accent wall and use flat paints with less sheen instead of buying a projector screen. A good affordable soundbar with HDMI input can blow plenty of sound versus the old expensive multi-channel towers, receivers, and setups. Use Monoprice to buy longer wholesale cables and learn how to hide the sea of wires. The DIY furniture setups ideas are endless. From palettes to pillows, you can make a little paradise den and not break the bank.

What We Learned This Week: October 5-18

Posted on October 16, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: WARNING LABELS CAN EDUCATE AND ARE BETTER THAN EDITING— Media giant and streaming player Disney has started to add on-screen warning messages in front of some of their Disney+ selections that include antiquated and misrepresented depictions of racial and ethnic stereotypes. I’ll gladly add my applause to that effort for two big reasons that aren’t mentioned in the cited news article. First, Disney has gone a wonderful educational step further with its connected “Stories Matter” website that presents company goals as well as individual descriptions of the “what/why” for each label film and its content. That has tremendous value. Second, they’re leaving the content itself alone and not tinkering with edits, cuts, and corrections (at least for now). That’s honorable integrity from a company that sometimes looks to just be about optics only. Now that they’re asses are covered, it’s time to release Song of the South already.

LESSON #2: BOUNCING BACK TAKES A COMBINATION OF DEATH AND SURVIVAL— Immediately after my last #WhatWeLearnedThisWeek column was posted, the huge and unfortunate news broke of the permanent closure of Regal Cinemas theater locations. Their demise has forced fellow chain AMC Theaters to consider bankruptcy with the prospects of running out of money in six months. We all hoped this wasn’t possible, but the astute among us saw this coming since March. You cannot sustain a business, large or small, that needs a steady stream of people and product offerings. Not enough of either are there right now, and the money was going to run out. Higher help is not coming. Unlike economy pushers like the auto industry, there is no leverage or advantage for the government to bail out the movie industry. Classic want vs. need there.

That said, I don’t buy all the bleak extinction talk, no matter how bad Tenet failed as a savior. Sad as this news is, moviegoing will survive this. It has made it through worse times than one bad year. What I do buy is change. The industry needs to adapt to the times and change for their survival. Beer companies changed their products and practices during Prohibition and they returned just fine. Movies need to do the same. If switching gameplans towards streaming as that vessel for the foreseeable future, just as Disney has suggested with Soul and their whole future, so be it. Maybe we need more drive-in theaters that allow spacing. Maybe we need to take those 30-screen multiplexes and turn them into 15-screen venues instead with more spacious seating and less contact surfaces. This is like a forest fire that spurs regrowth through destruction. Some of this shit (i.e. price gouging and bad practices) needed to be burnt to the ground.

LESSON #3: YOU CANNOT CUT QUALITY AND CONTINUE TO CHARGE EQUAL OR MORE FOR SAID MISSING QUALITY— Maybe I’m just a perceptive former fat kid, but it just me or have the portion sizes of fast food burgers and candy bars gotten smaller in the last few decades? The reasoning most often cited is meeting stricter nutritional caps with less so-called sticker shock with calories. The prices, though, sure haven’t changed for getting less. That’s not supposed to happen with the movies. Size, noise, and bandwidth can and should keep improving if premiums are being paid to get them. That’s why resolution snobs and tech experts are squinting and calling early BS on Netflix’s plan to cut 4K bitrates on their streaming platform. You can’t sell diminishing results (as reported in the cited article) for the same extra charge. Check your wallets and maybe trim that bill down for a bit until that gets tuned better.

LESSON #4: HOW F’N BROKE ARE YOU RIGHT NOW?— Speaking of wallets, how much poorer are all of you movie consumers after the last month? Between Amazon Prime deals, Target bundles, a few Best Buy drops, shocking deals from the mysterious GRUV coming through, a recent Criterion sale, and little sales from Deep Discount, Olive, Arrow, and Shout, the bounties coming home for the physical media shoppers among the Feelin’ Film Facebook Group has been glorious to witness and join in. We’re all going to pay for this with crackers and soup for the rest of the year. But hey, we’ll be enthralled and entertained while starving!

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. His movie review work is also published on 25YL (25 Years Later) 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 member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over two years, 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 previous “Connecting with Classics” podcasts. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work. (#142)

What We Learned This Week: July 20-26

Posted on July 25, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: WE ALL KNOW AND REMEMBER THE COLLECTIVE EXPERIENCE— I don’t want to get all Mufasa of The Lion King with a “Remember, who you are” or, worse, an Alan Jackson post-9/11 country song of “Remember When” because, in honesty, this whole “I haven’t seen a movie in forever” rant that gets tossed around has only been a few months. That’s a mere drop in our life’s bucket in the grand scheme of things. Look, I get it. Sitting at home on a TV or computer screen isn’t the same. We miss going to the movies, and the movies miss us too (or rather our money, more on that next). Nothing beats the collective and communal experience. Former Roger Ebert wingman Richard Roeper of the Chicago Sun-Times made it to very spaced-out Music Box Theatre in Chicago for a 70mm screening of Interstellar after 126 days since being in a theater. The joy and comfort came back to him and he poured that out in a lovely column. What happened for Richard, can and will happen for us. It will be wonderful when it does. It will just take time, namely the right time.

LESSON #2: NO STUDIO IS GOING TO LEAVE NINE FIGURES OF MONEY ON THE TABLE— Sigh. I feel like every week this summer here in WWLTW I have to keep talking about Tenet. Finally this week, it received the full “indefinite” delay that it should have gotten months ago. Was that enough to finally get Nolanites to chill and accept reality? Just like his mind-bending films, the answer was no. The hubris continued with speculation it would at least play in China or Europe or some newfangled staggered rollout. Let’s keep banging the table. Folks, it ain’t gonna happen because Warner Bros. is not going to release a movie, especially one that needs $800 million to make it to the black, without its biggest market. They won’t accept less. They would be asking for torrent piracy to swoop in and spoil their golden goose. You can wish all you want, but it’s time to move on. This is where our #firstworldproblems are at:

LESSON #3: ANY DYING BUSINESS IS GOING TO DEMAND THEIR SURVIVAL EVEN IF IT IS BAD FOR BUSINESS—It’s ugly, yet understandable. The whole industry is swirling an ugly and uncertain drain to against an invincible threat that cannot be wished away or bought. Similar to the predicament schools are in (and, boy, as a teacher, let me tell you about this rocking boat) about what’s best for re-opening, movie theaters are weighing options and recommendations with desperation. For theaters, as evident by the sentiments of the National Association Theater Owners, their answer is anger and frustration with every studio delay like Tenet. “Urge” is becoming “should.” And “should” is starting to sound like “demand.” Things are looking like mid-2021 at best. Unlike schools, their direct survival at the industry level is on the line. They have a bankruptcy gun barrel either pushed to their temple or inserted in their own mouth. Schools, on the other hand, have viable alternatives. I’d hate to be in those budget meetings right now in Hollywood.

LESSON #4: EMBRACE THE PARANOIA— Earlier during this COVID quarantine, the hot social distance water cooler movies to see where the virus-based thrillers like Outbreak and Contagion. Months later, more and more of the craziness is setting in and more tin foil hats are going on. Let some or your movie consumption dive into that. Blake Collier of Film Inquiry posted a recent piece on what paranoid cinema says about ourselves and society. It’s an excellent read and filled with stellar films to sample. Dip your toe in the loony waters and have fun.

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. His movie review work is also published on 25YL (25 Years Later) 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 member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over two years, 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 previous “Connecting with Classics” podcasts. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work. (#138)

What We Learned This Week: The New Future of Movie Theaters “Soapbox Special”

Posted on June 26, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

SOAPBOX SPECIAL: The New Future of Movie Theaters

During this last month or so of our collective national and international quarantine, I’ve been holding the topic of re-opening movie theaters from my usual “What We Learned This Week” columns for a “Soapbox Special.” There have been so many articles, so many perspectives, and so many rapidly evolving updates and changes that I couldn’t distill them down into one little lesson or column entry.

With several regions of America starting to re-open (including my own state of Illinois and city of Chicago), it was time to get on the stump and arm the cannons. I put some of what follows into spoken word recently on an episode of Mike Crowley’s “You’’ll Probably Agree” podcast, but the issue has grown since then. Click into the multitude of links in the lessons for the deeper referenced stories. They are well worth their reads and your attention. The theme of this all can be summarized as cautiously optimistic.

LESSON #1: WHAT WOULD IT TAKE TO GO BACK TO THEATERS— I’ll open this rant back in late May with polling from Variety. It featured a survey of consumer comfort. Here are some bulleted results in numerical order:

91% requested hand sanitizer stations
90% say the most important factor is a cure for COVID-19.
86% supported limited screenings for cleaning time
75% support employees temperature checks
70% would rather watch a first-run feature at home
61% would feel better about mandatory face coverings
60% support audience temperature checks
47% were comfortable buying concessions
46% were comfortable using public restrooms at theaters

There’s more there in that article, but those were the highlights. Beyond even that poll, you’ve got more and more segments of the population who won’t feel comfortable with any public event, let alone a movie, without a vaccine in place. Putting any number of these initiatives in place would be costly, especially for theater chain companies reeling on the edge of bankruptcy.

LESSON #2: WHAT DOES THAT FUTURE LOOK LIKE— Any of those changes from Lesson #1 would make for a very different setting than the “normal” way we’ve been going to the movies for the last century. Many editorials and articles (Seattle Times in May, Vulture in May, and Quartz in June) have tried to talk that out exhaustively with every guess in the clouds. For example, many of us have embraced reserved seating as a way to select our spots, skip crowds, and guarantee seats even if we walk in last minute to avoid 20 minutes of senseless trailers (I know that’s not just me, *wink*). The activity timeline changes upward if we are to stand in a line for temperature checks and even downward if there are no concession lines or needs anymore, which is a tremendous business hit to the theater chains that have been bolstering their kitchen capabilities and choices beyond candy and popcorn for the better part of the last two decades. The other word in there everyone wants to avoid is “crowds.” Can that be accomplished with roped off sections, skipped seats, or an all-reserved seating model (which some older theaters don’t fully have)? In the meantime, you’ve got companies fumbling financial footballs and poking public outcry bears (bravo Michael Phillips) over requiring or not requiring masks (and reversing courses) and other measures before they even open. Do you really trust them to get all of this right on the first try here in July?

LESSON #3: THE OPTION OF AUTOMATION— Piggybacking off of Lesson #2, one potential solution could be artificial intelligence, as crazy at that sounds. According to Variety in May, some theaters in Korea were considering “contact-free” technology. Theater chain CJ-CGV replaced its human staff with AI robots and automated kiosks for scanning and handling ticket transactions. Concession stands were replaced with app-powered and LED-controlled pick-up/delivery boxes. Leave it to tech-savvy Asia to be the tip of that spear. Could the likes of AMC or Regal pull stuff like that off, again, while teetering on financial failure? How do data-danger-minded consumers feel about that?

LESSON #4: COMPANY SURVIVAL IS PERILOUS— The first three lessons constitute a forecast and some great ideas, but who or what can afford those measures? After months of virtually complete closure, save for some door-front concession hawking, large theater chains, especially AMC (which includes the Carmike brand), are in the financial toilet. Bailouts and loans are hard to come by and “junk” status is hitting stock reports. You even have Amazon interested in gobbling up AMC, which would be quite interesting. It may require a rescue such as that. This peril is international as well with CineEurope reporting a possible $20-31 billion loss for the year. Even reopening isn’t an instant cure. The majority of profits for these companies are dependent on concessions because of the high ticket receipt percentages going back to the studios, a gouge that has been increasing over the years at the high blockbuster level (Thanks, Disney). If the food areas are closed due to viral fears and health code regulations, that destroys earnings. 50% capacities of social-distanced seating doesn’t help theaters either. Even 50% might be optimistic. There are theaters opening at barely 25% capacity.

LESSON #5: “TOO BIG TO FAIL” IS LOOKING FAILURE STRAIGHT IN THE FACE— And with that we reach the studios’ level of wallet hit with an inactive theater distribution market. Even with their demanded big bites of the pie, half-filled (or less) theaters do not help them either. This is especially the case at the blockbuster level. No matter the anticipation demand or potential staying power of a really big hit flick with less competition, it is exponentially harder to recoup $200 million-budgeted tentpoles and their $100+ million marketing campaigns if sizable fractions of the screens holding butts are gone or entire chains are shuttered. That’s why the really big stuff like Tenet, Mulan, Fast 9, No Time to Die, and more are not automatically landing on streaming services or VOD outlets. Even at a Trolls: World Tour-equivalent $20 price tag per rental (and its modest success), those giants cannot recoup those huge red balances versus getting a ticket for every head instead of every household. A little thing like The Lovebirds or Irresistible can land in the green with VOD, but not Wonder Woman or Black Widow. A business with a blockbuster class level of movies that once looked too big to fail making its worldwide billions is now failing because they have no place to go and no one able to come to their shows.

LESSON #6: STUDIOS DID SOME THIS TO THEMSELVES— Believe it or not, the studios have slowly damaged their own theatrical success/potential for years with the incremental shortening of the windows between big-screen premieres and home media release dates. Folks my age remember the months of interminable wait back in the VHS and cable TV eras before streaming services were even a glimmer in someone’s eye. For example, Forrest Gump hit theaters over the July 4th weekend of 1994. It didn’t land on VHS until late April 1995 after a long theatrical run and a winter Oscar bump. After that, it wouldn’t hit paid cable for another bunch of months and then years before basic cable made it “free.” By comparison, Joker opened on the first weekend of October last year, hit store shelves the first weekend of January 2020, and no one cares if it comes to HBO or Showtime because Netflix, Hulu, or VOD is cheaper and better. What used to be six months at the minimum (or even an entire year if you were a Disney release) has shrunk to merely 90 days on average. Sure, both Forrest Gump and Joker raked for their times, but it’s an indictment on patience versus money-grabbing. People that are willing to wait can now weather a pretty comfortable amount of time compared to the past for their 4K players and big-screen TVs in their dens. In our current COVID-19 state, we’ve all got nothing but time on our hands to do just that. Why risk health if personal patience versus some “fear of missing out” can pay one $20-30 digital download/disc price to watch a movie repeatedly instead of hauling the entire family plus concessions once, especially for something they don’t deem “big screen worthy?” The studios trying to keep the buzz constant with shorter waits will now see leverage backfire in favor of the consumer. For a current case of that, just look at Disney/Pixar’s Onward and the mere weeks it took to cave from the VOD rental level to dismissively dishing it to everyone in Disney+. With studios building their own streaming shingles, you’re going to see more of that or see more wins for Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon.

LESSON #7: THE PRICE POINT OF DIGITAL— Let’s go further with the digital wants of consumers versus the new risks and hassles of theaters. Circling back to that opening Variety polling again, remember that 70% would rather watch a first-run feature at home. And that was back in May. Imagine now knocking on the door of Independence Day, no matter how much antsy-pant anticipation and hope is out there. That same Variety polling screened respondents on online pricing with some keen results. It asked how much a “reasonable” price would be to stream top-quality productions in their home. Here are those results in numerical rank:

47%- $10
20%- $20
19%- only if it was free
6%- $30
3%- $40
1%- $50, $60, or $80%

That’s 67% holding firm at $20 or under and studios need to do their own projections of math. Regardless, welcome to a more than a little bit of the #firstworldproblems portion of this entire “Soapbox Special.” Movies are wants, not needs, period. They are lovely fulfillment, but non-essential. For every one of those 6% hardcore FilmBros and cinephiles with the disposable income to drop $40 or more to see their precious Christopher Nolan film, over 95% aren’t budging or can’t afford it. Check your privilege.

LESSON #8: ADAPT OR DIE— One way or another, change is needed at the highest level that trickles down to every screen in America. A popular industry that has weathered the advent of television, cable, and now streaming opponents and competition in its century of existence should be able to survive this. Or can they? With the Paramount Accords lapsed, is it time for studios to buy or build their own sustainable theaters to show off their own wares and keep all the profits they used to share with the chains? If studios instead mine the digital landscape successfully, do we really need multiplexes anymore? That is a question posed recently in The New Yorker by Richard Brody in a good read. They’ll need smaller budgeted films to do that, scaling so many things down. Go back to the roots. You can make a dozen solid indies or five or more star-driven mid-budget programmers like the industry used to do in the 1990s with the cost of a single MCU film. Reverting back to that level of business would require some baths and haircuts, but it would rescue the industry. It’s time to embrace those needs. In another angle, columnist Nick Clement on Back to Movies says the film industry is “f–ked.” In many respects, I highly agree with him and his fantastic stump piece speaking on unemployment and the public state of some of those aforementioned #firstworldproblems. Time and patience are the biggest needs.

LESSON #9: “ABSENCE AWAY MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER”— I’ve used this lesson before in “What We Learned This Week” and it’s time to end with it again. Shed away all the polling and conjecture. We all know the love for movies is there or we wouldn’t be talking about it. Look at the success of early openings and the lined-around-the-block comeback of drive-in movie theaters. It will be a topsy-turvy year, without question, even with a full return. We’ve had a zero-budget film named Unsubscribe streaking at an empty box office only to be dethroned by revival screenings of Jurassic Park putting it back to #1 in the nation, George Foreman-style, 27 years after it last ruled the multiplexes. If the year ended today, Bad Boys For Life would get the “biggest movie of 2020” championship belt in the record books. Just like Field of Dreams says, “people will come.” They just need to wait. Everyone, for that matter, from the greedy studio execs and sidelined movie stars to the lowly theater ushers and concession stand workers, needs to wait. This has sucked and it will keep on sucking, but the best answer is to wait and get through this better and healthier, personally and financially, than rushing and screwing it all up. The movies will be there. We want all the people to be there too.

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. His movie review work is also published on 25YL (25 Years Later) 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 member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over two years, 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 previous “Connecting with Classics” podcasts. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work. (#135)

What We Learned This Week: March 23-29

Posted on March 29, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: IF YOU WANT TO KNOW WHAT A BLOODBATH MADE OUT OF INVISIBLE MONEY LOOKS LIKE…–… go look at the box office numbers for the month of March. If you thought the unfortunate and gobsmacked drop it made during the weekend March 13-19 was something to behold, it’s downright eerie to this weekend and the complete goose egg due to a nearly total industry shutdown. Take a look. This is becoming quite the asterisk in a ongoing record book.

LESSON #2: WHEN WILL THE MONEY RUN OUT?— This lesson names the big question that has to be looming around boardrooms top to bottom in the industry. Most successful companies on the level of studios and theater chains can weather a temporary stoppage, especially when a couple of businesses are offering to open for free to get people back in. One has to wonder when “furlough” (as it is called at AMC) turns into “failure.” There’s already a bankruptcy bill on the table specifically for movie theaters. This big question may turn into an ugly one.

LESSON #3: WE WILL BE LIVING VICARIOUSLY THROUGH THE MOVIES— This week was supposed to be the Opening Day of the Major League Baseball season. No matter if your local team had high or low hopes (or something in between like my Chicago Cubs), it feels like something pure and pleasant is missing. I’m glad to see A League of Their Own win the monthly Donor’s Choice vote here on Feelin’ Film. We have to live vicariously through the movies. That’s what we have to do with the loss of something like baseball and the homestretches of the NBA and NHL seasons. I’ll gladly curl up on my quarantine couch, crack a beer or two, and watch the likes of Bull Durham, The Sandlot, He Got Game, Love & Basketball, and Slap Shot. Call all of that cinematic comfort food.

LESSON #4: GET USED TO THE NEW TRAFFIC JAM— Speaking of the lag of life in the struggle to leave the sofa, it certainly appears the strain is hitting the data and network systems that are chiefly providing our new main avenue of home entertainment. The increase in Netflix outages in the U.S. and Europe is alarming and never fun. We’re going to have to learn some patience or lean on physical media. Heaven forbid we have to open an actual book or play a board game.

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based and Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. His movie review work is also published on 25YL (25 Years Later) 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 member of the nationally-recognized Online Film Critics Society. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film now for over two years, 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 previous “Connecting with Classics” podcasts. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, and Medium to follow his work. (#127)

What We Learned This Week: July 23-29

Posted on July 28, 2017 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: ARE CHRISTOPHER NOLAN’S FILMS EMOTIONLESS?— The prolific and cerebral director of Dunkirk recently answered critics who have called his films “emotionless.” They must have missed the sharp revenge of Memento, the stirring heroic feels of his Batman trilogy, the seething jealousy of The Prestige, the suspenseful mental weight of Inception, and the familial anguish of Interstellar. Emotionless, my ass. I’m afraid Dunkirk will be the challenge. I don’t think it has the necessary emotional anchors, but my Feelin’ Film peers will say otherwise. See it for yourself (on the biggest and loudest screen possible) and let us know what you think.

LESSON #2: NETFLIX IS AN EVOLVING ENIGMA FOR THE MOVIE BUSINESS— Speaking of Christopher Nolan, he recently made negative comments on Netflix’s strategy of simultaneous streaming and release windows that take away from theatrical films. GQ recently collected a roundtable of directors (included Ava DuVernay, Edgar Wright, Jeff Nichols, and James Gunn) who “blew up Hollywood.” That led many, especially the Nolan disciplines, to raise those anti-Netflix pitchforks we’ve been back and forth on all year in this column. A voice of contrast came out at much the same time from A Ghost Story director David Lowery calling the behemoth hub a “service to the industry,” especially for mid-range independent film who don’t have a chance in the theatrical marketplace (especially against the likes of Nolan’s films and their backing). I side with Lowery, and what’s good enough for Martin Scorsese is good enough for me. I see more help than harm, and it’s still too soon to see the growing effects, positive or negative.

LESSON #3: PRICE POINT IS THE NUMBER ONE ISSUE OF FILM VIEWERSHIP— Echoing the first two lessons this week and a great thread on the Feelin’ Film Facebook group, this whole audience problem comes down to money, plain and simple. A family of four can get more content out of the recurring price of a Netflix subscription or more repeat viewing from the one-time-price DVD/Blu-ray disc purchase at Walmart than they would hauling everyone to the theater for tickets and concessions multiple times a year. Add to that the substantially reduced prices for HD and Smart TVs compared to 10 or even 5 years ago. While I fully endorse to the magic of the communal big screen experience, one would crazy not to see the price point logic and respect a smart household’s budgeting decisions. It’s all about bang-for-your-buck and Netflix is winning that right now with content volume and ease of access.

LESSON #4: SOME FILMS DON’T BELONG IN SPACE— Bigger isn’t necessarily better, and how big is too big? Space is too big. I recently learned that answer when Fast and Furious series director F. Gary Gray said that a future sequel of the franchise that started with lowly car thieves in L.A. could be set in space. WTF?! Straining believability is fun and all, but that’s too much. Has no one this century seen the Moonraker James Bond film? Stop already. Go back to Paul Walker’s sunset and be done.

LESSON #5: SOMEBODY TAKE JAMES CAMERON’S CRAZINESS AWAY— Apparently, James Cameron thinks he’s got another Terminator trilogy for the masses. Come on, man. While I respect the visual envelope-pushing and industry revolutionizing Cameron can perform, the man can be a quack as a writer. That and, by the time he gets to this project for how slow he works, Arnold will be 100-years-old or we’ll all be dead. Somebody shake this bad idea out of him and tell him to go finish Avatar 2 already.

DON SHANAHAN is a Chicago-based film critic writing on his website Every Movie Has a Lesson. He is also one of the founders and the current directors of the Chicago Independent Film Critics Circle. As an elementary educator by day, Don writes his movie reviews with life lessons in mind, from the serious to the farcical. As a contributor here on Feelin’ Film, he’s going to expand those lessons to current movie news and trends. Find “Every Movie Has a Lesson” on Facebook, Twitter, Medium, and Creators Media.

WHAT I LEARNED WRITING THIS COLUMN FOR THREE YEARS

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SOAPBOX SPECIAL: The New Future of Movie Theaters

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