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: December 7-13

Posted on December 11, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: MILLIONAIRES LIKE TO ARGUE WITH BILLIONAIRES AND VICE VERSA— The wake of the Warner Bros. HBO Max initiative raised all kinds of holy Hollywood hell this past week. You’ve got production houses suing the studio for possible breach of contract. You’ve got agents and guild members from actors to filmmakers calling for a boycott or demanding their same box office-based pay rates. You’ve got film prominent film directors, most notably Christopher Nolan, Patty Jenkins, and Denis Villeneuve, lambasting the decision and, naturally, you have people in return lambasting the lambasters. Is this the death of cinema or movie theaters? No, it’s a pause and a pivot. Could things have gone smoother for the studio in terms of communication for all involved? Certainly, but I continue to be stunned that anyone is all that shocked and couldn’t see a move like this coming. The business goal at the core for WB is still sound and necessary for the current landscape of the industry, period. Tough decisions were coming, and a media communication company (AT&T) that bought an expensive big studio made one will still propel itself forward to remain sustainable. Also, last time I checked, everyone pissing and moaning is still filthy rich. Gal Gadot still cashed a fat check. No one is going from the penthouse to the outhouse with these changes. The smart and savvy among them will keep on profiting. I said it last week here and I’ll say it again. This is just the beginning. Watch others follow suit in time, and by time I mean

LESSON #2: DISNEY RUNS THIS MF-ING BLOCK— Warner Bros. moves their whole 2021 theatrical slate to HBO Max and the industry outrage is trumpeted from the mountaintops. By contrast, Disney holds their “Investor Days” presentation (a slick D23 replacement in the time of COVID) that stacks up how Disney+ will become home to 10 Marvel series, 10 Star Wars series, 15 Disney live-action, Disney Animation, and Pixar series and 15 Disney live action, Disney Animation, and Pixar films and everyone cheers. All of WB’s movies are including in the HBO Max subscription price and they still get slammed. At Disney, several titles will have “Premium Access” price tags like Mulan and no one bats an eye. What a telling (and nearly hypocritical, if you ask me) difference! The big-stack-bullying at the poker table of Hollywood is real and Disney is the bull shark. Their execs said it’s about “quality over quantity,” but, hot damn, did that splash the streaming wars pot with an awfully lot of quantity aimed at making a fat quantity in return.

LESSON #3: TOXIC FANS GONNA BE TOXIC— Still, all is never peaceful, even for Disney. Kudos to the success of The Mandalorian stewarded by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau. They have reinvigorated both the quality and the canon of the Star Wars franchise. However, haters are still gonna hate. There’s a petition going around to remove the sequel trilogy from Star Wars canon. Not liking the trilogy is one thing. I get that, but the entitlement and false sense of ownership from this cross-section of fandom is always off-the-charts and it ruins it for everyone else. Any and all of these things, from prequels and old fan fiction novels to the corporate-controlled new stuff, can be enjoyed just as they are and separately if necessary. The Skywalker Saga sequels are not going away. Let them be. No one is forcing you to watch them if you don’t want to. The entirety of Star Wars isn’t going away either. New creators are going to add and grow the universe as it goes. Just look at all that dropped at Investor Days. Look further than the big screen and discover all the tangential creativity that has been going for over 40 years and beyond.

LESSON #4: SOME MERGERS MAKE PERFECT SENSE IF THEY WOULD JUST PULL THE TRIGGER— When Disney bought out Fox a few years ago, they gained controlling majority ownership of Hulu and planned to buy Comcast out of the rest. They acquired that property right around the time they were already in development of their planned Disney+ platform. The smart play then would have had Disney+ slide right into the existing functions of Hulu Plus, but Disney wanted their own family-minded brand identity separate from Hulu’s adult-skewing content. They went with the “why not both” GIF instead of combining strength in numbers. Now, nearly two years later, that merger may finally happen according to sources on Collider. If it finally comes to pass, it would be a smart play and one I predicted in this column last week with the ongoing streaming wars. Hulu gives Disney a mature arm to finally get some use out of their not-so-family-friendly Fox acquisitions. It would be damn nice to see Alien or Predator in some streaming 4K instead of being locked in a radiation vault at the Mouse House. In other purchases and acquisitions news, you have to love Sony buying anime streamer Crunchyroll. That’s an apt match as well, hopefully giving anime a higher profile. Oh, and who got that $1.175 billion from Sony? AT&T, the parent company of Warner Bros. and HBO Max. The rich get richer.

LESSON #5: MANK IS A SPRINGBOARD TO EXPANDED LEARNING— Love or hate the newest David Fincher film (feelings are certainly mixed here at Feelin’ Film), the legend surrounding Citizen Kane has filled cinema history now for nearly 80 years. If Mank stupefied you a little or if it inspired you to learn more about Orson Welles, movies studios, and more, then it worked as the fable and springboard it sought out to be. Now, if you don’t know where to start, check out this excellent piece from Chicago-based writer/critic Nick Allen writing for Vulture. His comprehensive article outlines what to watch, read, and listen to after Mank, and the curated selections range from feature films and documentaries to books and podcasts. Enjoy a deep dive in Golden Era Hollywood history.

LESSON #6: SURPRISE, SURPRISE, THE OSCARS DON’T UNDERSTAND PRESENT LANDSCAPES— Speaking of golden things, while the hiring of the dextrous and cinema believer filmmaker Steven Soderbergh counts a modern and inspired choice to produce the Oscar, the Academy still can’t read the room or, in this case, the who damn country. Word around the campfire is they are still insisting on doing an in-person awards show. Imagining that scenario begs a couple of superficial questions. Does Hugo Boss design masks for tuxedos? Can Cartier affix gemstones to masks to match gowns? What would the Dolby Theatre look like with socially distant seating? Then there’s the serious question. Who in their right mind is going to encourage a fan-less crowd and red carpet just to celebrate themselves with some awards in an asterisk year? Soderbergh loves to shoot movies lately on iPhones. Maybe he can get Zoom to sponsor the shindig and leave everyone at home.

LESSON #7: IF YOU THINK AMERICANS ARE SENSITIVE, GO CHECK ON CHINA— This country just finished a very combative presidential election that culminated years of snowflake-y and facist-ish labels slung by both political slides. Public relations teams for any missteps tended to outrun the #cancel culture, where Twitter kept on churning and nothing really got shelved or banned. If you think we’re harsh, go look at China. One off-color reference in Paul W.S. Anderson’s Monster Hunter and an entire country shuts the movie out after its premiere. That’s a level of strict conservatism and backlash that we’re not even close to here in the U.S. Thank your lucky stars-and-stripes you live here.

LESSON #8: EDUCATE YOURSELVES ON FILM NUDITY— In the closing recommendation slot this week, I’ll shuck the prudent content massively filling holiday time airwaves right now to talk about some hot and sexy bodies instead. Amazon Prime has a new expansive two-hour-plus documentary entitled Skin: A History of Nudity in the Movies. It’s a fascinating look at that aspect of entertainment and art. Ian Simmons, a YouTube and podcast colleague of mine who hosts Kicking the Seat, gave the doc a spin and came out with high appreciation. Shoo away the censors, call off the morality police, and learn something about movies while you Netflix-and-chill your way from Christmas snuggling to melted snow.

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: November 23-29

Posted on November 27, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: THE LIMITS OF REPRESENTATION— Loyal readers of this column, know I’m all for greater and more direct representation when it comes to performers. Those efforts have been long overdue and still have room for improvement. That said, where lies the creative limit. This week, Kristen Stewart, an openly bisexual performer, presented a very nuanced opinion in an recent Variety interview making the rounds for Happiest Season. She expounded, “I would never want to tell a story that really should be told by somebody who’s lived that experience. Having said that, it’s a slippery slope conversation because that means I could never play another straight character if I’m going to hold everyone to the letter of this particular law. I think it’s such a gray area.” I think she’s dead right about the confusing middle. While living the experience of a certain character can be a huge connection to a more genuine performance, I think good actors can emulate that with the talent of their profession. Some actors do a marvelous job at becoming characters while others can’t get close. How do you feel on this topic?

LESSON #2: ASTERISKS MAKE MORE ASTERISKS— Boy, in a pandemic year that has crippled the release volume of major studios, does Netflix know they are the strongest frontrunner of frontrunners. Without the need for brick-and-mortar, they have had zero interruption in their release calendar. If anything, they’ve even gained a few acquisitions. But, 2020 is looking like an asterisk of a year when it comes to film awards. Don’t get me wrong, there are enough worthy 2020 films and performances deserving of prizes, but the field is dramatically thinner. Netflix knows that and can flex its muscle to make clickbait claims like a recent Variety prognostication piece that brags the streaming giant can break an 85-year-old Oscar record in 2021. If five of their films get nominated for the Academy Award of Best Picture, which isn’t that difficult of a stretch, it will be the first time since 1937 that a single studio has earned that many Best Picture nominees in one year. Before you raise your eyebrows with a wow, you have to realize a big asterisk. For 65 of the 92 years of Oscars (from 1944 to 2009), the Best Picture nominees were limited to five total. I don’t care how strong a studio’s year was. A full-five sweep was never going to happen. It’s only since they widened the field, just as it was before 1944, that anything like this cute “record” was possible. While Netflix can walk around like the biggest rooster in the hen house, don’t drink all that manufactured hype. Look what all that hype did for The Irishman last year. Watch some Little Engine That Could movie from a little shingle (like Parasite from NEON last year or maybe Nomadland this year), beat the top cock again.

LESSON #3: TO CHARGE OR NOT TO CHARGE— Speaking of streaming, Disney feels like it’s running hot-and-cold with what to do with its major feature-length films. Do they put an extra price tag on it to make a little dough or do they include it with the Disney+ subscription? Hindsight 20/20, they would have absolutely raked charging any dollar amount they wanted lower than a Broadway ticket for Hamilton in July, but they didn’t. They come back in the fall with the delayed Mulan and slap the $30 PVOD tag on it to supposedly solid returns. Now, here they come with Pixar’s big hitter Soul going straight to Disney+ availability. For the future, word is they are now deciding what to do with Cruella starring Emma Stone, Pinocchio with Tom Hanks, and David Lowery’s Peter Pan and Wendy. Where’s the thought process and where’s the consistency or decision-making coming from?

LESSON #4: WAIT TO JUDGE THE FINAL PRODUCT— The very short first teaser trailer was released this week for a live-action Clifford The Red Dog movie from Paramount Pictures. It didn’t take long for people to lose their minds in a similar way they did a year ago for Sonic the Hedgehog. Leave it to Film Twitter to trash stuff sight unseen again. I ask the easiest question in the whole wide world: What did you honestly expect? Do you forget the cute books we all read as a kid? He’s a dog. He’s big. He’s red. That’s it. When you put that into a live-action setting, it’s going to look exactly like what you have in the teaser. Anything less would be more cartoonishly out of place than the premise already is. I think he looks fine. I get the side-eye given to Sonic the Hedgehog because that’s a walking and talking anthropomorphic character of extremely unique style that you need to be cartoonish to believe the so-called physics of. That’s not Clifford. All you need is a big red dog. Nothing fancy. Leave the movie alone until you see it work with its settings and other performers.

LESSON #5: READ THE BEST FILM CRITICS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND THEIR ROLE— In the recommendation slot this week, books can be just as easy of a holiday gift idea as a good disc of physical media. If you are as fascinated with the film criticism you see flaunted by the likes of me, Feelin’ Film, or the other press-credentialed people connect to this social circle, dive into a good read from the historial titans of the journalism form. Don’t just go straight to Roger Ebert. You could learn a great deal from the likes of Pauline Kael, Leonard Maltin, A.O. Scott, and others. Indiewire posted a very good list of recommendations this past summer that would be excellent places to start with that Kindle or library card you work with.

What We Learned This Week: November 16-22

Posted on November 20, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: FILM TWITTER IS SOMETIMES A BETRAYAL OF CINEMA— This lesson title matches the title of an article written by a Chicago critic colleague of mine named Robert Kojder of Flickering Myth. What he expounds on in his editorial spoke to me so well, not just because he’s a fellow Rotten Tomatoes-approved grinder who hasn’t stomped reviewing and writing during the pandemic. It spoke to me as a fellow fan of cinema in its purest form, even if we’re now charged to write on the art form. To echo Robert simply, Film Twitter has gotten out of hand, and it’s been a mess now for too long. Too many people judge and burn movies sight unseen based on the skinniest of hype or the stupidity of trailers (a rant I gladly share, as loyal readers here know). Rob’s quoted advice is solid gold, and I couldn’t agree more with the satisfaction found in taking this caution and control:

“If possible, I encourage critics and moviegoers alike to close themselves off from trailers entirely; they are terrible nowadays anyway and, typically in the case of the second one for every movie, only serves to spoil the whole damn movie. I promise it’s 1000 times more rewarding and fulfilling watching films outside of that nexus, completely unconcerned with whatever popular opinion will emerge.”

Furthermore, some targeted movies get trashed or labeled as such because people want to match some phantom importances of “trends.” If you stand apart and disagree with the trolling masses, you get the trash label next. We never really know who/what starts those fires, but they multiply like crazy for no good reason. That’s not what true movie fans do, and that certainly shouldn’t ever be what film journalism does either. I don’t use the word “trash” to describe a movie or any aspect of one. I also don’t use the word “great” either on the other end. I aim higher than trolls. Yet, here’s the cesspool side of Film Twitter and I f–king hate it. I keep an account to promote my own work and share/follow the work of my fellow critics. That’s it. Promotion is a good and essential thing for a DIY creator like me, but not at a greater price of engaging in the stupidity found wider and worse. Hang around it if you must, but don’t buy the BS slung there for any measure of time. Bravo, Robert.

LESSON #2: THE ENGINE OF COMMERCE FROM SUPERHERO FILMS HAS BEEN AROUND FOR OVER 40 YEARS— Leave it to Christopher Nolan to keep acting like Christopher Columbus sometimes by planting flags of claims and discoveries on things that already existed. Recently on a book tour, Nolan patted himself on the back for making superhero films in a time before they became an “engine of commerce.” Dude, did he miss he miss the two decades and change that came before his 2005 Batman Begins? Superhero films have been highly coveted and supremely controlled properties for studios ever since 1978’s Superman and even more so after 1989’s Batman. Fox and Sony entered that churning machine before Nolan with X-Men in 2000 and Spider-Man in 2002. Sorry, Christopher, you don’t get to make that claim. If anyone can, as some of our Feelin’ Film Facebook group members has noted, it’s Richard Donner and Tim Burton decade before you. While your work was extraordinary to strengthen the genre, Mr. Nolan, but you still played in the same system for the same benefits.

LESSON #3: THE DOOR HAS BEEN OPEN FOR INDIES— I miss blockbusters as much as the next person. You can’t beat the big screen experience of a BIG movie. And I get why, especially after Tenet couldn’t draw the masses electing for safety, business decisions are being made for tentpoles to delay or find digital homes, just as Wonder Woman 1984 did this week with HBO Max, to recover costs. The crazy thing is it’s the little indies surviving and standing tall with the multiplex battlefield clear of tanks. Low-cost and low-risk movies like Let Him Go, Unhinged, and more are your box office champions right now. Sure, the competition is nil, but the thing is they can afford taking the distribution shots with nothing else around. They have seized the day and made their money. Studios, scale it all down and adjust your business output to match the market.

LESSON #4: THEATERS NOW HAVE TO SHARE— It wasn’t long ago towards the beginning of this pandemic when Universal Pictures received a good bit of backlash from theater companies when they smartly and profitably pulled Trolls: World Tour to premium VOD. A half-year later with theaters reeling on the brink of financial closure (an estimated 70% of all theaters), their tunes have changed. They now know they have to share. An example of this is AMC’s “fully onboard” reaction to Warner Bros. making the plan to release Wonder Woman 1984 in theaters and on HBO Max. Another example is the deal Cinemark struck with Universal Pictures to shorten the window between theaters and streaming to a shocking 17 days, down from what was the usual 75-90 and what used to be a decade ago six months. Some may read 17 days, measure their patience, and say “what’s the point of that when I can wait and stay home.” Those consumers are not wrong to have that mentality. Beaten into submission, sad compromises have to be made and they’re making them to hang around. Still, I feel like they’re dealing away their own existence in a risky manner.

LESSON #5: MOVE YOUR TRYPTOPHAN HANGOVER FROM FOOTBALL TO MOVIES— In the final recommendation slot, I should probably open a sidebar to eat responsibly and gather safely for Thanksgiving this week. I’ll only support half of that. It’s Thanksgiving and sheltered won. Eat to your heart’s content. When that turkey coma of amino acids hits you, marvel at how many decent Thanksgiving-themed movies are available. I normally never get farther than Planes, Trains and Automobiles, but Rotten Tomatoes has a full list of 20, many of which I never made the holiday connection with right away. Peruse the streaming available with JustWatch and find a winning new blind spot to fill instead of a bad Detroit or Dallas football game.

What We Learned This Week: November 9-15

Posted on November 13, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: PEER PRESSURE CAN BE EFFECTIVE— With George Lucas long-retired and until James Cameron finally releases that next Avatar epic, the reigning King of Cinematic Hubris remains Christopher Nolan. His ardent activism for physical film will always be commendable, but he is not the “savior” the trades (and himself) tout him to be. Not if he can’t even properly tune his own films and has to hear about it from his peers and contemporaries. More than fans, fellow filmmakers have contacted Nolan about his messy sound mix from Tenet. To me, that’s when you know it’s bad, if you have buddies calling you it. Peer pressure is an effective motivator. Let’s see how it shifts the chip on the king’s shoulder below his self-made crown.

LESSON #2: WISE PEOPLE IN THIS BUSINESS CUT LONG-TERM DEALS— Back in the day, everyone from actors to filmmakers were on studio-exclusive contracts. If Paramount wanted to use a talent controlled by Warner Bros., they had to pay handsomely and vice versa. For the studios, it was winning bidding wars to secure top talent for multiple projects. For the actors, it was securing guaranteed work in an era before they made ungodly money. Somewhere along the way, the movies turned into looser free agency like you see today in baseball where everyone is a mercenary chasing paychecks.

To see David Fincher sign a four-year deal with Netflix feels old school and a win-win, joining Patty Jenkins on the squad. Netflix nabs a big name for their digital marquees. The Mank filmmaker gets a shingle that pushes for Oscars, far more creative freedom on set, and more guaranteed upfront money than he would chasing box office receipts, especially during a pandemic choking the industry. Don’t believe me or Fincher? Just ask Martin Scorsese. No one else, and I mean no one, in town was going to give him $200+ million to make the geriatric steak buffet that was The Irishman. That epic may not have netted Oscars, but it brought in new subscribers and that’s Netflix’s bottom line.

Netflix is not alone in getting out their checkbook to sign top-shelf creators. Apple TV+ has first-look deals with Scorsese, Steven Spielberg, and Alfonso Cuaron. Even if most of those are for TV projects, those are names worth marketing and bragging about for the up-and-coming streaming platform. Is this the death of cinema? No. This is job preservation and squeezing for artistic carte blanche that you normally can’t get.

LESSON #3: DON’T BEAT LIVE HORSES ANYMORE THAN DEAD HORSES— Speaking of David Fincher, he has a long-standing reputation of over-filming many scenes in his directorial career. He’ll go after 50 or more takes in some scenes, the polar opposite of Clint Eastwood being good after one or two. It’s a personal philosophy Fincher has gone on record to explain. Word from the set of Mank, by way of Amanda Seyfried and Gary Oldman, was that the director went for as many as 200 takes on a scene, something that supposedly “cracked” the latter Oscar winner. There is meticulousness and fastidiousness, and then there is exhausting punishment. Dude, I love you, David Fincher. It’s been too long since Gone Girl,but have some workplace efficiency and empathetic professionalism.

LESSON #4: NOW IS THE TIME TO SEE CITIZEN KANE— Speaking of Mank which is releasing into limited theaters today before debuting on Netflix on December 4th, this week’s final lesson in the usual go-home recommendation slot promotes just a single movie and quite possibly the greatest movie of all-time. To fully absorb and appreciate Fincher’s new movie, you must see Citizen Kane before it, period. If you’ve been putting it off because of its stature or the silly fact it’s old or in black-and-white, swallow hard, pick a day, and get through it. If you call yourself any level of film buff, connossieur, or fan, Orson Welles’ 1941 tour-de-force is required viewing as a cornerstone of visual filmmaking and storytelling techniques that would become the exemplars for decades. Citizen Kane is available now (thank you, JustWatch app) as part of HBO Max or can be rented for $3-4 on most streaming storefronts. If you want to do one better, straight up buy it or borrow any disc version of it from your local library. Seek out the late Roger Ebert’s audio commentary track. That will educate you more on film greatness in two hours than any self-made YouTube ranter or snarky podcast. Rented or bought, the movie is worth every penny and you will thank me for it.

What We Learned This Week: November 2-8

Posted on November 6, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: WE’RE RUNNING OUT OF THINGS TO LOOK FORWARD TO— By this point of any movie year with the calendar crossing into November, we would have film festival buzz from around the world announcing new films emerging for Oscars. We would have one or two big-studio early Oscar contenders like Joker, A Star is Born, The Departed, or Argo that dropped in October to beat the pack in a weak month of mostly horror offerings. The first weekend in November has delivered Marvel and James Bond movies over the years. We would be weeks away from a Disney/Pixar Thanksgiving tentpole with December not far behind for both prestige and blockbusters.

But this is 2020. None of that feels present or possible. A parade of top-flight movies like No Time to Die and others continue to flee to 2021. Wonder Woman 1984 appears to be the only one left and one has to think it’s a matter of time before it blinks too. Folks, that’s the reality and it’s a meager one. We (and investors) are going to have to continue to be sustained by digital and VOD events and small indies, even if they are lesser than what we hoped. We’re at a “something is better than nothing” point with 2020.

LESSON #2: HOW MANY HAVE YOU SEEN?— If the box office year ended today, the box office champion of 2020 would be Bad Boys for Life with a $204 million domestic total. Inflation set aside, that would be the lowest annual champ since 1995 when Batman Forever was king with $184 million. By a large margin, 2020 is the lowest earning industry year since 1981. Removing the 2019 carryovers, the rest of the 2020 top 10 would include Sonic the Hedgehog, Birds of Prey, Dolitte, The Invisible Man, The Call of the Wild, Tenet, The Gentleman, Fantasy Island, The New Mutants, and Like a Boss. How many have you seen? If you dive to the digital charts, the most-watched movie is Hamilton, followed by Borat Subsequent Moviefilm, My Spy, Extraction, Phineas & Ferb the Movie, and Mulan. How many of those have you seen? If those fingers from the second list outnumber the first, that will tell you how bad of a year it’s been.

LESSON #3: THERE IS NO BAILOUT COMING— On the heels of theater chains circling the drain (AMC) or completely going under (Regal), some folks are hoping for government rescue. Keep dreaming. If regular citizens can’t get better than a one-time check that barely equates a month’s livelihood, frivolous non-essential businesses like movies aren’t a priority. Unlike massive economy drivers and bigger special interests like the auto industry, the film industry is fluff. There’s no money in it for the government to bail theaters out, no matter who wins this as-yet-undeclared Presidential election. Rescue is going to have to come from someplace else.

LESSON #4: MOVIE PRESIDENTS > REAL-LIFE PRESIDENTS— I don’t know about you, but when I watch a good fictional movie President of the United States, I daydream what it would be like to have that character actually be the Commander-in-Chief in normal life. I see Michael Douglas in The American President, Bill Pullman in Independence Day, Kevin Kline in Dave, Harrison Ford in Air Force One, Morgan Freeman in Deep Impact, and many others and get lost in those dreamy thoughts compared to the times of today. I want that kind of real President, unfleshed out policy backgrounds be damned (because we know movies don’t actually cover all that). Even with that specificity of imaginative wonder, good characters like those are part of the escapism of movies. Coming out of this election year, go ahead and indulge in a President that will throw a man off his plane. Who’s your favorite movie President?

LESSON #5: FIND MOVIES THAT BRING JOY— The first three lessons of this column have been rough. The COVID-19 virus is experiencing a second surge. The Presidential Election has set off its hostile tizzies on both sides. Man, we just need a lift. We need movies that punch with joy. In the recommendation slot of WWLTW, I present this video submission from the Film Positivity channel on YouTube (give them a like and a subscribe). Their ten choices of Cinematic Joy are excellent. What would be yours?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_Vu1awP5Bo

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. (#144)

What We Learned This Week: October 19-November 1

Posted on October 30, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: YOU GET WHAT YOU PAY FOR…— Netflix announced it is raising its subscription rates to national customers by a dollar for the standard plan and two dollars for the premium plan. It’s their first price hike since January 2019. When your annual budget keeps climbing ($18.5 billion in 2020), you’re going to squeeze for more money at some point. Face it, though. They are the top brand and they know it. People are going to pay it because, even when bundled with a few other services, it’s all still cheaper and better than a cable TV plan filled with fluff. Above all other streaming providers, they are putting their money (which is your money) where their mouth is by continuously churning out new offerings and acquiring Oscar-level properties. Sure, the bit rate is being cheapened, and the algorithms narrow scrolling vision making people think that there’s nothing to watch on there, but what they have beats their nearest competitor, hands down. Compared to those theater tickets and Blockbuster rentals we all used to pay, $14 a month remains a steal.

LESSON #2: …AND OTHER TIMES YOU DON’T…— On the other hand, there are people throwing their money away elsewhere on stuff they don’t even get to keep. Pressured by a pending lawsuit citing unfair competition and fraudulent advertising, Amazon pounded their multi-billion-dollar fist on the table declaring that purchases to “buy” film titles is actually “limited license for on-demand viewing over an indefinite period of time.” Translation: You don’t really own them. You get them as long as you’re around, but you never know if a platform switches or the license goes away. That’s the opposite of getting what you paid for. That’s why you’ll hear folks like me and others preach the value and permanence of physical media. Be wary of that $5 4K digital download. It’s cute and convenient and all. I get that, but cover your butt and just straight up by the disc for $10. Screw minimalist Marie Kondo decoration and joy questions. Bring back the library walls and stock up some keepers.

LESSON #3: THE SHELF-LIFE OF SHORT FORM ENTERTAINMENT MATCHES ITS NAME— What was Quibi again? Yeah. I didn’t remember either. As it turns out, the platform backed by former Dreamworks co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg is shutting down barely six months after its start. Even with a little bit of starpower here and there in their creative offerings, audiences didn’t come. People aren’t going to pay for short-form entertainment when the entire world of YouTube is free.

LESSON #4: IT’S TIME TO UPDATE YOUR BUCKET LISTS— Plenty of us Feelers are Letterboxd junkies who love their data and the completist challenges of fulfilling those lists. The ultimate list of all lists remains the “1001 Movies to See Before You Die.” The master list was just updated recently with new entries from 2003 to the 2019. Start here on page 27 to see the new additions in chronological order. The new entries are bold and comprehensive. Start clicking those boxes while still chasing the historical oldies you’re missing. Someday, you’re going to get them all!

LESSON #5: IF YOU NEED THE BEST, ASK THE BEST— In the usual final lesson spot of recommendations, I offer a Halloween special. October has traditionally been a month of binges and rewatches of horror movies. For a stupendous list, look no further than the master himself Stephen King. The list of his 22 all-time favorite films is diabolical, decadent, and delicious. Check those off your list with the 1001 from Lesson #4.

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. (#143)

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: September 21-October 4

Posted on October 2, 2020 by everymoviehasalesson.

LESSON #1: THE WORLD CAN USE A DOSE OF BORAT RIGHT NOW— The rumors were always present that a Borat sequel was in the works from Sacha Baron Cohen. After a few months of secret shooting during the pandemic, Borat: Gift of Pornographic Monkey to Vice Premiere Mikhael Pence to Make Benefit Recently Diminished Nation of Kazakhstan will be unleashed to the world via Amazon Prime just in time for Election Day. Yes, you read that right. Expect the Vice President to be made an easy mark. In this election year, the world is ready for this kind of scathing laughter and cringe comedy. Bring it on.

LESSON #2: WE LIVE IN A WORLD WHERE EVEN THE BEST ARTISTS NEED PAYCHECKS— Barry Jenkins has quickly gained legendary auteur status with his Oscar-winning Moonlight and equally vibrant follow-up If Beale Street Could Talk. Word broke Tuesday with a headline that looked out of We Got This Covered or The Onion if it didn’t say Deadline above it. Jenkins has been tabbed by Disney to helm a follow-up to the CGI-reimagining of The Lion King. Before you dust off your The Lion King 1½ and The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride DVD collectors items, word is this will be a new direction and even a prequel highlighting a young Mufasa. Begrudge him or shake your head all you want, but I say this all the time in this column space: This is a business first and art exposition second. That happens the second you put a price tag on anything. Dozens of indie-level directors have done this in our recent history (David Lowery, Ava DuVernay, Colin Trevorrow, Gareth Edwards) and even more have done it for decades (Nolan, Spielberg, Scorsese). It’s “one for them and two for you.” It becomes about, 1) the effort you put in the big one, and 2) what that paycheck allows you to do next. Take DuVernay. She flipped that A Wrinkle in Time money into When They See Us, an upcoming Colin Kaepernick bio series on Netflix, infused money into her ARRAY distribution company for black artists, and helped launch the Evolve Entertainment Fund to promote inclusion. That’s not the worst aftermath and use of taking the big money. Let’s see what Jenkins can do both with the project and the cache.

LESSON #3: AWARDS SEASON STARTS NOW– Film lovers, it’s October and, even during a reduced year of overall releases, the season of golden harvest is upon us. Oscar season! The virtual and drive-in versions of the usual top-notch film festivals are highlighting some early contenders to watch for. The early buzz leader is Nomadland from celebrated director Chloe Zhao (another indie darling like Jenkins who took the Disney/MCU money with The Eternals). The Frances McDormand starrer won the People’s Choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival, the top prize of the Venice Film Festival, and is slotted as the centerpiece of the New York International Film Festival. Close on its tail are the rave reviews for Regina King’s One Night in Miami. Keep an eye on the upcoming Netflix debut of Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7 for another potential frontrunner. Folks, after months of random cast offs and C-level films landing on VOD and streaming sites, the top shelf stuff is coming. Now, the new diversity measures for the Oscars are a whole other (and wonderful) thing. We’ll save that for another WWLTW.

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. (#141)

WHAT I LEARNED WRITING THIS COLUMN FOR THREE YEARS

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