Tinsel Town News & Notes
The Warner Bros. saga continues as their merger with Paramount has hit a standstill with the state of California. The state’s Attorney General has yet to take a meeting with owner David Ellison to get a settlement of the merger of the two companies. Ellison issued a statement to his staff warning that they will move Paramount out of California if the issue isn’t resolved by October 1st.
David, who is the son of the uber-wealthy Larry Ellison (who owns massive tech company Oracle), may be receiving some marching orders from his father. The elder Ellison is getting cold feet over the $110 billion deal after his own stock price has plummeted by almost 60% in recent weeks. David feels there are plenty of locations, such as Tennessee, that will offer major tax benefits to the studio, but at what cost?
This feels like posturing at its finest and a rip-off from the Donald Trump playbook of “let’s make a deal or I’ll take my toys and go elsewhere.” Listening to Matt Belloni on a recent podcast episode of The Town revealed lots of hypotheticals and gossip over this conflict, showing a few major takeaways:
Current Governor Gavin Newsom and presumed next-in-line Xavier Becerra both have openly talked about wanting to make the settlement happen.
This is a political topic, of course, but digging deeper, the merger of these two major studios along with their subsidiaries gives off massive red flags for antitrust legality.
The promise of Ellison to put out 30 films a year with a 90-day theatrical release window before streaming is all hearsay at this point.
The directors and writers guilds, as well as theater chain owners, are less than optimistic about Paramount’s current plan.
Moving a major studio out of Hollywood and away from the technical and below-the-line union workers that make every film happen will result in subpar products on the big screen. This isn’t Marvel Studios, where they can just set up warehouses with green-screen technology in Atlanta. You can move C-suite executives to Tennessee or Texas, but the end result will still be an inferior product for the consumer. If the Ellison’s aren’t ready to step into the entertainment world, then they should bow out for the many suitors looking to heed the call.
The Billion Dollar Club
The Odyssey, still selling out IMAX and 70mm screens across the country after five weeks, is currently sitting at $1.29 billion, surpassing director Christopher Nolan’s previous top-grossing film, The Dark Knight Rises. Just yesterday, the film officially eclipsed Deadpool & Wolverine‘s $1.34 billion tally to become the highest-earning R-rated film of all time. This has been an amazing spectacle that once again proves you can fill out the largest check possible to Nolan with guaranteed returns. All hail the king of Hollywood and the current Directors Guild of America president, Sir Christopher Edward Nolan!
Not to be outdone by any metric, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, the third Tom Holland-led film, has obliterated several box office records in the past three weeks. Globally, it has already eclipsed $2 billion in sales, putting it in rarified air as the second-fastest film (19 days) to reach the milestone after Avengers: Endgame (11 days). At its current pace, we could see it reach the top three box office hauls of all time.
The only question that remains is if it has the legs to best Avengers: Endgame’s $2.79 billion or come close to “Big Jim” Cameron’s Avatar, which sits in the top spot with $2.92 billion in sales. Props to both Tom Holland and his superstar wife, Zendaya (as well as Jon Bernthal), for starring in both of the summer’s biggest films!
Indie Highlights
Today we checked out two films with a lot of hype. Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma received a ton of praise on the festival circuit this season. The film is currently playing at the Independent Picture House.
Next, we have a Matt Johnson-directed (BlackBerry / Nirvana the Band the Show: The Movie) Anthony Bourdain A24 picture, Tony, which hit wider expansion this week. It features the early days of the beloved culinary icon.
Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma
As a cisgendered white male, am I the focus audience for a queer exploration of sexuality and horror? Most certainly not. However, today’s director uses a deft touch to allow me into a world I’ve never experienced in a very palatable way. The ideas of repression, desire, and what makes people connect are universal to most people. Also, it showcases how we digest culture and entertainment. Looking through the prism of being in the moment vs. academically is dissected from two different generational perspectives throughout the story. This is not your childhood slasher movie.
For a film to be both high-minded yet sincere while also making an audience laugh is no small feat. It made me nostalgic for the days of renting Friday the 13th much too young on VHS, then coming back to those same ideas 30 years later wondering what fixated me on the genre. Let’s dive into Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma to break things down a little further.
In a Nutshell
An up-and-coming director is given the chance to revive an old slasher series. To further her research into the background of the series, she travels to where it all began to meet the reclusive lead of the original film. What happens over the next several days is a deeply psychosexual trip that bends the reality of the inner workings of how slasher films operate, but also asks the question, “What if I was in the movie itself?”
Spill the Tea
Director Jane Schoenbrun is no stranger to exploring the inner self, loneliness, and transporting audiences into various metaphysical spaces in their previous films, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair and I Saw the TV Glow. I didn’t really connect with either film, though they shared some solid new takes on the horror genre. In Miasma, however, we get to ride along with the main protagonist in a cheeky, refreshing way.
Jane identifies as non-binary, and their works dive deep into the ideas of gender transition and queer awakening, which has made them an icon, particularly with Gen Z and younger Millennial moviegoers. The film had one of its debut showings at the Cannes Film Festival and has been showered with near-universal critical praise upon its release. The full crowd opening night at the Independent Picture House can attest!
The film stars Hannah Einbinder, who won an Emmy for her work in the critically acclaimed HBO series Hacks and is the daughter of original Saturday Night Live cast member Laraine Newman. Co-starring as the maiden, original “final girl” of the slasher series is Gillian Anderson, best known for her work in the sci-fi series The X-Files and her most recent portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in Netflix’s The Crown. In this film, she sports a southern twang and a sultry presence reminiscent of Greta Garbo.
Time is Money, Why Should I Go?
This film subverts expectations of the typical slasher flick while still letting you in on the joke. Schoenbrun pokes fun at Hollywood and its push for directors who are “woke” to check boxes, which is surely something they’ve run into in many development meetings over the years.
The mousy, young, sexually repressed Kris can’t explain her connection to this horror series or why she’s so pulled to rebooting this dead franchise. Former actress Billy pries at the young director’s motives, which felt like watching the Siamese cats in Lady and the Tramp toying with naive prey. It was incredibly hammy and fun to see the connection the two women had as they continued to explore the real reason Kris came to her sleepy mountain cabin in the first place. Ultimately, Kris’s obsession with Billy’s character and the series’ lore leads to a carnal awakening with the young queer filmmaker.
Breakdown: What’s the “vibe” this film brings?
Star of the Show
While Einbinder plays the lead and we see her transformation throughout the 1-hour and 52-minute runtime, this is a standout, albeit incredibly strange, performance by Anderson. Her character, Billy, seems to be holding all the cards and is the conduit for how Kris is able to explore her deepest fantasies through the film. You always feel like the original “final girl” is playing coy with Kris while also jumpstarting the deepest desires the young director never knew she possessed. How the two play off each other subverts your expectations of how a traditional horror movie trope of “sex = death” can play out. This reminded me a lot of how I felt watching 2011’s The Cabin in the Woods, as well as one of my favorite films this year, Pillion (click to read review).
Best 5-Minute Stretch
When Kris and Billy start to explore the Miasma story—and particularly the origin of the main baddie, Little Death—we are treated to a “behind the killer’s eyes” gory medley to the tune of Counting Crows’ “A Long December.” It felt like a wonderful, campy romp of a serial killer, beckoning back to the days of Jason Voorhees slicing up young teens at Camp Crystal Lake in the 1980s all over again… but with moxy!
30-Second Timeout
No spoilers here; this is all in the trailer. I know they want the viewer to be completely in on the joke of how this horror series takes elements from Friday the 13th to Sleepaway Camp to Halloween, but having the main killer be called Little Death and its head being a literal industrial air-duct vent was an affront to Silent Hill’s Pyramid Head. We eventually see why the slasher’s appearance presents a little too “on the nose” of an allegorical connection, but its campiness sometimes took you out of the incoming dread.
Don’t Sleep On
The ability of the horror genre to continually reinvent itself. The biggest open secret in Hollywood is that scary movies put butts in seats. This film built in a lot of big questions about sexuality and the psyche of what makes horror films tick. The use of color and production sets was meant to feel both otherworldly yet chintzy in the best slasher way possible. There is a lot to unpack when you leave the theater, which to me is a hallmark of good writing.
While Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma is a little too raw for massive mainstream success, this should greenlight a blank check for Schoenbrun on their next project.
Matt at the Movies Score
Highly Recommend - 8.5 (Come for the gore, but stay for the sexual awakening)
Tony
I never read Anthony Bourdain’s groundbreaking bestseller, Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly, but I am a “foodie” who became fascinated with fine dining over the last decade. My knowledge of Bourdain is similar to what you think of when someone tells you they watched Mickey Mantle play in his prime or saw James Brown sing and dance for three hours on stage. I know of his reputation, the stories passed down from friends along the way, and the impact that he has in the cooking world to this day—a punk-rock culinary icon. But I don’t HIM.
Going in somewhat blind, besides the occasional Parts Unknown travelogue episode, allowed me to take on the story as director Matt Johnson interpreted it. As a whole meal, it didn’t quite hit for me. In keeping with the restaurant theme: you come for the main course, but the dishes you walked away most impressed with are the sides.
In a Nutshell
We see the culinary awakenings of a 19-year-old Anthony Bourdain on summer break working in Provincetown, Massachusetts. This was not by choice, as his writing fellowship at Vassar fell through and he decided on a whim to chase local, out-of-his-league schoolmate Nancy to Cape Cod in hopes of love (but mostly to get laid). When setback after setback hits the erudite, brash, and often pensive young man, he finds himself washing dishes at a local fish house called The Flagship with a motley crew of characters who change his mind about life in the restaurant industry.
Spill the Tea
I have really enjoyed any directing job Matt Johnson has been at the helm of for the past few years, including the wonderful dark comedy BlackBerry and this past year’s time-travel romp Nirvana the Band the Show: The Movie. The Canadian is a film encyclopedia and delivers some of the best long-form interviews in Hollywood today.
He decided to cast Dominic Sessa, fresh from his breakthrough first performance in The Holdovers, as the titular character. Sessa looks—and from what I can gather, showcases—the demeanor of a young Bourdain. However, without the life experiences that formed the person we know today, he just comes off like an asshole.
They filmed on location in Provincetown, and the summer beach tourist destination comes alive, transporting us to 1975. Johnson worked on a shoestring budget of a reported $2 million that was picked up to be distributed by A24. He really stretched the money by including an amazing supporting cast, including Antonio Banderas, Leo Woodall, Emilia Jones, and comedian Stavros Halkias, who filled in the heart of the film where the dour Bourdain can’t bring himself to.
Time is Money, Why Should I Go?
Bourdain is known as a hopeless romantic and authentic in every way. His bluntness has a charm to it that is meant to stir up interesting conversation that goes with decades of experience in the kitchen and the outside world. What we see in the film is a lost college student who has an image of himself that even he can’t wrap his head around.
When life inevitably kicks the shit out of him, we get to see what comes out of the ashes. The thing that makes this whole charade worth it is the stellar supporting cast that drags him outside of his personal misery to find purpose again.
Star(s) of the Show
Antonio Banderas, who plays Chef (The Flagship restaurant owner), and Leo Woodall, as “Masshole” sous chef and oyster shucker extraordinaire Sal, work in perfect combination with each other. Banderas is measured and kind, going out of his way in the kitchen to work Tony out of his funk. Woodall, who was AMAZING in this year’s film Tuner (my #6 midyear movie), is an agent of chaos who wants to forcibly break Bourdain out of his shell through booze, drugs, and female hijinks. They are a yin and yang that are not only necessary for Tony to discover himself by showing two sides of the restaurant world, but give this film a soul that otherwise would be absent. Quick shoutout to comedian/actor Stavros Halkias, whose vulgar one-liners make the kitchen hum at a fast pace.
Best 5-Minute Stretch
When things don’t seem to be working out for Tony and his ability to handle restaurant life, we introduce a couple of bumps of cocaine and seemingly everything falls into place. What a wild scene showing the joys of illegal drugs that had a massive impact on Bourdain’s later life but here just plays out like a fantasy scenario where it feels like everything will work out.
30-Second Timeout
This is tough because I can’t think of someone else who could fill Sessa’s shoes as Tony with the budget they had. Then I realized that he’s not the issue at all. Bourdain is a blank slate that needs experiences to be molded, and we watch those unfold through his character. The problem I have is that I am missing the supporting characters on screen more than I am enjoying seeing Tony in the limelight of the picture. When they aren’t present it’s noticeable.
Don’t Sleep On
Banderas and his calm, philosophical nature that encompasses all the small joys of beach life. From their produce hauls to ocean fishing, to something as simple as creating natural sea salt, he quietly instills a confidence into Tony. Chef is the backbone of the story, and the respect he earned from years in the small town’s community ultimately served as the jumpstart Bourdain needed to switch to a life in the kitchen.
Matt at the Movies Score
Recommend - 6.5 (It’s the people around you who make you what you are)
Thank you all for bearing with me over the couple months. I took a work from home job instead of my normal leisurely teacher summer break pace but it’s great to be back. We’ll have lots of new reviews coming up as we head into the fall season when Oscar bait really picks up. See you next time at Matt at the Movies with Y’all Weekly.
