It’s the end of the year and I haven’t done a Nightcap in a while so I’m going to ramble about a few things.
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The next four weeks will be catch up reviews, reposts of films being released the year end lists and a few new releases
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The Unseen Film Awards votes are amazing the hell out of me. I’m asking for the under discussed films of the year and so far I’ve only gotten one duplicate.
It’s going to be a hell of a list when it’s done.
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Looking at the nonsense happening with DC and I have the feeling that Warner Brothers DCU films are doomed.
I have no idea what the hell Discovery is doing but they have driven the bus off a cliff. This reminds me of when the conglomerates bought movie studios in the 60’s and 70’s and started to make weird choices…but worse.
The DC films were odd to begin with and now they are just doomed. They have no clue. It was bad enough when they were cutting up the films of directors to make the films Better (worse) but now they are just shooting themselves in their various body parts repeatedly.
They lured Henry Cavil back to play Superman and then promptly fire him. It's now being said to have been a ploy by The Rock to some how gain control but no matter what it's a mess (and a bigger mess if the Rock story is true)
They bring in James Gunn whose work on one DC film and one series was good but niche in that he has his own sense of humor that over rides everything now running the studio. This was and is a really bad idea because Gunn is a good but limited filmmaker in that not everyone likes his style all the time.
They are essentially pulling the plug on the Aquaman series so you can move the actor into another franchise of niche character who has limited mass appeal.(I like Lobo but there is only so much you can do with him. I mean he's a parody of Superman who got loose)
They dumped Wonder Woman because the film released during the pandemic tanked (admittedly it was a turdball.
And they are looking to reboot everything again. I'm tired of all the reboots and talk of reboots.
They canceled Batgirl when its almost done so they could write off the cost and yet release other films that tank worse. (And I've heard 93rd hand that the film wasn't great but it was enjoyable and would have made them money)
They put out a Black Adam film and then scratched their head when it under perform ed seemingly unaware that outside of having the Rock in it pretty much everyone in the world has no idea who the character is... and completely fine with it being a mess of a film.
And on top of that they are truly excited about The Flash film which is headed by an actor in all sorts of bad legal trouble and who will probably be in prison and unable to ever film a sequel. Not that they will do a sequel since they are rebooting everything anyway. But in their eyes they're going to have a hit with it. (Which is odd since this was the film to start their own multiverse- which they are now abandoning)
Currently they have three actors all playing Batman at the same time and are looking to bring them all together.
Warners is doomed
DCU is doomed.
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As it stands now January looks to have official coverage of The New York Jewish Film Festival, Slamdance and Animation First. I will be running some Sundance coverage though how much is still up in the air since I have not heard back on my late request for press credentials.
We will also be doing things with Reel News Daily. The details will come as soon as Liz and I sit down and hammer them out.
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Looking at my year end lists and all the other lists coming out from critics and critics associations and I’m truly convinced that that a lot of them are useless. The fact that so many critics are tied to publications that want the writers to only cover the big films and big festivals makes the lists useless since they are pre-selecting what the choices are going to be since they aren’t looking at the small films or those not getting a big US push.
I know this is a no duh, but it’s hitting home more this year when I’m asking for under seen films for the Unseen Film Awards and I’m not getting the same films over and over again. Everyone is giving films off the beaten path…. many of which they are saying are the best of the year, they have to vote for critics associations where these great films would never be considered.
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I can't get myself out to see most of the award destined films. A small part of it is simply that I know the damn things will be streaming in a week and a half after release. A large part of it I just don't care. I really don't care about most of them.
Yea I do want to see BABYLON but I love bloated 1920's Hollywood films, but out side of that, say AVATAR, EMPIRE OF LIGHT, THE WHALE, WHITE NOISE and FABLEMANS I really don't care.
Strangely I'm finding I really have no interest in FABLEMANS because I don't care about Spielberg. Yes he was important growing up, but looking back at various directors recently I found that for the most part his films were always more exciting before I saw them then after. I find him to be a great director of the Hollywood machine with his films being more well crafted objects then things than move me.
Frankly his best films are the atypical ones, that break the mold of what he does. To me the best films he did were EMPIRE OF THE SUN and AI. EMPIRE because it is totally outside of his wheelhouse and AI because up until we go past the Blue Fairy scene the film upends all the notions of his previous films.
Sadly I no longer care about Spielberg or his films any more. And blame Unseen Films for that since I am seeing way too many new cinematic visions that I can't look backward any more.
Forgive me.
There is longer essay in that.
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