I do! I just have them on some cookie tins for now. Not sure what I'll do with them.

So much of what happened with EEAAO was an anomaly though. It's hard to say how much of a change its campaign and win will bring to awards season just yet. It would certainly be nice if it became more typical for awards contending films to be released throughout the year but so many of them use the fall festivals to build up buzz that it's hard to see that changing so soon.

It's actually called Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields.

I'm only thinking of "traditional superheroes" like Batman and Captain America. Even someone like Constantine would be excluded because I saw that film as a teenager and had no idea it was based on a comic book.

But I'm not talking just about indies. Even the average mid-budget movie made money pre-Covid. Look at Bohemian Rhapsody or The Greatest Showman. Bohemian Rhapsody made almost a billion dollars, The Greatest Showman 450 million, La La Land made almost 450 million and Little Women (2019) made 200 million. Those aren't action movies.

And that's ignoring that even into the 80s and 90s, you had films like Erin Brokovich, When Harry Met Sally, Big Daddy and The Sixth Sense in the highest grossing films of the year. It wasn't always just action films all the time making the most money.

This is probably the wide release.

I just saw this today and I adored it. I was weeping by the end. It's so gentle and warm and moving and evocative and soft. I love how the entire film is shot from Cáit's perspective. We only see what she sees. So lovely!

It just got released in the US.

*It's Salma Hayek.

I've just seen so many people call her Selma recently.

Right? Like "cheating is bad but his ex-wife was kind of annoying anyway". Quoi?

A Gentleman in Moscow is a great book. Surprisingly quite funny!

Spielberg is in his 70's. He's only got so many more films in him and he has been wildly successful. He's had the kind of success and acclaim that 99.9% of directors could only dream of. At this point in his life, he has nothing to prove and is just focused on making films he's passionate about. Maybe most people don't care about The Fabelmans (which was really good!) but he made it for himself, really, to process his feelings about his mother, his parents, his relationship with art and he's lucky to be in a position to be able to do that. I don't think he's ever going to go back to being the director he was when he was younger because he's just at a different stage in his life and career at this point and we would probably all be better off accepting that.

Bridgerton is based on a series of romance novels and the show has really leaned into the fizziness that a good historical romance can give you. It is not historically accurate, it's not that realistic and it's not trying to be. It's largely a romantic fantasy with period trappings and some fun family squabbles to boot. If you would like that, then definitely check out the show. I've enjoyed both seasons but I read the novels so I went in knowing what to expect. It's not like Downton and it's not going for that vibe or tone at all.

Huh? It's an intentional remake of it.

Love this! I made a Letterboxd list for my favourite movies of 2022 which were not recent releases for this reason.

Of your list, I've only seen Talented Mr. Ripley which is fantastic. You should check out The Two Faces of January as well. It's another Highsmith adaptation and it stars Oscar Isaac, Viggo Mortensen and Kirsten Dunst. It's good.

Eyes Wide Shut is a film I've been meaning to see for a long time.

My best of the year which aren't new releases are

1. The Towering Inferno (one of the best films ever made, imo!)
2. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (it's the acting for me. Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor were never more attractive.)
3. The Piano (there's a direct through line between this film and The Power of the Dog in terms of how desire can destroy you and I love to see how Campion explores desire and fantasy in her films)
4. Dance, Girl, Dance (Lucille Ball was a STAR, baby. Biting, funny, sharp and still topical)
5. The Trouble with Angels (a really lovely meditation on what it's like to have a calling wrapped up in a boarding school yarn)
6. The Rider (can't wait for Chloe Zhao to get back to making films like this.)
7. Until They Sail (moralistic due to being made under the Hay's Code but this film is surprising in how it treats sex and casual relationships during war time. It can't be called progressive but there is an attempt at understanding loneliness and longing that I didn't expect)
8. Bright Star (speaking of Campion and desire, this film is one of the most romantic films I've ever seen and it's such a beautiful tribute to the act of creation - of creating poems, of creating fashion, of crafting beauty with just your hands and your mind)
9. The Thing
10. The Sting
11. Julieta (one of Almodovar's best melodramas. A tremendous look at motherhood)
12. What a Way to go! (Hollywood has always made silly films and this is one. Silly, odd, bizarre, and it stars a ton of fantastic actors from Shirley Maclaine who the film is built around, Robert Mitchum, Dick Van Dyke, Gene Kelly and of course, Paul Newman in what might be his most attractive role. Paul Newman as a sexy bearded artist!)

I want to see Other People's Children so badly.

I wouldn't call September a prime Oscar spot but pushing it to later in the year does imply that they have some confidence in it.

Typecasting is a big problem in general but especially if they're not native English speaking actors. Just look at someone like Michelle Yeoh or Hiroyuki Sanada or even Antonio Banderas. The roles Banderas gets in Spain are much more interesting and complex than most of his Hollywood output and he's one of the more fortunate ones. Michelle Yeoh has been working in Hollywood for literal decades and she's almost never had a role that asks her to be more than cool martial artist lady. Ditto Hiroyuki Sanada.

Zendaya was a child star on the Disney Channel so she already has a fanbase from that time. She's been able to successfully graduate to more mature roles without falling into the wild child trap that a lot of former child stars end up in. She has also used fashion as a way to maintain relevancy and stay in the public eye and she has a great stylist and a good fashion sense for what works for her. Plus now she's one half of a Gen Z power couple who both seem relatively chill and sweet.

If you want to understand what has led Zendaya to where she is today, I highly recommend The Take's video essay about her.

There's a film called Two Night Stand that basically revolves around this.

Black Panther has been out for 3 weeks.

Streaming is just not really a profitable game, especially not with the massive amounts of money that the studios are pumping into these shows. Hollywood just got swindled by the subscribe subscribe subscribe model that every single thing seems to be applying these days but they did so by undermining and cutting into their traditional revenue streams - theatrical, physical media and selling the rights to television. There just aren't as many ways to make money off of one piece of media as there used to be.

They lost over a billion dollars in one quarter from Disney+ so that might have something to do with it.