Welcome to this month’s FREE Friday newsletter! At the end of every month, I’ll drop a list of what I’ve been working on. Without further ado:
Megalopolis: Francis Ford Coppola's epic vision is messy and mesmerizing
Ahead of the release of Francis Ford Coppola’s Megalopolis at the Cannes Film Festival, the press reported on its lengthy and complicated production, and that process has given way to a movie that is equal parts baffling and mesmerizing. A Q&A with Coppola before the film’s screening confirmed what the movie makes clear, that Coppola is worried about the upcoming election – specifically, what Donald Trump’s election might mean for the country – and is considering his place in the world as an artist as a result. In exploring that question, Megalopolis is a movie that often rambles, that oscillates from simplistic platitudes to uniquely staggering visual storytelling. It’s a movie that often feels in conflict with itself. But it’s also a movie from an elder statesman of cinema – the man who made The Godfather, Apocalypse Now, The Conversation – and he still has a bit of a fastball when it comes down to it. It’s confounding. It’s earnest. It’s bloated. It’s monumental. It’s a completely unique theatrical experience, one you aren’t likely to get from anyone else.
My Old Ass: You don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone
So many of us believe when we’re 18 that by the time we’re 40, we’ll have it all figured out. The idea that 18 is a turning point in our lives, that everything will be so much better once we’re older, is not exactly a new concept for a coming of age film. But where My Old Ass plays into those tropes, it executes them remarkably well. And where it doesn’t, it flips the script in a unique way. Writer/director Megan Park has crafted a warm, funny and heartfelt take on the genre with a star-making performance from Maisy Stella at the center.
Aaron Pierre is a force to be reckoned with in Rebel Ridge
Rebel Ridge feels like a western, the classic story of a guy who comes to town and has to take on corruption at its worst – corruption that starts at the top, but permeates through at every level. But the characters writer/director Jeremy Saulnier has created, whether they’re decent or nasty, never feel one-dimensional. Rebel Ridge is a crafty, complex, and rigidly intense thriller, ripe with the stink of systemic rot and the desperate measures that rot creates.
Remake of Speak No Evil is entertaining, but lacks edge of original film
For most of its runtime, Speak No Evil stays fairly true to its 2022 predecessor, but those little differences – and then some really big ones – add up. The 2024 take exaggerates some aspects of the source material and smooths out others, shying away from some of that film’s thornier edges. It’s a safer, more recognizable horror film, staying firmly within its lane of comedy and horror rather than following the arc of the original. There’s no reason to remake a movie two years later and do the exact same thing, and James Watkins’ film is well-directed, acted and entertaining. But that conventionality does take a tremendous amount of sting out of the story.
His Three Daughters finds catharsis in death
Death is a funny thing, a fact that His Three Daughters (written and directed by Azazel Jacobs) often takes literally, the sisterly dynamics playing out in a way that is comically, sometimes frustratingly familiar to anyone with a sibling. Jacobs walks a taut line, the film’s emotions – anger, joy, sadness – all floating together in a jumble, one threatening to overtake the other at any given moment. His Three Daughters is grounded in the messiness of that feeling, but also grounded in the complex relationships between its three leads, all faced with the prospect of losing the one thread that binds them and terrified of what comes afterward. Through his finely-tuned handling of emotion and with three stellar performances at the film’s center, Jacobs delivers a meditation on death and connection that rings painfully, lovingly true.
The Music Man shines with stellar choreography, great performances
The production of The Music Man running at the Byers Theatre kicked off Sept. 6 and ran until Sept. 22. Directed by Artistic Director Shuler Hensley (who also starred in the recent 2022 Broadway revival as Marcellus Washburn), It’s a delightful production featuring wonderful choreography and lead performances that make the show’s weakest link – it’s romance – work.
Jazmin Jones and Olivia McKayla Ross talk Seeking Mavis Beacon and identity online
Seeking Mavis Beacon, a movie from director Jazmin Jones, aims to uncover the real story behind the computer software. In taking on the endeavor of tracking down L’Espérance, Jones and her collaborator/producer Olivia McKayla Ross explore Black identity in the digital age. They eventually hit a road block, however, when it seems that L’Espérance doesn’t want to be found. With that road block, the two have to tackle tough questions about on and offline privacy, how we treat the technology designed to serve us, and how we manage our digital footprint.
Thanks for reading! See you next week.
Sammie, Well written as usual. Again, you have me planning on watching movies I never would have considered.