The Movies That Won (2023)

Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

This movie is easily one of the best movies to come out this year, and it deserved all of its awards except for Jamie Lee Curtis's Best Actress in a supporting role win. Her role was so small that it barely counted as a supporting role. While having more than five lines in a movie can qualify an actor for this category, comparing her non-essential performance to Angela Bassett's powerful and contributing performance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is difficult.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

This movie deserved more awards than Best Costume Design.

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio

For animated films, it seems like the Academy has a habit of selecting style over substance. If it were the other way around, perhaps they would have given the award to Marcel the Shell with Shoes on.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse

This win was another example of the Academy selecting style over substance. If it were the other way around, they would have given the award to Ice Merchants.

RRR

The music in this movie was a bit on-the-nose but fantastic at the same time. Out of the songs in this movie, The Academy could have selected either Naatu Naatu or Komuram Bheemudo for the Best Song award.

Top Gun: Maverick

Critics determine a film's merit based on its brilliance without drawing attention to its brilliance. The Sound in this movie was euphonic without drawing attention to itself.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Like the first movie, Avatar: The Way of Water deserved its Best Visual Effects award.

The Best Films of 2022

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

This feature-length animated mockumentary improves the animation and photography from the web series and adds an emotional backstory.

Smile

The best and worst part about this movie was its advertising. Placing creepy grinners behind the home plate at an MLB stadium is an excellent advertising stunt. Including Kal Penn and Judd Apatow's doppelganger in the movie trailer was misleading and advertised the movie as anything but terrifying.

Andor

This prequel to a prequel maintains the style & quality of its predecessor while improving on the visual storytelling.

Tales of the Jedi

This spin-off of a spin-off maintains the style of its predecessor while improving the overall aesthetic & visual storytelling.

The Book of Boba Fett

This is another Star Wars spin-off of a spin-off that exemplifies simply the best of television.

Stranger Things Season 4

The latest Stranger Things season ups the suspense, horror, and visual storytelling.

F9.5: Dominion

In the last movie, they took a Pontiac Fiero into space; in this one, they had dinosaurs. It checks out.

Nope

While the latest Jurassic Park installment was a Fast and Furious movie and in no way pays homage to Spielberg's dino blockbuster, Jordan Peele's incredible new film pays homage to some of Spielberg's other work.

The Fablemans

Also, Stephen Spielberg released his autobiography last year. What a legend!

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Back in 2019, a renowned film director said, "I developed a sense of movies-of what they were and what they could be, and that was as far from Marvel movies as we on Earth are from Alpha Centauri," to which Film Director, Ryan Coogler responded by saying, "Hold my Beer. "…

Marvel's WHAT IF Spiderman took acid

The Russo brothers also succeeded at proving Scorsese wrong.

The Batman

DC even stepped up their game.

Top Gun Maverick

The only disappointment from this movie was going back and watching the first one.

Ice Merchants

This short animated film about a father and son rescued by a repetitive act of love relied on a level of visual storytelling unfamiliar to most animated projects.

Lucy and Desi

Amy Poehler’s vision for this documentary came to life vibrantly through the expert technical work involved (video editing, research, graphic design, and sound design).

Becoming the Ricardos

Los Angeles Times, CC BY 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Being the Ricardos proves to be a step up in Aaron Sorkin’s directing career. When placed next to Sorkin’s previous film, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Being the Ricardos proves to be the better film because of its technical directing choices, tighter structure, and bold casting choices.

After the movie’s opening scene, the film cuts to an antique radio sitting in a living room playing what we can only assume is the Walter Winchell show. Lucille is in the foreground, lying on the couch. The door opens, and Desi walks in, “Lucy, I’m home!” Lucille stands up, “Where the hell have you been, you Cuban dimwit?” Desi and Lucille argue in the foreground while the camera focuses on the radio throughout the entire sequence. The audience can hear the argument dialogue clearly while Winchell’s voice on the radio fades into the natural sounds. It’s an interesting juxtaposition between the audio and the visuals. The argument is over a magazine article that claimed Desi cheated on Lucille. Desi convinces Lucille that the magazine got it wrong. Then the Nats pop, and the audience can hear Winchell’s voice. He says, “The most popular of all television stars was confronted with her membership in the communist party.” Then Winchell’s voice fades back into the nats, and the movie cuts to Lucille and Desi’s reactions, who are now in focus. This juxtaposition between the audio of the argument and the visual of the radio effectively introduces the film’s central conflict. This scene introduces the audience to Lucille’s growing suspicion of Desi’s unfaithfulness on top of the looming threat of losing her career over the accusation broadcasted on the radio. This juxtaposition is one example of the level of technical direction that is missing from The Trial of the Chicago Seven. While The Trial of the Chicago Seven does an excellent job of using dialogue and performance to tell the story, Being the Ricardos uses visuals and technical work to tell its story. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an excellent filmed stage play, while Being the Ricardos is a great movie.

Sorkin is well known for his talent as a playwright and screenwriter. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is an excellent, well-written story, but Being the Ricardos manages to have a tighter structure. The Trial of the Chicago 7 takes place over five months. Being the Ricardos condenses actual events that took place over several years into a week. Making this movie take place over a week allowed the audience to follow Lucille’s work week from the table-read to rehearsals to the actual production of I Love Lucy, all as she deals with the intense threat of possibly losing everything.

Like Trial of the Chicago 7, Being the Ricardos has a cast full of A-list actors. The difference between the two movies is that in Being the Ricardos, the actors play icons everyone knows. People know Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Though they may remember the Trial of the Chicago Seven in 1969, they don’t know Rennie Davis, David Dellinger, John Froines, Tom Hayden, Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, and Lee Weiner. The problem that Being the Ricardos runs into is that when the audience is more familiar with the people portrayed in the movie, they are more likely to be critical of the casting choices and performances. When the trailer for Being the Ricardos dropped, the movie received criticism for its casting choices of hiring Nicole Kidman to play Lucille Ball and Javier Bardem to play Desi Arnaz. They criticized these casting choices because the actors looked nothing like the people they were playing. After the movie came out, Lucie Arnaz, Lucille and Desi’s daughter, posted a video on YouTube sharing her thoughts on the movie. She said, “Nicole Kidman became my mother’s soul. She crawled into her head…Javier Bardem…he really doesn’t look that much like my dad. They have a different profile…but he has everything that Dad had. He has his wits, his charm, his dimples, his musicality. He has his strength and tenacity, and you can tell from the performance that he just loved him, and that’s what he needed…Everybody that Aaron Sorkin cast in this film right down to a guy who has one line is perfectly cast.” Sorkin made a bold casting choice. Instead of choosing lookalikes for Desi and Lucille, he chose people who “Became their souls.”

The Movies That Won

Walt Disney Television

King Richard

Will Smith does an incredible job in his starring role as Richard Williams. Even though Smith looks nothing like Williams, nor did he transform himself into him for this role, Smith was able to capture the essence of Williams. He was able to bring to life the love Williams had for his daughters and the tension illustrated in the movie. His ability to do so was similar to the performances of fellow-nominees Javier Bardem and Nicole Kidman, who played Desi and Lucille in Being the Ricardos. They look nothing like their characters. They don't talk like their characters, but they were able to bring their souls to life. They captured the love the two individuals had for each other.

West Side Story

Like King Richard, West Side Story is one of the best movies of last year. It's a remake of the 1961 film of the same name. While the 1961 movie is a forgettable filmed stage play, the new one is a memorable musical that the studio made for the screen in a way that no other stage-to-screen adaptation has done before. Ariana DeBose plays Anita and does an incredible job bringing the movie to life. She does this through both her musical and acting abilities. The America song was much more vibrant than the sequence in the original film. The new one took advantage of the medium of film and brought the audience into the action in a way that the stage-play and original movie never could. Her acting performance brought Anita to life in a way that generated sympathy and compassion for her from the audience.

Dune

Though Dune doesn't stand as tall as its Best Picture fellow nominees like King Richard and West Side Story, the movie deserved its many technical awards. Dune earned Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, Best Visual Effects, and Best Original Score. Whether or not they should have gotten the awards for Best Editing and Best Sound is debatable. The Academy could have easily given those awards to A Quiet Place Part II, which they didn't nominate for anything, but really should have.

Encanto

This movie is the Citizen Kane of animated films. No, it wasn't a perfect film, but Citizen Kane didn't tick all the boxes of what makes a masterpiece either, yet it's considered by many to be the most excellent film of all time. Not because of its merit, but because of the film's amount of weight and depth. The same goes for Encanto. This Best Animated Feature win was well-deserved.

No Time to Die

If the Academy wanted to nominate a popcorn film for best picture, No Time to Die is the movie they should have picked instead of Dune. No, it doesn't have the technical prowess that Dune has, but as an all-around film, it stands taller. The studio adapted Dune from an exposition-heavy novel making a perfect adaptation from book to screen impossible. No Time to Die was the most subtle and visually intriguing film in its franchise. If there were a weak link to the movie (which there wasn't), it would be the intro song. The song was good, but going into the film, thinking NDA was the title song made the actual song disappointing. OK, OK, that's a personal bias, but regardless, there's no way that the No Time to Die song beat Dos Oruguitas.

Cruella

The 101 Dalmations villain gets her own Nolanesque superhero origin story. Costume Designer Jenny Beavan brought the style and aesthetics of 1970s England back to life in this film about a Disney Villain trying to break into the fashion industry. It would have been a shame if someone else beat her to the Oscar for Best Costume Design.

The Best Films of 2021

A Quiet Place Part II

The A Quiet Place sequel was a solid start to the year. Like the first movie, A Quiet Place Part II had an incredible sound design. A Quiet Place Part II was a movie that viewers needed to watch in a soundproof room with theater speakers. John Krasinski showed creative integrity by waiting until it was safe to release to theaters instead of caving in and releasing it to streaming services (Click the movie title for a full review).

The Night House

The Night House is another movie with incredible sound design that viewers should watch in theaters. The sound design combined with the writing and Rebecca Hall’s performance made this movie just as subtle as A Quiet Place Part II. Hall managed to tell an entire story with her movement and facial expressions. She carried the film (Click the movie title for a full review).

Tick, Tick…Boom!

Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut was incredible. He was wise to surround himself with talented people. Screenwriter Steven Levenson was able to adapt a play into a film in a way that no other writer has done before. Andrew Garfield completely transformed himself into Jonathan Larson. Another reason for Miranda’s success was the source material. The play he based the movie on had an excellent theme of Leaving your Mark vs. Time. Through luck, the film was able to bring that theme home more than the play ever could, considering Larson’s death not long after making his big break and Stephen Sondheim’s death shortly after the film’s release (Click the movie title for a full review).

Being the Ricardos

When the trailer came out, there were a lot of complaints about the casting choices and how Javier Bardem doesn’t look anything like Desi Arnaz. Kidman and Bardem did an incredible job transforming into Ball and Arnaz. Sorkin’s writing is what made it unique as well. The movie also did a good job relying on the camera work to tell the story.

Christmas with the Chosen

The Chosen released their Christmas special as a 40-minute Fathom Event. While The Chosen isn’t prestige television, the Christmas special had some interesting elements that set it apart from the rest of the show. There was more motivation behind every line of dialogue. The Chosen’s Christmas special also did a good job telling the story with the camera work

No Time to Die

No Time to Die was the best of the Bond films. While most of the Daniel Craig Bond films are known for their expert camera work, No Time to Die does the best at relying on such camera work to tell the story. The writing helps make that happen too. The other strength of the film was its practical and visual effects.

The Courier

This film had a transportive performance from Benedict Cumberbatch. Cumberbatch successfully transformed himself into Greville Wynne. Some of the other lasting impressions of this film included its excellent writing and production design.

The Electrical Life of Louis Wain

Cumberbatch is an incredible actor! Cumberbatch’s performance combined with the camera work, editing, and production design helped capture Wain’s mental deterioration throughout his life.

…Boom!

Mathias Krumbholz, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

Tick, Tick…Boom! is up there with the other masterpieces I've mentioned in my blog this year, A Quiet Place Part II, The Night House, The Courier, and one I haven't mentioned yet, No Time to Die. It isn't normal for me to label a musical as a masterpiece because musicals typically don't fit in that specialty/art film category. Typically, musicals fail to utilize the full potential of cinematic storytelling and feel like recorded stage-plays rather than movies.

Two musicals came out this year that impressively managed to break free from that stigma, Dear Evan Hansen and Tick, Tick…Boom! Steven Levenson wrote both. Levenson is possibly the first screenwriter to adapt a play into a movie, fully realizing the stark contrast between the stage and screen as art forms. The only other film musical that managed to tell a story visually like those films was White Christmas, which was an original film.  Even the great musicals celebrated by critics such as The Sound of Music or Singing in the Rain rely heavily on on-the-nose expositional dialogue to tell the story. In contrast, Levenson's films almost avoid that entirely.

Between Levenson's two writing credits this year, Tick, Tick…Boom! is superior because of its tighter structure.

Tick, Tick…Boom! won't just be recognized alongside this year's other masterpieces but also above those other films because it writes history with lightning.

"It is like writing history with lightning." was first coined by President Wilson to describe the film, The Birth of a Nation (Boggs). The saying has evolved to describe masterpieces that, through luck, become more consequential than the film itself.

Tick, Tick…Boom! is based on a musical monologue of the same name written and initially performed by Jonathan Larson, the creator of Rent.

It's an autobiographical monologue telling Larson's story of writing Superbia.

The most prominent theme of the movie was Leaving Your Mark vs. Time.

The film adaptation has Andrew Garfield playing Jonathan Larson. It uses re-enactments of Larson's original monologue juxtaposed with re-enactments of scenes from Larson's life as described in the monologue. This innovative way of storytelling is one of the ways this movie stood apart from other film musicals. Where most film musicals seem to copy and paste the stage-play script, Screenwriter Steven Levenson took the appropriate steps to adapt this story to the new medium fully.

Garfield successfully manages to transform himself into Larson through his acting, singing, and dancing.

All the performances in this film were incredible. Larson's music that the performers worked with added to the storytelling exponentially.

In his monologue, Larson tells the story of preparing his stage-play for an audience made up of producers and managers to market his musical. He explains his race against time, being that he's about to turn 30, the end of his youth, older than his idols were before they had their big break, older than his parents were when they started their careers and had two children.

This theme deepens as he finds out he could lose his best friend to HIV.

One difference between the stage play and the movie is that while the stage play was a love letter to Larson's mentor Stephen Sondheim, the play still kept him anonymous. The film paid homage to Sondheim in a different way. Bradley Whitford portrayed the no longer unnamed mentor. Before releasing the movie, Director Lin Manuel Miranda showed the real Stephen Sondheim a cut of the film. After watching it, Sondheim had some advice for Miranda on the scene where Sondheim leaves Larson a voice mail encouraging him to keep moving forward. While Sondheim appreciated the film's kind portrayal of him, he thought one of the lines in the voice-mail was cliché and asked if he could re-write it. Miranda wasn't going to reject a re-write from Sondheim. Whitford wasn't available to re-record the line, so the voice-mail at the end of the film isn't Whitford but is Stephen Sondheim's actual voice (Lenker). Yesterday, only 14 days after the release of the film adaptation of Tick, Tick…Boom! Stephen Sondheim passed away. The passing of this legend only adds more weight to the movie's theme.

Another way the movie is different from the play and writes history with lightning is it ends with Larson's death. At age 35, Larson died of an aortic aneurism the night before he scheduled his musical Rent to start previews at the New York Theater Workshop. Larson's passing is an event that he couldn't have known himself even when he first got on the stage and said, "Lately I've been hearing this sound, everywhere I go, tick, tick, tick like a time bomb in some cheesy B-movie or Saturday morning cartoon. A fuse has been lit; the clock counts down the seconds as the flame gets closer and closer and closer until all at once…."

Boggs, Joe, and Dennis Petrie. The Art of Watching Films. New York, McGraw-Hill, 2008.

Lenker, Maureen. "The Stephen Sondheim cameo you didn't realize was in Tick, Tick...Boom." Entertainment Weekly, 20 Nov. 2021.

Oh, For Fox Sake

It's been two years since Disney's acquisition of Fox, and it's still exciting to learn what's coming from it.  It was enjoyable watching Deadpool and Korg sitting together in a living room, commentating on the Free Guy trailer. Somehow, it was even more fun watching Free Guy and catching all the Marvel and Star Wars easter eggs. Yet, nothing is more exciting than speculating when Marvel will bring the X-men into the MCU or MCM, whatever it's called now. There's a tiny easter egg in the new Spiderman trailer that may be suggesting that the mutant intro is just around the corner.

A week after watching Free Guy, I had the opportunity to sit down and watch yet another Disney/Fox film, The Night House. One of Disney's assets, searchlight Pictures, previously known as Fox Searchlight Pictures, released this movie. It's a studio that produces, distributes, and acquires specialty/art films. Even after being acquired by Disney, the studio still plays the same role. Searchlight Pictures received global rights to The Night House last year when it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival (D'Alessandro).

The Night House is one of the most well-crafted films to release this year. It's up there with The Courier and A Quiet Place Part II. The film captures one of the most outstanding on-screen performances. Rebecca Hall's level of subtle acting in this film was similar to that of Academy Award winner Emma Thompson in films like Remains of the Day and Sense and Sensibility. Rebecca Hall is sure to be recognized at the 2022 Academy Awards.

In The Night House, Hall plays Beth, who we learn from the beginning has just lost her husband. Hall's performance isn't the only subtle element of the film. The writing itself proves worthy of the ranks of pure cinema. A script with very little dialogue allows Hall to shine as she relies on facial expressions and small movements/actions to tell the story. We learn that Beth has lost her husband as we watch her dump tin-foil-wrapped lasagna into the trash can, wearing dark dress clothes. We realize it from her confused and saddened expressions as she wanders the empty house.  We learn it as we watch her reach over in bed to the empty pillow next to hers.

The day after the implied funeral, Beth shows up at her teaching job. All the other teachers are alarmed to see her. Beth's co-worker friend, Claire, tells her that she didn't need to come to work. While at school, a parent approaches Beth in her classroom. The scene used dialogue to build suspense as the stereotypical Karen passive-aggressively rails into Beth for failing her son's assignment. Beth professionally explains that the student must have made up/completed the project when she was off. We, the audience, know or can infer that she was off for the funeral. Beth kindly offers to bring up the student's score. Karen continues to rail into her. We intently watch to see how Beth responds. It isn't until after constant railing from the parent and Beth trying to handle the situation professionally that Beth, with restrained emotion, clearly describes her husband's suicide. We, the audience, get to watch as crazy Karen is left speechless.

That night, Beth goes home and experiences the first of a series of lucid dreams where she hears and sees who she believes to be her husband. Beth gets drunk in an outing with her co-worker friends and reveals that she thinks her husband, Owen, is haunting her. She shares with them the suicide note that her husband had left behind, which says, "You were right. There is nothing. Nothing is after you. You're safe now." Claire drives Beth home, where Beth reveals that Owen's suicide note referred to when Beth had died in a car accident before paramedics brought her back. Instead of seeing the light or experiencing Heaven, she told Owen that nothing was after this life. Being more of a believer than her, he had a hard time accepting that.

Beth continues experiencing lucid dreams, which lead her to discover the dark secrets of Owen's past. The film becomes a well-done cosmic horror mystery film very similar to Neil Gaiman's Coraline. It keeps the audience guessing with an unpredictable plot twist.

Another big twist for me was researching the movie and finding out that they shot it on an ARRI Alexa Mini. When I wrote my review for Sound of Metal, I said that films shot on 35 mm film have a level of aesthetics that movies shot on digital can't match. Shot on an ARRI Alexa Mini, The Night House, proved me wrong. I must admit that my Sound of Metal review is guilty of the "Know it when I see it" fallacy because I didn't explain why movies shot on film look better because, well, truthfully, I didn't fully understand myself. I was, however, able to recognize that the aesthetics were nostalgic and transportive for me. The Night House had the same level of nostalgic and transportive aesthetics that Sound of Metal had. Seeing the film grain, I thought, Nice, they shot this on film. I was dead wrong.

Knives Out Cinematographer Steve Yedlin pointed out that the ARRI Alexa can attain the film look that cinephiles love. He made a Display Prep Demo which shows a scene with 35 mm film and ARRI Alexa footage side-by-side (Heller). The footage would fool anyone who claims that they know movies shot on film when they see it. The Night House definitely fooled me.

Not only were the aesthetics comparable to Sound of Metal and A Quiet Place, but so was the sound design. Now, this isn't a movie where the sound design plays an essential part in the plot like it does in the films mentioned above, but it does help with the suspense and builds on the visual story-telling. Any movie that isn't dialogue-heavy needs to rely on the sound design supplemented with the visuals to tell the story. Much like how A Quiet Place was a horror movie that used sound to frighten the audience, The Night House did that to a minor degree. Whenever Beth was alone in the house, the audience could hear all the tiny sounds as if they were in the setting themselves. I remember sitting at the edge of my seat whenever Beth's house got utterly silent. It was all purposeful. The sound design and aesthetics made this movie suspenseful, frightening, and one of the best movies to come out this year.

D’Alessandro, A. (2021, January 21).  Searchlight Dates Sundance Acquisition ‘The Night House’, ‘Nightmare Alley’ & More For Later This Year. DEADLINE.  https://deadline.com/2021/01/searchlight-dates-sundance-acquisition-the-night-house-nightmare-alley-more-for-later-this-year-1234677690/

Heller, C. (2020, February 6).  The cinematographer of Knives Out wants to end the film vs.-digital debate. Polygon.  https://www.polygon.com/2020/2/6/21125680/film-vs-digital-debate-movies-cinematography

From the Studio That Bought You

In my review of Stillwater last week, I complained that even though it was a good movie, it wasn't an important movie that will go down in history. This week, I decided to write about the new release that is most important right now, Disney's Free Guy. I could go on and on with why Free Guy is an essential movie, but I've decided to keep it simple and focus on three reasons. Free Guy is vital because it has taken a stance in the cinema vs. streaming battle. It captures the essence of Disney's recent acquisition of 20th Century Fox and will mark the decline of superhero films and the rise of video game films.

Free Guy is essential because it took a stance in the cinema vs. streaming battle. Like A Quiet Place Part II and Old, Free Guy advertised that it would only play in theaters. Free Guy is the first Disney movie since Disney +'s launch that didn't debut on their streaming service. It didn't come straight to Disney + because the film has a pay-one TV commitment with HBO. 20th Century Fox committed before Disney acquired the studio (D'Alessandro).

The movie is essential because it captures the essence of the recent acquisition of Fox by Disney. Free Guy's pay-one TV commitment with HBO is not the only imprint that Fox has left on the movie. The trailers for Free Guy used Fox's superhero title, Deadpool, to sell the film. "From the Studio That Brought You Deadpool."

Free Guy is crucial because it is a symbolic torch-passing from superhero movies to video game movies. Since the first commercial movie screening in 1895, there has always been a most prominent genre in movies at different points in history. The first movies screened were technically documentaries. In the late teens and twenties, comedy films were trendy. Western films were well-attended from 1939 through the 1960s. Superhero movies became popular in the 2000s with Sam Raimi's Spiderman. With superhero movies now running out of source material, and video-game movies continuing to perform better and better in the box office, video game movies will likely become the next cinema fad.

As I said, I could go on and on with reasons why Free Guy is such an important movie. For this review, I decided to stick with the big three. Not only is Free Guy an important movie, but it's pretty enjoyable. Free Guy is a successful blockbuster because of its excellent plot, talent from some of the world's greatest comedy minds, and ability to capture the aesthetics of a popular modern video game.

Free Guy is a successful blockbuster because it has a well-crafted plot. The movies that do the best in the box office are fast-paced story-driven films. Free Guy follows suit. The best way to sum up Free Guy is that it's Disney's response to Ready Player One, and who wouldn't want that?

Free Guy stands out among the crowd of blockbusters because this movie stars two of the greatest comedy geniuses globally and effectively utilizes them and their abilities. These two geniuses are filmmakers and actors Ryan Reynolds and Taika Waititi who play the film's protagonist and antagonist. What about Green Lantern? I dare you to watch any Green Lantern scenes with Reynolds or Waititi in it. They're both reading from a rigid script that takes itself too seriously. After watching Reynold's ads that he often stars in and Taika Waititi's masterpiece, Jojo Rabbit, it's clear that Green Lantern didn't do either of them justice. Free Guy is a movie that lets these two comedic geniuses shine, reading from lines that genuinely sound like them. The characters fit the actors perfectly and vice versa.

Another element of the movie that impressed me the most was the film's aesthetic. I was surprised that the producers didn't turn the story into an animated movie like Wreck-It-Ralph. After watching Free Guy, I was impressed that it still had similar aesthetics to the popular game Fortnight even though it was live-action. They were able to achieve this look through the film's color palette and the production design. This aesthetic was adequate for the plot as a whole.

Overall, Free Guy is both an essential and good movie. The movie is critical for multiple reasons. Most of all, it's crucial because it reflects current events in the movie industry like the cinema vs. streaming battle, the recent acquisition of Fox by Disney, and the rising popularity of Video game movies. The movie also has the makings of a great blockbuster. It's story-driven, it is a collaboration from some of the best minds in Hollywood, and it effectively captures the aesthetics of a modern video game.

D’Alessandro, A. (2021, August 15). How Ryan Reynolds & Shawn Levy’s ‘Free Guy’ Triumphed At The Weekend Pandemic B.O. With A Great $28M+. DEADLINE. https://deadline.com/2021/08/ryan-reynolds-free-guy-weekend-box-office-1234814231/

Is That Matt Damon?

Fletcherspears, CC BY-SA 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

This review is a little different from what I've done in the past. I'm pretty particular about which movies I watch. For these reviews/articles, I try to find films that I think will go down in history. Every movie I've written about has played a considerable role in the ongoing Cinema vs. Streaming battle. If I were to follow that pattern this week, I would write about The Suicide Squad just because of the Warner Bros. Canada ad where James Gunn and the movie's cast encourage audiences to watch the film in “f&!%ing” theaters. A great ad, but the movie looks “f&!%ing” trashy, so I broke my own rules and watched Stillwater instead. People won't remember Stillwater like they will The Suicide Squad or any of the films I've reviewed in the past, but it was a great watch. It was a one-of-a-kind film that captures one of Matt Damon's best performances.

Stillwater doesn't quite live up to this year's masterpieces, but it sure comes close. It was a unique film that ultimately pulled the rug out from underneath the audience. It pulled off the Shyamalan twist better than Shyamalan did in his new movie, Old. Though this wasn't a flawlessly crafted film, it was great nonetheless. The elements that made it great were the writing, the overall execution/direction from Director Tom McCarthy, and the performances of Matt Damon and his supporting cast.

The writing made Stillwater a great movie. The movie is about a roughneck dad, Bill Baker (Matt Damon), trying to prove his daughter's innocence. The best part of the writing was its structure. The film was a series of irrational approaches and failures as Bill tries to prove his daughter's innocence. As the stakes rise throughout the movie, Bill rises to those challenges and ultimately does the unthinkable.

McCarthy not only wrote an excellent script, but he did an excellent job executing that script and bringing it to the big screen. Praising the director in a film review is a copout because it's not honoring the specific technical elements. Still, because all the technical aspects worked so well together, I think it's fair to go to the person in charge of everything and applaud them. I also think it's natural for critics to praise McCarthy because of his acclaim for his film Spotlight in 2015. For every project he's involved with now that does well, critics naturally praise him precisely because of his past success.

The execution of the script-to-screen can also be attributed to the actors. It takes incredible actors to bring a director’s vision and story to life. Damon was almost unrecognizable in his role as roughneck Bill Baker. It reminded me of Murphy's role as Emmett in A Quiet Place Part II. Damon is an excellent actor, and this role could be one of the highlights of his career. Though Damon was the highlight of this movie, I think the supporting cast did a great job working with him.

Though Stillwater wasn't quite as good as The Courier and A Quiet Place Part II, it came close and was a unique film that I didn't expect at all. I did appreciate this movie more than I did Old and Luca. Though I don't think this movie will go down in history, I think it makes a great watch. I also believe the Academy will nominate Matt Damon for best actor. It wasn't a perfect film, but it was a great movie. It was great because of the writing, Tom McCarthy's direction, and Matt Damon's incredible performance.

Shyamalan Movies are Getting Old

marina guimarães from Brasília, Brasil, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

M. Night Shyamalan's movies are part of what first got me interested in filmmaking. The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable completely defied my expectations. No movie had ever pulled the rug out from under me like those did at the time. Another great thing about Shyamalan is that he is advocating for people coming back to the movies. I immediately placed Old on my list of movies to watch as soon as I found out M. Night Shyamalan directed it, and it was only playing in theaters. I will support any studio or director who attempts to combat the inevitable decline of cinemas. Just like A Quiet Place Part II's opening message from John Krasinski, M. Night Shyamalan gave some remarks welcoming everyone back to the theaters. I remember my excitement as the movie was about to begin, but just like any Shyamalan movie, it completely pulled the rug out from under me.

It wasn't long into the movie that I realized this one wasn't as uplifting as his other films. The reasons for this are the movie's lack of solid themes, its failure to flesh out the characters, and how it hardly lets the story breathe.

Old doesn't have strong themes. Although it does touch on themes that normally have a lot of weight, the film fails to have one overarching theme. For the potential messages that it does touch on, the execution of said themes falls flat. The movie's possible themes are Bitter resentment vs. conflict over time, Racism, and Regret over time. The theme that the film almost drove home was Bitter Resentment vs. conflict over time. A big reason for the execution of this theme falling flat was the other reasons that made the movie not great: weak characters and lack of breath. I'll use this theme to illustrate these weaknesses.

The movie fails to flesh out the characters. The movie Old is about a group of people trapped on a beach where they realize that they are aging rapidly. The film illustrates this theme using one of the families trapped on the beach who can't seem to get along. The mom and dad of this family are constantly fighting over an affair the mom had. In the movie, the couple comes together as they work against the conflicts that arise on the beach. They begin to forgive each other as they grow older. The reason for this theme falling flat was that there's no actual chemistry between the couple. Nothing is exciting about these two characters. There's nothing that makes the audience want them to succeed and work things out.

The movie hardly lets the story breathe. The film is so jam-packed with conflict that it barely shows the good moments between the couple. There's only one intimate moment between the couple, and it's near the end when the both of them are about to die. At this point in the movie, I didn't care about the couple's relationship. While this movie did a fantastic job elevating the action, it should have been balanced out by kind moments, giving the film more heart. It felt like they tried to fit in so many awful events that I stopped caring entirely.

This movie was not what I expected at all. Usually, M. Night Shyamalan's films have an overarching theme that he drives home. He has characters that the audience can cheer for, and he's good at finding a balance between intense and mild moments. While I was disappointed by Shyamalan's Glass, Old is an all-time low for this director. Thanks, Shyamalan, for supporting cinema, but this isn't the movie that's going to bring people back to theaters.

Why Luca Isn't Showing in Theaters and Why That's OK

pixar, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons

I was surprised with the radio ads announcing that Luca was coming out this week on Disney+. The ads made no mention of movie theaters. It surprised me because everything is starting to go back to normal, movie theaters are opening up, and movie directors are tooting their horns that their movies are releasing only in theaters.

Every year, Pixar releases two films: one a cash grab and the other an Oscar grab. Between Pixar's 2021 slate of Luca and Seeing Red, it's evident that Luca is the Oscar bait. Oscar rules state that it must be shown on a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles to qualify for an Academy Award nomination (Oscars). If Pixar is required to display its movie on a large screen, wouldn't it make sense for them to distribute it to theaters across the nation, especially at a time like this?

Someone reading may ask, Well, what about Soul? It didn't play in any theaters, yet it won Best Animated Feature. Soul was an exception. It was the first Oscar winner that didn't have a theater run (Mondello). The academy made an exception because of Covid-19. Theaters were closed, so the academy made temporary rules that wouldn't extend beyond 2021's ceremony (Buchanan). The academy again requires Oscar nominees to be shown in an L.A. theater now that the ceremony is over. Pixar is adhering to this rule by showing Luca in one theater, the El Capitan theater in Hollywood (Guerrasio).

Though Disney hasn't made a statement as to why they chose not to show Luca in theaters across the nation, there are speculations as to why this is an intelligent business strategy. The best theory is that it wouldn't make sense to pit one of their more prestigious films against two cash-grabbing blockbusters like Cruella or Black Widow (El-Mahmoud). Instead, it would make sense for them to advertise Pixar's new film as an addition to one of Disney's most profitable appendages: Disney+ (Franko). Economics aside, as someone who constantly complains about the need for films to be shown in theaters, for this movie, it doesn't matter. I enjoyed this movie as much in the living room as I probably would have if I watched it in theaters. So let's talk about it!

Just like all of Pixar's movies, Luca is a beautiful film. While introducing a unique style to the Pixar repertoire, Luca has still maintained the level of craft found in Pixar's other movies. Though this is a beautiful film, it doesn't have the sound design work where movie-goers would need to watch it in theaters. The animation and unique style make this movie a must-see, but as I said, this isn't a movie that viewers need to watch in theaters.

The animation was fantastic. It's incredible how far Pixar has come since Toy Story. When you watch any Pixar film that has come out within the last five years, it's hard not to be amazed at the ultra-realistic landscapes and settings. The model for having these realistic settings and backgrounds while maintaining the exaggerated character designs makes Pixar movies almost instantly recognizable. Luca followed suit.

Even though the movie follows suit in realistic settings with exaggerated character designs, Luca still brings a unique style to the table. The exaggerated characters didn't look like those in other Pixar films. Instead, they looked like the Claymation characters you would find in an Aardman Animations movie like Wallace and Gromit or Shaun the Sheep.

Luca isn't a movie that viewers need to watch in theaters. Luca or any of the Pixar movies weren't made specifically for the movie theaters, such as A Quiet Place or Sound of Metal. So much work went into the sound design of those two movies that they need to be watched with theater speakers to be fully appreciated. Pixar movies put most of their work into the animation, and they do a fantastic job, but I think this art can be enjoyed on a home screen just as much as it would on a big screen. Another reason is that even though there are films like Soul or Luca that are Pixar's attempts at prestige, I've never watched an animated film that serves as a full realization of cinema as a visual medium. Movies like A Quiet Place or Sound of Metal rely almost entirely on visuals to tell the story. In typically every animated film, you're going to find a lot of expositional on-the-nose dialogue. That's OK; animation studios typically cater their movies toward children and an overseas audience. Cartoons have a lot of talking because they need to for their audience. Whether an animated film is an attempt at an Oscar win or not, if it's made by a big studio like Pixar, no matter how prestigious they try to make it, it's still going to fit under that blockbuster category. So, pop your popcorn and enjoy Luca from the comfort of your own home.

(2020, April 28). AWARDS RULES AND CAMPAIGN REGULATIONS APPROVED FOR 93RD OSCARS®. Oscars. https://www.oscars.org/news/awards-rules-and-campaign-regulations-approved-93rd-oscarsr.

Mondello, B. (2021, April 25). Pixar's 'Soul' Wins Best Animated Feature — The Film Never Played In U.S. Theaters. Npr. https://www.npr.org/sections/live-updates-oscars-2021/2021/04/25/989617582/pixars-soul-wins-best-animated-feature-the-film-never-played-in-u-s-theaters

Buchanan, K. (2021, January 27). Oscars Rule to Allow Films to Skip a Theatrical Release This Year. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/movies/oscars-2021-streaming-coronavirus.html

Guerrasio, J. (2021, June 3). 'Luca' will be the first Pixar movie in over a year to premiere in theaters — one to be exact. Insider. https://www.insider.com/pixar-luca-premiere-at-one-movie-theater-2021-6.

El-Mahmoud, S. (2021, April 2). Why Won't Disney Let Us Cry In Theaters With Pixar's Soul And Luca? Cinema Blend. https://www.cinemablend.com/news/2565316/why-disney-let-us-cry-theaters-pixar-soul-luca-streaming-summer-2021-movies.

Franko, R. (2021, March 3). How Is Disney+ Bringing in So Much Money Right Now? AllEars. https://allears.net/2021/03/03/how-is-disney-bringing-in-so-much-money-right-now/.

How I Maximized My Quiet Place 2 Experience, and Why It Was Worth It.

When I watched Sound of Metal in theaters a month ago, I was disappointed that I could hear everything going on in the movie next door during the film's final scene. I committed to finding a better movie theater to watch it again. I had this drawn-out plan to research and find a smaller movie theater with fewer movies playing to have an even better experience. Unfortunately, Amazon Prime owns Sound of Metal, and the showing I went to was a rare occasion. I decided to put the same effort to re-watch Sound of Metal into preparing to watch A Quiet Place Part II.

I looked through the list of theaters playing A Quiet Place Part II and found a theater name that I didn't recognize. Could this be a smaller theater? Perhaps one with fewer movies playing? When I called them up, they told me that they only had a few films playing simultaneously. When I told them why I was calling, they kindly admitted that when A Quiet Place came out in 2018, many people complained about hearing the other movies going on. She said that nothing has changed since then. "Any recommendations?" The first theater she recommended was Megaplex at Jordan Commons. Really, a blockbuster theater? I decided to call them up anyways.

"Well, you're in luck," the guy at the Megaplex said. "All of our theaters are entirely soundproof. Only 6 of the ten theaters are in use right now. The only other loud movie is the Saw Spiral movie, and that's playing on the opposite side of the building. The movies playing next to A Quiet Place are a horse movie (Dream Horse) and on the other side is some comedy movie (probably Here Today)." I think, Wow, this guy is good, but he's perhaps some salesperson winging it.

Alright, let's talk about the movie. Just like A Quiet Place (2018), A Quiet Place Part II needs to be watched in theaters. A Quiet Place Part II is just as good as its predecessor. It is not often that a sequel lives up to the movie it follows, but A Quiet Place Part II is a true masterpiece. Some of the strengths of A Quiet Place Part II are its Sound Design (of course), its editing as a whole, and Cillian Murphy's performance as Emmett.

Like the first movie, the sound design is the greatest strength of A Quiet Place Part II. That was clear from the start when you can hear the tiny noises of everything happening on-screen and what's supposed to be happening off-screen. The movie starts before the events of the first movie. We see what life was like before the monsters arrive. We hear Lee walking through the grocery store, pulling items off the shelf, and ripping the grocery bag out of the dispenser. Even though I knew this took place before the monsters arrived, I was clenching my fists from the beginning of the movie because of conditioning from the first movie and the incredible sound effects.

Overall, this film had great editing. When it comes to film editing, merit is determined by how well the editing serves the story. A Quiet Place Part II reminded me of 2018's Best Editing winner, Dunkirk. How Dunkirk beautifully told the story from the point of view of three different groups. The film beautifully weaved the three stories together. A Quiet Place Part II follows two groups: Emmett as he helps Regan attempt to broadcast the high frequencies of Regan's implant, and Evelyn as she stays behind to look over injured Marcus and her infant. A Quiet Place Part II's film editor Michael P. Shawver uses parallel editing in a way that I've never seen done to this extent to weave the two stories together to flow as if they were one.

Cillian Murphy's role as Emmett is another strength of this film. In other films, he's never stood out. Whenever I see him, I think, Oh look; it's Scarecrow from Batman. Even in Dunkirk, when he played a completely different role, Scarecrow! When they introduce his character at the beginning of A Quiet Place Part II, he's wearing a trucker hat and tattoos. He's not that skinny white-collar character from Batman, Inception, and Red Eye. I recognized him but thought, Wow, this is different. Later in the film, the Abbott family runs into post-apocalypse Emmett, and he's completely unrecognizable. It was a complete reversal from the cartoony character he plays in every other movie. This role felt like an everyday neighbor. It felt natural, and he molded into this character well.

As for the experience itself, yes, everything the Megaplex worker said was right. It was incredible. Like Sound of Metal, there's a moment in A Quiet Place Part II where it goes completely silent for an extended period. It felt like I was in a bubble. I realized that I originally planned this out all wrong. While I initially wanted to find a smaller theater with fewer movies playing, I should have been looking for a Blockbuster theater that ensured soundproof theater rooms. Now I know which theater to go to from now on.

When the movie ended, I got up to leave—one of my friends that I watched the film with stayed behind. I asked if he was staying behind for the music. He nodded his head, yes. With all the preparation I put into making sure that this was the perfect experience, I was happy that someone enjoyed the experience more than me. I sat right back down and stayed through the entire credits.

Why I Want to Watch Sound of Metal in Theaters Again, and Why I Can’t

I was itching to go back to the movies. I hadn’t been since watching Tenet in September. On Thursday, April 22nd, I parked the bus I drive for work, hopped in my car. I had a show to catch, and the last one was only 15 minutes after I got off work. I had to make it in time for trailers, too, of course. I sped to the movie theaters, parked the car, darted out, “Wait, my mask!” Back to the car again. “One ticket to Sound of Metal, please.”

The trailers weren’t a disappointment at all. They included the trailer for James Gunn’s The Suicide Squad, the trailer to the Saw spin-off with Chris Rock. The trailer I was most excited about was for A Quiet Place Part II. I had seen the trailer a while back when they were advertising the original release date last year, but something about watching it in theaters made it more real. That something was the sound design. The crispness of the audio sent shivers down my spine as it reminded me of the terror and sensational experience of watching the first film in theaters. With its flawless sound design, the first A Quiet Place movie was a film that audience members needed to experience in theaters. I bring this up because if I were to review Sound of Metal, I could sum up my entire opinion of the film by saying the same thing.

            Audience members need to watch Sound of Metal in theaters. Shot on 35 mm film, Sound of Metal offers a movie with an aesthetic level that moviegoers can’t find in films shot on digital. Beyond the beautiful visuals, the film immersed the audience with its sound design by putting them in the point of view of the main character, Ruben Stone, as he loses his hearing. I need to note Riz Ahmed’s performance as Ruben Stone and the performances of his supporting cast. Between the breath-taking cinematography, the sensational sound design, and Riz Ahmed’s incredible performance, along with that of his supporting cast, Sound of Metal is an immersive film that viewers can’t truly experience unless they watch it in theaters.

             Director of Photography Daniel Bouquet shot Sound of Metal on 35mm film. The decision to shoot on film was a decision also made by John Krasinski and Cinematographer Charlotte Bruus Christensen when producing A Quiet Place. Christensen shot Fences and Far from the Madding Crowd on film. She kept that tradition with A Quiet Place even though it would be easier to shoot on digital because of the VFX and the fact that a lot of the scenes took place outside at night. In an interview with FILMMAKER magazine, Christensen explained that it didn’t feel like the VFX supervisors preferred whether she shot the movie on digital or film (Mulcahey, 2018). She also said, “Every single reference that John had for the look of the movie was shot on film: Jaws, No Country for Old Men, There Will be Blood, Let the Right One In (Mulcahey, 2018).”

Going back to Sound of Metal, in an interview with Slashfilm.com, Sound of Metal’s director, Darius Marder, shut down the notion that shooting with film is more expensive. He said, “Shooting digital is expensive. When you’re shooting digital, you can shoot and shoot and shoot and shoot. What does that mean? Overtime. There’s nothing more expensive on a film set than overtime (Giroux, 2020).” If we were to move on to another area of the Film vs. Digital debate and talk about aesthetics, A Quiet Place and Sound of Metal are two movies that put those arguments to rest.

            More sensational than the aesthetics are the sound design. Not long into the movie, it was clear that watching this in theaters was the right choice. The dialogue is perfectly mixed with the ambient noises and folly. It was clear from the beginning that the sound design was a strength in this film. Then Ruben starts to lose his hearing, and the audience loses it with him. Sound of Metal uses aesthetics, audio, and subtitles (yes, subtitles) to take the audience on a journey that they may or may not have experienced the likes of before. Since watching this film, the movie has won the Oscars for Best Film Editing and the new category, Best Sound. This new category combines the old categories Best Sound Mixing and Best Sound Editing. A Quiet Place won Best Sound Editing in 2019.

            As I said earlier, I need to note Riz Ahmed’s performance and that of his supporting cast. Though the sound design and editing are the greatest strengths of this film, the acting in the movie is some of the best I’ve seen on the big screen. Riz Ahmed’s performance primarily served the visual storytelling of the film. Any close-up of Ahmed showed the audience exactly what he was feeling, and the audience felt it with him. If the aesthetics, editing, and sound design took the audience on this immersive journey, it was the performances that were the cherry on top which made the audience genuinely feel as if they were experiencing Ruben’s story. If there were areas of Sound of Metal that were stronger than A Quiet Place, the performances would be one of them. I’m not knocking on the acting of Krasinski, Blunt, Simmonds, and Jupe. They did remarkably. I am saying that The Sound of Metal did a better job utilizing the performances in a way that fast-paced story-driven films like A Quiet Place aren’t capable of doing. Yes, A Quiet Place wasn’t as fast-paced as, say, an Avengers movie, and it did break free from the blockbuster norms in that it cut down the dialogue, but the pacing was more catered toward an everyday audience. It didn’t have the drawn-out reaction shots that Sound of Metal had. There’s a beautiful scene where Ruben’s love interest Lou is singing in front of her guests. It’s a lovely moment, but then the music becomes garbled. We, the audience, start hearing what Ruben hears. The camera pulls in to Ruben, and his face tells an entire story. We can see Ruben’s pain; we can imagine his discoveries, thoughts, and feelings at the moment. The shot is a painting in and of itself. Aside from the intimate moment where Krasinski and Blunt dance to Harvest Moon, there weren’t many drawn-out moments in A Quiet Place. But that’s completely understandable; A Quiet Place was for a wider audience. They can’t get away with drawn-out reaction shots. The everyday audience would get bored.

               Let me be clear though, A Quiet Place and Sound of Metal are both flawless films. They have both made my list of favorite movies. I would never say I like one over the other. However, I think that Sound of Metal affected me on a deeper, more personal, and spiritual level than a movie about aliens or monsters could. I think A Quiet Place has a beautiful theme surrounding family. The Sound of Metal felt more natural, and I learned more about myself by watching it.

There’s a scene that’s utterly silent for an extended period in Sound of Metal. It’s a beautiful scene that ties up the theme of the film. I bring this up because I said it’s a flawless film, but I do have a complaint, not in the movie but the venue. During this extended period of silence, I could hear the movie next door. It was a great venue, but I had to accept that many movies were going on at the same time. After watching it in theaters, I decided to find a smaller theater to watch it to get that perfect experience. A great plan, but it’s a shame that Sound of Metal never came back to theaters.

               The showing I caught after work three Thursdays ago was the last, not the last of the day but the last of the theater run in the Salt Lake area where I live. After watching the movie and falling in love with it, I was pretty confident that I’d have an opportunity to watch it again in theaters because the Oscars were that weekend. The Academy nominated the film for multiple awards. Oscar films typically do another theater run after the ceremony, or at least that’s what I thought. When calling the worker at the Cineplex, he explained that Amazon Prime owns the rights to Sound of Metal, and the theater is reserving the second Oscar theater run for only the best picture winner, Nomadland. Looking at showtimes throughout the area, I found that this is accurate across the board. The only two Oscar films that theaters were playing were Nomadland and The Father. Perhaps, they’re showing The Father based on the controversy of the ceremony, but there’s no need to discuss that. I am disappointed, though, that Nomadland is the film that’s playing across the Salt Lake area out of the winners and nominees.

Best Picture winners should be the best of the best. It should be films that are well-crafted and inspiring. I don’t want to discuss my reasons for not watching Nomadland and why I don’t think a film like Nomadland should win Best picture. All I’ll say is that I’ve been disappointed in the Academy’s last three picks for Best Picture. The last time I agreed with their pick was The Green Book in 2019, though I thought A Quiet Place could have just as easily won. Both were my favorite movies from that year. Sound of Metal should have won that award for this year. Sound of Metal should be the film that’s getting a second Oscar run and playing everywhere. Instead, it got only a few showings to be qualified for the Oscars, and then it played in select theaters for a week before the ceremony. It’s a shame that the only way for audience members to experience Marder’s message of finding stillness can be through a small screen and a subscription through Amazon. On a brighter note, A Quiet Place Part II is coming to theaters on May 28th.

Mulcahey, M. (2018, April 20). “A Very Old Fashioned Kind of Filmmaking”: DP Charlotte Bruus Christensen on Shooting A Quiet Place on 35mm. Filmmaker.  https://filmmakermagazine.com/105175-a-very-old-fashioned-kind-of-filmmaking-dp-charlotte-bruus-christensen-on-a-quiet-place-on-35mm/#.YJbwILVKjIU

Giroux, J. (2020, December 4). ‘Sound of Metal’ Director Darius Marder Shot on 35mm Because It’s “My Goddamn Movie” [Interview]. /Film.                    https://www.slashfilm.com/sound-of-metal-director-interview/