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Today: Maybe there’s a future for independent dramas? Some wishful thinking ahead!
Here’s what’s happening this week:
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The next DarkRoom screening and salon is Tuesday, Aug 25 at Freddy’s in Brooklyn.
File all the hullaballoo around X-Men casting under Something Bogus. I thought the era of exciting young actors immediately transitioning to a career as action figures was over. Alas...
Film Forum’s vast Francis Ford Coppola retrospective began on Friday and continues through September 10.
Mubi is hiring a communications manager.
Blood Shine, from directors Emily Bennett and Justin Brooks, is opening in select theaters and on VOD/Digital Platforms 8/21. The film will be playing at Cinema Village with Q&As with Emily and Justin during opening weekend. Tickets here.
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COMMENTARY
On what’s next.
The Gen Z horror wave continued over the weekend, as It Ends premiered in a few select theaters.
The film follows a group of friends on a late night drive that turns infinite when the road they’re on mysteriously extends indefinitely and offers no way out. If the infinite road is primarily a metaphor for adulthood, there’s also a comparison to be made to filmmaking — and especially the making of this film, which began when writer-director Alex Ullom and his collaborators were in college and continued for years thereafter, as the team embarked on multiple rounds of reshoots, ultimately remaking much of the film. That the end of the film’s long and winding road is such a desirable destination — a SXSW premiere, making noise as part of the first batch of Letterboxd Video Store titles, acquisition by Neon, and now being mentioned in the same breath as Obsession and Backrooms — makes it the most inspiring indie success story of the year. This isn’t about a YouTube presence converting to ticket sales; it’s about maniacal perseverance and commitment to a vision paying off.
At a time when every young filmmaker is being told to make a horror movie, and when every film with the faintest frightening elements is claiming to be one, I found it funny that Ullom offhandedly mentioned that he doesn’t think of It Ends as a horror movie in a note he posted to Instagram on Friday.
The wild success of Obsession and Backrooms will undoubtedly inspire many imitators, with studios reportedly already plumbing YouTube for the next Kane Parsons and Curry Barker. But I wouldn’t be surprised if this summer marked this era of horror’s zenith and the start of something else.
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