I WANT TO BRIEFLY HIGHLIGHT two podcasts here at The Bulwark that demonstrate the breadth of the summer.
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that → want → summer
First up was Mona’s book club, which she was kind enough to invite me on to discuss the Odyssey, both the film by Christopher Nolan and the epic poem by Homer (as translated by Emily Wilson).
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she → invite → Wilson
It was a fun (and hopefully erudite!) chat and I think you’ll really enjoy it, particularly if you’re getting a little burned out on politics.
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you → think → politics
(Hey, no judgment: That’s why I’m here.1)
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I → ’ → ?
You can watch it now:
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You → watch → it
I don’t think anyone with any knowledge of the film industry doubted that Christopher Nolan’s ancient Greek epic would do fine—he’s one of the few directors whose name alone can open a movie—but I also think that lots of folks are surprised by just how fine this movie is doing.
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movie → think → folks
It grossed more than a million dollars a day at the box office through Wednesday, September 16, putting it near or at the top of the daily charts for two straight months.
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It → gross → months
Beyond that, though, it was a cultural sensation, sending multiple translations of the epic to the top of the bestseller charts and sparking renewed interest in ancient history across generations.
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it → send → generations
It’s the twelfth-highest-grossing film of all time, worldwide, at nearly $1.7 billion.
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It → ’ → billion
(Again: This is a three-hour, R-rated, sword-and-sandal movie.
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This → rat → ?
No one saw this coming.)
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this → see → ?
But two weeks after The Odyssey came out, Spider-Man: Brand New Day dropped.
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Man → come → ?
And this week, after 47 days, it became the highest-grossing film of all time, domestically.
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it → become → time
(None of these numbers are adjusted for inflation, of course, but I am generally of the opinion that there’s little point in measuring the box office takes from a world with the internet against a world in which people went to movie theaters to enjoy air conditioning.)
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people → adjust → conditioning
And to mark that fact, I welcomed Chris McKenna, who cowrote the film with his writing partner, Erik Sommers, back to The Bulwark Goes to Hollywood.
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Bulwark → mark → Hollywood
For all the talk about superhero movies being dead and audiences having moved on, the performance of this film just goes to show that there’s ore in that vein yet.
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performance → move → vein
And it helps when the film in question a.) stars the most popular superhero in history while also b.) telling an emotionally resonant story.
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film → help → story
As I told Chris during our chat, this is, at its heart, just a really touching story about friendship and our need for human connection.
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this → tell → connection
That’s something everyone can understand.
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everyone → ’ → ?
It wasn’t all sappy stuff: Chris spilled some details on storylines that got pitched and shot down and how Jean Grey wound up being in the movie instead of a classic Spider-Man villain (or another mutant).
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Grey → spill → movie
And we briefly touched on the upcoming Avengers sequels before hitting on season two of Haunted Hotel, which hits Netflix on October 9.
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which → touch → October
I interviewed showrunner Matt Roller about the first season last year.
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I → interview → season
It’s a fun show; go watch it now!)
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It → ’ → it
The Odyssey and Spider-Man: BND anchored the back half of the summer, but there were tons of interesting stories to emerge from the summer box office: the rise of the YouTube auteur with the success of Obsession and Backrooms; the soft performances of The Mandalorian and Grogu and Moana; the millennial nostalgia of The Devil Wears Prada 2 and Practical Magic 2.
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Devil → anchor → Prada
It really does feel like there’s more energy in the world of film than at any time since I started this newsletter . . . and we haven’t even gotten to awards season yet!
Resident Evil Review
I assume, of course, that Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is going to be a major awards season player.
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Evil → feel → course
Never before has a film better simulated what it’s like to play a video game.
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it → simulate → game
I don’t know that anyone will confuse Zach Cregger’s new take on the [Resident Evil] series with high art either—though Caravaggio never had the stones to imagine an acid-vomiting zombie, to his detriment—but Cregger is attempting something relatively audacious.
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Cregger → know → something
He has put together a film based on a video game that feels pretty explicitly like playing that game.
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that → put → game
Which is to say that the action comes at regular, and relentless, intervals, all while our stand-in for the audience—medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams), who is transporting an important bag to the hospital at the heart of Raccoon City—does all the things a novice game player would do.
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player → say → things
Shooting in frustration at a padlock you can’t find the key for?
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you → shoot → key
(I don’t think Bryan ever figures out that mechanic in this film-game.)
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Bryan → think → game
Trying to determine how a zombie’s powers work in order to keep from getting killed in unexpectedly horrifying ways?
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powers → try → ways
You can read the whole thing here.
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You → read → thing
Assigned Viewing: Donnie Darko (In theaters October 2, 3, and 4)
Over on Across the Movie Aisle (evergreen reminder that we spun off from The Bulwark about a year ago), Peter, Alyssa, and I interviewed Richard Kelly, the director of Donnie Darko, about that film, its twenty-fifth anniversary, the sequel novel coming in December, and why this millennial touchstone continues to reverberate with new generations of filmgoers.
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touchstone → assign → filmgoers
We also got about fifteen minutes of Southland Tales chat in at the end.
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We → get → end
I hope you give it a listen; this was a great interview.
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this → hope → listen
Fathom Entertainment and Saga Arts are bringing Donnie Darko back to the big screen for its twenty-fifth anniversary on October 2, 3, and 4; you can find a list of theaters playing it near you here.
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you → bring → you
I’m a big fan of the film and was a little nervous when I revisited it a few years back.
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I → ’m → it
After all, some of the films that were important to us as teenagers don’t age terribly well.
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that → age → teenagers
But I was pleased to see that it played just as well for a fortysomething with kids of his own as it did for a disaffected teenager watching the DVD in a dorm room.
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it → please → room
…and 2 more, not listed.
The Aporia
