In an age where every actor thinks they can be a director, Bradley Cooper is a rare one who has some talent for it. He has got things to say about being an artist and being alive. He has visual and formal ambition. He is – in fact – an artist. He’s not a great director, but he does not need to be. He instead is a director who makes films that are worth watching.
Michael Mann is just about as good as it gets. No one is able to take the general cops/robbers premise and make it as beautiful to look at and experience as Mann.
The West Wing is one of the most infamous dramas in television history. Actual people in politics saw it as inspirational to be a do-nothing liberal. Liberals outside of politics used it as comfort food. And Aaron Sorkin used it (for four seasons) to work out his issues with women in public. There is something for everyone.
The show is a tremendous cultural artifact. It captures how pre-9/11 there was possibly a genuine off-ramp for how the country could operate in the world but that there was an insidious white male supremacy strand in the country that needed to be addressed. But that both of those ideas fell by the wayside due to Islamaphobia and our open World Police status. Despite this status as a cultural artifact, the show is so much of an unintentional reflection of this country. And this country sucks. So this show sucks (except when it doesn’t).
Industry seemed like the fakest show in all the world. In August I heard about this supposed “season 3” of this show that no one ever heard of before and was reportedly good. I was very suspicious. A trusted friend though assured me it was worth watching, and I was shocked to discovered that Industry was in fact an Actually Good show.
I watched the show week to week while it was on the air, but I never rewatched it once. There was just so much going on with this show, and it was so rich. They truly do not make things like this anymore. And they probably never will again.
The 28 Days/Weeks/Years Later film series is fairly odd as far as franchises go. The first film was from a clearly an attempt at artistry despite being in a classic genre that COULD just be lowest common denominator genre fodder. They established an Alien-like quality where the films are gonna be different in regards to cast and tone and director with the sequel.
But then the franchise seemingly just died after two films due to rights issues. And then it became oddly hard to legally watch the first film unless you had the DVD? Now, all these years later, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland have a three-film plan with the first two films shot back to back?? In an age where all studies are desperate to mine IP, it was inevitable they would land back at this franchise. But its path to get there has been odd to say the least.
Kogonada seems like a true artist whose work can be neatly divided between the work he wrote and the work he was hired to direct. You do not need to guess which avenue has made for interesting art. I look forward to following their career in the years to come.
Still Need to Watch: Children of Fate: Life and Death in a Sicilian Family
I had a chance to see Michael Roemer live in 2025, but I could not pull it off and then he died a short while later. That’s gonna be a lifelong regret. What a beautiful filmmaker that deserved to be far more prolific than he ended up being.
We close out another volume of the podcast with a divisive look at the harrowing ‘niche indie movie’/Oscar nominee, Nickel Boys.
We have a spirited debate about the effectiveness of the First Person POV filmmaking and a not-so-spirited look ahead at what we might be podcasting about next.
Continue reading There Will Be Movies – Ep. 115: Nickel Boys
Still Need to Watch: Namibia: The Struggle for Liberation (if you have access to this film in any way, please let me know! mcthomas216@gmail.com)
Charles Burnett is one of the greatest American directors ever. It is a crime that he has not received funding to make whatever films he wants as often as he wants. You owe it to yourself to watch his films if you have not already.
The Reel World 