BETH ACCOMANDO
Welcome back to KPBS Listener Supported Cinema Junkie. I'm Beth Accomando. For Hollywood, summer is already in full swing. Toy Story 5 is topping the box office. The Mandalorian and Grogu extended the Star Wars franchise last month. And Steven Spielberg is back with a new alien encounter film in Disclosure Day. Opening this week is DC's new Supergirl. And Spider-Man swings back into theaters next month with his latest adventure. But what all these films have in common is that they're not really serving up anything new. And guess what? Audiences seem to be choosing other options, like low-budget horror and action films from outside of Hollywood. Once again, we're gathering for a Midday Movies edition of Cinema Junkie. And joining me once again is Movie Wallis podcaster Yazdi Pithavala. And refereeing the discussion, at least for our first round, is Midday Edition's Andrew Bracken. Here's our discussion.
ANDREW BRACKEN
So summer is usually reserved for these popcorn movies rather than the Oscar hopefuls we might see later in the year. So to kick off this month's Midday Movies, let's talk about Supergirl, which just opened. It is not a sequel to James Gunn's Superman, but does exist in same universe, here is a brief clip of Millie Alcock as Supergirl with Krypto making his presence known.
CLIP
Good job, buddy. Color me all colored, baby. Color me all colored. Hi, Kara Zor-El. Color me all colored, darling. I know. You're wide and clear. The 23 will be the best year yet. I know where you're coming from. Let's be honest, babe. It's not a very high bar to clear.
ANDREW BRACKEN
So, Yazdi, I think you liked Superman. So how does Supergirl hold up?
YAZDI PITHAVALA
So I'd hoped that Supergirl would retain some of the charm, the aw-shucks lack of cynicism, and the not-so-hidden politics of Superman, which it didn't quite come up to meet that bar. I will acknowledge, though, that the film is fun, and Millie Alcock makes for a most agreeable screen presence as Supergirl. But the film in certain parts did feel kind of muddled and even a tad rote. Also, I was surprised to see that the movie is so inspired by Mad Max: Fury Road in terms of how it looks, and then borrows heavily from John Wick as inspiration for what drives the plot.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Hmm, so Beth, care to counter what Yazdi said?
BETH ACCOMANDO
Wow! I have to just, like, usually I'm the one who's being all negative about a film and, like, not succumbing to its charms, and I have to say, I really enjoyed this. But again, Krypto won me over, and you know, it does have the John Wick kind of plot dynamic, which is something happens to Krypto, and Supergirl has to get revenge, or has to save him. But what I loved about this is girls usually don't get to have dogs. Girls get horses and cats, and it's the boys who get the dogs. So I appreciated the fact that I finally got a girl and her dog story. She will travel the universe to save him, and I thought that was just sweet and charming. And I did like the fact that it wasn't Superman. Like, they're not the same character. She had a different life. She had a different experience on Krypton. She's a girl. She's having her 23rd birthday. She's not happy with where she's at. Her dog is the only thing she has. And so I appreciated that she wasn't the same as him. She wasn't as open and as naive as he is. And I appreciated the scene with her mother where her mother Says, "I want you to be good, but you don't have to be nice." And as someone who's never been nice, I appreciate that.
ANDREW BRACKEN
You can relate to that?
BETH ACCOMANDO
I can relate to that. So there's a lot of things in it I like. There are a few things that I did not get at all. Like, Supergirl keeps telling this young girl who's out for revenge, like, "You don't have to kill the guy who killed your family." And I'm like, why not? I mean, this is a comic book movie. So like that whole strain of the plot made no sense to me, but I think it was a lot of fun and crypto does win me over. I have a very soft spot for that. I will confess.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, so a split decision there, I guess. So DC has a new film, but also a Marvel character will be hitting the screen once again in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. Beth, you actually know the director, Destin Cretton, who studied film here in San Diego.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Yes, he did. And I was thrilled to be able to show his first student films here when he was going to school. And all of his films, all of his short films had a common thread, which was they were all about the sense of community. And I think he's carried that through into the films he's done. Some of them are small indie films like Short Term 12. But then he worked on Shang-Chi. And he recently worked on the Wonder Man series. But even in those big kind of Hollywood franchise films, I think he's brought the sense of family and community. And one of the things I really enjoyed on his Instagram account was he highlighted everybody in his crew on Wonder Man, like down to the craft services person and also like the cinematographer, people that he—
ANDREW BRACKEN
It's a long list. People that he—
BETH ACCOMANDO
he did it for weeks.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Yeah.
BETH ACCOMANDO
But the thing that was so sweet about it is you really felt like he knew the people. Like it didn't feel like, oh, here's a picture of so-and-so, they did craft service. Like there was a personal note about each one and you felt like he talked to them. And so I think he's like the perfect perfect person to bring this new Spider-Man world to the screen. I think he's got this sense of what those characters as a unit, as an ensemble, are like and can be. And so I'm looking forward to what he's doing. I pulled this short little, like, promo clip that they had because I, I want you to hear him talk about shooting. So it's Tom Holland and Destin Cretton talking about shooting a stunt scene in the new Spider-Man.
CLIP
This is some of the best action that we've had in any of these movies, and we shot the most stunt on the day, in camera. Shooting that opening action sequence was really exhilarating. It was the first thing that we did, putting Spider-Man on the street with cars exploding. It's just so awesome. It's going to allow the audiences to be a part of this experience. And one of the results of that is we were seeing thousands of people showing up to watch us work. It was a really lovely reminder to all of us how much this movie means to a lot of people in the world.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And I think you can hear in his voice, like, how much he cares just about the audience, about the story. And it comes through in his films. And just a quick note, an FYI, Jackie Chan's stunt team is behind some of the action in the new Spider-Man movie. So that is just something that I am looking forward to.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Very cool.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Me too.
ANDREW BRACKEN
And Yazdi, you're also excited about a more indie film coming up, The Invite.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Yes. So here's the premise for the movie. A married couple on the verge of breaking up invites another couple, their upstairs neighbors, for dinner. That's it. That's all the movie is. It's set in a single apartment, but it's a wonderful chamber piece with only 4 actors. And when those actors are Seth Rogen, Olivia Wilde, Penélope Cruz, and Edward Norton, it is hard to go wrong. I lapped this film up like a cat to a bowl of milk. It opens on July 10th in San Diego, and here is an early scene from the film involving the 4 main characters.
CLIP
It took you a while to come to the door. No, and it sounded like you were arguing. No filter. No, no, I just want to be honest. We were at the door before we rang and we could hear you were fighting. Oh, we were talking, we were, um— We were fighting. We were fighting, yeah. Bit of a contentious environment in here, so I understand if that's repellent to you, no hard feelings, you know what I mean? Completely understand, you know. We love a contentious environment. We love it. Okay. Well. Really, it's fine. You hit the jackpot then, my friend.
ANDREW BRACKEN
I guess a possible date night movie there, depending on how comfortable you are with your partner.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Maybe not. Maybe, maybe not. But I think it's really the script. There'll be so much to talk about after anybody watches this film. The script, which is from Will McCormick and Rashida Jones, is so good. It's bitingly funny. It's sharp as a scalpel and unafraid to go to some dark places. What I also liked about this film is that it comments on female desire without any shame associated with it, which is kind of rare in American cinema. This movie is not "War and Peace." It's not things blowing up. But if you want a good script, which is going to delight you, then "The Invite" is the one to seek.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Well, emotions may blow up a little. Yes.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Beth, any other summer releases on your radar?
BETH ACCOMANDO
Well, I hate to be so stereotypical, but horror. Summer is for horror, and I love it. There is a new Evil Dead film, Evil Dead Burn.
CLIP
We found something. The Necronomicon, the book of the dead. Despite my warnings, they read from the book, unleashing demons and demons and demons and demons.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Sam Raimi produced this.
CLIP
God help us.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And sadly, Bruce Campbell is not in it. He famously has created the character of Ash, who is the chainsaw-wielding hero of all the other films. But they've been making kind of these parallel track films where we had the TV series Ash vs. Evil Dead, where Bruce Campbell got to shine brilliantly in that. But then they were also making these, like, standalone horror films that were kind of in a universe of Evil Dead. And the thing I like about them is Sam Raimi is giving opportunities to young horror filmmakers to work in this franchise and kind of spin something of their own. And so this time he's gotten a director, Sebastian Vanacek, and he is the director of Infested, which is— if you have any fear of bugs or spiders, do not see that film. So I really love the fact that he's giving these directors an opportunity to kind of spin their own brand of horror within this franchise that we're all familiar with. And so Evil Dead Burn is coming up, and I am looking forward to it.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, and Sam Raimi, he just brings a lot of fun to it too. It's horror, but he just like brings a smile to my face.
BETH ACCOMANDO
He is so good. And if anybody can find this old series, The Incredibly Strange Film Show, there's an episode dedicated to Sam Raimi. And he talked about being like 18 years old and buying a suit and a briefcase.
CLIP
Robert Tappert, Bruce Campbell, and myself all bought business suits and matching briefcases and dropped out of school. Then we worked as waiters, busboys, janitors, cab drivers. We first got jobs so that we could raise seed money. Then we hired attorneys to put together a legal offering saying, In legal terms, if X person invests X amount of money, they own X percentage in this movie that we're going to make.
BETH ACCOMANDO
But, like, he was already thinking, like, in this practical way of how to finance this crazy idea he had. And, like, that interview is just so charming. And seeing pictures of him and his friends, like, when they were that young, trying to pitch these movies and getting the money. To make it.
ANDREW BRACKEN
And still making movies today.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And still making movies today. I love it.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
He had a movie come out just earlier this year called "Saint Helen," which was so good and so underrated. And, you know, at this age, he's certainly overdelivering.
BETH ACCOMANDO
I love him. Yes.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Yasi, what about you? Any other summer releases you think we should be looking out for?
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Well, it's hard not to talk about "The Odyssey," which opens on July 17th. And the release of any Christopher Nolan film is always cause for excitement. Excitement among cinephiles.
CLIP
Tell me what you remember. A wife. A son. And then what? We won the war. Help me go home.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
There's already been vigorous debate online about some of the casting in the movie, and I'm curious to see if Nolan is able to pull this off. It's 3 hours in length. I'm particularly curious to see if he's going to succumb to his usual tics, such as loud clanging music, back and forth playing with time, and generally poorly written female characters. But maybe he'll surprise us all. We'll see.
BETH ACCOMANDO
I think I'm beginning to weary a little bit of Nolan. I love his early work. I mean, Memento is one of my all-time favorite films. But I don't know, I see the trailers for this. I am not really buying Matt Damon and Anne Hathaway as, like, these Greek heroes and characters. I'm curious to see it, but it seems to me to be emphasizing more kind of this epic scale as opposed to the, like, human dynamics of those stories, which is what I mean, my dad used to read these stories to me when I was a kid from the Odyssey. And like, it was about who these people were. And I'm afraid it gets lost.
ANDREW BRACKEN
It's a real challenge to take these. I mean, I've been rereading Lord of the Rings. And it's so funny to see the books and to see how to pull that off, which I think, you know, Peter Jackson did a great job there. But you're right, it's not easy to make that leap there.
BETH ACCOMANDO
You can get lost in those special effects.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Before we close, let's talk about these surprise summer hits that are still in theaters weeks after opening. Beth, tell us about these summer surprises.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Yes, I absolutely love this because, you know, I love things that are on the fringes and, you know, these upstarts and rebels and stuff coming out. But I think we have to credit kind of Markiplier for setting the stage for the summer with his claustrophobic horror film, Iron Lung.
CLIP
I will choose to breathe my last here at the bottom of an ocean. Unseen. Unheard. Uncontrolled.
BETH ACCOMANDO
It had a tiny budget, the most blood ever used on a set, I believe, but huge unexpected box office success. He maneuvered a contract to get the film into theaters so it didn't go strictly streaming. He had a large YouTube base of followers that he felt would come out and support him. And he was right. And so following that, we had Backrooms and Obsession. Both of these are horror films. They were also from YouTube content creators. And the thing about all three of these is they were original ideas, like they were not just building on a franchise, being a sequel, remaking something. And people responded. They all have been in the theaters for weeks. I recently caught up with Obsession and the theater was almost full still. Like 4 weeks after it had opened. So I think now Hollywood is trying to play this catch-up game. They're going like, oh, oh my God, they have YouTube creators with large followings who are getting people into theaters. Let's see which one we can like pick up on and have them make a movie for us. And you know, coming on the end of a trend as opposed to being the one who starts it is not always a good position to be in. So I think out of those three, "Obsession" was my favorite. It's a horror film in which it is one of these one-wish gone bad. And here is what I think is a delicious scene in the restaurant where Bear is this young man who wished that this girl, Nikki, loved only him. And now she does and makes a little bit of a scene in the restaurant.
CLIP
Bear, I love you so, so, so, so, so much. I don't think I could live without you. You love me more than anyone in the world? Yes, more than anyone. Nikki. Yeah? Does your dad really have cancer? No. No! No! What? No! Don't do that! I thought we were having a nice date— We are. Why does it matter? I thought we were having a nice date! It's okay. We are. We are. Oh my gosh.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, Yazdi, there also seems to be sort of a generational aspect to this. Both Obsession and Backrooms come from filmmakers in their 20s. Getting younger people into theaters has been something of a question. What does the success of these films tell you about where Hollywood may be headed?
YAZDI PITHAVALA
I actually am really pleased by this because it speaks to kind of the democratization of the filmmaking process. In the past, it used to be that if you're a young filmmaker, you needed to expend a whole decade of your life, right? Make a short film first, then that gets you funding for a feature film, a small independent one, and then Hollywood would notice you. But now you don't have to kowtow or try to seek funding from these Hollywood honchos. You could be a content creator and bring your movies straight to where people are going to watch them. So I think it kind of levels the field so much, and it lets quality rise to the surface. So I cannot be more pleased.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Beth, you have one final outlier to mention. What is that?
BETH ACCOMANDO
Yes, so it's called The Furious. And this is an Asian action film, but it was cleverly made mostly in English. They have a number of the actors who speak English. The one actor who doesn't is just made to be a mute character, so he doesn't have to bother with it. By making it in English, it made it a little more accessible to audiences. But it is 100% Asian action style. And Asian films tend to rip your heart out also. There's usually some melodramatic component to it that just breaks your heart. This one is kicked off by the mute man has his young daughter kidnapped into a sex trafficking gang. And so he is dead set on getting her back. And he ends up meeting up with an undercover cop who is also sort of on the same path of trying to find out who these sex traffickers are. And here is a brief clip which, as you will probably guess, is mostly sound effects of fights.
CLIP
Your daughter, she might still be alive.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Okay, I just have to say that if you watch this film and you don't get an endorphin rush, like, there's something wrong with you. Like, you feel like you've gotten a workout just watching this movie. You're exhausted.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, Beth, you describe this as 100% Asian action style. I'm just wondering if you can talk about what makes the action in films like The Furious distinct from what were, you know, the usual Hollywood action films.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Sure. I mean, I think you can trace it most notably back to, like, the '80s Hong Kong action cinema, which is people like Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee and Sammo Hung, Yuen Bao, all these people who were working back then. And one of the keys, which is what the John Wick films capitalized on, is this idea that your actors are the stuntmen. Like, you're not having to cut away, so you can do these long takes. People like Jackie Chan were influenced by people like Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd, silent film comedians who played out these visual gags. I mean, these are— the silent comedians were our first stuntmen. I mean, they were, like, having houses fall on them and blowing up bombs and all this. And Jackie Chan took from them and from people like Gene Kelly, the dancer. And noting that keeping the camera on an action scene lets you appreciate all the work that's going into it and how real it is because you're not cutting away. Part of it is if you have your actors who are the stuntmen, you can create much more intense, elaborate fights that aren't like 3 hits, then you cut because you can't keep the pace going. It's like 5 minutes of intense action. And then also with this film, you know, you're bringing in styles of fighting that we have only recently seen in films that came from Thailand and Malaysia and— Muay Thai, and there's another one, I think it's called Silat. So—
ANDREW BRACKEN
So different types of movement.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Movement. So it's more elbows and knees and sliding. And also, it's this sense of you bring in the director, you bring in the actors, you bring in the stunt people, you bring in the camera person, you bring in the editor early on. So like, everybody's kind of working to make this thing look crazy good. And that's— that's like the key. I interviewed Chad Stahelski, who's the director of the John Wick films, and he says, you know, Hollywood treats stunt scenes as this kind of thing on the side. He says if they spend as much time on stunts as they do on a dialogue scene, the stunts and actions would be better. And so in these films, the action is the story.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Cutting away, right, yeah.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Those fights are driving the action, and the way they fight defines their characters. So yeah, it's just a completely kind of immersive thing where everything about the film informs what those fights are like. And the film has been playing in theaters for a couple of weeks. It's going to open Friday at Digital Gym Cinema. I'm going to be bringing a friend of mine, Fernando J. Huerta, who is a stuntman here in San Diego. He also works on the NCIS series right now. He's worked on films like Get Out and Commuter, and he worked on the new Naked Gun, things like that. But we're going to talk a little bit about how you shoot that style, how you choreograph for that style, what makes it different. And for this particular film too, I would like to point out two little points of trivia, which is that the woman who is at the very beginning of the film, her name is Jeeja Yanin, and she was in a film in 2008 called "Chocolate." And she was phenomenal. It's all about her. And the main Chinese actor who's in it was the son of Jet Li in the film My Father Is a Hero.
BETH ACCOMANDO
And the whole film I'm looking at this guy going like, why does he look familiar? And finally I was like, oh my, he was in that. He was the little kid that's put on the end of a rope and spun around to have a fight. So anyway, this film takes like these people who, if you've been a fan of Asian action for a long time, you are going to look at them and go like, oh, like, this is fabulous that they're bringing these people back.
ANDREW BRACKEN
So again, that's The Furious, and that opens starting Friday at Digital Gym Theater. And I want to talk about movie theaters before I let you go.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Mm-hmm.
ANDREW BRACKEN
You know, earlier this month, Reading Cinema abruptly closed their last movie theater in San Diego. This was their one in Grossmont Center. I think the Claremont one had closed the year before, right? But it really shows a shift in the theaters we've had. You've covered a lot of the movie theater closures. The pandemic really changed the moviegoing experience. I think a lot of us have amped up our home theaters in the past few years. And I'm just wondering, Beth, you know, with all these changes to the moviegoing experience, how has the experience of going to the movies changed? Is it better? Like, why, you know, I don't know, convince me to get off my couch and go see a movie this summer?
BETH ACCOMANDO
Well, I mean, one of the things I do love is I love, like, Digital Gym. It's a small microtheater. It's only like 56 seats. But, you know, I program some films there. We try to make the experience better. They just went through Bleak Week where you got a pass passport, and you got it stamped for every film you saw. And if you saw, like, more than half the films, you got a poster. So I think trying to create those kind of experiences where you might get an introduction or get to meet a filmmaker, I think those are things that can help pull people out of their home theaters. Almost all the theaters are going through renovations to put in either nicer seating or adding different food and wine and beer and drinks to make it some sort of a dining experience as well as the theatergoing experience. So, you know, they're making an effort. And oh, of course, the popcorn containers now that are like $80 that are, you know, specific to each film. Like that's a whole new like collectibles hook that they've added to it. Grossmont was one of my favorite theaters. It's near where I lived. It had the largest screen here in San Diego. It was like 60 feet, I think. And the seating was the largest. So I'm very sad. I was there actually the night before it closed. I was there for one of the last shows. And hopefully, you know, there's talk that AMC is going to take it over. That had been our only true 70mm screen. AMC Mission Valley does show 70mm, but I believe they have to rent all the equipment and the projectionist to run it. The Grossmont had a 70mm projector there and were doing the road shows of— Hateful Eight was there, 2001 was there, Dunkirk. So I'm interested to see what happens to that screen.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Yeah. And with Odyssey coming out, I know Christopher Nolan—
BETH ACCOMANDO
It was supposed to play there, I think. So—
ANDREW BRACKEN
Yasi, how do you feel? I mean, I still haven't gotten over the Santee Drive-In closing, but like, how do you feel?
BETH ACCOMANDO
Or the Ken.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Yeah, the Ken.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Exactly. It's extremely bitter, I think, having fewer and fewer opportunities. I think people assume that you need to go to the theater to watch the big blockbuster action movies, which is true. But I think there's another category of movies which helps is movies which make you uncomfortable and movies where you kind of laugh, but not because it's funny. You laugh because you are either upset or you are scared. And watching those kinds of movies in a communal setting substantially elevates the movie experience, right? If you're watching it at home, you'll just kind of you know, move a little bit on your couch. But watching everybody else react to it, I think it really elevates the experience. As much as these cinemas are closing down, like Arclight closed down a couple of years ago, and Arclight was one of the better cinemas, and they always used to go to the directors themselves and ask how they wanted their films to be shown and exactly reproduce the specs. Well, they're gone, but thankfully AMC has taken them over. So at least there is still opportunities for folks to go and watch films.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, and we're seeing a lot of opportunities to do it this summer. And like you said, with, with Backrooms, with, you know, with some of these films, it's Obsession.
BETH ACCOMANDO
The Furious. Yeah. Bring a bottle of water. You're going to get tired.
ANDREW BRACKEN
Well, I want to thank our Midday Movies critics, KPBS Cinema Junkie Beth Akamando and Movie Wallace podcaster Yazdi Puttavala. Hopefully this will inspire all of us to leave our couches and go see a movie this summer. Beth, Yazdi, thanks so much.
BETH ACCOMANDO
Thank you.
YAZDI PITHAVALA
Thank you.
