The way you approach reviews is so refreshing and frankly necessary, and even if the market isn’t ready for reviews of media that delve deeper than a simple five star rating system, we need the relationship with art you demonstrate in your writing more than ever. I’m excited to follow your work wherever it leads ♥️
I'm sorry you're currently without employment. It's always occurred to me that film criticism was being phased out by the general public, lest it morphed into something new and unusual (I am, admittedly, trying this, though not in a commercial aspect). I hope there's a home for your unique insight. I know there is, I just think the right person needs to speak up and bring you onboard.
These are salient points about "Romulus". I do feel like modern studio filmmaking has completely abandoned the youth, and as such, "Romulus" feels like the one movie addressing the idea that, thanks to technology, more than previous generations, the young ones today seem determined to interrogate the rest of us and ask, why did you do these things and for what purpose? I hope this exploration continues in an inevitable sequel.
Many thanks, friend. The layoff was a shock to the system I admit, but I'm lucky in the sense of the security I have and the community I've maintained with my colleagues (a fantastic group of friends) in our post-layoff lives. I'm choosing to see it all as a seed being planted for a brand new chapter, which I can only assume will hit me like a jagged but cathartic truck.
Fede is due to begin shooting the sequel this year, and I'd say what you've identified here is the strongest route he could take with it. The mechanical backbone of Alien plots have long relied on nobody listening to the smart humanist, and then everybody dies except the smart humanist and her cat. I'm partial to that, but I'm also beginning to think that death is too easy of a way out for those sins, and would very much like to see more psychological comeuppance/repentance for the parasites who create so much unnecessary strife in the name of industry and ego. It would be cool to see that in the Romulus sequel, too.
Truly, deeply love the way you think about film and film writing here. It's like hearing someone articulate exactly what I want to capture in my own writing about film.
There's a place for reviews as recommendation -- of course there is, it's a necessary function in a marketplace glutted by content to have some - any - way of choosing between the infinity of options.
But that's only one way to write about film. Film can also just be "the occasion" -- the shared jumping off point to then venture out into whatever flights of interest or trivia or just goofing around are inspired by it. Sometimes, a film is more interesting to me because it causes me to read up on the director's personal history, which turns out to be wild and something I want to hip people to. Sometimes, a crappy movie is a fascinating exercise to figure out what I think went wrong and how I think it could have been fixed -- and to weigh those ideas against others' to improve as a screenwriter. Sometimes even a really cheesy film can be connected to important cultural currents in fascinating ways that are worth talking about.
And I couldn't possibly agree more with you that "the way we watch movies is exponentially more important than what we watch." It's something I genuinely just wrote about, finding a moment of beautiful American - Chinese cross-cultural understanding in a movie about Chow Yun-Fat battling a skeleton wizard with rocket launcher. I liked but didn't love Alien: Romulus, but I'm vastly more interested to revisit it after reading the case you make for it.
Finally, as an aside, I also just recently lost my job back in January and it has been crazily difficult and dislocating being spit out into one of the worst job markets of all time after working constantly for nearly 10 years, so, know you're not alone on that one. Who knows where the writing thing leads, but if we're compelled to spend so much time on it either way, might as well see where it can go, no?
Great stuff, look forward to reading more of your work!
This comment made my day, dude! Thanks so much for your words and support; so much of what you've said here is precisely the sort of ethos that I'm seeking to cultivate with this blog and beyond.
Definitely agree with your point on the value of recommendation; there's an intimacy to that aspect of film discourse that I think is baked into the existence of that discourse, and therefore necessary. I think what's so often forgotten or neglected, however, is that we recommend the things we recommend because of how strongly we resonated with the film as an experiential mosaic. I want the world to really think, explore, challenge, and give life to that resonance in a more concrete way than Like v Dislike. In doing so, we push our cerebral, emotional, and philosophical limits as human beings and expressions of the universe (which movies also happen to be), and I think there to be no greater endeavour than that.
The way you approach reviews is so refreshing and frankly necessary, and even if the market isn’t ready for reviews of media that delve deeper than a simple five star rating system, we need the relationship with art you demonstrate in your writing more than ever. I’m excited to follow your work wherever it leads ♥️
Appreciate you, Staci ❤️ hope you're holding up well
I'm sorry you're currently without employment. It's always occurred to me that film criticism was being phased out by the general public, lest it morphed into something new and unusual (I am, admittedly, trying this, though not in a commercial aspect). I hope there's a home for your unique insight. I know there is, I just think the right person needs to speak up and bring you onboard.
These are salient points about "Romulus". I do feel like modern studio filmmaking has completely abandoned the youth, and as such, "Romulus" feels like the one movie addressing the idea that, thanks to technology, more than previous generations, the young ones today seem determined to interrogate the rest of us and ask, why did you do these things and for what purpose? I hope this exploration continues in an inevitable sequel.
Fromtheyardtothearthouse.substack.com
Many thanks, friend. The layoff was a shock to the system I admit, but I'm lucky in the sense of the security I have and the community I've maintained with my colleagues (a fantastic group of friends) in our post-layoff lives. I'm choosing to see it all as a seed being planted for a brand new chapter, which I can only assume will hit me like a jagged but cathartic truck.
Fede is due to begin shooting the sequel this year, and I'd say what you've identified here is the strongest route he could take with it. The mechanical backbone of Alien plots have long relied on nobody listening to the smart humanist, and then everybody dies except the smart humanist and her cat. I'm partial to that, but I'm also beginning to think that death is too easy of a way out for those sins, and would very much like to see more psychological comeuppance/repentance for the parasites who create so much unnecessary strife in the name of industry and ego. It would be cool to see that in the Romulus sequel, too.
Truly, deeply love the way you think about film and film writing here. It's like hearing someone articulate exactly what I want to capture in my own writing about film.
There's a place for reviews as recommendation -- of course there is, it's a necessary function in a marketplace glutted by content to have some - any - way of choosing between the infinity of options.
But that's only one way to write about film. Film can also just be "the occasion" -- the shared jumping off point to then venture out into whatever flights of interest or trivia or just goofing around are inspired by it. Sometimes, a film is more interesting to me because it causes me to read up on the director's personal history, which turns out to be wild and something I want to hip people to. Sometimes, a crappy movie is a fascinating exercise to figure out what I think went wrong and how I think it could have been fixed -- and to weigh those ideas against others' to improve as a screenwriter. Sometimes even a really cheesy film can be connected to important cultural currents in fascinating ways that are worth talking about.
And I couldn't possibly agree more with you that "the way we watch movies is exponentially more important than what we watch." It's something I genuinely just wrote about, finding a moment of beautiful American - Chinese cross-cultural understanding in a movie about Chow Yun-Fat battling a skeleton wizard with rocket launcher. I liked but didn't love Alien: Romulus, but I'm vastly more interested to revisit it after reading the case you make for it.
Finally, as an aside, I also just recently lost my job back in January and it has been crazily difficult and dislocating being spit out into one of the worst job markets of all time after working constantly for nearly 10 years, so, know you're not alone on that one. Who knows where the writing thing leads, but if we're compelled to spend so much time on it either way, might as well see where it can go, no?
Great stuff, look forward to reading more of your work!
This comment made my day, dude! Thanks so much for your words and support; so much of what you've said here is precisely the sort of ethos that I'm seeking to cultivate with this blog and beyond.
Definitely agree with your point on the value of recommendation; there's an intimacy to that aspect of film discourse that I think is baked into the existence of that discourse, and therefore necessary. I think what's so often forgotten or neglected, however, is that we recommend the things we recommend because of how strongly we resonated with the film as an experiential mosaic. I want the world to really think, explore, challenge, and give life to that resonance in a more concrete way than Like v Dislike. In doing so, we push our cerebral, emotional, and philosophical limits as human beings and expressions of the universe (which movies also happen to be), and I think there to be no greater endeavour than that.
Much love!