How To Make A MOVIE
"My favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie."
Last Thursday, I got an email promoting a guild screening of Killers of the Flower Moon. I am not in a guild, but I have friends (yes, I have friends) that are. So, in a very normal, casual, understated way I asked one of them if she could PLEASE, PRETTY PLEASE take me to this 206-minute Martin Scorsese movie.
I’ll try not to spoil anything, but my initial take is this: Boy, that’s a good movie. My second take is this: Harry Styles knew what he was talking about.
"My favorite thing about the movie is, like, it feels like a movie," Styles stated about Don’t Worry Darling, precisely as you can watch the light die out in Chris Pine’s eyes. "Like, you know, go to the theater film movie. You know, kind of the reason why you go to watch something on the big screen."
Now, Styles was ridiculed for this insane quote and he was incorrect in that he saying this about fucking Don’t Worry Darling, but I do get what he’s going for here. With so much direct-to-streaming and theatrical waste, Styles was excited that he was in a piece of art with something to say and real gosh-darn directorial choices. Technically, he’s not wrong when referring to the Olivia Wilde film, as it definitely makes … some choices; but the quote makes a lot more sense when thinking about Killers of the Flower Moon.
Based on the much-acclaimed David Grann nonfiction book, Killers is an epic in every sense of the word from the acting (Leonardo DiCaprio, Lily Gladstone and a career-best Robert De Niro) to the story matter (a semi-genocidal serial killings of the Osage people) to the filmmaking itself (a no-holds-barred captivating masterpiece). This is a film that deserves its runtime, which you can’t even always say about some 90-minute movies nowadays. The subject matter is harrowing, but it’s a necessity. As one of our great actors says, “It feels like a movie.”
There seems to be a reclamation project of sorts when it comes to wanting to be wowed by theatrical experiences. There are various blockbusters like Dune or event showings such as Barbenheimer and the recent releases of Titanic and Stop Making Sense. If you’re going to get the general audience to leave their houses, you’re almost mandated now to show them something they haven’t seen before, either in scope or in story.
“The future of cinema is IMAX and the large formats. The audience wants to see something that they cannot have at home, that they cannot have on streaming. They want to experience an event.” -Denis Villeneuve
Although I believe that there’s an audience still seeking out smaller indie fare and less theatrically-minded works, there’s no doubt that Villeneuve is just reading the tea leaves here. Especially with how expensive a night at the cinema is for a family, making something jaw-dropping is more critical than ever.
I think that’s also why there’s been a boom of sorts, in a different way, for arthouse showings and repertory screenings. Older movies that have one-night-only screenings or a minimal amount of showings give a certain gravitas that wide releases don’t always have. I’m not breaking ground when I say that exclusivity leads to want, but it’s something that theaters are doing more and more.
Most explicitly and recently with New York’s Paris Theater’s Big & Loud, which has been described in IndieWire as “a hothouse combination of classic cinema and popcorn entertainment, the series hopes to marry a nostalgic, historic setting with Dolby Atmos to make even beloved films a new discovery.”
Movies like Lawrence of Arabia, 2001: A Space Odyssey, There Will Be Blood, Mad Max: Fury Road, Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and more have all been screened to finite audiences and many a sold-out crowd. A few weeks ago, I watched the three-hour cut of Apocalypse Now, a movie that I had somehow never seen. There wasn’t an empty seat.
This was a 1979 film being shown midday on a Sunday and all sorts of New Yorkers were going. Many, myself included, had never even seen the movie before. Quite the risk for such a large chunk of the weekend.
And it was thrilling.
Killers of the Flower Moon had a similar feel. Not in story, structure or even filmmaking, but just in the idea that this here is a movie that means something. As long as we keep making those, movies will be just fine.