Thirty Minute Reviews: Week of 4/8/2024

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3OHracgmmKR8FNvT0Sunjj

It was a busy week so let's just dive in.

New Segment: Winners From The Indie Space

So to start out, this week will be the first time we look to see what independent films are winning at film festivals across the country. This week we will look exclusively at SXSW, which wrapped up in mid-March. Congradulations to all the winners and let's keep a lookout for these films which will be hopefully coming soon to theaters or streaming across the country:

• Jury Award For Narrative Feature: Bob Trevino Likes It (Written and Directed by Tracie Laymon)
• Special Jury Award For Performance: Maria Rodriguez Soto (Mamifera)
• Special Jury Award For Filmmaking: Josephine Stewart-Te Whiu (We Were Dangerous)
• Jury Award for Documentary Feature: Grand Theft Hamlet (Written and Directed by Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane)
• Special Jury Award for Bravery and Empathy: Carina Mia Wong and Alex Simmons (We Can Be Heroes)
• Jury Award for Narrative Short: Dissolution (Written and Directed by Anthony Saxe)
• Special Jury Award for Narrative Short: Sam Cutler-Kreutz and David Cutler-Kreutz (Trapped)
• Jury Award for Documentary Short: Remember, Broken Crayons Colour Too (Written and Directed by Shannet Clemmings and Urša Kastelic)
• Special Jury Award for Documentary Short: David Gauvey Herbert (Frank)
• Jury Award for Midnight Short: Transylvanie (Directed by Rodrigue Huart, Written by Rodrigue Huart, David Alexander Cassan, and Axel Würsten)
• Special Jury Award for Midnight Short: Eros V (Meat Puppet)
• Jury Award for Animated Short: Wander to Wonder (Directed by Nina Gantz, Written by Nina Gantz, Simon Cartwright, Daan Bakker, and Stienette Bosklopper)
• Special Jury Award for Animated Short: Phoebe Jane Hart (Bug Diner)

Congratulations also to the winners of the audience awards for the 2024 festival:

• Headliner: Monkey Man (Directed by Dev Patel, Written by Dev Patel, Paul Angunawela, and John Collee)
• Narrative Feature: Bob Trevino Likes It (Written and Directed by Tracie Laymon)
• Documentary Feature: Resynator (Directed by Alison Tavel)
• Narrative Spotlight: My Dead Friend Zoe (Directed by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes, Written by Kyle Hausmann-Stokes and AJ Bermudez)
• Documentary Spotlight: Clemente (Directed by David Altrogge)
• Midnighter: Oddity (Written and Directed by Damian McCarthy)
• Festival Favorite: Sing Sing (Directed by Greg Kwedar, Written by Clint Bentley and Greg Kewdar)

So far of these movies a few have distribution deals. Monkey Man is currently in theaters and Sing Sing is an A24 film slated for release this July. Bob Trevino Likes It does not currently have a distributor, however that could change in the coming weeks considering the positive buzz. Of note I am also particularly interested in Clemente because I am always interested in a good sports documentary. Legion M produced My Dead Friend Zoe which could indicate a limited theatrical release as well.

Of note wrapping up this weekend are the Annapolis Film Festival in Annapolis, Maryland and the Overlook Film Festival in New Orleans. The Phoenix Film Festival in Phoenix, Arizona will continue through April 14th.

Story 1: Disney Defeats Nelson Peltz

Disney has been in the middle of a proxy war that has been one of the most expensive in history over the past few months as activist investor Nelson Peltz launched an all-out blitz against the current board in an effort to become a dissenting vote to keep Bob Iger and the rest of the board in check. This week that battle came to a head when the shareholders voted to keep the current board intact following a few high profile endorsements for Iger and Peltz's comments saying that Disney has become "too woke."

A lot of the issues that are attributed to Chapek began under Iger who jumped ship right before the pandemic had a massive impact on all aspects of Disney's business in 2020. To blame the impacts of Disney's involvement in politics entirely on Chapek is misguided, as would be the massive investment in streaming considering both of these started while Iger was still CEO. In a lot of cases, Chapek was just the guy holding the bag when the metaphorical shit hit the metaphorical fan but the issues started well before his tenure and certain aspects were expanded under his tenure that just made the problem worse.

Had Peltz been serious in his "woke" allegations, this could have had catastrophic impact across Disney's announced projects across all their studios. A number of projects that were deemed "woke" could have been ditched during post production or while still in production like what Warner Brothers did with Coyote Vs. Acme or Batgirl. Projects like Ironheart or the upcoming New Jedi Order movie could have been cancelled if they did not hit an imaginary litmus test to ensure there are enough white people in the movie in leading roles (and in some cases minimal supporting roles for minorities).

In the aftermath, Disney made a number of new announcements including Toy Story 5 being dated for July 2026, The Amateur being delayed until April 2025, and Nightbitch getting locked into a December 6th, 2024 release date. Other movies that were previously announced that received concrete release dates include Tron: Ares (October 10th, 2025) and The Mandalorian and Grogu (May 22nd, 2026). The live action remake of Moana has also been pushed back to July 10th, 2026, probably to give some time between it and this year's release of Moana 2 in November.

This new release slate does paint a bit of a dire picture for Disney since 8 of the 10 major releases coming in 2025 are based on existing IP (four are Marvel Studios, the live action Snow White, Tron: Ares, Avatar 3, and Zootopia 2) and it appears that moving forward Disney will be focusing more and more on existing IP rather than developing their own. It is important to remember that most of these things when they originated were risks so to take a risk-averse model to building a film slate is a little misguided. I would not be shocked if Blade or Thunderbolts get pushed into 2026, especially considering the current release slate for Marvel Studios is a little nebulous with a lot of projects in development and not much known about the vast majority.

A lot is contingent on how confident they are in Deadpool and Wolverine and how well they can portray any upcoming shifts as a positive. Since Deadpool and Wolverine debuts the same weekend as San Diego Comic Con, this would be an excellent weekend to bury any negative press they may have and maybe treat their Hall H the way they announced the Phase 3 slate or the Phase 4 slate. Maybe treat it as an apology tour of sorts the way the Pokémon Presents this year was a clear apology for Scarlet and Violet.

Story 2: Julia Garner Joins The MCU

Unrelated to the news from the shareholder presentation and board vote, news broke that Julia Garner (Inventing Anna) has joined the MCU as the Silver Surfer. To be clear, she is not playing a gender-bent version of Norrin Radd, she is playing Shalla-Bal. This is not the first appearance of Shalla-Bal as a character since she has been intertwined with the story of Norrin Radd since 1968 and was a major recurring character in the animated Silver Surfer show that aired on Fox in 1998.

This should come as no surprise considering Marvel Studios' approach to date when adapting characters who had been adapted to the screen in recent history. Because of similarities between Carol Danvers' backstory and that of Hal Jordan as portrayed in Green Lantern, Captain Marvel based Carol's powers in the tesseract and used an amnesia storyline to avoid expositing a similar story. Until Spider-Man: No Way Home, the two preceding movies went out of their way to not use characters previously adapted in either the Raimi Spider-Man movies or the Webb Amazing Spider-Man movies. Since we got Norrin Rad and Galactus in Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, it does make sense that they would use someone else as the herald in their movie. It is also worth noting that Norrin Rad takes the role of herald to save his planet (and Shalla-Bal herself) it could be an interesting flip to have Shalla-Bal make that sacrifice, especially if the rumors are to be believed (as evidenced by the 4/4 posters) and this movie is in an alternate universe.

Story 3: Gunn May Have A Director For Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow

Now this has not been concretely confirmed by Gunn himself but there are indications from the major trades that a director has been found for the upcoming movie Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. According to reports, Craig Gillespie will be directing the upcoming film based on Tom King's run. Gillespie has an interesting range of films considering he directed Cruella, Dumb Money, and I, Tonya while he also helmed films like The Finest Hours, Mr. Woodcock, and Million Dollar Arm.

I have mixed feelings on this. Gillespie has shown himself to be able to handle female leads well with films like Cruella and I, Tonya, however considering how few opportunities there are for big-budget female-led films, I'd have thought we moved past having male directors take these incredibly limited opportunities. On top of that, I'm not thrilled about the fact that Supergirl herself has already been cast (Millie Alcock from House of the Dragon will be originating the role in Gunn's Superman) and the person directing the film is jumping in with an existing cast. This is not like jumping into an existing franchise where the imagery and iconography is established by past directors or a television director jumping in to direct one episode of a show, this is someone who is expected to establish how the world of Supergirl looks and how it is different from Superman besides gender and the general attitude of the two characters. This also seems like an early warning sign that Gunn's more hands-on approach is looking for more of a uniformity one would expect from Lucasfilm rather than Marvel which, despite being a corporate machine, has allowed for the movies to have their own distinct voice.

Story 4: The Matrix 5 Is In Development

News broke this week that another sequel to The Matrix is in development, this time coming from acclaimed science fiction director Drew Goddard. Lana Wachowski is going to executive produce the movie as well.

The fact that Warner Brothers' announcement says that Goddard went to WB with the pitch is reassuring, although it is unclear if WB was looking to continue the success of The Matrix with a fifth movie. The Matrix: Resurrections was deemed to be a bomb by some considering it only made $157 Million across a $190 Million budget, however it is worth noting that this was released in 2021 when Warner Brothers was releasing their movies on the same day on HBOMax to watch at home. It was the 6th highest grossing for the studio behind:

1. Godzilla Vs. Kong: $470 Million
2. Dune: Part One: $402 Million
3. The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It: $206 Million
4. The Suicide Squad: $168 Million
5. Space Jam: A New Legacy: $163 Million
6. The Matrix Resurrections: $157 Million

It is also worth noting that The Matrix Resurrections debuted the week after Spider-Man: No Way Home, a theatrical exclusive that went on to be the #7 highest grossing movie of all time. This almost certainly had an impact on the box office for The Matrix Resurrections since a viewer could opt to see Spider-Man either the second time or the first time in a theater and then watch Resurrections at home.

Story 5: Dune: Messiah Is Officially In Development

In the least shocking news of the week, following Dune: Part Two's monster run at the box office Legendary announced that Dune: Messiah is in development. This announcement came layered into a larger announcement that Denis Villeneuve will be teaming with Legendary for an adaptation of Nuclear War: A Scenario as his project after Dune: Messiah.

Originally published in 1969, Dune: Messiah follows Paul Atredies 12 years after the events of Dune as he struggles to maintain his control as Emperor of the Known Universe as the Bene Gesserit, Spacing Guild, and Tleilaxu (a xenophobic and isolated society that made its fortune in what is basically cloning) work together to end his reign. It is expected that Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya, and Florence Pugh will reprise as Paul, Chani, and Irulan respectively. The announcement also seems to confirm that Villeneuve's involvement with Dune will end with Dune: Messiah and, should Warner Brothers and Legendary want to move forward with Children of Dune, they would likely have to do so with a new creative team.

This Week At The Box Office

1. Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire: $31.7 Million
2. Monkey Man: $10.2 Million
3. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire: $9 Million
4. The First Omen: $8.3 Million
5. Kung Fu Panda 4: $7.8 Million

Coming To Theaters This Week

This week sees a few movies coming to theaters. Alex Garland's speculative fiction piece Civil War arrives Friday and stars Kirsten Dunst, Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny, and Jesse Plemmons in a film about a fictional American Civil War set in the near future. With a $50 Million budget, this is A24's most expensive movie to date and currently supports a 93% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Also this week is horror film Sting from writer/director Kiah Roache-Turner which is a monster movie about a pet spider that turns into a flesh-eating monster. It is currently at a 77% on Rotten Tomatoes

Coming To Physical Media This Week

This week has a few major releases finally making their way to home media. The final season of the DC Universe/HBOMax/Max original series Doom Patrol finally comes to DVD and Blu-Ray alongside January's horror film Night Swim (dir. Bryce McGuire, starring Wyatt Russell and Kerry Condon) and February's dark comedy Lisa Frankenstein (dir. Zelda Williams, starring Kathryn Newton and Cole Sprouse).

This Week In Podcasts

We have a pretty busy week so let's take a quick look at what else listeners can expect:

• 4/9: The Backlog Files will cover Pokemon Firered and Leafgreen
• 4/10: Exploring Hyperspace Lanes will cover the new remasters of Star Wars Battlefront 1 and 2.
• 4/11: Beware of Spoilers will cover The Bad Batch episode 12
• 4/12 (AM): Beware of Spoilers will cover X-Men '97 episode 5
• 4/12 (PM): Beware of Spoilers will cover Civil War
• 4/13: Beware of Spoilers will cover The Girls on the Bus episode 6
• 4/14: Beware of Spoilers will cover Amazon Prime's Fallout.
• 4/15: Thirty Minute Reviews will recap all the news out of CinemaCon.

As always subscribe below for email updates for all of this and more!

Wrapping Up With An Announcement

We like to highlight independent films so we are ready to announce the festivals we plan to cover movies out of for the 2024 cycle. This is contengent on what films are playing what days and when but here are the festivals that we will have a presence at:

1. Tribeca Film Festival
2. Brooklyn Film Festival
3. Long Island International Film Expo
4. Stony Brook Film Festival
5. Hamptons International Film Festival
6. New York Film Festival

Additionally, we also may have special reporting from one additional festival and from one major trade show.