I’ve been thinking about this seemingly permanent rut we’re in with pop culture a lot. I may have to check your rates for this newsletter. I think it starts with studios letting writers cook
Also, fwiw, I thought Fire Island (the movie, not the IRL vacation spot) was total dogshit
I think it had areas it needed to improve on but for a first foray into the genre I think it was good and I like Joel Kim Booster and several other of the stars a lot
I liked the article - thanks for that. For me, Bros was less funny and more bitter and sardonic, which might be why they leaned on “this is important” instead of “this is funny”
Wasn’t my kinda movie - felt like a friend who complains about everything and constantly cuts everyone down - but I could see the right audience digging it
Wildly I do think Bros is more joke dense and more of a hard comedy than FI, I just think they tried to cover too much, probably as a byproduct of the studio treating it like an important film. Mine was streaming so I could tell a smaller, more specific story. Still had to add way too much VO tho.
Fwiw I really liked Bros and I know Billy liked Fire Island and it sucks that there was this manufactured tension created by their studio mandated marketing strategy.
Yep. One of the reasons network TV fell off so bad is they abandoned their core audience, parents with young children looking for something they could BOTH enjoy. Now everything tries to straddle the line between “naughty” cable & prestige network & kids were driven to the minefield of YouTube.
Ppl think it’s a post-9/11 thing but it actually started in the 90s when TGIF (as it died) went from a block of family shows that welcomed the weekend to the ONE night of TV for families, a night where school age kids typically are rarely at home.
Damn, really wanted to read that whole thing. I think the thrust of your thesis is correct! (Especially because you included Suits and Tracy Morgan as Tracy Jordan in your key art.)
The in your face handwringing virtue signaling needs to stop. Hollywood also needs to take risks with trying to create new IP's. Remaking movies that don't need to be remade and sequels that are lazy cash grabs. Or just another superhero movie
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Also, fwiw, I thought Fire Island (the movie, not the IRL vacation spot) was total dogshit
You know
It's all very stale atm