Loved the movie, and wished they'd spent a little more time on some of the context that would help viewers understand what's happening behind the scenes.

One of those is Holmes's restitution order. TLDR: she has very good, very strong, and to a lawyer very obvious reasons to let her partner handle that deal and maintain her own ignorance of it. The movie gestures towards that but I think underplays it significantly.

She's required to repay $450 million to Walgreens and others, and they mention this a bit towards the end. But I was surprised to realize the people I saw the movie with didn't pick up on how important that point is, and how much it affects Fielder's questions about whether she's motivated by money or not.

We can't do a real legal analysis without knowing for sure whether they're married (I hear not, but don't know if that's true or even known for sure), what their prenup or other contracts say, and a few other basic facts. But if she personally reaches an agreement to receive income from the movie, it's subject to forfeiture. Having him negotiate it for her and put his name on instead of hers would help. If I were her lawyer I'd want her to stay as far away from the deal as possible. As in, make sure her partner gets paid so he and the kids benefit (and she does too, if it improves their lifestyle once she's out) but she can always say she had nothing to do with it. Down to leaving the room for negotiations and professing ignorance of the deal's terms forever after.

So the restitution order doesn't answer the question of whether she knew about the deal Evans reached, or was behind it. She could have been authentically ignorant of it because he's too controlling or because she's too saintlike. But the situation is exactly what you'd expect to see if two savvy people wanted to make money in a way that wouldn't be subject to the restitution order.

It makes me wonder about Evans's forfeiture of their profit share. Did he realize that it had been discussed on camera enough that the DOJ would come looking for their cut, and that the fight wouldn't be worth it? Did his lawyers tell him that acting as her business manager would make it hard to argue that the deal was entirely separate from her?

I'd love to see a writeup from a lawyer with more experience than me in family and/or criminal law.\

Edit - someone commented that I should have specified what movie I'm talking about. Obviously this is about Everything Everywhere All at Once.

I know Primetime came out a few weeks ago, and now it's not even the newest A24 Lance Oppenheim film, but I keep thinking about Merritt Wever's performance in this movie. She's so funny, so thorny, and kind of ends up being the key to unlocking what the movie is all about. I wrote about it in more depth over on Substack (along with some thoughts about the movie as a whole and the arc of her career) but I thought I'd share an excerpt here for anyone else who loved the movie. Would be really cool to see her in the awards conversation for this performance!

At the press conference after Primetime’s Venice premiere, Wever spoke about wrapping up a long stretch of playing “open-hearted” women and being excited by the challenge of inhabiting someone who “almost willfully wants to deny her own humanity and the humanity of the people around her.” When an actor most known for their comic work takes on a dramatic part, it’s standard procedure to praise the turn for being “like we’ve never seen them before.” To be sure, this is exciting new terrain for Wever, and she gets to unleash a blisteringly acerbic side we rarely see. But the real power of the performance comes from the fact that, in many ways, she is quite similar to how we’ve seen her before. There’s just enough of a gap to leave room for doubt to creep in: about the ways that support can curdle into enabling, about whether doing something well means it’s worth doing at all, and about how easy it can be to root against your own humanity bit by bit until one day you don’t even notice it’s gone.

In addition to directing Primetime and co-directing You can see everything (both for A24) -- he does the voice for this character in Wildwood. What a busy and talented man!

For me, it is this moment: The Zone of Interest; Rudolf Höss methodically walks through his house late at night, turning off the lights room by room in a mundane, everyday ritual. As the windows go dark one by one, the chilling banality of the domestic routine contrasts with the faint sounds and red smoke of the Auschwitz crematoria just over the wall.

I think about this scene every single night as I walk though my house turning all the lights off just before bed. It is seared into my brain. As I turn all the lights out, one by one, I ask myself, am I standing by and letting evil things occur? Am I complicit or implicated in someway to the evil acts that are happening around the world? What can I do to make sure I don't have to ask myself this question every night? What is my purpose in all of this?

For me, I believe this is the most powerful moment in any A24 film. Second place would probably come from Aftersun.

Saw someone posted earlier about an AMA with Milly Shapiro so I spent this afternoon coming up with this one. Had a ton of fun making it and super stoked with the end result. Hereditary was the first movie I saw as an adult where afterwards I was laying in bed thinking “damn..am I about to sleep with the lights on?” 😂

There's a scene in YCSE where Nathan asks Billy what they're eating and he casually remarks it's a pink pineapple. It's a small interaction but there's a hilarious layer metaphor in it.

Pink Pineapples like that are sold with the top of them cut off with advertising saying so you can see inside. But the reality is, you can grow pineapples from their tops alone. It's a business thing so you can't steal the cultivar and grow your own.

You can see inside, but never come up with your own. Just like all the people and the events in this movie.

I don't know if they left that in there to get that deep, but Nathan faked a whole ass singing show to contrive a way to get pilots experience in giving feedback to people lol

(very mild spoilers ahead but not spoilery if you have watched The Rehearsal or Nathan For You)

The idea that we as a viewer not only have an unreliable narrator (Nathan), unreliable focal points in the film (Elizabeth/Billy).

But eventually, we as viewers do not even trust our own judgement. And I think this is the biggest feat of the movie.

I sincerely don't know the last time my own perspective/understanding of the reality of a film has been so distorted. And I know the internet has already glazed this movie to death. The layers of deception I experienced within my own mind while watching was something I rarely experience in film.

I'm watching The Rehearsal for the first time, and from this and Nathan For You we see glimpses of this specific magic. And I think it's just such a joy seeing someone's talent evolve over-time while still including all the elements that made it amazing in the first place.

Edit: I wasn't going to include this cause it felt a bit shameless, but I made a little video which expands my thoughts above. If you are curious.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEMKZb1069U

Hi!
I’m going to use my free ticket to see You Can See Everything tomorrow and I want to know:
Should I read up on Theranos and Elizabeth Holmes with articles on the web
Or
Should I just go in blind with the very little information I remember from when it all happened?
Do I need to know much about Theranos and EH beforehand to get the best experience?
Or does the movie stand independently without requiring prior knowledge?
Thank you.

I organized an AMA/Q&A with actress Milly Shapiro. You may know her from her breakout role in Ari Aster's 2018 Hereditary, or from her Tony Award-winning performance as Maltilda on Broadway in 2013 in Matilda the Musical. She stars in Hallowarrior, her first film since Hereditary (!), which is a Halloween-themed horror thriller that premiered at Tribeca a few months ago and was just released last weekend.

It's live here now in r/movies for anyone interested in asking her a question:

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/1xbl9fe/hi_reddit_im_milly_shapiro_from_hereditary/

She will be back at around 3 PM ET today to answer questions. I recommend asking in advance. Please ask there, not here. All questions are much appreciated!

Hallowarrior info:

Synopsis: Halloween-obsessed Pumpkin thinks she's the last person alive. But when scavengers show up at her doorstep, Pumpkin has no choice but to tap into her deadliest survival instincts.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORjn6ox53_U

Thank you :)

It’s one of the most cinematic documentaries I’ve ever seen. The way it’s shot makes everything feel so intentional that I almost stopped processing it as something that actually happened. I found myself talking about real people like they were characters someone had written.

Then Amanda comes in to reenact scenes, and that feeling gets even harder to shake. I could follow what was happening, but I started questioning the footage I’d already accepted as real. How much was spontaneous? How much changed because a camera was there? Were those conversations actually unscripted? I honestly don’t know where to draw that line.

What’s interesting is that Nathan seems caught up in trying to understand what’s real and what’s a performance, and by the end, I felt caught up in that same uncertainty.
There’s something unsettling about having to remind yourself that these people exist outside the movie. These are their actual lives, even when the filmmaking makes them feel fictional.

Usually, leaving a documentary, I’m thinking about what I just learned. Leaving this one, I was trying to understand what I’d just witnessed.

Made an alternative movie poster for the Green Knight with a vintage / storybook feel to it

I can't think about their relationship without thinking of this song. Yeah, the movie was three hours. But I'm seeing so much

Only one day early but oh well. So far just Palace and Dendy but I think the big cinema chains will probably add preview sessions too

Many sessions sold out or almost sold out so be quick.