Erick Weber, Editor-in-Chief of Awards Ace/YouTuber: An average director given
a great screenplay, you might be in trouble.
Film Courage: How do you judge a movie? What’s your rating system?
Erick: When I look at a film and I’m watching, I’m evaluating the film and I’m determining
is it accomplishing what it’s setting out to accomplish? What is the mission of the film?
What is the filmmaker trying to do with this film? When you watch a film like Hereditary,
what Ari Aster is trying to do with that film is much different than what Kosinski is doing
with Top Gun: Maverick. You’re judging them in ultimately what were they trying to do
with the story. Did they deliver it in the best possible way that they were capable of doing?
It’s one of those things where you have to see a lot of films of what is of a good quality,
of an excellent quality and then otherworldly, stratospheric quality. You need to see plenty
of films to get to that point, those are rare. I think that you ultimately are trying to figure out
what is the director trying to do here and did they do it with maximum impact
and Top Gun Maverick is stratospheric absolutely yeah I mean I mean just because of because it
delivers what it was intending to do and does it above even that level so you're expecting
the sequel that's kind of just there right it's a sequel we see so many sequels that are just kind
of unnecessary right they make it and it's just a money grab and there's no real emotional value
to it and I think that this film what people are resonating why it's doing the the business it's
doing it's going to continue to do over the next several weeks months and years is that it gives
you all of those pieces that you're looking for and and that is rare that it's able to do that
especially in the sequel it's very difficult to do but but when you watch a film I think ultimately
for me when I when I'm out evaluating a film and I'm watching it you never want to dislike a film
ever you want to like a film I don't drive across town to Century City to watch to beverly hills 2
to the Fox lot to Santa Monica you don't drive all those places in rush hour traffic to go watch a
film and go this is terrible you don't want to do that you want to like everything I think a lot of
people think that we you go in and say ah no they they wanted to hate this film just all crimes the
future I wanted to like it I love Cronenberg but this is a film that feels flat this is a film
that is going to be for extremely narrow audience it's just it's not and it it's just a doll film
and I think that I wanted to like it but but you don't ever go in wanting to dislike a film it just
happens right so you try to remain as detached as possible and I think one thing that's very
important when you when you're watching a film if you love a director let's say that I'm going
to see the next safety brother films and I mean good time is one of my favorite films of the past
decade easy I mean that is just absolutely gangbusters everything about that film is just
but if I see the next safety brothers film I'm gonna try to get all that out of my head and
I'm gonna say what are we doing here it's not obviously entirely possible to get rid of all
of the the goodwill that you had from before but you've got to try to go in there as much
as possible to blank slate so that you don't become like oh this is the safety brothers so
that means that I'm going to have to love this or it's going to be great doesn't mean that we see
plenty of directors that have maybe their best film is their first film right and they go down
then we have directors who go up there we have some of the plateau whatever that is every film
has to be evaluated on its own not as part of a legacy of a director or an actor or a studio or
a distributor or any of these things you have to just go in there and be as unbiased as possible
and I think for some for some people it's difficult I think it's that you you it's hard
to fight that I want to like this film or you know I know this is going to be good or I know this can
be bad there's some people that go in like that you have to be as down the middle as possible
when you go to see these films and I think that ultimately the people that resonate with you
they they listen to you or they read your reviews or they listen to your words about any given film
they know that you are a fair critic and you're not biased you are not trying to impart your own
you're trying to just judge this film on its own individual merits period right regardless of who
the director is regardless of the actors involved the studio it's all about just that singular film
and what is on the screen and how much do you think the original actors being in the sequel
contributes to the public loving the film you have to I mean other than Kelly McGillis
right who's not in this you I think it's important to bring that you have to have
obviously those original characters you don't want to recast all those or not bring some of them back
I mean you in Top Gun Maverick you brought almost everybody back right you have crews
Kilmer comes back sorry if that's a if that's a spoiler it's out there I think everyone knows
that by now Miles Teller does a great job as goose's son obviously Anthony Edwards does not
come back but but when you look at that that film it's the characters are there that you
know so you already go in there with familiarity which is not something to be taken lightly so
I think that the director had again I think that Kosinski when you look at that he has an absolute
very much of a reverence for the predecessor for Top Gun and that may not have been the case for
for everybody who took that project on okay Blade Runner oh old versus new oh Blade Runner original
oh Blade Runner yeah no Blade Runner 82 right 82 yeah I think so no Blade Runner is it's not even
a comparison people say Blade Runner 2049 or play oh my god no Blade Runner and and you gotta I mean
going back that that film has has stood the test of time I mean when you watched Blade Runner today
in its many forms right there's so many different versions of that film from the narration to the
no narration to to so many but whatever version you're watching what Scott did with that film
was so far ahead of its time and the fact that it still looks like something that we could see on
the screen today and not be like well this looks really dated right the effects the Vangelis score
obviously Harrison Ford and you you look at that film and it's a film that really
expands your mind especially as a young kid watching that film it
that's a that's absolutely one of the seminal films for me when I talk about films that really
created my cinematic soul it's Blade Runner and then when I sat and watched Blade Runner 2049
as much as I appreciate Denis and I think that he is one of our best directors I think that
he in that film almost every scene in 2049 runs too long it goes past its natural expiration
date right so you have this natural point where the it feels like the the scenes that's it let's
go to the next scene and we are still there for a minute or two afterwards I think that's the flaw
of 2049 is there's a there's a lot to like in that film but usually my role ruled is this whenever I
look at a film it's almost always this right less is more almost always and I think 2049 at less
is better than 2049 at more which is what we got which is interesting because when you watch
Dune when I sat through Dune I was expecting to see the exact same issues I saw in 2049
because I figured he he didn't learn he's gonna you know he's gonna do the same thing
he did with with Blade Runner 2049 and that's not the case Dune really the pacing of Dune
is is something that I was surprised at I was expecting that film again to each scene go well
past where the natural edit point should be and it lingers on that film doesn't somehow it managed to
and that's why Dune was my favorite film of of last year I mean it wasn't even a contest
dude the filmmaking to the story I don't care you know the funny people say oh it's a part
one we can't we can't give it best picture because it's part one why what are the rules
who says that right who says that we have to do return of the king and wait for that I mean if you
you talk about that your lord of the rings too is very clearly the best of the those three films I
mean I think there's no contest to that but yet it didn't win but we have return of the king winning
so you know who's to know if Dune 2 is going to be better than Dune 1 but this whole mindset if
we can't give it best picture we can't say it was the best film of the year because it's only the
first part it wasn't a full film why why I don't am I missing a rule so I think that mindset of
that's another thing that I think we have a major problem with is is with awards for sure is we
can't do this because this film doesn't fit into the parameters of what an awards film is right
it's not a horror film we can't have a horror film be a best picture like really why can't we
why can't we have hereditary as a best picture I mean talk about a film that knocks you on your ass
and granted makes you feel like hell but that's the point you know when I talked to Ari Astor
it was at the A24 party at Christmas and I saw Ari Astor and I said I'm gonna know when I first came
out on redditor I did not like your film and then I thought I said no actually I love it because you
made me feel like hell like I just been through true hell and and that's the that's the power of
hereditary and that is absolutely certainly one of the best horror films of all time in my estimation
but why can't that be a best picture why can't I mean just because it makes you feel like absolute
crap doesn't mean it can't be a best picture but I mean we all know that that's not the world we
live in we live in this world of this has to be this upper kind of thing I mean again go back to
Coda a true upper of a film right absolutely and but but I don't I think we have this problem where
we have to say this film is this we have to it can only work in this arena X is a great example
same thing from this year listen if you ask me the two best films I’ve seen this year it is X
and Top Gun Maverick for very different reasons but both because they're extremely well directed
so really for me it starts at direction the number one thing for a film is direction there's not even
a question you can give an average screenplay to an a stud of a director a star absolute you
know top shelf director is gonna take an average screenplay and make a decent film conversely an
average director given a great screenplay you might be in trouble right because the choices are
different not everybody's gonna make the same film I mean you could watch so many different versions
of any given film based on who the director is I think it's a very singular individual skill
and the vision the artistic vision of a director is the number one thing for a film
and so if the direction is strong the likelihood of me liking it is going to be very high
do you know usually within a minute within an opening no no no you have a fee you can know it's
going to go down but I don't know if you know if you can go up so if it's really like the beginning
and just like some some of the choices are really like wow that's that's something then you start to
go okay we're in trouble but I think that unless I mean even Top Gun Maverick I mean the beginning I
absolutely love I think it's a perfect choice for that film but I didn't at that point say okay that
means that the whole rest of the film's gonna be good I think that's the danger too you have to
constantly when you're watching a film you have to constantly be on this balance board
of trying to say is what I'm watching working or not and that can change throughout the film
you could start low and end up high I mean I go back to a film Looper Jian Johnson's film I mean
that is a film that I was down on down on I was up then I was down and then the choice at the end
was put me back up so that his choice of what what the characters do makes Looper
a film that I recommend but I was up and down on that like a roller coaster so I think that's the
key you're constantly evaluating it it's almost like you literally have things strapped right
to your in your you can almost judge those levels of where you are on what you're watching you have
to be that way throughout the whole thing because it could change you could love a film all the way
up until the end or dislike it until like I said Looper up so you know you hopefully are going to
start pretty high and stay and ride up right it's rare that you see something that starts really
low and then you end up really high so right so so I guess if you see something that's not good
yeah that might be but if it's rare I mean most films don't come out of the gate and
like oh my this is terrible even Fire Starter I just I just Fire Starter but get the weird
thing about Fire Starter the remake is that the first 25 minutes are decent you watch
this filming like I like some of these choices I like the the title sequence is really strong
but that's a film that starts here and goes down across the board so those are those are rare too.