Film Courage: Scott, off of the top of your head
what are the biggest movies that have gone straight to streaming?
Scott Menzel, Film Critic, Writer, Hollywood Critics Association Founder: CODA, Tick,
Tick…Boom!, The Mitchells vs. the Machines.
That's probably all...oh, Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers I think is is a good example of that too
but yeah there's a to me as someone who loves movies
most movies that end up on streaming don't have all the elements
that make them worthy of going to the movie theater I think we would have seen coda in a
movie theater if it wasn't for the pandemic but I think a lot of these movies again I don't mean
to crap on Netflix when I say this is that Netflix to me is the most guilty of all this
is that they have movies so many movies that have right elements but they never have the movie they
never have the movie that embodies everything so The Irishman there's a great movie there not at
three hours there's a great movie there somewhere at two it's like you have to have control of that
Mank there's a great movie there don't know where it is it's lost somewhere but they have
them they just need to kind of like have more I know we want creative control for our filmmakers
but you have to sometimes look at a cut of a movie and kind of say this doesn't work even
a movie like The Prom which is is I would say is a streaming movie that I actually really wished went
to movie theaters that movie is even 20 minutes too long and I think there's a struggle with a lot
of streaming platforms is this creative freedom of being able to make the movies that they want
but it doesn't really hold up to a a movie goer because there's there's elements to it that maybe
we as film critics or industry professionals like the fact that oh yeah look at this he really had
the time to fill out the scene and like it goes on and yeah like that works but to an average
person you're going to watch this again like why is the same stuff going I'm so bored like come
on move this along and I think that's something that's that struggles a lot with streaming movies
the one thing that I will say positively about Netflix with streaming is that they really have
reinvented the romantic comedy what they have done for that genre is is great because they they
inspired a group of young filmmakers to kind of start off telling these these cute rom-com movies
and that's something that we lost in the Hollywood System there's so few good rom-coms and I've
watched so many of them on Netflix and even like the other streaming platforms like Hulu had one
called The Fire Island a couple weeks ago and that that was really good too best rom-com [Music]
best rom-com we have to go with a classic right When Harry Met Sally Billy Crystal Meg
Ryan can't beat that and then I guess closely followed up by Pretty Woman so it's been it's
been a couple decades then since yeah they don't really have I love rom-coms but like they're not
there's not that many of them that feel all that special speaking of which one it actually does
come to mind is set it up which is actually a Netflix movie and that's what Zoe Deutsch and
Glenn Powell I think that's one of the the most Charming ones that I I've seen in recent memory
how would you compare your excitement level for streaming movies versus theatrical movies there's
I know this contradicts something that I said earlier about you don't have to see every movie
in a theater but there is something exciting about a movie having a marketing campaign
so when you see a movie and there's something to build towards it and seeing that on the big
screen and going to a movie theater and seeing a poster or seeing a standing it adds to it that
gets really lost with streaming movies because Bo Burnham jokes about this all the time like there's
movies and TV shows and there's content I feel like a lot of what's on streaming is content
it's not really good enough to be labeled as a movie or good enough to be labeled as a TV show
but really like the kind of some stuff that you would watch just to pass the time
so while there have been some good stuff both movies and TV shows on stream TV shows there's
no question on streaming platforms killing it movies on streaming platforms are not there yet
TV shows are long past some of the best stuff that you can watch right now aren't TV shows on
streamers whether it's Severance whether it's stranger things their squid game they're there
movie wise theaters is still where it's at and then every once in a while you'll have
the exception to a rule so to to answer your question definitely theatrical movies because
of the campaign there's a hype around it you get excited you get oh my God a trailer is dropping
oh my God a poster dropped oh my God casting news you you get to see all of this and yes you
get the trades right about the streaming movies and yes you get a trailer for that but there's
no event it doesn't feel like anyone's coming in coming together going to the movies is an event
and when you have a movie whether it's a Black Adam or a nope that's like you just you feel
it there's a there's a build up to it you're like I can't wait to see this I can't wait
oh look there's a trailer coming out for this the gray man oh okay I'll see it when I see it
and also to the the half hour in the theater before it starts and people are finding
their seats or nowadays we have the science Heating and there is there's an anticipation
and you also too kind of like look around and I wonder how they're going to react to it I wonder
if they're going to like it are they going to leave yeah there's nothing like there's
nothing like that being again something about film festivals that make it special just like
going to a Premiere going to a film Film Festival is a very unique experience because you're seeing
a lot of these things for the first time so the reaction you're getting are very natural
and you don't know what people are going to expect they have really no trailers going into the movie
sometimes there's not even images there's usually just a plot description and maybe one image and
you walk into something and it's completely clean you have no expectations so in that in that regard
that's part of that experience that makes it special but when we go to a regular movie
theater right it's the crowd around you do they laugh at certain moments do they cry at certain
moments are they reacting and then trailers I hate to say this but as much as I every time
I get an email about trailer I click on it and I look at it on my phone trailers play
differently on the big screen so when I sit there and I'm watching 30 minutes of trailers
I'm really starting like sometimes I really like oh wow that looked better now like I watched it on
my computer and I was like but now I'm watching on the big screen that looks great and other times I
kind of go oh yeah that looks just as crappy here but at the same time like that's something that is
part of the experience and you get to get to see like oh what am I going to get hyped up for next
you lose that on streaming once the streaming movie ends right you get a little thing on
the bottom do you want to watch dope sick I don't know I don't know if I'm going to watch
dope sick right now nah sorry but yeah that's what it is you you almost like the theatrical
experience is so special for so many reasons because it's a shared experience but also
there's a build up to it you literally get to go to a movie you get to see a bunch of
trailers and kind of go oh that looks good and then you hear someone else go it looks like
and it's and it's great it's that but it it's it it sets up the next one I'm going to come to
the theater again to see Black Adam all right great what are you going to see after blackout
oh look look they just showed a don't worry darling trailer okay I'm going to go see that
next you don't get that you don't get that with streaming it's it's lost it's lost and it also
the discovery of things in Theatrical is so much longer right it's like people go to see
movies multiple times in theaters and they talk about it like oh I went back to see Thor for
the second time and I had a better experience or man those those negatives that I had even
worse the second time around streaming it's like people watch it once and that's it they're done
and you're forced is this so important so important about theatrical is that you don't pause
you have to sit and you have to experience it in one sitting you might have to go to
the bathroom and get up and leave and miss something in the movie
but you have to pay attention to it when you're at home and again so much stuff is out there
you're going to pause at nine times oh the door's ringing hey you hungry you want a snack let's
go into the kitchen get that you really like if you want a snack and then move there and you're
really in a really good movie there's like a pause like I really want popcorn but this movie's really
good so I don't think I'm going to get up right now so that's I think all those elements are why
theatrical is better sure they'd be a few times where you're like what this is do it Blockbuster
tomorrow I'll watch it one more time yeah I really want to get my money's worth but but that was rare
yeah it was like one and done sort of thing but I agree yeah the street the streaming stuff is just
there's so few things that I watched on streaming where like I immediately have a
reaction of wanting to watch it again it's just just very few and far between what do
you think about the gray man having a is it a one-week theatrical run yes okay so this is
Netflix's approach to playing nice and nice with the theaters I think being a disrupter
for so many years has really kind of come back and bit them in the ass and again don't get me wrong
they've done so much in terms of content and then TV shows creating so many great iconic TV shows
their whole platform was pretty much launched on House of Cards and Orange is the New Black
but they really did set the bar of kind of like we're going to produce
our own movies we're going to produce our own TV shows and they're going to be on our platform and
our platform only and we own the rights to them and we don't need theaters and we don't need this
and they sort of had to figure out a solution because they wanted to be part
of the awards conversation and their way that they did it because of the Academia
rules is that they said you only have to play in one theater in New York and L.A
and you have to play for a week so they did the bare minimum and when you start having movies
with these big actors whether it's red notice whether it's the gray man
you're not going to have that same experience watching it and on on Netflix at home as you
are in a theater because these movies are made like these are these are directors
and stars who like make movies that are there for theater you're you have you hire the Russo
brothers and you're going to get one week and it's not even playing at AMC or Regal
it's only playing at Cinemark because they haven't negotiated their contracts yet of getting it
because they don't know what's going to happen and also they disrupted the industry for so long
that people are like I don't think as willing to play with them like they don't they want
to come to the sandbox now and be like hey can I have your shovel and I want to dig with you
and people are a little bit more resistant to it and I think sadly that does a lot of these
movies a great disservice because I think they would play better when you when you have a movie
like the power of the dog which for the record I didn't care that much about but it has an audience
it was the type of movie that you would see at your small independent theater I always use the
the Lemley and Encino like the one where like I feel like the 50-somethings always go to and
like they go to on an afternoon they sit there and Jenny and Bob sit there and I go oh what
do you want to see I feel like that movie would have played there for like months right it just
would have been like there for months and they would have went to see it and they would have
told Rosie and Jack to see it and everyone would have came and seen it you don't really have that
with with Netflix movies is that they get the the one week they come in and again what's the
for people who are not like me who are obsessed with movies and like the experience people were
just watching it it's just another movie that's what we often forget it's just another movie
it's just enough like as soon as you see this it's on to the next one and the average person
doesn't care if they're watching on their phone or that but again if you want to create an experience
and you want more people talking about it that's why theatrical is so important and it's going to
be I think it's going to take a lot of a lot of time before Netflix gets it they they're going to
try for knives out too that's that's the one they have to push they already got the green
light to Premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival they're going to have to really
push that for theatrical because the first one was a theatrical movie and people know what it is so
they're going to that's going to be their test run of how to get people off the couch from watching
Netflix to theaters but I really do wonder how many theaters are actually going to play it.