'Weapons' Proves Directors Are The New Movie Stars
#329: "Weapons," "The Naked Gun," "A Star Is Born," "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix"
Edition 329:
Hey movie lovers,
Sorry for the couple of weeks off
This week: A new movie star has emerged in the form of filmmaker Zach Cregger, whose horror movie is making box office waves. Then let’s talk the latest dumb spoof movie. Plus, the Summer of Potter continues! In this week’s “Trailer Watch,” the first true test of Timmy’s movie stardom.
Weapons
It takes more than just being a great filmmaker to reach the place that Zach Cregger has gotten to this early in his filmmaking career. Sure, Barbarian was one of my top five movies of 2022, an announcement of a new exciting filmmaking voice that over-performed commercially and was praised critically. It proved he could make really good movies, but nobody would call it a phenomenon.
What makes Cregger get mentioned among names like Jordan Peele, Ryan Coogler and even Chris Nolan as a new marquee director is buzz. The script for Weapons reportedly set off a bidding war so fierce that Peele fired his management for not securing it (not sure this was ever confirmed), and netted Cregger a $10 million payday. That’s the buzz.
In just over a week in theaters, this wholly original mid-budget horror movie has already passed $100 million at the global box office. That’s definitely the buzz.
Something about his material excites and energizes people, even without him being a household name (yet). Like Peele before him, he’s been able to communicate provocative premises and sheer competency through trailers and word-of-mouth, and turn his movies into mini-events, at least for the plugged-in cinephile crowd.
I remember when I saw the trailer for Weapons, I was immediately hooked. It was stylish, creepy and super mysterious—17 children disappear one night, all from the same elementary school classroom? And why are they running with their arms out??
The story that unfolds in several distinct chapters, each from a different character’s point-of-view. But instead of doing a kaleidoscopic retread of the same timeline from different angles, the plot continues to advance forward while coloring in additional details from each new character. So the mystery is unspooled slowly and the stakes continue to escalate until absolute pandemonium ensues in the wild conclusion.
I keep returning to this word a lot lately, but the best way to describe this script, this athletic directing style, the nonstop suspense and the crazy good jump-scares is…confident. It’s clear Cregger made the movie he wanted to make, and he knew it was good, and we as viewers can tell. It’s very good.
Cregger’s emergence is the latest example proving a theory I’ve held since Oppenheimer came out in 2023, and I wrote a story for Forbes quoting one agent who called Chris Nolan “the biggest movie star in Hollywood.” It was as surprising to hear then as it was indisputable. A $1 billion grosser was sold primarily on Nolan’s name.
I think we’re trending toward directors being the new bold face names that sell movies at the box office, instead of lead actors. IP and franchises are still king, of course, especially when we’re talking about those $200 million budgeted behemoths. But Coogler’s Sinners made more in the U.S. than Brad Pitt’s F1 and Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible. Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s 28 Years Later made more than Ben Affleck’s The Accountant 2. Are you more excited for the upcoming Paul Thomas Anderson movie One Battle After Another or seeing Dwayne The Rock Johnson in The Smashing Machine?? See!
With all of the obvious disclaimers that a portion of my audience is never going to go see a scary movie—this movie is primarily suspense, but there are a few terrifying moments, and things do tend to get a little dark and demonic toward the end—the horror genre continues to be a really safe place to exercise one’s creativity if you’re a high-minded filmmaker who can work with a mid-sized budget.
Trust me, I used to be the biggest scaredy cat of them all when it came to horror. In high school, I didn’t sleep for two days after seeing The Conjuring. But by watching more of them I’ve (…mostly) gotten over that, and it’s been a big boon to my love of movies because so many of the good ones in recent years have played inside this particular sandbox.
Time for you to take the plunge!
Something New
The Naked Gun (Theaters): Spoof-style comedies have fallen out of favor since the 1980s heyday of Airplane! and, well, the original The Naked Gun. But if Happy Gilmore 2 taught us anything last week, it’s that stupid still sells!
At just 1hr25min long, the noir-style plot is just a joke-delivery mechanism as the movie packs jokes and gags into basically every available second. And to my surprise, many of the jokes really hit! This movie’s comedy DNA owes a lot to executive producer Seth McFarlane, that kind of pop culture reference-heavy tap dance on the fine line between clever and anti-intellectual. You’ll get jokes about Liam Neeson needing to use the bathroom after eating too many hot dogs mixed with jokes about the male gaze through noir-style voice over narration. Somehow, it worked more often for me than it didn’t.
Something Old
A Star Is Born (1976): While I was home with my parents we ended up on the subject of what their favorite movie of all time was. My dad’s—The Godfather…classic. My mom didn’t really have an answer, but she said that growing up she used to say A Star Is Born. No no, not the 2018 one with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper…the 1976 one with Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson. What a choice!
While I think the newer version is superior in most ways, I think this 70s version is definitely worth checking out if even for one particular scene, which captures the madness of a regular person being swept up into the insane lifestyle of a famous rock star. Streisand’s character gets picked up in a helicopter that flies over a huge festival crowd, and almost in real time the viewer comes to the realization that she’s about to go out in front of all those people. It’s really great filmmaking, and of course Streisand’s voice is incomparable (sorry Gaga).
Something To Stream
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (HBO Max): The Summer of Potter continues! As of this reading I’ve finished the sixth book and am on track to get through the series by Labor Day.
I remain convinced that the movie adaptations, which significantly condense and simplify the original book material, are in fact the better versions of these stories. Not sure what that says about this new HBO series currently in production!
Considering the rapidly rising stakes of these stories—all out war between good magic and dark magic!—it’s quite hard to remain invested for hundreds of pages in book No. 5 in the academic performance of our 15-year-old protagonists, or Harry’s cringey dating experiences. The movie mostly dispenses with all of that, and thanks to improved CGI technology since the first movie was produced, the climactic magic battle looked awesome.
Though if I have a hot take for this book/movie it’s simply that I don’t understand how the magic really works. It seems to be only as dangerous or miraculous as is convenient in any given moment for the plot. But sure, a couple of teens who know a total of three spells could definitely take on several trained wizard assassins. Sure.
Trailer Watch: Marty Supreme
The movie star playbook has been so dutifully followed — indie hearthrob, sci-fi franchise, rock star biopic — but now is the time we figure out whether Timothee Chalamet is a movie star. Can he turn this movie about a ping pong star into a commercial hit?
Sure there’s a little pop and sizzle with Gwyneth Paltrow co-starring and Josh Safdie directing under the A24 banner, but this is a good ol’ fashioned “star vehicle” through and through. And given its Christmas release date, clearly they’re thinking of this as a possible Oscar contender as well. Buckle up for another inescapable press tour.