Resurrections

Hey guys,

Some new things:

1. Why Steinway grand pianos are so expensive.
   

2. Maybe you want to dig into why the supply chain is a mess. Or at least follow the giraffe. Some possible explanations.
   

3. Last time I criticized HBO. This week I'll say, bravo, Stanley Tucci. Good job bringing Italy. Good accent.
   
   Malignant brings the creativity. Bravo, James Wan.  But you almost lost me at first.  It really seemed like a clumsy collection of predictable scare pieces.  Glad it totally twists around.
   

4. The Matrix Resurrections will hopefully live up to this. What's clever is it seems to intentionally be referencing many scenes from the original, and doing so as part of some message... as in, on a meta level, making the observation that we are all in a matrix-like prison, constantly calling for reboots and sequels... Like the people plugged into the Matrix, we find it difficult to leave it behind.
   
   This is quite a shot. And sums up a lot thematically. There's also a shot of young Neo from the original film, being projected... is it an actual film that exists in this new film? There are a ton of mirrors -- like there were in the original -- but now they have an added layer of reflection.
   
   This couldn't come at a better, more necessary time. Hoping it actually makes a difference to culture, and the arts, like the original did.
   
   I have some confidence it will go to ambitious heady levels. Cloud Atlas novelist -- and frequent Wachowski collaborator -- David Mitchell, is a co-writer. That book became a very rewarding and unfairly forgotten film.
   
   Don Davis, composer of the Matrix trilogy, doesn't get enough recognition. Though he's not returning for this one, it better continue off of what he built.
   

5. This may be the first year in a long long time I don't watch anything at the NYFF, which starts now. There are a few I have some interest in, like this one from Jane Campion who made one of my favs, but it's coming to Netflix in a few months anyways.
   
   There's this from Gaspard Noe, which is totally interesting for being a departure from his usual visceral eye-searing. But I don't have confidence it'd be any more enjoyable an experience for me.
   
   Annette already got its release, otherwise that's something I would've gone to this festival for.  Soaring, beautiful, and silly all at once. Watch and listen to how every song has lyrics intentionally just describing what the song is about. On repeat.
   
   The other sad fact is that there just aren't any big enough directors playing NYFF this year, and you get the sense that none of the films playing are really being talked about or marketed in any visible way to most of us. And when something doesn't feel like it's important enough to start a conversation, it makes it less appealing. And the spiral downward continues. Unfortunate, but art can't live in a vacuum.  If we see that people don't care about something, it becomes difficult to give it enough importance. We need at the very least a thread of belief that it will, some day, mean enough to enough people.  
   

6. Ian Pons Jewell, whose work I really admire, talks about the benefits and difficulties of being uncompromising.

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Chris