Emma Radacanu (last year’s winner)
The next two weeks are two of my favorite weeks of the year.
That’s because the U.S. Open is on!!!
I fire up my wide-screen TV, turn on ESPN, and have luscious sweaty 4K bodies banging groundstrokes at each other in the background while I work.
Since I know you’re all dying to get my U.S. Open picks, here’s a quick preview of the tournament. This is Serena Williams’ last major tournament and, I’m afraid, she’s going to lose early. She’s just not in shape. So she can’t move to the ball fast enough to take on the top players. She might win a round. But she’ll be out by the second round for sure. With that said, her and her sister are playing doubles together. Since you don’t need to move as much in doubles, they might make a deep little run. I’d love to see that.
What’s so exciting about this U.S. Open is that there are no favorites on either side. If I had to bet, I would say that the Polish Punisher and number 1 seed, Iga Swiatek, will win the women’s tournament. But she’s far from a sure thing. Emma Raducanu, who won the tournament last year, has been disappointing since then and the whispers around the tour are that she’s a bigger one-hit-wonder than Devo.
On the men’s side, who the heck knows what’s going on. Djokovic is out because he’s not vaxxed. Medvedev has been playing stinky. Nadal is beat up and probably won’t make it to the second week. Wonder Boy, Alcaraz, who many are predicting will win double-digit grand slams, seems to have hit a plateau this season. The guy has the biggest forehand I’ve ever seen in my life but for whatever reason, he’s not unleashing it.
Escape from Alcaraz
I would love to see Kyrgios do well but he’s such a wild card. My pick for winning the tournament is either the Greek Freak, Stefano Tsisipas, or the Italian Non-Stallion, Jannik Sinner. Both have beautiful backhands, Sinner’s two-handed, and Tsisipas one-handed. I could watch these two crank backhands all day.
Speaking of spirited competitions, did anyone go to the movies this weekend? After looking at the box office numbers, it sure doesn’t seem like it. The top film, The Invitation, made just 7 million bucks. I’m not going to call it the death of cinema yet because they didn’t even release a big film. But 7 million!? Come on!
The studios and theaters seem to know your interest is waning so next Saturday, they’re offering movie tickets FOR JUST 3 BUCKS! It’s National Cinema Day, baby! I was definitely excited to take advantage of this but then I wondered, wait a minute, is there a movie out right now that I actually want to see?
Daisy Edgar-Jones
I noticed this “little movie that could,” Where the Crawdads Sing, just cross 80 million bucks. That 80 million, by the way, is just as much as Bullet Train. A movie about a girl living in a swamp is making just as much money as a Brad Pitt actioneer. Welcome to the bizarre world of Hollywood box office post-pandemic. I might go see the film for that alone. Also, I’ve made no secrets how much I love Crawdad star, Daisy Edgar-Jones, who came out of Normal People. This movie over-performing means she’s on the cusp of becoming the next big “it” girl.
One of the sadder results form this weekend is George Miller’s, “Three Thousand Years of Longing.” The film opened in 2500 theaters and took in just 2.8 million bucks. Why is this a big deal? Cause this is the guy who created one of the coolest movies ever in Mad Max: Fury Road! And his follow-up is this?
I think what George did was leverage his success with Fury Road to make this long-time passion project. And the thing with passion projects is that there tends to be a reason they’re hard to make. Namely, they’re not appealing enough to a big audience. So no one wants to finance them. But hey, I appreciate Miller for trying. He wanted to do something different. He did it. It didn’t work out. But that’s art. If we always knew what would hit, it wouldn’t be any fun.
One thing I’m noticing is that we are definitely knee-deep in a new era where mega-TV shows are now competing with theatrical movies. It used to be there was no competition cause you could only do so much with a TV budget. But when you get to see the real theatrical Hulk on TV now? When you get to see a 30 million dollar pilot with dragons? Or a billion dollar Lord of the Rings adaptation? Those are legitimate alternatives for going to the movies.
That’s not to say this is always going to be the case. I’m one of these people who isn’t convinced the streamers will be able to keep these budgets up. The reason they’re doing it now is because they’re trying to establish dominance in the fast-growing industry of streaming. But once the music stops and we know where everyone’s sitting, I think they’re going to start pulling back. They have to. There’s no way they can keep this insane spending up.
In the meantime, what are you going to watch? A movie (The Invitation) that stars the 11th most important character in the Fast and Furious franchise? Or a Star Wars show? I think the answer is obvious.
It’s yet another reminder that CONCEPT IS KING – something I was just talking about Thursday. When you’re coming up with movie ideas, you have to think like that guy who’s sitting there on a Thursday night, who may or may not want to go to the movies this weekend. He’s leaning towards not going cause there isn’t a new Marvel movie out. What are you giving that person that will make him want to go? It’s got to be a big juicy idea. Which reminds me, High Concept Showdown is coming people! So get those scripts ready.
What: AMATEUR SHOWDOWN – HIGH CONCEPT EDITION
When: Entries due December 1 by 8pm Pacific Time
How: E-mail me your title, genre, logline, any extra pitch you want to make about why your script deserves a shot, and, of course, a PDF of the screenplay.
Where: carsonreeves3@gmail.com
Anything else?: You can start sending in your scripts right now!
One minor story I caught from this weekend was the showings of two former, “WHAT THE HELL DID I JUST READ” script reviews. Bodies Bodies Bodies and Vengeance. I was shocked to find that both movies received relatively strong critical scores (Vengeance at 79% and Bodies Bodies Bodies at 86%). Cause I thought these scripts were beyond awful. Bodies Bodies bodies was a glorified game of drunken hide and seek. And Vengeance had one of the most despicable unlikable protagonists I’ve come across in a long time.
Why are these movies working for people? I don’t know for sure because I haven’t seen them yet, lol. But I do know that when the writer is also the director, there are two things you can drastically change about a script. The first is the stylistic look of your movie. Bodies Bodies Bodies looks a lot more stylistic than I imagined it would be. Which definitely helps give it its own identity.
The other big thing you can do is soften the look and feel of a character onscreen who, on paper, was a big fat jerk. You can do this through casting. Or, in B.J. Novak’s case (who was the writer, director, and star), you simply play the character a lot nicer. And it looks like that’s what he did to offset how unlikable that character was on the page.
I’m all about admitting when I’m wrong about a script. I think it’s important for all screenwriters to understand why something works even if they, themselves, hate it. And I believe that’s what happened here. Although I’m curious, for those of you who saw the films, what did you think of them? Should I give them a shot? Or was my original analysis correct and they’re both benefactors of the current critical trend of propping movies up more for what they and the creators symbolize than how good they are?
Let me know in the comments.
And, oh yeah, a new newsletter is coming this week! Watch out for it in your inbox. I review one of the wilder premises I’ve ever seen for a big-budget film. I’ll be including a link to the script so you can check it out yourself (e-mail carsonreeves1@gmail.com if you want to be on the list).
