Jane Mulcahy
patreon
RWRB letterboxd list
🕑 Added 2024-01-29 18:10:43 +0000 UTCSo outside of video extras, I'm probably going to be playing the Patreon bonus content by ear to a certain extent over the next couple months as we settle into this thing- don't worry, I have plenty to share, it just might be a little bit of everything. Here's your first weird extra thing:
One thing that still haunts me about the RWRB movie is all of the better movies I think it could and should have drawn inspiration from. This was almost the premise of my latest video, but I had trouble keeping it concise, so I changed course. Instead, I've condensed this into a Letterboxd list with a little (read: novel length) writeup in the description explaining my picks. Unlisted, for your eyes only!
Comments
Jane Mulcahy
Yes to all of that! I love the scene where the one old man (I'm pretty sure he was played by a 30-something year old actor which is hilarious) describes his late wife and asks the others to sing Sweet Genevieve to him. Not a punchline in sight! The movie just lets it be. I feel like you just don't see a lot of romance movies that allow for real vulnerability anymore. And my ultimate thesis for why RWRB doesn't connect is that it all comes down to Lopez not being experienced with making movies tbh. At the end of the day it's like a total lack of basic film language
leanna
I know this is an old post but the way you wrote about Billy hit the nail on the head on my love for his (and, by extension, Diamond and Brackett's) scripts; they're so entrenched in a love for humanity and community and kinship that even rough brushes of cynicality feel softened by extension. All the old fellas in Ball of Fire feels so personalised however caricatured, and that beautiful moment with Gary Cooper in the dark - however much of a farce, you can't get lovelier or more hauntingly beautiful than that. RWRB could have benefited from this. I maintain it was kind of a doomed project from the start, mainly from the conceit of the novel and gen z skepticism towards blandly liberal narratives such as those but it really could have tried, ya know? Instead of groping for authenticity while undercutting it with a nudging kind of therapy speak "self-awareness" it could have at least attempted the sincerity within the silliness Wilder perfected. Anyway. Long rant but you're so right
