What I Wrote This Month - April 2022
The Batman, X Makeup, The Northman, Everything Everywhere All at Once, and More
Gonna try something different here, because I really would like to get this Substack to the point where maybe I can have some paid subscribers. (Still working on those ideas.)
Anyway, it seems like I probably am writing a lot of stuff that people are missing, especially if they don’t follow me on Twitter, but the idea is pretty simple. I’m a freelance writer who writes for a couple places, currently Below the Line and Gold Derby.
We’ll start this month with my stuff for Below the Line:
I spoke to a couple people from behind-the-scenes of Matt Reeves’ The Batman, including Production Designer James Chinlund — if you don’t know what the production designer’s role is, then you may not know who to credit for some of those amazing locations in the movie — and VFX Supervisor Angers Langland from Weta FX, who I’ve talked to a few times in recent years. We spoke a lot about that amazing highway Batmobile chase, which may have been more involved than you think:
Production Designer James Chinlund - Below the Line
WetaFX's Anders Langlands on The Batman - Below the Line
I also spoke to Sarah Rubano, the makeup and hair designer for Ti West’s X (which I also loved) who turned the beautiful Mia Goth into the beautiful in a different way (but also quite homicidal) “Pearl”:
X Hair and Makeup Designer Sarah Rubano - Below the Line
And then my other favorite recent movie (actually my #1 movie of the year with The Batman being #2) is Everything Everywhere All At Once, starring Michelle Yeoh. Daniels’ absurdist action-comedy is so wonderful I’m going to see it again later today, but so far, I’ve spoken to Daniels’ DP Larkin Seiple and their editor, Paul Rogers, with a piece on the VFX to come:
Everything Everywhere All at Once DP Larkin Seiple - Below the Line
Everything Everywhere All At Once Editor Paul Rogers - Below the Line
Oh, yeah! I also spoke to Robert Eggers for his new movie, The Northman, another film you should try to see in theaters while you can:
The Northman Director Robert Eggers - Below the Line
Let’s switch over to Gold Derby, where I’ve transitioned out of writing about awards and Oscars to focus more on box office. (My May 2022 box office preview will debut later today, so I’ll try to remember to add it.)
I’m doing an abridged weekend preview there, including this week, which was mainly about Memory:
Weekend Box Office Preview - Gold Derby
You can scan through my other box office write-ups for the month here.
I also wrote some more about why I love Everything Everywhere All at Once and why it should be considered for awards at the end of the yea.
Why Everything Everywhere All at Once Should be Remembered for Awards - Gold Derby
I also wrote about how the extended Oscar season and things being delayed and postponed due to COVID screwed with this Oscars maybe even more than last year.
How the 2022 Extended Oscar Season Screwed With Everyone - Gold Derby
I’ll add my May box office preview shortly, but you can also see my April box office preview and see how did…
Ed’s April Box Office Preview - Gold Derby
Oh, also, if you want to access all my reviews at any time — and I write a lot — you should check out my page on RottenTomatoes:
If you like anything you read here or at some of those other sites, please subscribe to my Substack. It’s all free for now, until I can figure out what could be worth posting just for paid subscribers. (Note: I’m in talks for another box office writing gig, so we’ll have to see how much I can share here without being a conflict of interests.)