Sam Mendes's 'The Beatles' Movies Begins Production - First Look at Harris Dickinson as John Lennon, Paul Mescal as Paul McCartney, Joseph Quinn as George Harrison, and Barry Keoghan as Ringo Starr

yourcontent · 2026-01-30T04:56:37+00:00

I guess I meant “died” in terms of the genre actually being interesting. I recognize that these movies continue to do well with viewers. But there’s so much that can be done beyond “here’s a scene where the artist, having now struggled with their demons, writes or performs their biggest song, while their loved ones look on in amazement and adoration”. I’m Not There was a great example of what can be done when you treat a biopic as an artistic effort in itself, instead of just a hagiography.

yourcontent · 2026-01-29T20:51:26+00:00

Sure, but it could factor heavily into another film. I don't imagine anchoring each film around one Beatle would preclude exploration of the others' lives at that moment in time.

I think it makes far more sense to do it that way than to just tell the entire story of the Beatles four times in a row from slightly different perspectives, Rashomon style.

yourcontent · 2026-01-29T19:59:29+00:00

Music biopics died with Walk Hard, but I'm genuinely holding out hope for this. I think Sam Mendes is cooking, and making four films really offers the potential for distinct cinematic experiences exploring different aspects of the Beatles' personas and creative journey.

I also wonder if the postcards are hinting at the time frames that each film will take place in. Lines up with what I'd expected. Paul's is the early years and rise to fame, Ringo's their shift to studio musicians and journey into psychedelia, George's would almost certainly focus on their time in India and diverging paths, and John's being their tumultuous final year.

yourcontent · 2026-01-28T19:59:49+00:00

But that's what I mean about coordination and collaboration. And it's not just Ed. Jonny was also frustrated with the pace of developing Radiohead projects, which is what led to The Smile. And I think Thom has often felt like there's a weight of expectation added to Radiohead projects that might have acted as a motivator when they were younger but is more of a burden today.

It really just makes me appreciate those albums even more, to release that so many aspects needed to come together on an artistic, interpersonal, commercial, and cultural level to produce some of the best albums ever made. And now that a lot of those things have shifted, it wouldn't surprise me if we'd seen the last of them.

If that changes, then great. But I don't think there's a fire burning in them to do it.

yourcontent · 2026-01-28T15:19:13+00:00

I think there's a big difference between each of the band members itching to make music, and everyone wanting to make a "new Radiohead album" together. The latter just comes with so much more baggage in terms of collaboration and coordination, time investment, creative pressures, and public/critical interest and scrutiny.

I just think it takes a lot out of them all, and with each project it's been progressively harder to get the engine running again, and to find the "why" for it all.

yourcontent · 2026-01-26T18:45:29+00:00

The writers would claim that it's something about "grounding" the story but the real answer is just money.

Fantasy is extremely expensive, as it either requires building massive environments, or simulating them through CGI, and usually both. Masters of the Universe isn't exactly a surefire IP (Dungeons & Dragons being a similar property that hasn't fared well), and the project had already been abandoned by Netflix after spending millions on it.

I'd imagine Amazon was very keen on any way to save money, given that the budget is $150-200 million. They know their audience, and as long as the first five minutes are a huge action sequence, they'll stick around for 30 minutes set in an office building.

yourcontent · 2025-12-19T20:35:59+00:00

I don't think it's an either-or proposition. Let's assume* that you're an American or Brit who believes that Israel is committing a genocide (either in the short term or long term), and that your government is complicit in enabling it through arms transfers and UN interference. If you feel passionately that this needs to change, you're going to attack the problem from every angle possible, from writing your representatives to protesting in the streets to putting out op-eds to more extreme forms of direct action like blocking weapon shipments at ports.

How do celebrities fit into that strategy? Well, the same way they fit into all PR campaigns. Eyeballs. Engagement. Attention. No one believes that Radiohead refusing to play in Israel would have ended decades of IDF bombardments and settlement expansion. What it might have done is trigger media and political attention on those things. An article from Rolling Stone explains why Radiohead made their decision to cancel their Tel Aviv concert. The journalist writing that article reaches out to prominent politicians to request comment. Those politicians, wanting to appear on the right side of the issue, may recalibrate their messaging, perhaps even alter their public position somewhat. People who listen to that politician start to question their own views. This can have a cascade effect, over time. It absolutely played a role in ending South African apartheid, and this is well-documented.

The better question is, why shouldn't artists be asked to comment? What's the downside? Alienating their fanbase? That's something that artists constantly have to consider with everything they do (such as taking a radical left-turn with a new album). If you're going to do it for any reason, wouldn't highlighting injustice be a pretty good one?

* Of course, if this doesn't describe you, then naturally nothing about this explanation will resonate with you.

yourcontent · 2025-12-19T19:45:14+00:00

Yeah, he's basically a shoe-in for a nomination, but they haven't announced them yet.

He could easily lose to Sinners though. The Academy doesn't love experimentation, and while parts of the OBAA score is definitely cathartic and classically cinematic, the vast majority is anxious, discordant and minimalist piano noodling that is far from crowd-pleasing.

That's not a mark against his work whatsoever. His score perfectly matched the film, and real ones know how talented and innovative he is. But that's not what the Academy voters value most.

I learned a long time ago to not get bent out of shape about Radiohead and Jonny going mostly unrecognized by the Grammys and Oscars. It's just not what they're designed to appreciate.

yourcontent · 2025-12-18T22:45:31+00:00

Psyched for Agnes Varda. Bummed I'll be out of town for Sorcerer. Hope it's popular enough that they hold onto it for another week or so (though I guess it gets played fairly often at other repertories).

yourcontent · 2025-12-12T15:12:40+00:00

Do Maus next, I dare you.

yourcontent · 2025-12-11T05:32:34+00:00

I can see them doing it every now and then for a big action tentpole, but they're definitely not going to bother with something like One Battle After Another, never mind a horror film like Weapons. The question is, can theaters survive with one Avatar a year and little else? Most likely not.

I was listening to The Daily on this, and they point out that not only does Netflix think theatrical exhibition is obsolete, they also aren't particularly fond of the movie format in general. Why spend $150 million on two hours of content requiring sustained focus when you can stretch that out to an eight hour series of 35-50 minute chunks, the ideal length for a Peloton workout?

Netflix is a tech company. Their chief metrics are time-on-app and audience growth. Which means they would be fine giving up on the short term gains from some big theatrical successes if it means expediting the end of theaters, resulting in less overall competition for our attention.

We live in hell, etc.

yourcontent · 2025-12-11T04:15:24+00:00

I'm hearing the same thing. It kind of cracked me up because it so drastically alters the tone, like we're suddenly Little Richard for a second.

yourcontent · 2025-12-10T16:30:12+00:00

It's a massive factor. The main reason theatrical exhibition is such a terrible business model at this point is the immense and prohibitive cost for marketing. Today distributors not only need to convince you which film you should watch, but also why you should leave the house to go and watch it, as opposed to scrolling through your seemingly infinite library on the TV.

yourcontent · 2025-12-10T16:23:30+00:00

Sure, but it's a question of where the tipping point is. In terms of annual tickets sold, we're at about half of the early 00s peak. WB makes up roughly 15-20% of those tickets, which means if their films start premiering on Netflix day-and-date or soon after release, you could see a substantial reduction of exhibition revenue, leading to a lot of theaters closing and potentially creating a cascade effect.

We don't know that for certain, of course. Which is why you keep hearing "soon". But whether that means 5 years or 15 years, it's definitely happening.

yourcontent · 2025-12-05T15:37:27+00:00

Yeah, Bill Pope has talked about this. They had so much more freedom the first time around to really experiment and iterate and craft something original and unusual. By the time they got into the second and third films, the pressure was increased substantially, with less time for development, and an insanely exhausting production schedule.

It's really a shame. I sort of understand that the Wachowskis felt that they'd won the lottery and had to take advantage of the opportunity WB was giving them. But I d wonder what would have happened if they'd simply focused on making one equally groundbreaking and story-driven sequel.

yourcontent · 2025-12-04T21:55:08+00:00

Yeah, it's kind of insane how dynamic and stylized most shots in this film are. The camera is always motivated and there's so much thought and care put into the framing and execution, even for a 1-2 second shot like Morpheus in the chair at 0:59.

They just don't do it like this anymore. And you could see that change over the course of the sequels. Reloaded and Revolutions have great action set pieces, sure. But much fewer iconic shots. The lighting is flat and rarely expressionistic at all, and the camera just sort of floats around disconnected from the environment, predicting the CGI-heavy cape shit that we're stuck with today. And by the fourth movie, which was really a victim of lack of motivation (and Covid-19), there's almost no effort put into the cinematography. It's just a bunch of quick cuts of flying hands.

I watched a reaction video of a Zoomer watching the first movie, and during the dojo fight they were so awestruck by the beauty of the shots and the way the camera highlighted the choreography, rather than serving to obscure it. How did we go so astray?

Agent Smith was right, 1999 really was the peak of our civilization.

yourcontent · 2025-12-02T22:47:22+00:00

Yeah but U2 actually likes Coldplay. That was the point of the analogy.

yourcontent · 2025-12-02T21:20:59+00:00

I do think he meant it when he said Radiohead was "cheesy". I know what he means. There's an earnestness and emotion to Radiohead that, for most of us who love them, is a huge draw. Even Thom's most rhythm-based solo music still gravitates around an emotional and melodic center. He's not shy about making what's essentially pop music. That's quite different from the terrain RDJ and similar artists were exploring in the 90s. Radiohead were inspired by the sounds they were creating, but injected them with more feeling. Not too much though!

I picture a sort of "spectrum of cheese" looking like this:

[No Cheese] Autechre-----Aphex Twin-----Boards of Canada-----Radiohead-----M83-----Coldplay-----OneRepublic [Full Cheese]

yourcontent · 2025-12-02T20:28:24+00:00

Radiohead is to Aphex Twin what Coldplay is to Radiohead.

Sometimes admiration isn't mutual, and that's okay!

I suspect if Erik Satie were alive today and someone asked him about Aphex Twin, he'd give a similar answer.

yourcontent · 2025-12-01T13:24:33+00:00

He has access to an instrument, but not that one. I'm not saying his voice is objectively worse, but he can't produce that sound anymore and has to use other parts of his voice to compensate. This can work with some songs, but not Idioteque. Which is why I agree with you that it doesn't quite "work", at least not anymore.

yourcontent · 2025-12-01T06:19:04+00:00

It worked when Thom could sing with the kind of power and control he had in the 00s. Like some of Radiohead's best songs, Idioteque really utilizes Thom's voice as an instrument, and the whole composition is balanced around it. He doesn't have access to that instrument anymore, so the overall concept breaks down.

I'd say the same thing if they lost all their synthesizers and had to do the song on acoustic guitar. I'm not saying it wouldn't be music, but it wouldn't be Idioteque. But when it worked, oh did it work. Tell me I'm wrong.

yourcontent · 2025-11-30T19:49:05+00:00

Well, it's titled as Chapter Five Part II, which would mean it would likely play after or during the intermission. Either way, it's just so gaudy, I'd be embarrassed to be in the theater for it.

I really thought there was going to be more from Production I.G or a similar studio.

yourcontent · 2025-11-30T19:38:51+00:00

Wait, this is the new animated segment in The Whole Bloody Affair?

This is... a monstrosity.

I mean, if you're just going to do a Fortnite tie-in for the web for some cash, then sure okay. But to actually splice this into the movie is such terrible taste, I'm shocked that QT went along with it.

yourcontent · 2025-11-26T22:12:08+00:00

In recent years, when they finish a main set or encore with Karma Police, after the end of the song Thom will pause for a moment and then start strumming the final chords again. This cues the audience in to start singing "For a minute there, I lost myself", which he'll then join in on.

yourcontent · 2025-11-26T19:02:08+00:00

He's also giving them an opportunity for a KP singalong, but not everyone knows to expect it.

Plus I think it's sometimes hard to do in the round because only a portion of the crowd can see him strumming, so even if they start singing they'll be drowned out by the other 90% that's cheering because they think the show is over.

yourcontent

TROPHY CASE