And indeed… it sucks. It felt like a pretentious modernization of Shakespeare with an autobiographical bent. Lots of non-sequiturs and five-dollar words that ultimately add up to nothing.

But also, it was hilarious. Sometimes intentionally, and other times I honestly couldn’t tell. But my girlfriend and I have been laughing about it for days, and I don’t think it’s a movie I’ll ever forget.

One thing is for sure, Coppola made his extremely talented cast and crew’s jobs very difficult. There is some great technical work on display (sound design, music, sets, etc), and lots of stylistic experimentation (with mixed results).

Overall, it’s a fun trainwreck to watch in theaters, with glimmers of inspiration here and there.

But more importantly, it got me thinking about the benefits of constraints for filmmaking. In his golden era, Coppola didn’t have carte blanche, or a wine empire he could use to finance any idea he came up with.

Back then, he had to ultimately “make do” and find compromises like the rest of us. In my opinion, that’s what this film lacked: Conditions and collaborators who would challenge him at every step of the way.

In a way, we should all be grateful for our own “obstacles” as they often lead us to the strongest path ahead.

📺 TV: The Penguin (MAX)

Colin Farrell is one of our greatest acting talents. I’ve only seen the pilot episode, but man, he bodies it.

Now, I would have preferred if this was just an original standalone character/world instead of a Batman show. Can’t we have original antihero character studies like back in the day?

It seems like that’s basically what we’re getting here, just using a supervillain’s name to get people in the door. I’ll take it.

💬 Quote:

Let’s make some movies.

-Kent