Hello, This is Chris Haskell from They Live by Film. For those that
don't know us, Adam Zach and I we built a podcast over the last
two years that's a combination of film discussion from three very different perspectives, as
well as industry interviews with the leaders in Boutique, Blu Ray, and four
Kid Community. We started with dev Crocodile, but over time we've been lucky
enough to speak with Aero Video, Severn, Mondo, Macabre, Vinegar Syndrome,
Radiant Syndicator, most of the OCN partner labels. It's been a blast.
You can find us wherever you podcast and also actually recently as part of
someone's favorite production podcast network. We hope to see you online. Hello there,
and welcome back to the disc Connected. I'm here with Mitchell Beaupre,
who's the senior editor at Letterbox the co host of the Letterbox Show podcast.
Mitchell, thanks for hanging out tonight, absolutely thanks, thanks for having me.
Happy to be here, I am. I'm stoked because Letterbox obviously is
not to you know, sing too high praise over what is literally just an
app but like one of the most important tools in the world for movie fans
in our current life. What's going on in Letterbox lately, Let's just you
know, breach the surface there. Yeah, sure, Yeah, I mean
no, I agree. Like I was a Letterbox member from like when it
was back in beta in like twenty twelve, so like I was a user
for a very long time before I started working there, And it does feel
like there's this weird like shift of like pre letterbox and post Letterbox. Like
it's hard to imagine a movie life where I was just like like I was
the kind of person who used to have like spreadsheets of like everything, like
you know, rankings of every movie I've ever seen by year and like all
that kind of stuff. I'd sort of be able to have a Letterbox where
you can just have all that right there is very convenient as far as what's
been going on over there. I mean, I feel like Letterbox is in
this interesting place where we've really blown up a lot more. Like I feel
like people like you and me have known a Letterbox for a long time,
but in the last like year, like I feel like it's kind of raised
to another level of kind of cultural awareness. Even just doing like interviews and
stuff with like actors and directors. I think that We've definitely noticed a marked
change in the last like two years probably of you know, two years ago,
if I was interviewing somebody, I would have to like explain what the
concept of letterbox even is to most people, Whereas now if I try to
start doing that, they're just like, oh, I know what letterbox is.
I like, I, you know, I have a private account that
I don't like share with anybody or whatever. So it's I mean, it's
been nice to see. It's definitely exciting that it's it's catching on a lot
more and hitting you know, different avenues, and it's been at uh now
you're starting to catch some of those, you know, lower level users like
the Scorsese and they just small, small time people, small time people.
It's been it's been an interesting time obviously, you know, the four Favorites
are blowing up on TikTok, the the the YouTube videos of the you know,
DiCaprio and Scorsese interviewing each other are doing extremely well. But now,
I mean, it's it's that thing. It's like part of the movie fan
lexicon. It is something that they rely on heavily, and to be someone
that was there before that and now to be here through the rise, I
imagine has to feel pretty damn exciting. Yeah, it's it's pretty bizarre,
honestly. Like I ended up getting the gig because I like somebody that I've
been friends with since like high school had been working there before me and kind
of recommended me, and like, you know, obviously I went through like
a whole interview process and all of that jazz. But it's like it still
has very like startup culture vibes. Like we definitely I think produce to the
extent that it looks like we're a much bigger company me but like even now
we have like twenty staff members, and I mean that was like a year
ago, we probably had like ten. When I signed on three years ago,
I was like one of like five, And so it's it's definitely a
very like bootstrapped operation, but I think we were able to make it look
like we're operating on a much higher scale. So what does a senior editor
at Letterbox do? Because I got admit, I checked my reviews from last
week and there's still mistakes. You're obviously not editing much. Yeah about heading
all of them, about having all of them? Yeah, we I mean
it's a good question, I feel like my so my main job on like
a day to day is we have an editorial section of the site called Journal,
which if you're on the app or if you're on the website, there's
a tab at the top it says Journal and you can go there, and
that has all of our like like interviews, or I mean not all of
our interviews. Some of them we just do, like the red carpet stuff.
It's just living on socials and on YouTube or whatever, but more like
long form print interviews we have on there. We have kind of regular column
that freelancers or staff members will write for us. We just did like our
best of sun Dance, where we had some people there, some people attending
there and just kind of wrapped up like writing on our favorites or whatever.
And that's that's kind of like all my day to day. But also,
as is the case with a lot of startups like I do, even though
that's my main job, I do a lot of different things. I work
this, I work a couple of social shifts a week where I'm like running
our social media. I do the podcast as you mentioned up top, I
you know, tap in helping with like captions on videos, that we post
on YouTube and everything. So it definitely is like an operation where everybody kind
of has like their job job, and then most of the days you're like
getting pulled in from somebody else who's like, hey, I need somebody to
help me with this, like real quick, do you have like two hours?
And you just kind of like yeah, it's very like free wheeling from
from day to day. Well, you are a very busy person outside of
letterbox too. You you try to do your best to contribute everywhere that you
can promote film in general, physical media. We're gonna get into the physical
media hard, of course, but a lot of this is just time consuming
and for somebody that loves film, I got to ask, like health check,
how are you doing there? Are you still able to watch a lot?
Are you still feeling good about it? No, that's a great question.
Honestly, that's actually a really good question. I feel like I it's
something that I'm very consciously aware of and try to like do that kind of
check in with myself because I get into this thing of because I've either work
for Letterboxed or other podcasts that I'm like doing where I have to watch stuff
for that and like do kind of like extensive research and stuff like that to
make sure I'm kind of boned up on that stuff, or like freelance pieces
that I write for like Pace magazine or like a film stage or whatever.
I get into pockets where I realize that for the last like two months,
I haven't watched a single movie. That's like not for like a work thing
I'm doing, And like, I love being able to watch movies as part
of my job or whatever, but it can be acting Like some some nights
I'm just like I don't want to have to be writing notes and like thinking
about what I'm going to, you know, write about this movie or whatever
as I'm watching it, and so I try really hard to to be better
about that. I think from like October through January, I didn't really do
any podcasts, I didn't really do any interviews, Like I just kind of
needed a break from that stuff. And I'm kind of getting a little bit
back into the swing of it now. But in that time, I definitely
like made a point to myself to like, at least like two nights a
week. I need to just make a point, even if it feels like
I need to watch so much stuff for like work things I'm doing at least
two times a week, I just need to make sure that I'm watching something
that's like unrelated to anything to do with work, And I think that's that's
been helpful for me. It's it's weird to try to explain to somebody that
doesn't love film, but it's true that like if you're if you're working on
this a lot of the time and only watching what you're actually kind of required
to talk about. It's like it's like exercising constantly with no rest days and
that you even that rejuvenation of watching something that you want to watch, it's
really important to make you appreciate it all appropriately. Yeah exactly. Yeah,
No, it's it's it's like it's like the biggest like champagne problem in the
world. Like as a teenager like thinking about like, oh, I you
know, would have some reservation at some point about watching movies as part of
my job, and you see it like all the like people you know,
shit on critics because they're like, you just watch movies, like that's what
you do all day, and it's like, you know, like you really
have like it definitely is like a very like mental mentally strenuous like position to
be in where you're like actively having to think about how you're going to comment
on this thing or like analyze it or whatever, and then like doing doing
all the research and everything for stuff. You can't just like at least for
me, you know, you can't just spit out like these thoughts, Like
right after coming out of something, you really want to get all the context,
get all you know, read what other people have said about it.
Sometimes, like if you're doing a podcast or whatever, like catch it on
like the cultural legacy of something. But I know, I know it's like
similar for you because you're doing also you're trying to keep up with like all
the new physical releases that are coming out, which is very similar of like
wanting to make sure you're digesting everything for interviews and everything else that you're doing
the awards and stuff like that that you do, like you want to you
know, hit all of the right things, and then at a certain point
you're like, well, I just want to watch something that's like just just
you know, to chill with. Oh yeah, And then it gets to
the point where you know you're working on special features for for some disc and
you've watched a movie five times. The first time, sure it's a little
enjoyable, but my number five, You're like, Okay, I've seen this
character die six times now. Yeah, yeah, you kind of lose sight
of like it becomes that fig of like like when you're like, you have
a favorite song that you've heard a million times and you got to listen to
it and it just like doesn't even register for you anymore because you've heard it
so many times. Like there's definitely movies like that for me where I'm like
I put it on or somebody else is like, let's watch this movie and
I'm like, sure, I love that movie, and they put it on
it I'm just like kind of like blank like the entire time because it's I'm
like, you can just recite it, you know, word for a word
of course. Uh gosh. Yeah. Physical media, let's get into that
because one of the things that I I respect the hell out of you for
this because with with Letterbox and with the appearances that you do on screen drafts
and everything with Billy Ray and the Incinerator and a Man's Plaining, everything that
you've done with everybody, it seems to always go back to This is available
on disc here or this is I'm going to shout out fun City Editions for
being great. I'm going to give my you know, the people that are
here tuning into my opinion, a way to dive into physical media because it's
disappearing for that mainstream aspect. It really is only such a small subset.
So why why is it still important to you? Yeah, it's it's it's
it's a really crazy time that I feel like we're living in right now because
so much of physical media is dying out and then at the same point,
like so much of the interest and like the excitement from like the you know,
average Joe consumer is dying out of physical media because there is so much
stuff just right there on Netflix or you know, Max or whatever. But
I feel like for people like you and me, we understand that this is
kind of the best time in the history of the world to be a physical
media and collector to be a fan of it. Like the stuff that boutique
labels are doing right now is like out of this world. And yeah,
for me, I think that, I mean one there definitely is, just
in terms of quality, like compression rates and everything on streaming services, like
you're you're not seeing the same thing that you're watching if you're watching it on
a disc. Also, like the preservation aspect of it is such a huge
thing about It's just it's a huge passion for me in general. It's a
huge passion for me in terms of like what like even my work at Letterbox,
like I really try to focus as much as I can on bringing awareness
to movies that have been lost, movies that you know, need to be
found, movies that have been found. Something like bush Man, which Milestone
Films just put out, was you know, made in the seventies, was
not available perie until this new restoration just came out in theaters and we'll be
on disc at some point. And so I think trying to keep people aware
of the fact that like, and I think there's a little bit like the
Coyote versus Acne stuff is going on right now, Like there's like a little
bit of like people waking up, But I still think it hasn't hit like
the you know, the normal person, the average like the casual movie lover
that like so many of these movies can just disappear off the face of the
earth with like no warning, Like all of those Max movies that were available
only on there that suddenly have just dropped off the face of the earth that
you can't get anymore. Hulu did that as well, with several things,
like physical media is a way to kind of keep these movies alive. And
I mean that for me is even like paying one hundred dollars to buy an
out of print DVD. That's not the greatest transfer in the world, but
it's the only way that you can see a certain movie. And then you
watch it and it's like holy shit, Like most people are not you know.
I mean there's plenty of people who don't even have the ability to pay,
you know, that kind of moody for a DVD, and so like
that's a very privileged position to be in, and it's just a huge shame
that, like there's so many movies that just aren't readily available. There's so
many movies that aren't on disc period that like maybe you can find on like
a YouTube rip somewhere or something like Dion Brothers is something that like I have
only seen Inside Out with Elliot Goould is like a crazy movie that is so
much fun and is not available any It's not on streaming services anywhere, it's
not on disc anywhere, Like there is a YouTube rip that is up somewhere
and I want that's the only way that I've watched it. The heart Rate
Hit is a great example of something like that, where it's like rights just
lapsed. It's owned by like a pharmaceutical company or whatever, right, and
like like the only way that you can watch it is on like there's a
YouTube rip. There's the internet archive rip that I can't remember the name of
the guy who did like the the four K kind of like mock upgrade which
looks really dope. But yeah, I think that for me, physical media
is a way to keep that stuff alive. There's so many other elements of
it too. I think just the physical, the rich, realistic aspect of
it is really important for me. That definitely connects to like my childhood,
and it is something that the same way as like I don't do any like
digital books. I don't have like a kindle or anything like that. I
still when I'm reading a book, like, I like the textual aspect of
it. And then I mean physical media that's the only way that you get
these special features. And I think, as you well know, as people
who you know check out this show. Well know, like the special features
opens up a different kind of world to you of appreciating these movies. There's
so many movies that I really like when I watch them, but then digging
through the special features, like that's where I'm like, oh, this is
like so high level. This is so much better than I even realized it
was while I was watching it. And I can only fully appreciate a movie
while diving into the full extent of what's being put into that work on the
physical disc. It's it's mind blowing to have that first experience because you know,
even just now you said that it's you. Sometimes movies you like and
then you dive in and it's so much better. I've had times where it's
been a movie I haven't even liked that much. Yeah, me too,
and then you watch something you go, oh wait, wait, wait,
that changes everything. And now suddenly I've done that and then found myself in
like a research spiral this because it teaches you something and it's like, wait
a minute, I didn't even like this movie, and now it's like the
only thing I can think about for three weeks. Why yeah. Yeah.
The other big part of this too is you know the accessibility aspect that you're
going on about. It's I feel like the only way we get this to
be a problem for everybody is until it's a problem for the individual, which
sucks because it's kind of like what we're dealing with politics right now. A
lot of people are tuned out until it's something that affects them personally. And
a lot of these families they you know, they they don't care because everything's
on Disney Plus that they're watching, until suddenly somebody in locks of memory and
they go, oh, let me go watch that. Wait, it's not
on anything. How do I find this? And then they're WHOA, what
do we do? Now there's no other thing? And that's still kind of
that ritual aspect you brought up, because they normally know how to go find
it, but now they're they're clueless, And I really wish there was a
way to deliver that message universally somehow. Yeah. No, that's a good
point. Yeah, it's the kind of thing where like too, because I
because of stuff like that, the accessibility aspect, like I don't like necessarily
bigaruge anybody who isn't you know, a physical media collector, Like I think
that it's really important, Like it's it's extremely important for me. It's like
the thing that is my my greatest kind of passion and my greatest you know,
I wouldn't even call it a hobby, like I just I am every
day, you know, thinking and checking and like seeing like what else is
coming out, and definitely putting a lot of that into my work as well.
But it definitely is a luxury that comes with having the job that I
have, you know, and with honestly not having a lot of other interests.
So like I'm not putting a lot of money into and other stuff.
I don't have a family, so like I don't have to worry about,
you know, setting aside money to feed the kids and stuff like that.
And so like people who primarily just watched up on Disney Plus because you know,
that's what's most affordable to them, that's what's most available to them.
Like I totally get that. But yeah, like you said, like especially
a company like Disney, like you know, as we were growing up,
you and me, like Disney had the thing of they would release a movie
for three months and then put it in the vault for ten years, and
you wouldn't be able to access it period and like it's a way to try
to like event tize you know, the physical release, but what it really
does is keep that away from people for so long. I used to work
at a movie store where we would this movie store, movie Stop, that
was around for like ten years, went out of business in twenty fourteen,
and we would regularly like so we we bought and sold used movies. It
wasn't like a rental story. It was like buying and selling used movies,
and we sold new movies as well. But the biggest kind of business there
was turning around. People would sell us their old movies and then we would
sell them used like it was basically games. I was like the sister company
of game Stop, which I think more people are familiar with, And we
every day would have people coming in with like lists of like the Disney movies
that they were asking if we had to use coffees up, and like it
would be like no, we like barely ever have them. Every now and
then somebody would come in and sell a bunch of them, get a bunch
of money because they're rare and out of print, and then somebody would come
in an hour later buy all of those and then you know, you wouldn't
see him again on the shelves for like three months until the next person did
that. Wow, that's I mean, that's the exact sort of definition of
what we're fighting now. But with the streaming age, it's such a different
problem because there's no there's no person turning them in, there's no access to
any of these when they're taken away. And again, I know that it
sounds like a privileged problem when somebody's talking about this and it's like, Oh,
the whoever big name star is of the day that has their movie deleted,
it's gone, no big deal. There's like four hundred people that worked
on that movie, that put their heart and soul into that for months,
and now they are not able to make any more money from it. They're
not able to have their work out there for the world. That's that's a
really hard thing to overcome. Yeah, I mean, it's very similar to
what we were seeing with like the writer's strike and the and the sacks strike
this past year, where you know a lot of people were seeing it like
thinking that it's just you know, hoity toity rich people complaining about not getting
you know, four million dollars for making a movie when it's like, no,
the people that like these strikes are for are the people who rely on
their living paycheck at paycheck doing this work like this is for most people a
job like anybody else has a job, Like it's it's not people who have
mansions, it's people who are grinding it out every day. And yeah,
like you said, like when a movie disappears, that disappears for so many
people who could who could point to that and be like, hey, here's
an example of my work, you know, let me get this new job.
It's where now it's like, oh, I can't, like I don't
have anything to reference to see if you're good or not at your job.
So it's not I'm not gonna hire you for this, it's no more,
no more resume. At that point, you're exactly yeah, yeah, Like
you're lucky if you like have something somewhere that's like a real that you've put
together, like if you're an editor, like maybe you have something on a
drive somewhere that you've stored, but like you can't have a full example for
people to look at well, and most extras aren't going to have that for
you. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. The people that are putting
into that kind of work. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Uh so there's
I mean, there's crises involved in a lot of different stages of home video,
of media consumption in general, in social media. And what's funny is
at the heart of all of that right now seems to kind of be letterboxed
and the community that comes around that is obviously growing. But on top of
that, it's its own subset of uh you know, it's got like its
own personality. It's growing into this thing that has real empathy, real uh
you know, advocacy power where people are speaking out on behalf of arts and
all that. Does it feel like that from inside Letterbox? Does it feel
like you're manifesting that? Yeah, I think I think it's definitely part of
our Like I don't. I think we all try to stay humble and so
we try not to like think that we are like actively affecting change in like
a huge way. But I definitely think that we're very focused on mission and
drive, and a big part of our mission is raising awareness for the kinds
of movies that aren't the ones that are getting you know, talked about on
Entertainment Tonight or whatever, and for like like we we have you know,
the the interviews with Martin Scorsese or whatever, and obviously those are going to
do really good numbers. But I think and like we we're at a point
where we could just do that. I think that we have enough like access
where we could just focus on huge names, but we definitely try to still
do coverage on movies that are smaller ones, whether it's you know, new
releases too and like move that we know are not going to get us the
same amount of numbers on like a print piece interview or a YouTube video or
whatever. But we feel like that's sort of our responsibility as a company that
has the platform that we do have, you know, to use that to
raise awareness. And I like our biggest drive from like the top of the
company down is always like we want to talk about movies and cover movies in
a way that gets people to add more movies to their watch list, to
get people more excited about discovering other movies, and so like that's where the
lists come in, you know, in a really big way where it's like
if we're talking about you know, this one movie on a podcast or whatever,
we can reference, oh, it's on this list and get people to
go to that list to see movies that are like that. You know,
if you're looking for a specific thing, and you can find all these movies
that you haven't heard of. I know, for me, like I I've
discovered so many movies through letterbox because of people talking about movies that I like,
and then they're talking about this other movie in relation to it, and
I'm like, oh, I want to check that out. I know Harra
Kiri, the Japanese samurai movie from the sixties, Like I I had never
heard of that movie until like ten twelve years ago. I noticed that it
was like number thirty on the Letterbox Top two fifty of all time, and
it was like the highest ranked movie that I had never seen, let alone
heard of, And I'm like, oh, let me check that out.
I watched it. It is now one of my like thirty favorite movies of
all time, and now it's at a point where it's the number one highest
rated movie on Letterbox, like of all time, And I think that's so
dope. Like you compare that to like IMDb, where it's like a shawshank
for the last yeah, thirty years or whatever. And to be working at
a company where like our number one highest rated of all time is horror Kiri.
Like, that's pretty rad and I think that that having that status on
letterbox like gets people to go and watch it. You know, like two
hundred thousand people have like marked it watched on letterbox and I don't have the
numbers in front of me, but I imagine that was a lot lower,
you know, ten years ago when letterbox started. I am curious, you
know, going back to the physical media side, but attaching it to letterbox.
I know a lot of people use letterbox as literally a tool for physical
media, whether it's for logging their collection. If they own a movie,
they go put it on a list and that's how they reference it. A
lot of people mark how they watch things. If they watch it on a
new disc, they'll put that in the review and use it a couple of
ways. Are there any random, off the wallways that you've heard of people
utilizing letterbox as a tool for something like related to physical media. That's a
really good question, Yeah, off the wallways. Yeah, you know,
I can't, I can't think of anything off the top of my head.
Unfortunately. That's that's a really good question, Like, I definitely, yeah,
those kind of ways are definitely the ones that I'm most familiar with that
I use myself. I definitely always like tag everything with like how I watched
it. I definitely if you're I think it's just like a it's maybe maybe
pro and patron feature or maybe just patron feature. But if you have a
list that you mark as you like tag it as owned, you can then
like filter any list or anything by the movies that you own. I use
that literally all the time, Like you you know, I'm sure is the
case for you as well. I own so many movies that a lot of
times I will like see somebody mention a movie and I'm like do I own
that? And like or like I'll think, like, oh I want to
watch that tonight. I can't remember if I own it or not, so
like it's very useful rather than going to my shelves and trying to find like
where it is somewhere just looking at letterbox and seeing if I if I own
it. But yeah, I can't. I can't think of people in like
very like like more idiosyncratic ways. Yes, I imagine there's somebody out there
that is doing something that is inspiring that other people could hear and go Damn,
that's a really smart way. So if you have some unique way wrote
in the comments, we'd love to hear it. I'd love to see you
like you and me, please do. I would love to see that as
well. Yeah, with with the list and stuff like that, is there
is there some some list that has been the most meaningful for you that you
have discovered through your time here that go you know, damn, I've not
seen most of these and the one that I have, I am I'm dialed
in. I'm gonna watch all of these because it's that good. Mmmm.
Yeah, there's there was so After Hours the scorse has you picture. It's
my favorite movie of all time. And there are several lists. I know
there was one that's called like I can't remember the exactly off the top of
my head, but it's like help, I'm toe help, I got to
horny and now everything's bad, and like After Hours was the first movie on
that list, and like I saw that list like many years ago, and
I'm like, oh, that is like that, Like there are many reasons
why I love After Hours. That is a very specific reason why I love
yeah, a very specific like vibe. I've after and so there were there
were probably a couple of others that I had seen on it, but like
I at that point, I hadn't seen Body Double, I hadn't seen Miracle
Mile, I know is on that list. I know like iceyshad was on
that list, which I've seen before. But there's definitely plenty like that like
that that I think really got me into Di Palma in a way that I
wasn't into before. I had probably at that point seen like Carrie and you
know, the Untouchables and whatever, like some of the big ones, but
it definitely got me into stuff like Body Double and like Phantom of the Paradise
and everything like that. God, I love Phantom of the Paradise, such
a movie. I was so excited too to bring up and you had to
bring it up first, of course, after hours Criterion for k last year.
Yeah, it was the first time I got to see it. I
finally got to see it movie, and it is incredible. I was so
excited just to celebrate the the the power of that movie. I mean everything
about it. All the times I've heard you speak on it in such a
passionate way, like, yeah, I totally get it. Mitchell's totally right,
that's what everybody's always say. Yeah, And I mean that's that's a
really great example too of like a movie that I saw for the first time
like fifteen years ago on DVD and it it did. It's one of these
rare ones that did a jump from DVD straight to four K like it didn't.
It did not have a Blu Ray release for a long as time.
It like periodically would be on like HBO Max or like maybe the Criterion channel
like every now and then, but it would have like kind of contract restrictions
where I would be on for like three months and then would drop off,
and so a lot of times like the only way that you would maybe be
able to see it would be on DVD and then yeah, kind of,
I mean, I know Griffin Dunn had been talking a little bit like teasing
a little bit for a while that it was like maybe gonna hit Criterion when
they Gryffin done and Amy Robinson did the Chile scenes a Winter Criterion like a
year ago. Gryffin done, kind of tease like we're in the Criterion closet,
but not for after hours, like that's coming later or whatever. And
I know I remember him specifically saying that's coming later had me like over the
moon and then yeah, they dropped it. My one, my one in
bittersweetness is that I didn't get to have any kind of involvement with it.
You know, I'm right here, reach out to me, dude, essay,
whatever, It's fine. I did get to interview them for Letterbox,
Griffin and Amy for the after Ours release, which was really awesome. And
yeah, I mean that's like hearing somebody got to see it for the first
time because of the four K is the coolest thing in the world to me.
And that's I mean, that's the kind of movie where, like I
think physical media people talking about something and then becoming more available on this media
really hits this ground swell for a movie that came out in the eighties did
not you know, do well at the box office or anything, especially for
somebody like Scorsese really got buried amongst his movies and sort of hit a little
bit of a ground swell like Over the People, you know, became like
a cult thing. When I first saw it, it was like very much
like the cool kids favorite Scorsese movie of like, yeah, good Fellows is
great, but you know, what's like, really fucking awesome, It's After
Hours, And now I think it's a little bit more in the zeitgeist of
like, this is actually a masterpiece of a movie, and like you need
to seek it out. It's After Hours is like the one of those movies
that if I made a new friend or I started dating somebody for the first
time within a week, I'm like, hey, let's watch After Hours.
And then if they didn't like it, maybe this is a you know,
maybe we're maybe we're not cut out for each other. Well, and it's
it's a true example of a cult film. It's one of those things that
had to kind of spread by word of mouth because most people were not seeing
at the theaters. Most people, you know, it wasn't playing on you
know, ABC on Sunday nights in nineteen ninety ye, right, so it's
something that you had to spread. And even that DVD was out of print
for a long time. So accessibility, again is so important behind so many
of these films. One of the things that we kind of started to go
into there a little bit is there are pockets of all of you know,
whether it be film Twitter or the Dark Letterbox Corner Reviews or physical media YouTubers.
There there are so many groups that have sometimes this attitude of oh you
haven't seen that. Yeah, man, that's kind of embarrassing, what are
you doing? And something about the way that you have approached things always is
so celebratory when somebody just discovers something new, it's so wholesome and just welcoming,
and I I just first off, I just want to say thank you,
because there's so many people that will, you know, lambast somebody for
this is the first time you've seen taxi driver, What the hell are you
doing three or whatever. I don't understand why that exists. The gate gatekeeping
does not need to happen, but you you've done so well to advocate for
it. Well, I really appreciate that. That that actually, like genuinely
means a lot to me because I, yeah, I grew up as like
a teenager in my twenties on like the IMDb message boards and like that that
was always such a toxic place for that kind of elitism, that kind of
snobbiness of people just thinking like one, like, whatever their opinion and their
taste is is like so much above anybody else. But then also yet exactly
that kind of stuff, and like that that's the stuff that like riles me
the most. I have friends, like my roommate like gets embarrassed about certain
movies that they haven't seen, and like for me, it's like anybody who
hasn't seen one of my favorite movies, that's like the most exciting thing in
the world to me because I get to experience through them that seeing my favorite
movie for you know, one of my favorite movies for the first time.
And for me, like I definitely get that like weariness of admitting when I
haven't seen something. That's that's a really huge one. Like I make a
list every year of like fifty two movies that I haven't like fifty two blind
spots that I want to make sure that I watch, you know, over
the course of the year. And last year, one of the movies on
that list was The Passion of Joan of Arc, the dryer movie from the
twenties, which is like one of you know, the peak like this is
one of the greatest movies ever made kind of thing. And I'm like a
little bit like I had people when I had that on my list, like
friends, like you haven't seen that before, Like that's absolutely ridiculous and I'm
like, yeah, it's dope. I'm gonna watch it for the first time
like this year, like I know that, like I should have, you
know, seen it before. But at the same time, like I mean,
I watched it. It blew my mind. Maybe I wouldn't have appreciated
it as much if I have watched it when I was twenty and so yeah,
for me, it's always an exciting thing when somebody hasn't seen a movie,
Like I mean, I love talking to people about movies, but then
if you had to talk to them about it right after they watched it,
like that's that's even better. It's it's this magical again. I love the
word advocacy for this, because you are literally delivering a message to somebody that
may not have ever received that message if you aren't delivering it. So it's
it's so cool just to be like, here's After Hours, one of the
greatest movies of all time, and I get to stare at your face and
watch you yeah storyline, it's happening. Yeah, that's a little bit a
little bit of anxiety watching definitely, the I know people like meme about it
all the time, the like fear, like as you're watching, like you
know, you're waiting for like a great moment, and after hours like you're
waiting for like the reveal of Terry gar is like a mouse traps all around
her bed, and you're like looking at the person like are they gonna are
their eyes gonna, you know, expand a little bit when that comes up,
like are they gonna laugh at the scene where the ticket ticker in the
subway says that he can't like or if be done in because he's scared that
maybe one night he'll get drawing at a party and tell him that he led
this guy in for paying less than what the ticket actually costs, Like definitely,
Yeah, it's it's like a it's a high wire act of watching one
of your favorite movies with somebody who hasn't seen it before, but it's it's
exhilarating. With the interviews, you just mentioned how Letterbox could probably just stay
with the big, big names, and I'm really glad that it's it sounds
like that's not gonna be the case, because I really want to draw some
eyes to one of the ones that I've enjoyed the most from you over the
years, which now, gosh, it's probably been almost two years. The
Aubrey Plaza piece, which was Yeah, for Emily's a criminal when that came
out, just hear, first off, two people talk about Delaware for the
first five paragraphs. It is so fun. But just to make somebody like
her, who is this mythical character wherever she goes, but just be brought
down to that base human level. And these these sort of stories are the
best way to get that sort of thing for somebody that's now reached her stratosphere
of incredible stardom where she is, you know, suddenly sought after and everything,
even though she was essentially just an extra, like it seems like just
yesterday. So I mean some of those earlier pieces, is there any of
those that you are really fond of that you look back on with just pure
pride of what you got to do? Oh? Yeah, that's that's a
good question. I want, like, I thank you very much for saying
that. Was that was a really exciting one for me because as somebody who
like I wasn't born in Delaware, but I'm you know, I've lived here
for twenty years and it is like, especially as somebody in like the like
film industry, where like most of my colleagues are in like York or LA.
Most of my contemporaries are in like big city Chicago, like whatever.
Like it being like I'm literally the only person that I know in Delaware who
like does this kind of job and everything, and so having like Aubrey Plaza
is the queen of Delaware, Like she's from Wilmington. She's literally from a
town that is like five minutes from where I'm living right now, and so
the well, not only like the idea of getting to talk to her was
really exciting for me, but also like like for me, I I love
like the red carpet stuff we do. I love like the four fave stuff
that we do. It's not really like my bag in terms of like the
kind of stuff, like the kind of comments that I'm interested in having with
like actors and stuff like that. These like little like snippets where you get
to like ask herselff like I really do like having the the longer form conversations
for for print pieces or a podcast or whatever. And so being able to
talk to her for thirty minutes for something like that was really exciting being able
to Like I I was very nervous going into that conversation because I knew that
I was going to want to start with like let's like I'm literally in Delaware,
like let's talk about Delaware. And I was like, I get such
anxiety when i'm when I know I'm going to ask somebody something that's like not
the thing that they're getting asked like constantly throughout the day. It's not like
the boilerplate stuff. And I'm like, she could be like what fuck no,
like I don't give a shit about Delaware, Like I don't want to
talk about that. But what I what I said when I told her,
like I was like, so first things for like I'm you know, I'm
talking to you right now from Newark, Delaware. And she like she like
her jaw drop, like she was like she couldn't believe it, and she
was so down to talk about Delaware for like half the interview and the other
half we talked about Emily Criminal, which I think is a phenomenal movie.
It's my favorite performance of hers. It very much harkens back to like seventies
crime movies and all that kind of stuff, Like I really love it.
But to answer your question as well about like the earlier kind of stuff that
I did ones that really stood out to me. My my first interview for
Letterbox Journal was with Michael Sarnowski, the director of Pig and that I mean
that I think is a really really special movie. That's a movie that like
hit me in the heart in a really deep way. I know, like
Nicholas Cage talks about that being like his favorite movie of his, which is
awesome. But I also think that even like when it came out, it
got it got good notice from people, especially people like us that are kind
of in like the paying attention to the indie movies and stuff like that,
but it really I think even in the three years since then, it's kind
of like fizzled out a little bit. People don't really talk about it too
much, and like it would have been great, Like I'm sure I would
have been amazing to talk to Nicolas Cage about it, but being able to
talk to the director about it and like talk about what he what was really
important for him to put into that and like the amount of like empathy and
like understanding of how special like a day is and how special like the connections
that we have and what it means to like really have a passion for something
in that film, Nicholas cage Is character is passionate about cooking. Obviously the
director making is passionate about you know, making movies, and like what all
that entails. Like that, that's the kind of combo that I really appreciated
being able to have, especially kind of early into me dealing this stuff,
where I got to have an understanding that these are the kind of conversations you
can have with people if that's the kind of stuff you're interested in talking about,
well, and it sets the foundation for what is to come from somebody
stepping into a new role like you did. And with that not only not
only the letterbox, but if anybody's going, oh uh, you know this
this person named Mitchell's about to interview me. I'll look him up and see
what he's done. And right, that's what they read and they go,
oh shit, Like he likes to really get into this. I Okay,
this is gonna be awesome. Like that means a lot to a lot of
these people. Yeah, yeah, I think I think so too. I
think that I definitely really do try to go into like any interview I do,
with just wanting to come at it from like a more just like a
deeper place of not wanting to have them to have the same exact conversation that
because a lot of times when you and this is the thing that I didn't
you know, I couldn't possibly have comprehended before doing this job, like reading
interviews constantly and whatever. But like when you're doing these kind of interviews for
the most part, like you're doing it on a day where the person that
you're talking to is talking to twenty other people that are interviewing them and asking
a lot of the exact same questions over and over again. So a lot
of times, like I go into that kind of stuff like reading an interview
that reading interviews they done before seeing what the questions they've been getting asked are,
and then like going in with like, Okay, they've been asked this,
how do I take that response that they had and like go deeper and
like my so my question is like you said, you know, I read
you say in this interview like this, this and this, could you like
elaborate on this this kind of way or like that made me think of this
and like go in like a different deeper direction with it, And so I
think for me, like that's that's part of my approach and then I mean,
sometimes you're lucky and you do get to have like conversations with people completely
off of like that junkitty kind of circuit, and you do get to talk
to them for an hour and like it's the you know, the one conversation
that they're having that day or whatever, and you can see that they're more
like energized and engaged I know too, like doing that junket stuff. Like
I've had interviews where it's like the like I'm into the interview at the beginning,
and like I tell them that, you know, I like I really
admired their work. I'm you know, thanks for taking the time to talk
to me. And they're like this is you know, I'm really tired.
Like I'm sorry if I don't like, you know, give you what you're
what you're hoping for from this. And it's like, okay, let me
recalibrate myself and like, you know, try to Like it's a tricky thing
of like meeting people's energies. I definitely have had times I mean that the
after hours interview, I definitely like recognized after it was over or even maybybe
like halfway through the interview, like I came into that with like in my
head, like this is my favorite movie of all the time. I'm so
excited to talk to them. And I definitely came in with like way too
high of energy, right, and like, like ten minutes in, I
like recognize that kind of like I was, I was coming in too hot,
and like I needed to kind of recalibrate and like towe myself down to
meet them where they're at. And so I definitely think that that's something that
I try to pay attention to a lot, is not letting myself lose sight
of the fact that like whoever I'm talking to, that's a person that I'm
talking to, Like they're having a whole experience that day, and so like
I really try to have a conversation rather than like just trying to milk whatever
I can out of them. Well, and on the job side too,
it's you're trying to do a good job for people that are going to read
for you and for what you're literally being paid for, yeah, for for
those interviews. Doing something unique is really what's going to set that apart,
because on the junket circle, I mean, nobody wants to hear what's the
main story behind your character twenty five times one day. And so if you
can bring that one question that they go, oh shit, like I respect
the hell out of you for even noticing this that that means a lot to
them. Yeah, definitely. I mean even like the the Aubrey Plaza thing
is a really good example, the Delaware thing. Like I had a like
a meeting a while back with this woman who's like the acting coach of Nicole
Kidman, and she like that interview happened like two year two and a half
years ago or whatever, the Aubrey Plaza one, and she was like,
hey, I saw that Aubrey Plaza interview. I like that was like that
was one of my favorite interviews I've ever read. And it's like, oh,
like that that actually means a lot. The other day, I interviewed
on Eric Banna, who's an actor I really love, and I got the
chance, like I pitched it specifically as like to his publicist, as like
I want to talk like through his career kind of like go through different films
or whatever. And I was worried they weren't going to be down for that
because I didn't want them to think like, oh, like I just want
to talk about Hulk for you know, thirty minutes and not like his new
movie or whatever. But what I really wanted to do was dive into some
of the deeper cuts. Like I talked about Lucky You, the Curtis Hanson
movie, which did not get well we received, but like I've always really
liked and one thing that we talked about, I love the movie Troy,
like that Troy is my favorite Eric Bannon movie. And but like I so
like I knew that I had one chance to maybe ask him a question about
Troy, and so I really honed in on asking him about the Hector and
Achilles fight, seeing that happens in Troy, which is I think one of
the best scenes of action cinema of the last like thirty years. And I
like went in with that, and like he responded, and like he like
he definitely like lit up, Like he literally is giving me like prayer hands
as I'm like talking about like why I love that scene, and then he
like he starts to say and like when I ask him the question about it,
he kind of answers by starting by saying, like thanks so much.
Nobody's ever like broken it down like that, And like that to me,
like, that's like the biggest endorphin rush that I could ever get, Like
somebody like thanking me for a question or like a specific angle that I have
on a question, and like it does not happen every time, which is
fine. I don't expect it to happen ever, but when it does happen
like that, to me is the most gratifying experience. We're not going to
think of something to ask you that'll get that respond No, I genuinely it's
it's something that I've appreciated and can It's one of those things that you can
sense, even though usually those those sorts of compliments or feedback is not in
the print interviews, but you can feel, you can feel the sense of
like this this seems novel to the celebrity being interviewed. This seems important to
both of them, and the opposite is also true in these junken interviews.
You can sense this isn't really important to one of the two partners. It's
somebody that starstruck and somebody that could not possibly give less of two shits than
what they're spending their time doing with you. So it it feels invigorating,
it feels amazing and as somebody that's trying to interview much of my life,
it is it is genuinely inspiring to read stuff like the Aubrey prop Aubrey Plaza
interview. That is just I mean, it's human at its heart, which
is not something that you can say about many of these interviews. Think I
really do, like I genuinely, like, from the bottom of my heart,
appreciate that that that really means a lot to me because I I especially
as somebody who kind of like I haven't been doing this at like very long,
Like there are people who have been doing this a lot longer than I
have, you know, and people who I respect the hell of Like I
I'm a very like I have imposter syndrome like out the wazoo, you know.
I regularly think that like I'm garbage, you know, like I'm that
good at any of this stuff, Like nobody likes anything that I'm doing,
and so like, you know, not not to like fish for Copplea beds
any way whatsoever, but like that that obviously, like that that really means
a lot because especially like doing it. I think it is a very like
isolated kind of job to have where I don't get a ton of feedback other
than like, Okay, my the place I work for printed the thing that
I did, so like obviously they thought it was you know. Yeah,
but like you don't, especially like in this day and age, like social
media being what it is or whatever, you don't get like a ton of
feedback. So a lot of days, like I definitely have like the sense
of like I don't know if anybody's reading the things that I'm even doing,
let alone, like if they like it, you know, other than my
mom, who reads and listens to everything that I do. And I deeply
appreciate that same to my mom. Thank you mom, by the way,
all you're doing a great job. Let's uh, let's get back to the
physical media for a minute, because as somebody that advocates so much about it,
I gotta know what you look for? What are you collecting? What
what are the companies currently exciting you? Yeah, a great question, I
I it's definitely like a lot of things like I certainly look for, you
know, I mean the titles that pop for me, the ones that are
you know, the ones that are like my favorites, getting the four K
release or whatever, getting you know, the the big booklets that I love,
Like I love a booklet essay, Like I am feverish about booklet essays.
I read them all and so like anytime, you know, places like
Vinegar Syndrome and like obviously Criterion and Fun City Editions and stuff like that,
like they're they're doing the radiance is like doing them on every release, and
I really appreciate that a lot of like the big ones like Quino Lurber,
they put out so much stuff. They don't have, you know, that
kind of stuff, and it's something that I like a lot of what Keno
Lurber does. They're you know, I mean they're producing you know, like
upgrades and like four k's and everything like nobody else's business. But like last
year was two hundred and fifty releases from Yeah, Yeah, they're yeah,
like as far as like kind of like boutique labels go, like they're producing
like nobody else is. But I think some of their releases do they don't
have a ton of special features, Like some of the releases do feel a
little bit lacking to me, even though like I always appreciate having like the
transfers and stuff like that, but for me, you you you know,
I just mentioned them. You mentioned that I talk about them a lot of
Fun City Editions is my favorite label bar nine, like they are. That's
a label that I pick up every single thing that they release, like no
matter what. And it was like that before I even started having the job
that I have, Like I love everything that they do, the specific kinds
of films that Jonathan, who's been on your show, who runs the label,
like his specific taste I think is very much in the ballpark of my
taste as well. But he's found this really great niche of like every couple
releases will be a Breathless or like a Party Girl, where it is a
movie that has a little bit more cultural cachet that people are familiar with,
people like us are really familiar with and like get really excited about. But
a lot of Fun City Editions releases are movies that I've never heard of,
and that is extremely exciting for me. When I have a label that I
know and trust like what they're doing and what they're putting out, and they
put out something that I've never heard of, I'm like, Oh, I'm
about to discover something. I'll say Bobby Ross's Heartbreakers was a Fun City edition's
release that I had never heard of. I watched it immediately in my top
twenty of all time, and the rest, like the restoration work on it
is gorgeous. There's you know, great special features on, great interviews and
stuff like that, and but yet just watching it, I'm like, how
is nobody like it's still I think has less than like two thousand watches on
letterbox even though you know, I talk about it every god damn chance I
can get and like, I so stuff like that. It's really exciting for
me. Fun City also did, like Natural Enemies is one of their releases
that I had never heard of before, and one of my coworkers even was
like, oh, this is an amazing movie. I've had it all in
like a VHS or like something like that. You know, I've had like
this old rip of it from somewhere, Like it's a really great movie.
So like I I dropped in on that. Like Criterion obviously is a huge
one. Like I don't need to, you know, talk about how great
Criterion is. But like they especially now that they finally have gotten into four
k's, like they definitely were a little bit late to getting into four k's,
but they've kind of been making up for it in a really big way,
like half of their releases every month, or four k's The Devil in
a Blue Dress four K, The After Hours four K, the Lone Star
four K that just came out, Like they're doing really tremendous work on the
four k's Radiance, which I know you've had fram on as well. Who
runs Radiance. Radiance similar to Fun City Editions, I think, is one
where like most of the movies they put out are ones that I haven't heard
of, like I'm not familiar with, and I just like check out what
the synopsis is, or like I check out the trailer when Fran drops the
trailer and I'm like, this looks fantastic, and I pick up. I
think I've picked up every single thing that Radiance has released too, because I
just trust France days and I have not regretted any of them. Like and
they go more in a direction of like the genre stuff, the like European
and like Japanese the genre stuff a lot that is the kind of stuff that
I normally wouldn't like immediately flock to. Like I very much am like a
like New Hollywood, like eighties grime kind of like I like, I love
a neo noir, you know, Emily the Criminal as a neod war Like
I love neo noir. I love like the ritty kind of crime stuff,
which Fun City Editions does plenty of that, and so like that's the reason
why you know, I gravitated towards them initially, Radiance and what like Frans
are doing over there. Some stuff filters into it, like Miami Blues in
the Hotspot they did, which are both like neo noirs, which are two
of my favorite movies. But then yeah, stuff like Big Time Gambling Boss.
Even though Paul Schrader's my favorite director and has talked, you know,
very enthusiastically about Big Time Gambling Boss before I had never seen and that was
I think Radiance's first release. I can't remember if Working Class Goes to Heaven
or Big Time Gambling Boss was their first release. First Yeah, okay,
so like that and that, I mean I watched that, I'm like,
oh, like, yeah, this is where it's at. So like I'm
going to keep picking up everything they're doing. And then they dropped something like
the the World Noir box set that just came out is Out of This World
Witness in the City is like I had never heard of that, even though
it has Leno Ventura in it, who I really like a lot from like
the Melville movies that he did and stuff like that and that. Yeah,
the just like a tremendous, tremendous picture. So yeah, Radiance definitely like
one that is only like a year old now, but I think has very
quickly risen to you know, the top of my list of like ones that
every you know, I'm very much paying attention to when they announced They're going
to drop some new announcements and I'm like setting an alarm on my phone to
like, you know, be there right away when when they announced the new
job. Radiance is wild. Fran is something else. I literally was emailing
with him this morning and just thinking about what he's done in such a short
period. It's crazy. Yeah, it is stupid, like the fact that
twenty twenty three was the first Radiance title and we're sitting here going like,
yeah, they're up there with Criterion like some of the greats. It is
stupendous what he's been able to pull off and go ahead. I was I
was gonna say, I love to fran Fran uses letterbox for Radiance in a
way that I find really compelling, Like Fran Jonathan too a fun City,
like they are like really following the letterbox reviews of the movies they put out.
But also Fran on the Radiance letterbox account recently made a list of films
that he tried to release that for whatever reason, couldn't make happen, And
in the notes on that list he explains in detail, like what the things
were that kind of prevented that release from happening. And I feel like for
for people who collect physical media, but also people who like are just like
the normal person who isn't super interesting physical like that, I think that was
really eye opening for like what the extent that people like Fran and Jonathan everybody
who's like running these labels and working on these labels, Justina Liberty, you
know, Vinegar syn Drum and now Cinematograph, which is a very exciting new
label. They put out Little Darlings in Red Rock Quest, which I think
though both of those releases are tremendous, like just the amount of work that
these people put in every single day just trying to get like rights to get
or you know, a lot of the ones on Franz Radiance list are like
ones that you know, he he got the rights for him, but then
like the the original materials that they had to try and do the new transfer
just like weren't good enough to be able to patch it up enough for the
release that he would have been proud and comfortable with putting out into the world.
And like I respect the hell out of that. Like there's so many
releases out there where people would just drop, like they would know that it's
like this isn't the best quality, but like people will buy it if we
put it out, so like let's just put it out. But like the
amount of like self respect that you have as somebody who cares about this art
forum to not put something out if you're not able to have it be the
best quality version. Like I really appreciate that there's a lot of fun City
additions releases to some Criterion ones too, where like they have you know,
I always appreciate any like restoration that has the details of the restoration, you
know, intact at the beginning of the film when you're watching it on a
Blu Ray. And then especially the ones like like FCEE and Criterion where like
they they even explain, they kind of give you a heads up of like
there's some you know, some grainsome lines and some scenes of this that you're
gonna notice, like we did the best that we could and like you see
you see them come up and it's like it gives you, It gives you
like that taxile feeling. It gives you an understanding of like, oh damn
if most of the movie probably looked like this when they got it, and
you're always seeing it in like two scenes, like they put in work to
make like this whole thing look as good as it looks. That's why,
by far, one of my favorite things that they put on some of these
discs, and criterions done it sometimes but not too too often, is the
restoration trailers where they'll show you what it used to look like and now what
it looks like, and it's it's mind blowing, like it's it makes me
more confident in giving them money because I can see that the work is paying
off one hundred percent. Yeah. The other big thing that I really want
to point out, especially about Fran, that that transparency alone just about that
one list, but he's transparent about everything, but that one list alone is
an immediate confidence booster and everything I feel about him, because uh, it's
it's most people would look at those and go, these are these are not
small titles Like visitor Q is on there, and that's one that Yeah,
so many people are like wishing for every single day and for him to be
like, no, we can't or you know, we tried hard and we
weren't able to secure it. There's so many reasons on there that is educational
in a really cool, unique way. Yeah, no, I can agree
more I on on that list. Like, the most bittersweet thing that's probably
happened to me in the last year is that a few months back, Fran
emailed me and asked me if I would be interested in writing a booklet essay
for a release that they had in mind that they thought I would be good
for. And I was like, hell, yeah, of course, like
just letting me know. And like a month or so went by and he
hadn't said anything, and I'm like that's fine. You know a lot of
times like that kind of happens, where like you get you get asked that
kind of thing and you don't hear back for a while, especially with physical
media stuff, because it takes such a long time, and like, right,
the people making these discs like to try and you know, get the
pieces together well ahead of time, and there's a lot of development process with
that kind of stuff. But then like a month passes in Frenant of emails
me and he's like, hey, like you know, I'm really sorry about
this. I kind of jumped the gun and got excited. I like wasn't
able, Like the release is just not going to happen that I had in
mind for like you doing it, but I'll let you know, like it
was the movie that I had because I don't want to leave you hanging of
like not even knowing what it was. It was Choose Me, the Alan
Rudolph movie, which is I gave five stars to like one of my favorite
movies of all time. And so it's like this really bittersweet moment of like
that's amazing, Like that's that's so like flattering that he would have had me
write it. It's also like this huge moment of like because that's only available
on DVD, it's only been available on DVD, and like I'm like,
oh, the bigger disappointment for me than I say, is like we came
so close to having a Radiance release of Choose Beyond Blue ray and then it's
not happening, And that's on Fran's list as well, where he explains why
it didn't happen and everything, and yeah, I just yeah, that transparency
and like exactly what you said, like movies that like you know, because
like you know, there definitely are some labels that put out like really big
name titles and you watch them and you're like, maybe, like this,
you you maybe shouldn't have put it out the way that you put it out,
but you were kind of trying to rush it out because you knew that
you could get people to buy it because of the name of the movie.
And so yeah, Visitor Q is a perfect example of like Frank could have
made, especially for like a small label, like a micro boutique label like
like Radiance that's still, you know, it just fresh in their second year,
Like that could have funded a lot of stuff for him for a while,
and to have that respect for what he's doing and respect for the money
that people are paying for any of you know, Radiance releases or whatever,
and say like I'm not like I'm not going to sell people out like that,
Like that ideah, and like you said, it makes me do all
the more confident in buying the things that he puts out because I know that,
like, that's the person I'm giving my money to. Yeah, that's
It's it's so important to find, especially if you're going to be buying physical
media and you're cognizant about that. It's important for you to align with people
that are similar to your taste, similar to your values. And when you
find somebody like fram it's kind of hard to separate because it's so it's just
it messes so well with everything. I just want to be supportive of everything
he touches. Yeah, God, there's so much that I really want to
dive into. One super personal question that I would love to have answered letterbox
stars. Everybody rates things differently. How do you rate your movies? So
like, for me, I try to go into it knowing a movie is
really hard to make and most movies probably deserve at least a couple of stars
just for being a movie for existing, and then if they try really hard
to make it a shitty movie, I'll take stuff away. But that's why,
like most of my stuff ends up at like three and a half.
Hey, they made a movie. It's pretty good. I couldn't do that,
and that's great. But how do you choose how to rate your films?
Yeah, yeah, no, that's yeah. I've talked kind of a
lot recently with like, you know, over the last year my friend's uh
Dan mc and Connor O'Donnell who's the B Side podcast, who have been on
Incinerator, you know them, like we were all of a similar age.
We're all in like our mid thirties. And definitely they both work in production,
so they like work actively and like making stuff so they see how the
sausage is made for for a lot of things I don't, but in the
job that I have, I definitely get a you know, better appreciation for
how much work goes into all this kind of stuff. But I also add,
you know, ostensibly a critic to some degree and job, and so
like I also don't you know, want to soft shoo anything, but I
do. I'm at a point in my life where like most movies I'm watching
and I'm like, I'm watching a movie, like things could be a lot
worse. Like I just you know, I love movies and so I definitely
am like a little bit more I don't go below three like too often these
days. And certainly sometimes I see like like I'll think of a movie,
Like I'll be talking to somebody about a movie and I'm like, oh,
that movie's kind of out of rated. It is not that bad, and
they'll like look at my letter box and they're like, you gave it a
two, and I'm like, oh, let me change that, like because
I rated it, like, you know, seven years ago, when I
was a different person. And that's one of the frustrating things for me about
something like a letter box. It is it's flexible, but it is,
as all things on the internet, it is a little bit permanent, and
so like you know, there there are definitely times where I see a rating
that I gave before and I'm like, oh, I was way too harsh
on that. I mean, I was a dick when I was younger,
like for sure, and I definitely had periods where I was a little bit
snoppy where I'm like, oh that kind of stuff, like, you know,
I didn't really like that half star. Fuck it, like and like
now I couldn't even tell you the last time I gave something half a star.
You know. I think that for the most part, if I don't
like a movie, it's probably like a two for me, Like it's harder
for me to go lower than a two because like there's usually at least enough
in there where I'm like I can see what they were trying to do,
and as long as it's not like morally reprehensible to me. On like a
base level, I like, I you know, I'm I'm yeah, I'm
very hesitant to go lower than that. But yeah, for the most part,
I think I would probably I think if you look at my letterbox like
histogram, the highest I probably do is like I probably have given the most
like three and a halfs out of everything, which is a very like a
solid like yeah, that was pretty good, but not like, you know,
not great or anything. But for me, I think there are definitely
like people on letterbox who in there like bio kind of like break down,
Like five is a masterpiece. Four and a half it is like a masterpiece,
but I saw three things wrong with it or whatever, like two and
a half is the like the average or whatever. I don't have. Like
for me, rating is like very much vibes based, like if I come
out of a movie, I remember watching Snake Eyes back to Topama for the
first time, like two two and a half years ago. I was watching
it with my roommate. We finished watching it and they're like, what do
you rate it? And I'm like five, Like five, absolutely a five,
And They're like why it was like so messy, and I'm like,
yeah, but it's a five. So I definitely like a very very vibes
based. There are times where I'll come out of a movie thinking like like,
when I'm out of it, I will think like, like, I'm
not somebody who tends to think about like what I'm ratings, what I'm going
to raise something as I'm watching it. I know some people kind of like
that's something programmed into their brain, and I don't think there's anything wrong with
that, because I can change, you know, throughout the course of the
movie or whatever. But I just don't really think about that while I'm watching
a movie. But I'll come out of it and usually like have an idea
in my head of like, oh what that was for me? But I
tend to not log or write a review or whatever for usually like a couple
of days until after I've watched something. So there are definitely times that I'll
come out of something thinking like that was probably like a four and a half,
and then I'll go to like write a review and I'm like, no,
it's a like as I'm writing, I'm like, oh, this this
is actually this is definitely a five. Yeah. I just recently did a
show on my channel where we were talking about the best of the decade so
far, and I had the exact same thing with Underwater. And what's weird
is it kind of feels like there's been a lifetime since Underwater because that was
right before the pandemic. Yeah, and something about my age and the way
that hit. At the time, I was like, well, this feels
like an underwater alien ripoff and that's it. So three and a half.
And now I looked back and I was like, wait, think about this
movie like once a week. Why is this only a three and a half.
That's a good goddamn movie. I love that movie. Yeah, I
love that movie too. Oh man, this is uh, this has been
incredible and really kind of like the final thing I want to go on here
is because you're you're attached to Letterbox, which is like I mentioned at the
very beginning, so to bookend it, it's like the heartbeat of the modern
film scene for a lot of us that are around the same age and the
same sensibilities. You see any trends. Do you see anything with filmmaking that
is, you know, optimistic for the next couple of years or you know,
obviously everybody's always gonna lament about comic book films when you're talking about stuff
like this, but not even out outside of that. Are there any things
that are exciting to you about about letterboxed, about the trends behind the movies
that we're getting. Yeah, I mean the comic book thing is funny because
I mean it as as last year evidence. I think we're starting to see
a little bit of a pushback on of it, and I'm very happy about
that. I definitely think that there is like a in looking at Letterbox and
looking at kind of where things are at, There is like a curiosity that
is getting more activated. There definitely is more of like a I mean,
even you look at the Oscars, you see something like Drive My Car getting
nominated for Best Picture, Best Director. This year's tone of interest, you
know, Getting a Love of Dad and Admivifall is my favorite movie of twenty
twenty three, Like by far like that movie, you know, blew my
mind. I'm completely obsessed with that movie, and I think ten years ago
it would have been the kind of movie where it's like, you know,
maybe it still wins the Palm Door, but it's not getting the Oscar nominations,
and this year it's Picture Director actress probably gonna win Screenplay. Like I
think that I and you know, not to say that Letterbox has anything to
do with anything like that, you know, with hitting that sort of level,
but I do think that there is something in Letterbox of people having a
greater curiosity for the kinds of stuff that is coming out, the kinds of
stuff that they can find that they can seek out that's not being marketed like
crazy. Like I genuinely believe that Letterboxed is at least partly responsible for skinn
am Rink getting the distribution deal that it got, because that's that movie was
not going to get distributed. It got leaked on the internet. People on
letterbox were watching it off of torrents, and it was doing Banana's ratings on
Letterbox, Like. It was getting such great ratings on Letterbox that I'm like,
yeah, somebody's gonna see that and pick it up, you know,
And I think that I know for sure that boutique labels, like from people
that I've talked to who run boutique labels, look at letterbox reviews when they're
considering whether they're going to pick something up or not, and then look at
them when you know, the releases come out and see like what's getting received
well, and like how that kind of you know, drives what they're going
to go after in the future. And so I definitely think that, I
mean, we hear it all the time from filmmakers too, that like they're
especially like indie filmmakers, younger filmmakers who and like distributors to who are releasing
stuff that's not you know, the Blockbusters or whatever, and they definitely are
very actively paying attention to like how people are responding to movies on Letterbox.
And I think that that's a good sign because I think, you know,
there's always rotten apples. There's definitely, you know, some shit bags on
letterbox, But I think for the most part, it's a really solid community.
I think it's a really positive community. I think it's genuinely a community
of people who love film. I think that most people who have a letterbox
account and are reviewing and logging movies regularly, are doing it because they really
love movies. And so I think that the stuff that's trending on there,
and like the way that you kind of see that stuff get built up is
from people who love movies and like really want this business and this art form
to thrive. And I hope that in some kind of small or large way
that helps influence the kind of movies that are coming out are getting attention.
I mean that that was an excellent way to answer that. There's so much
about just the way that a lot of these people that are, you know,
watching like eight hundred movies a year, that you know, they put
so much work into their reviews, and it's they're just genuinely trying to share
a passion for a movie that most people haven't seen. And when you're watching
eight hundred movies a year, most of them are going to be unseen films
by most of the zeit guys. So I'm just so I'm so impressed for
the people that put the work into this. I'm so impressed for the people
behind the tool. I mean, we didn't even get to talk about the
podcast. There's so much that we could have got into here. All all
of Mitchell's links are going to be in the description below. Go follow their
stuff, Go go read the editorials, Go listen to the podcast. Please
support them and everything and everything that they do, because Mitchell, you are
You're doing incredible work, and I'm just insanely proud of where you've come in
a very short period of time and just happy to see what you've you've done
to genuinely influence film culture. Thank you that, Yeah, that means so
much. And I mean, likewise, you know, I told you before
when we were setting this up, like I'm a really big fan of the
podcast. I love you know, I love physical media. Like physical media,
as I said, is you know, my greatest passion. And so
the stuff that people like you, that you know, are doing to push
physical media to really like raise the awareness and keep like the physical media community
alive, I think is really important. And definitely, you know, I'm
always watching and paying attention to what you guys are talking about. Needs the
world keep doing what you're doing. Thank you for doing this and hopefully we
can have another one someday for sure. Thank you for listening to the Disconnected
podcast. There's one big thing that you could do to help the show,
and that is to leave a rating and review on the podcast service of your
choice. Thank you tell me. If you're looking for more horror outside of
the mainstream, look no further than Unsung Horrors, a podcast about underseen horror
movies. I'm Lance and I'm Erica. Every other week we'll cover a horror
movie with fewer than one thousand views on Letterboxed. We'll even give you double
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