Cinematic Slant

Cinematic Slant is where I write about movies, including the campaign recaps I’ve been doing since 2004 along with other news and opinions.

National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation – Flashback Marketing: All in all, Warner Bros. was making sure to sell this as a much more family-friendly entry in the series, one that wasn’t nearly as outrageous as the first two. That makes sense given it’s a holiday movie. That tone, combined with the much more singular focus on Chase, presents quite a shift from the marketing of the first two movies.

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Phantom Thread – Marketing Recap: …the goal here is to turn out the high-minded cinema enthusiasts who are going to be eager for not just the latest film from Anderson, who’s seen as an unconventional and original filmmaker, but what’s apparently the last performance from Day-Lewis.

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Molly’s Game – Marketing Recap: While many people may not know Bloom’s name, she’s presented here as a strong, independent woman who’s unwilling to play the victim and cave when the pressure is on. That’s a message that’s going to resonate with a lot of people at this moment in our culture and society, especially given the kinds of horrible behavior that has been exposed within Hollywood’s power structures.

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All The Money In the World – Marketing Recap: Even without that, even in a world where Spacey isn’t pulled, the movie would have seemed fairly timely. We’re just a few years past the Occupy movement and as a nation we’ve been debating in the last few weeks if giving tax cuts to billionaires is a step that’s good for the whole country or not. So a story of one of history’s richest individuals and how he was unwilling to bend even a little to help his own family seems all-too-relevant.

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Upcoming Film Adaptations, January 2018: A look at the movies coming this month based on previously published works.

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After the Campaign: Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Most all of that was presented in the massive, albeit time-compressed, marketing campaign mounted by Disney over the last seven or eight months of 2017. That campaign presented a dark chapter in the saga, one that was fraught with the potential for danger. None of that prepared me for what might be the most thoughtful and thought-provoking entry in the entire Star Wars saga.

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2017’s Most Memorable Movie Campaigns – The Runners Up: In my latest Adweek column I once again recapped what I felt were some of the most memorable and innovative movie marketing campaigns of the past year. While that list is one I’m more or less happy with, I couldn’t *not* mention once again the others that wound up being removed for one reason or another.

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Celebrate National Screenwriters Day With These Five Movies: Today, on National Screenwriter’s Day, we’re going to look at the trailers for five films that tell the stories of these talented individuals who may not have the same name recognition directors enjoy but who are no less essential in producing the films we all enjoy.

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Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.