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.

Blockers – Marketing Recap: I’m really trying to give this one the benefit of the doubt, largely because of the positive reviews that came out of its SXSW screening, and believe that it’s not 100 minutes of sermonizing about chastity and how it’s the responsibility of parents to protect a girl’s virtue. That’s what’s being sold in the campaign, which also wants to position the movie as a raunchy, female-empowered comedy.

Rise of Fundraisers Portend a Bleak Theatrical Future: These are all great programs that are doing good work by, in one way or another, bringing these audiences movies that are culturally important to them. I have no doubt the motives of those behind the campaigns are pure. The problem is that they’re necessary.

Chappaquiddick- Marketing Recap: I’ll ask the same question I have in the past: How relevant is this story? I understand that this is the kind of incident that (hopefully) would completely shatter someone’s career in the current social climate, not result in a 40-year Senatorial career. But how much connection does anyone under 40 have to the Kenney mythos? Even in 1989 the relationship to that family seemed to be growing thin, as exemplified by the “Ted Kennedy was shot?” joke in When Harry Met Sally.

Here’s Hoping Captain Marvel Doesn’t Have This One Thing: If you introduce (Mar-Vell) in Captain Marvel, though, the focus of the fans will immediately shift. He becomes the elephant in the room, one that can’t be ignored even as you try to get everyone to pay attention to Carol Danvers.

A Quiet Place – Marketing Recap: What the movie has going for it is one of the strongest brand identities I’ve seen in quite a while. That “They hear you, they hunt you” tagline is not only omnipresent in the campaign but it’s catchy as hell and instantly recognizable and powerful. It tells you everything you need to know about the movie quickly and memorably.

…For The #MeToo Generation: It’s useful shorthand, but I’m concerned we’re overdoing it, watering #MeToo down by trying to make every example of an independent woman who refuses to play by the rules established by men or who tries to get out from under a man’s thumb part of the movement.

You Were Never Really Here – Marketing Recap: The campaign leaves me cold, though. It may appeal to those who don’t feel there’s enough gritty violent neo-noir in theaters, but that’s not me. This looks, as I’ve mentioned, like a throwback to when the Vengeful White Male Who Works Outside The Law was a theatrical staple. If the audience really is supposed to sympathize with Joe, who’s really a teddy bear inside his violent, gruff exterior, this campaign does nothing to engender that feeling.

Supplementary Material Hasn’t Disappeared, It’s Evolved: And that’s my point, that it’s not so much lack of consumer interest that’s behind the disappearance of quality supplemental material from home video releases as it is that the role of this material changed.

Capsule Netflix Marketing Recaps: Because there were a number of smaller-scale campaigns that have been run for recent movies that I 100% dropped the ball on I wanted to at least pay them some small amount of attention in these capsule recaps. Not sure if this is going to become an ongoing feature, but it’s what I’m doing today…

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