Streaming services are taking over indie films
Services such as Net fl ix and Amazon are now big players int heart-houses pace
Show of hands: Who’ s planning to see this weekend’ s big movie? That was at rick question. Because with screens getting smaller, choices getting wider and audi-ences getting narrow er, the entire notion of “big movie” has become exponential ly more difficult to define.
No doubt, such worldwide behemoths as Beauty and the Beast and The Fate of the Furious count as big movies, if only in deference to their budgets, spectacle and wide-ranging appeal. But a glance at some of this weekend’ s new releases reveal show, with Hollywood depending more heavily on remakes and sequels, and streaming services such as Net fl ix and Amazon becoming players int heart-houses pace, the proportions of modern films have become increasingly fluid.
There was a time when Unforgettable, the psychological thriller starring Kath-erine Heigl and Rosario Dawson, would easily count as the weekend’ s big movie. But, from concept to execution, theta leo fa jealous ex-wife and the new bride she terror is es is puny indeed—a grim, hope-lessly retro grade portrait of toxic feminin--- ty and neurotic sexual jealousy. Although a few curious onlookers might want to see how Heigl is fa ring in her attempt to reinvent herself as a post- rom com heroine( hint: not well ), early tracking suggests that film goers will most likely reject Unforgettable, despite the name recognition of its actors.
Meanwhile, a “smaller” movie with far greater artistic aspirations is opening, not int heat res, but on Net fl ix, which has aggressive ly been scooping up independ-ent films to produce and distribute. Along with Rodney King, Spike Lee’s film of Roger Guenveur Smith’s one-mans how, and the Iraq War drama Sand Castle, recently, the service is streaming Tramps, a playful love-on-the-lam romance by Adam Leon.
With its nods to the like soft he French New Wave, its bravura camera work and fleet, assured editing, Tramps is a lively, high-spirited crowd-pleaser. It played well at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it made its debut and where Net-flix purchased it for a reported $2 million (Dh 7.34 million ). But despite Leon’ s cin-ema tic sensibility and high-minded as-pirations, he’ s fine with his film not being seen int heat res. What was once the holy grail for young filmmakers—having their work show non the big screen—has now given way to platform-neutral realism.
Leon, who grew up in New York, admits that he harbour ed the theatrical dreams for his first film, the 2012 ca per comedy Gimme the Loot. And those dreams came true: The film wound up playing in more than 50 theatre s throughout the US. But for Tramps, he said in a recent telephone conversation ,“it was going to be a major challenge to get crowds into the theatre. And the reality is that most people would end up seeing ito na streaming service anyway .”
When Net fl ix bought Tramps in September, Leon cried with relief that he could make his investors whole, and that the pressure of filling the at res was lifted. Despite his confidence in the film, Leon observed ,“It’ s far from a slam dunk. There are no known quantities, it’ s not a horror movie, it doesn’ t feature The Rock. There are no TV actresses taking off their clothes. But on V OD, someone will buy it .”
Leon’ s sentiment s we reechoed by Macon Blair, whose movie I Don’ t Feel at Home in This World Anymore opened the Sun dance Film Festival in January before going directly to Net flix. Blair had
“If a film does happen[ with Netflix ], not only does it happen, it gets to happen with this huge amount of creative control with the actors you want, and they totally stay out of your hair .”
MACON BLAIR| Director
tried to get financing for these rio comic thriller for about a year, but was unable to co ax famous-enough actors to satisfy studios and investors. When he made the deal with Net fl ix, he said, the company supported his choice of Melanie Lynskey and Elijah Wood for the lead roles, and completely left him alone while filming .
“Yeah, it would be rad to get your movie into the at res, but either the movie happens or it doesn’ t happen ,” Blair said philosophical ly .“And, if it does happen, not only does it happen, it gets to happen with this huge amount of creative control with the actors you want, and they totally stay out of your hair .”
Thanks to recommendation algo-rithms and subscriber data, Net fl ix is able to make sure that films such as T ramps and I Don’ t Feel at Home in This World Anymore get in front of viewers who are likely to enjoy them—and, more crucial ly, to tell their friends that they en-joyed them. It’ s the same model used by Amazon’ s Video Direct service, on which such direct-to-streaming movies as The Break-In and Black Field have found im-pressive audiences, purely on the basis of the site’ s if-you-liked-this-you’ ll-like-that user interface. These are all films that, had they embarked on traditional theatri-cal runs, most likely would have ultimately lost money. For them, a streaming-only run isn’ t a matter of foreclosed expecta-tions, but right sizing. As Joe Swan berg, whose movie Win It Allison Net fl ix, put it ,“No film maker dream sofa half-empty theatre on a Wednesday night .”
There are still films that demand to be seen in theatre s—films like The Lost City of Z, which open sin the UAE on Thursday. A sprawling, visually lush epic about the British explorer Per cy Fawc etta nd his attempts to uncover a lost civil is at ion in the Bolivian jungle, The Lost City of Z is the kind of sensitive, sweeping adventure tale that evokes such names as David Lean, Terrence Ma lick and Werner Herzog.
Thankfully, Lost City of Z’s parent stu-dio, Amazon, is giving it a strong theatrical run before streaming it later this year.
As Gray observed at the New York Film Festival premiere, this is precisely the kind of film that studios used to make and should still be making.
Now addicted to sequel sand dubious star vehicles like Unforgettable, they’ ve handed the bat onto smaller outlet sand streaming services a dept at knowing which movies are meant to be see non the big screen, and which are just as well-served by by passing the at res entirely .
“I had a profound moment about a year ago ,” Swan berg recalled .“Suddenly the idea that we booked a room with seats fixed to the floor and set screening sat Tuesday at 6.15 pm and expected peo-ple to come to this room and pay money and sit down seemed so archaic tome. I had this shocking moment of ,‘ Oh my God, this doesn’ t make sense .’“