This is your official reminder to get your Valentine a gift, but more importantly, that you have exactly one month to get your Oscar predictions dialed in. We are checking with our design department (it’s Josh) on the progress of the official Sweet & Condensed Oscar Prediction Ballots. 👀
Here’s what we have for you this week:
Concession Stand Scorecard: Wuthering Heights
Watchlist Worthy: Eric’s Obsession
ICYMI Pod: Throwback to our Saltburn episode
This week’s movie - Wuthering Heights
Letterboxd Description:
Come undone.
Tragedy strikes when Heathcliff falls in love with Catherine Earnshaw, a woman from a wealthy family in 18th-century England.
Best Watched With
the best friend you never married
End Credit Thoughts
Let’s begin with the page-to-picture adaptation. If you want a one-to-one, faithful audio-visual interpretation of Emily Brontë’s classic Wuthering Heights, writer and director Emerald Fennell’s third feature will disappoint. Aside from the characters retained, the toxic romance, and the vengeful plot, the movie deviates significantly from the original story. A rendition, a re-imagination, Fennel gives us her version of the novel. Sure, it couldn’t hurt to be familiar with the book before watching. But one does not need to be well read to love (or hate) the latest Wuthering Heights for the big screen.
The opening scene sets the tone for the two-hour-plus runtime, evoking contrasting emotions. Sound was used with precision, articulating Fennel’s intention in every howling wind, and each exhale, gasp, and sigh. The score read like prose, allowing the spaces with no dialogue to communicate what to know and how to feel, pulling us into the world of Cathy and Heathcliff.
The world-building is gorgeous, grandiose, and even ghastly at times. The expansive shots of misty, green high-altitude landscape of Northern England, the riches and wealth of the 18th and 19th centuries line the halls and rooms of Edgar Linton’s estate, and the Earnshaws’ gothic and gloomy country home is beautifully captured by Linus Sandgren, the cinematographer who gave us La La Land and Saltburn’s stunning visuals. At times, we were in awe of the beauty; at times, we were unsettled. An Emerald Fennel trademark.
Margot Robbie (Catherine Earnshaw) and Jacob Elordi’s (Heathcliff) chemistry is palpable. The push and pull, the tension of societal forbidden love, is felt throughout. It was infuriating and captivating. The Australian duo has an incredible power to silently speak, shout, and spill out their souls through iris and pupil without saying a single word. They can yearn, love, hate, and be devastated with those big, beautiful, brown, and blue eyes gazing into the camera.
It’s steamy and sexual, but not gratuitous with nudity. Definitely not appropriate for youth, but it shows less skin than expected given the marketing.
We weren’t sure what we were getting into, but a classic story told by a modern filmmaker, with a top-notch cast (including Owen Cooper as Young Heathcliff, the magnificent Hong Chau as Nellie, and Alison Oliver as Isabella), it was hard not to be excited. We watched it in IMAX, and the biggest screen at AMC rewarded us. The visuals, the sound design, the set production, the acting, all around this movie have all the pieces for a great watch.
The decision to watch this on the big screen or not hinges on if the choices of the writer and director are desired or not. If you are interested in what they got right and wrong from the book, this may not be for you. If you’re interested in a gothic, dreamy, artsy interpretation from the (brilliant, in our opinion) mind of Emerald Fennel, watch this one on the big screen.
Want to know more about our individual rankings of movies?
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Obsession by Curry Barker
Obsession
Premise: A music store employee and hopeless romantic named Bear uses a supernatural novelty toy, called the “One Wish Willow”, to wish for his longtime crush and childhood friend Nikki to fall in love with him. However, the wish is granted with unexpectedly dark consequences for both of them.
This looks INSANE. The teaser trailer that dropped a few months ago had us hook line and sinker. Curry Baker is at the helm for this one and we don’t have much to go off of, but if the movie is anything like the trailer... we’re in good hands.
AND... with an unknown cast like this, S&C thinks we are in for a TREAT.
-Eric
Letterboxd Description:
After breaking the mysterious “One Wish Willow” to win his crush’s heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.
Friendships, Funerals, Fonts: Saltburn - Amazon Prime #015
🎧 Listen to this podcast at Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
In this episode, Eric and Josh talk about Saltburn using the Jimmy V 1993 ESPY Speech – Did it hold us in thought, make us laugh, and move our emotions to tears?
The description on Amazon Prime reads: “Academy Award winning filmmaker Emerald Fennell brings us a beautifully wicked tale of privilege and desire. Struggling to find his place at Oxford University, student Oliver Quick (Barry Keoghan) finds himself drawn into the world of the charming and aristocratic Felix Catton (Jacob Elordi), who invites him to Saltburn, his eccentric family’s sprawling estate, for a summer never to be forgotten.”
Josh and Eric discuss Saltburn. They explore its themes, performances, and their own personal reactions. The discussion then diverges into their individual experiences, encompassing subjects like friendships stemming from proximity, their past shared adventures, and even pondering their own hypothetical funerals.
Tune in next week for | How to Make a Killing
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