Check Book: Holding Space

Nov 25, 2024

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IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION:

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THE BARDI PARTY REPORT

I wanted to start off this week’s BPR by holding space with the lyrics of “Defying Gravity” and finding power in that.

Okay, I think that was enough.

After a very Lynchian press tour (surreal, deeply sincere, anchored by women on the verge of either an epiphany or a total breakdown), Wicked: Part One arrived in theaters this weekend to packed screenings, terrible audience behavior, and a cool $114M at the domestic box office. Coming in at number two was what I like to call “Boy Wicked” - aka Gladiator II, with a not-too-shabby $55M domestic weekend total, and a fascinating Denzel interview that tackles his ten years of sobriety (post-Flight, for those wondering).

There was an attempt to replicate the cultural phenomenon of “Barbenheimer” by referring to this weekend as “Glicked.” None of us at Blank Check participated in the double featuring; I saw Wicked but not Gladiator II, David and AJ saw Gladiator II but not Wicked, and Griffin went back to see Red One again because he loved it so much the first time.

I will get to Boy Wicked eventually - I’m pretty much in the tank for late-style DGAF Ridley Scott, am romantically interested in Paul Mescal, and am intrigued by the whole “sharks in the Roman Colosseum” controversy. David Sims’ review: “I think Gladiator II is incredibly stupid but I had a great time watching it and I’m glad everyone’s rewatching and appreciating the great movie Gladiator because of it.”

That’s kind of how I feel about Wicked. It didn’t rewire my brain, but I had great time watching it and I’m glad everyone is rewatching and appreciating the great performances of Ariana Grande on SNL because of it. I hope she wins an Oscar.

In other news…

Luca Guadagnino continues to suffer from “the attachies,” this time attaching himself to a DCU movie starring Daniel Craig as “Sgt. Rock.” Okay, buddy.

Jon Watts gave a scathing interview about Apple Original Films pulling the rug out from under him by putting Wolfs straight to streaming mere weeks before release. Lotta folks are taking Watts’ side here, and I don’t blame them. We’ve gotta preserve the theatrical experience! However…did you guys actually watch Wolfs? Watch Wolfs and then get back to me.

In a bit of PERSONAL NEWS - we’re thrilled to be participating in this year’s On Air Fest in Brooklyn alongside a bunch of legendary podcast personalities! Stay tuned for more details about what we’re planning, but mark your calendars for February 2025.

LET’S CRACK OPEN THE DOSSIER

Everyone remembers the cow, but that wasn’t the only unique approach David Lynch took to promoting INLAND EMPIRE. In October 2006, Lynch bought the film’s North American distribution rights back from StudioCanal, a move Variety claimed was motivated by the director’s frustrations with the handling of some of his earlier films, which he felt had overstayed their welcome in theaters instead of shifting to other post-theatrical revenue streams sooner. For INLAND EMPIRE’s release, producer Mary Sweeney said, Lynch was “really game for anything.” Thus, the cow, which Lynch told The Hollywood Reporter was inspired by his joyous memories of the production: “I ate a lot of cheese during the film, and it made me happy.” But the most ambitious of Lynch’s distribution efforts was a 10-city tour across the US in January 2007. In Room to Dream, Lynch writes, “[W]e went to different cities and sort of four-walled INLAND EMPIRE. I’d get a musician to play first, then I’d read a poem, then the film would start.” At the Austin tour stop, according to this blog post, no cows were in sight, but Lynch’s longtime musical collaborator Chrysta Bell was, as was Split Screen host John Pierson, who moderated a post-screening Q&A. Now, did Lynch’s idiosyncratic distribution methods end up alleviating his box office woes? Well, no, per Lynch: “[INLAND EMPIRE] didn’t do any business at all, though. A three-hour film hardly anyone understood? Absolutely dead. Most people got lost and had zero interest.” But as star Laura Dern notes, however, the film did amass an impressive array of famous fans, including a couple past (and future? winky winky) Blank Check miniseries subjects: “The people who responded to that film most enthusiastically were other actors and directors. When I worked with Jonathan Demme on Rachel Getting Married, he loved hearing stories about the making of INLAND EMPIRE, and even Spielberg told me he was haunted by it. I remember hearing Philip Seymour Hoffman talking about why it scared him, and what made him uncomfortable, and his effort to understand it—listening to him talk about INLAND EMPIRE was magnificent.” (Kristine McKenna & David Lynch, Room to Dream, 2018)
INLAND EMPIRE certainly did not mark the first time David Lynch embarked on a project whose meaning eluded many of its cast and crew, but the film’s extended, improvised production took things to another level of confusion, especially for actor Jeremy Irons, according to a 2021 AV Club interview. Before shooting any of his scenes, Irons reached out to Laura Dern, who had already been working on the film for a year, to ask, “Laura, what’s this film about? He’s just giving me bits of a scene over here. What’s it about? You’ve been working on this for how long?” Dern replied, “I have no idea,” which gave Irons the sign to stop worrying about understanding exactly what mysterious ends Lynch had in mind. However, that didn’t make it any easier for the veteran actor to actually, you know, do his job when he finally arrived on the chaotic set, so Lynch—much as he had for the less veteran Monty Montgomery on Mulholland Drive—came up with an ingenious solution to help Irons remember his lines. Per Irons, “I remember the very first day I turned up, we were shooting in a studio that Warner Brothers had lent him in Los Angeles and he said, ‘Irons, you’re playing the director of this film. I’ve written this bit for you for this scene,’ which was a page long, right? Now, you know, learning lines takes me a little while. It takes me the night before, maybe. But a page, you know, a day before. I said, ‘David, I can’t do this now!’ He said, ‘Of course you can. Listen, what do directors always have.’ I said, ‘Well, I don’t know. Sometimes they have a chip on their shoulder? No. Hm, what they always have?’ And he said, ‘They always have notes. So we’ll just write it down there, put it there, and you can even put it on the wall if you want.’” Though the work was hard, Irons ultimately came away deeply impressed by his director, saying, “I think he’s a magical filmmaker. When I saw Inland Empire, I thought ‘This is like sitting in front of a Rothko.’ As an audience you look at it and you think, ‘Well, I don’t know what it’s about, but it’s absolutely amazing.’ I see that image and I see that in it and someone else will see something quite different in it. That’s what I love about David’s work. It’s obscure and interesting.” (AV Club, November 27, 2021)
Finally, my favorite unused quote of the week comes from sound designer (Big) Dean Hurley, for whom INLAND EMPIRE served as his first official credit on a Lynch project. (He would receive many more in the coming years.) In Room to Dream, Hurley shares the following very funny Lynch mannerism, which you absolutely must incorporate into any future impressions of our beloved miniseries subject: “When I first started working for David, I was confused when he’d say things like, ‘Dean, you gotta put on ‘Mama, I Just Killed a Man,’ by Queen, or ‘I Just Believe in John’ by John Lennon,’ and then I realized that the thing he remembers from a song—and considers its title—is the lyric that encapsulates the emotional pinnacle of the song. That’s kind of revealing in terms of how his brain works.” (Kristine McKenna & David Lynch, Room to Dream, 2018)

WHAT IS THE TEAM INTO THIS WEEK?

David Sims, Host: “I saw Flow which mostly felt like a chill video game but has lots of water which is soothing. I’m not sure it was supposed to soothe but that was the effect. I thought Heretic was very silly but good sweater on scary Hugh; Barbarian still a far better basement movie. My daughter won’t stop watching Tangled and I just realized Paul F. Tompkins is the cupid guy!”

AJ McKeon, Editor: “This isn’t saying anything new but I’m really enjoying Fontaines D.C.’s album, Romance. Described in the recent GQ article as “a wild, expansive record that is difficult to hold in your head all at once.” Which is an apt description since it fit the variety of moods I was feeling over the past few weeks.”

Marie Bardi, Social Media: “Another week, another PBS recommendation from your girl Marie. This week, I watched Ken Burns’ new Leonardo Da Vinci documentary. I got emotional hearing an art historian describe the symbolism of Mary’s hands in The Virgin of the Rocks - moving to protect her son from his fate while the angel blocks her. I’ll be going to Paris in two weeks and I’m excited to see the Da Vinci works at the Louvre!”

JJ Bersch, Researcher: “I loved Bertrand Bonello’s THE BEAST. It is a normal movie and I think you should watch it with your parents this Thanksgiving.”

Alan Smithee, Pseudonymous Editor: “If you like video games and you like Blank Check, you’d probably like Watch Out For Fireballs. It shares a lot of Blank Check DNA (two friends, context connoisseurship, very long episodes). I just re-listened to their two part Disco Elysium episode. Good shit.”