Uncut Gems - Wed, Oct 9, 2019 at 7:06 PM
Hello everybody, it's another installment of your favorite weekly thread involving 3 bullet points about nothing and 1 small paragraph of how my life is going.
The Eurasian Koala is a subspecies of - jk, is anyone else pumped for Uncut Gems by the Safdie Brothers coming out in December?? Holy shit - I did research on these guys and read their entire bio; they are the hardest working indie filmmakers out there. They had literally nothing (okay, they had upper-class parents) and were making enough to just afford rent in New York City. Then they grabbed their 16mm and shot films with friends. Over the past few days, I conducted an entire schlolarly-ish media studies report on the Safdie Brothers career timeline... I basically copied IndieWire's coverage of their career path in Spring 2017: https://www.indiewire.com/2017/08/good-time-interview-josh-benny-safdie-robert-pattinson-1201867914/ -- This is the path according to years and age (ref: born in 1984/86):
Youth before 2007 - making short films, home movies, and cobbling together resources for low budget commercials; went to Boston University and made a filmmakers' collective
2007 - Age 23 - Kate Spade's husband wanted to make a short film about the company, Kate Spade. The brothers said, "cool... here's a 71min screenplay" and the husband said, "thats not a short film" and the brothers were like, "k." They shot it, edited it, and sent it to SXSW. It won fans at SXSW and eventually got shot over to Canne. Agents reached out, but they said, "no, we're not ready".
2009 - Age 25 - their Daddy Longlegs feature film premiered at Canne, made rounds till 2011 still. Guess who produced it? Casey Neistat - like... Youtube daily vlogger Casey Neistat. They started writing Uncut Gems and got signed to ICM - but their agent was like "ya, you guys are good, but i can't find you work" and they were like "k, we'll keep ourselves busy"
2010 to 2012 - Age 26 through 28 - founded a media collective and started making experimental short films in New York. One of them made the coveted Vimeo Staff Pick. Kept writing Uncut Gems and revising.
2013 - Age 29 - the brothers found this guy named Lenny Cook and were like "let's make a documentary about a present-day unemployed guy that was, at the high school level of his career, a better basketball player than Lebron James - but didn't make the NBA for unknown reasons". That appeared at Tribeca. And that's it.
2014 - Age 30 - BUT they made "Heaven Knows What" based on the story of a 19-year-old street actress they met - it's about heroin addicts on NYC streets. It made distribution and won many festivals. Uncut Gems was still in the works and ICM was not helping. However, Robert Pattinson just got off Twilight and sent the brothers an email saying "hey, i'd love to work w/ u guys lmao". After Twilight, everyone thought Robert was some actor not to be taken seriously as he just does franchise movies - the brothers didn't think so and knew that Rob had chops.
2017 - Age 33 - They wrote and shot "Good Time" and street casted Robert. Knowing Rob was a well-known actor, they were secured with funding. Robert was with WME, so the brothers left ICM and went with WME. Article: At Cannes, the brothers found themselves on the receiving end of praise from Paramount Pictures president Jim Gianopolous, and they later received an appreciative note from super-producer Jerry Bruckheimer. “He called it a thrill ride!” Josh said, still reeling from the praise. It won awards and got nominated everywhere, especially for the Palm d'Or at Canne.
2019 - Age 35 - Uncut Gems releases in December. Scott Rudin was attached to produce.
And why did the Safdies work out? Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MVE296BvOj4 Here's a bunch of advice from a mid-2000s Comic-Con with Tarantino, Del Toro, Sam Raimi, Robert Rodriguez, and others (I'm aware this is entering "film bro" territory). All these guys banked off the 1990s indie boom, where studios were swooping into film festivals such as Sundance and distributing them throughout the US. Halfway through the video, a guy chimes up and asks Quentin: "Is it possible for a filmmaker to become successful taking the route you guys took?" Remember: this is 2006-ish, before the franchise era, before Disney bought Marvel, before the rise of digital distribution - but wisdom on the philosophy of aesthetics sticks no matter what era (for the most part). Quentin (boiled down to basic points): "Make Reservoir Dogs. Not to sound like a smart ass, but seriously, that was a very kick-ass movie. If you can make a good film, everybody would like it." Then Robert chimed in and said, "But you gotta admit there's a lot of competition nowadays, the barrier to making a movie is a lot lower." Quentin: "Yeah, but if you're good, there's no such thing as competition. So a lot more people making movies? That's a lot more sh*t out there. But if you can make a piece of nitro and throw it into an audience's lap, then you're on the right track." If that attitude worked in the 90s, even though routes and tech are different today, it can work now.
Lisa Ling is an incredible human being that has brought to light many stories. I just finished listening to her entire Tim Ferriss episode (also on Spotify, Stitcher, and wherever you find podcasts). PLEASE give it a listen - you won't regret it. It is very eye-opening; she really delves into how emotions are dealt with in the US and how she gets through the emotions of her work. Lisa, who never connected with her mom growing up, goes on about talking to your parents and really trying to understand them. Really worth a listen, I can't stress it enough.