More From Peter Bart
Peter Bart: Opportunity & Disaster Loom Side By Side For Indie Film Launches, Especially In Theaters
"Unless you happen to be Tom Cruise, launching a new movie today is a study in frustration. Or self-destruction."
So states one veteran indie film distributor commenting on the current film market (see below), whose testimony is supported by the filmmakers and wannabes gathered this week at the Tribeca…
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Peter Bart: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Revived Box Office, But Faceless Villains & Formulaic Plot Pale Compared To Great War Films Like ‘The Best Years Of Our Lives’
Having paid my $8.50 to see Top Gun: Maverick last weekend, my local cineplex inadvertently improved my appreciation of the film. For three minutes the sound clicked off and, minus dialogue, I was instantly caught up in the soaring jets, hyper-caffeinated cast and the durable charisma of its star. Then sound returned…
Peter Bart: After ‘Top Gun: Maverick’s Setbacks And Delays, Its Star Is Back In Cruise Control
It was an intimate cocktail party. Tom Cruise wore a cheerful smile so I couldn't resist the opportunity to test it. "For someone who's just been fired, you look very happy," I said. "Sumner Redstone figured you would be angry by the press release."
“I'm not really fire-able, if that's even a word," Cruise replied…
Peter Bart: It’s Back To The Future For The Box Office If ‘Top Gun’ Sequel Hits Stratosphere
Box office is big news this week, not so much for its totals as for its totemic significance. Throngs will greet Top Gun: Maverick, but will kids join the grownups to see a nearly 60 year-old actor starring in a sequel to a 36 year-old hit? At the other end of the audience spectrum, will seniors conquer their torpor…
Bart & Fleming: Why ‘The Godfather’ Series Is An Offer To Refuse For One Of Us; The Battle Between Truth & Storytelling In ‘The Offer’ & ‘Winning Time’
Peter Bart and Mike Fleming Jr. worked together for two decades at Daily Variety. In this occasional column, two old friends get together and grind their axes, mostly on the movie business.
MIKE FLEMING JR: We are seeing a lot of narrative limited series based on ventures where things went wrong — Theranos, WeWork…
Peter Bart: Disney’s Storytelling Genius Does Not Extend To Its Own Corporate Narrative
For a brand that touts its genius at "storytelling," the Magic Kingdom faces ever-growing problems in telling its own story.
Symbolically, Disney has just broken ground on what it portrays as a "storyliving community" of 1,700 new “storytelling homes” in the desert town of Rancho Mirage, CA. "We are story tellers at…
Peter Bart: CNN+ Fail Widens Chasm Between Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News And Everyone Else
The timing seemed propitious: Eager to entice new subscribers, CNN+ had just unfurled a multi-part exposé of Fox News and its 91-year-old patriarch, Rupert Murdoch. It would be juicy material for the new streaming platform, with newsies on the left hammering their rivals on the right. How could it fail?
It did. Upon…
Peter Bart: Broadway Openings Set Breathless Pace, Testing Frazzled Critics And Taunting Virus
Show business thrives on risk — even existential risk. Take this Broadway moment when new shows are opening at a pace that shocks even grizzled veterans – 15 in April alone. Of course, some will quickly be shuttering due to Broadway's two dire enemies: critics and Covid. Ticket buyers must navigate a complex…
Peter Bart: ‘The Offer’ Spins A Mafia Tale About ‘The Godfather’ That’s Really More Fiction Than Fact
It is a story steeped in action and intrigue, but is it true?
The Offer, a new 10-part series starting April 28 on Paramount+, delivers an “inside” account of the making of The Godfather. It is a story about stalwart filmmakers who defied bullets and death threats from Mafia soldiers to deliver their great saga.
But…
Peter Bart: Judd Apatow & Paul Feig Favor Comedy Over Cohesion In Two New Projects
Chris Rock was supposed to deliver the big laugh, not the big slap, but to comedy practitioners the Oscars debacle seemed an appropriate metaphor for the state of their craft.
"The 1960s would have been easier to survive with a laugh track," Lenny Bruce once explained, and his sardonic observation would apply…
Peter Bart: Corporate Hubris Makes For Embattled CEOs, But Good TV
Bob Chapek, the Disney CEO who is under siege, hopefully does not watch much TV. If he does, he'll see a succession of fellow CEOs who seem prone to self-destruction — Adam Neumann of WeWork, Travis Kalanick of Uber, Elizabeth Holmes of Theranos, etc. — portrayed on buzzy TV series. Viewing these shows back to back…
Peter Bart: In A Chaotic Year, Will Oscar Voters Feel Better About A Feel-Good Best Picture Winner?
Pre-Oscar week always spells angst for Hollywood, but will voters feel better if a “feel good” movie is crowned Best Picture?
The debate about CODA epitomizes that moment each year when the studios get grumpy about the omniscient streaming moguls and the film nerds complain that the “big spend” distorts voting…
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