Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.
Y’know, I liked CLOVERFIELD. I’ve actually given copies of the film as a gift. I think Matt Reeves is a promising filmmaker, and I’m curious to see what sort of genre fare he’s responsible for in the next few years.
But I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to put on a smile and pretend like I’m excited about anyone remaking LET THE RIGHT ONE IN. I think it’s a rotten, corrupt idea, and considering Magnet/Magnolia is getting ready to release the original theatrically this month, it’s just obscene to already be struggling to figure out how to jam this beautiful, unique, brilliant little film into the Hollywood meat machine just so we can turn it into yet another pre-packaged meatball.
Why?
What is Matt Reeves going to bring to this movie that the original didn’t already manage?
“Well, with a larger budget, we can show all the things that are just suggested in the original.”
Morons. Fools. One of the many virtues of the original is the way it suggests things. There’s a brilliant scene in a swimming pool that could ONLY work the way it is shown in the original. If you were to do the big-budget version of that sequence and show everything, you’d fuck it up.
“Well, if we make the kids a little older we can...”
Stop. Seriously. If you make them teenagers, then it’s TWILIGHT, and you have to deal with other issues like sexuality and the sort of PETER PAN idea of freezing on the cusp of adulthood. That’s not the film. These kids being pre-puberty is a big part of what makes their relationship so interesting.
“Well... okay... how about this? No one’s going to see it with subtitles on it.”
Fuck off. CROUCHING TIGER HIDDEN DRAGON. There is always a way to sell a film if you figure it out. I do not believe or accept the idea that audiences just plain won’t see a subtitled film. This movie has been acclaimed around the world, and it’s more than “just” a genre film. It genuinely is one of the best movies in any language on any subject made this year, and this disrespect, this rush to homogenize, this unnecessary push to remake everything... at some point, it’s got to stop.
I find myself disgusted by our government, our financial institutions, and by any number of public figures these days, and I hate that I am increasingly seeing our industry as just another hollow, empty, bankrupt example of how dead innovation is, and how devalued a good idea has become.
You’re better than this, Matt Reeves. So why don’t you act like it?
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles
