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PEOPLE & ARTS Wednesday 29 august 2018
Fall Film Preview: A prestige movie wave from Netflix

By JAKE COYLE "When I was kind of down-
NEW YORK (AP) — The frus- loading my woes or what-
tratingly long wait for Ta- ever, a girlfriend of mine
mara Jenkins' follow-up to who's a filmmaker said, 'Oh
her 2007 Oscar-nominated my god, you should really
film, "The Savages," seemed write about that.' And I was
to finally be coming to end. like, 'No way! I'll never do
She had spent two years that! Gross!'" says Jenkins.
on the script to "Private But as she witnessed more
Life," and secured Katheryn friends going through simi-
Hahn and Paul Giamatti to lar fertility challenges, she
star as a middle-aged New reconsidered. "There was
York couple navigating the something so existential
medical and emotional about that problem. It's so
gauntlet of assisted repro- primal. I just thought it was
duction. But just when the a great lens to examine this
production was ready to couple."
go, the company that had Both "Private Life" and Ho-
developed it, Amazon Stu- lofcener's "The Land of
dios, stepped back, leav- Steady Habits" were aban-
ing Jenkins in the lurch. doned in development
Enter Netflix. elsewhere when they were
"I think 'swooped' would picked up by Bricke and his
be the perfect word. They fellow indie co-head Matt
saved it," says Jenkins, the This image released by Netflix shows a scene from Paul Greengrass’ docudrama on the 2011 Nor- Levin. Without consulting
56-year-old filmmaker of way terrorist attack “22 July," premiering on Oct. 19. content chief Ted Saran-
"The Slums of Beverly Hills." Associated Press dos, they can greenlight
''I was scared. I thought anything with a budget un-
we're going to blow it. We streaming giant's program- in the culture. 'Private Life' support of "Roma" ''unprec- der $10 million.
were going to miss the win- ming push (it's spending was at Sundance, will be edented." "We have a business model
dow. And then Netflix said, some $8 billion in 2018) is at the New York Film Fes- "The specialized film, the and an appetite for cre-
'We'll do it' and they said it heading into this year's tival, will be in theaters. It so-called foreign film mar- ative risk that's not unique
incredibly fast." awards season with a wave will be written about and ket nowadays is very chal- but is relatively scarce,"
Jenkins' "Private Life" (Oct. of prestige and genre-mov- experienced and talked lenging and sometimes says Bricke. "When a Char-
5) is part of what may be ie reinforcements. Whether about in a way that any their resources are limited," lie Kauffman or a Tamara
the most extensive fall mov- the Netflix tide will roll all other film would be, and says Cuaron "Netflix fully Jenkins or a Nicole Holof-
ie slate any studio has ever the way into the Acade- can reach potentially, over believe in the film and they cener comes around, it's
put together. Between my Awards remains to be a very short period of time, understand these kinds of pretty easy for us to jump in
September and Christ- seen. (Some, like Steven a really meaningful audi- films can have a huge au- with them."
mas, Netflix will release at Spielberg, have suggested ence all over the world. To dience. So now they are Holofcener's film stars Ben
least 25 films. There will be Netflix films, with their small, me, that's the best of both in a creative and aggres- Mendelsohn as Anders Hill,
one or two new movies re- token theatrical releases, worlds." sive way supporting the a Connecticut man who
leased almost every week, are more like TV movies Cuaron's much antici- film. What they offered was has left his wife (Edie Falco),
many of them by the most and should qualify for the pated "Roma" had been absolutely compelling. I'm quit his job in finance and
sought-after filmmakers in Emmys, not the Oscars.) headed for Cannes. But really, really grateful for begun acting recklessly.
Hollywood. But regardless, the Netf- after Netflix pulled its films them." Based on Ted Thompson's
Among them: Nicole Holof- lix powerhouse fall lineup from the French festival af- For Cuaron, making novel, it's the first adapta-
cener's midlife crisis drama would be the envy of most ter Cannes ruled them out "Roma," about a domestic tion for Holofcener, the writ-
"The Land of Steady Hab- any studio. It's a significant from the main competition, worker for a middle-class er-director of "Enough Said"
its" (Sept. 14), Jeremy Saul- surge for a company with "Roma" will instead hit the family, was part of con- and "Friends With Money,"
nier's northern Alaska thriller an up-and-down record Venice, Toronto and the necting again with the "per- and the first centered on a
"Hold the Dark" (Sept. 28), in terms of the quality of its New York festivals before sonal journey" of cinema. man.
Paul Greengrass' docu- original films. (See: "Bright," arriving on Netflix in De- He estimates 90 percent of "I absolutely identify with
drama on the 2011 Nor- ''War Machine" or any of cember. For the Mexican it is based on his memories. him, as a parent, as a di-
way terrorist attack "22 July" the Adam Sandler movies.) filmmaker of "Gravity" and He went to great lengths vorced parent, who inevi-
(Oct. 19), David Macken- And though critics have "Children of Men," the '70s- to recreate his childhood tably is going to make mis-
zie's Robert the Bruce epic claimed Netflix releases set, black-and-white, Span- home. None of the crew or takes," says Holofcener." I
"Outlaw King" (Nov. 9), Joel can get lost in its sea of ish-language "Roma" is a cast had a script. like to think I don't make
and Ethan Coen's Western programming options, it will bold departure that forced "It's something that's been such serious mistakes or
anthology film "The Ballad be hard to miss the Netflix Cuaron to remake himself brewing for a long, long, catastrophic mistakes as
of Buster Scruggs" (Nov. movies this fall. There will be as a filmmaker. long time," he says of the Anders makes. But we're
16) and Alfonso Cuaron's six Netflix films at the Ven- But like Jenkins' "Private film. all so flawed and stumbling
"Gravity" follow-up "Roma." ice Film Festival and eight Life," Cuaron's deeply per- Jenkins, too, was pulling along on our own and try-
And that's not even men- at the Toronto International sonal film, about the Mex- from her own experience ing to be role models for
tioning a new work, the Film Festival. ico City neighborhood of for "Private Life." The film is our kids. They go what-
posthumously completed "I usually turn it on its head his youth, was never going partly based on the preg- ever way they want and
"The Other Side of the Wind," and say: Look, movies are to be an easy sell to distrib- nancy trials of her own with we can't control them. It's
from a long-unheard-from found on Netflix," says Ian utors. Netflix, where original her husband, the screen- scary. I relate to that in him.
filmmaker: Orson Welles. Bricke, co-head of Netflix's films are typically watched writer Jim Taylor. Even I'm nicer than he is, I like to
A year after "Mudbound" indie film division. "And it's by millions, meant a global though it wasn't Jenkins' think, and not as screwed
became Netflix's biggest certainly important for us, release far beyond the art initial instinct to dramatize up. But that's what makes a
Oscar contender yet, the too, that these movies are house. Cuaron calls Neflix's that chapter of her life. good movie, right?"q