Critical Darlings

In this bonus episode: After a month of festival hopping, we're back in the studio to discuss the fall festival season, its big premieres, and paint a very rough picture of how award season is shaping up. But first, we take a question from the mailbag to demystify the fall festival circuit and how these giant star-studded events actually work.

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Conflict of interest disclosure:

Critical Darlings is a fully owned subsidiary of The Umbrella Corporation.

Today we're joined by David Sims of Blank Check and "friend of" one of this film's featured performers (Critical Darlings' Executive Producer) Griffin Newman, to discuss Zach Cregger's adaptation of the Resident Evil video game series.

Resident Evil is Cregger's third triumph in a row, after Barbarian and Weapons, and captures the game series' campy but grotesque sensibility in a completely fresh way that's resonating with audiences, critics, and even the vast majority of gamers.

We go deep on Resident Evil lore, whether Resident Evil 4 is the greatest game of all time, and how the movie's bullet-counting, rummaging-through-drawers set pieces manage to evoke the series without introducing any classic Resident Evil lore. We also get into the history of the Resident Evil film series, different approaches to video game adaptations, and whether this movie will usher in a new age of less literal game adaptations.

Next week, it's lights, camera, Pattinson, with Primetime!

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As Richard and Alison are jet-setting across Venice, Europe, and Toronto, North America, we bring to you a special pre-recorded mailbag, featuring your voicemails and questions!

We get into our favorite end-credits songs; the IPs we'd love to see adapted; our imagined Oscar-worthy biopics; the festival circuit; the history of digital media; The Oscars, and much more. We also unlock new Richard and Alison lore, including Rent message boards, Mulder and Scully fanfic listservs, male weepies, and even more discussion of Empire Of Light.

Next week, pull out your Umbrellas, because it's raining zombies in Zach Cregger's Resident Evil.

You can still email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com
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Get your dipping sauces ready, it’s Jane Schoenbrun’s Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma!

Starring Gillian Anderson and Hannah Einbinder, this meta horror picture goes to some very strange places that nonetheless right feel at home with Schoenbrun’s dreamy-sexy vision: a haunted summer camp, an underground eldritch video store, and an emotionally moving Counting Crows music video to name just a few.

Though dripping in fountains of blood, the movie is also a sensitive depiction of sex and desire as refracted through Einbinder’s character’s obsession with the in-universe Camp Miasma. Camp Miasma is a past-its-prime, problematic horror franchise whose masters have now employed Einbinder's character, a young director, to create a “woke” reboot. She travels to the Pacific Northwest to meet the mysterious starlet of the first film, played by Anderson, who lives at the old campground, and both women unspool.

Alison recently wrote a profile of Schoenbrun in Vulture, and has been immersed in their work for some time, including their upcoming novel. We’ll get into their trajectory from We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, to I Saw the TV Glow, to Camp Miasma, and discuss its extremely dense themes, it’s incredible centerpiece musical sequence, go long on the mystic veil of childhood video stores, and much more. Plus, five whole minutes of The Dog Stars!

Next week, it’s mailbag time!

Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com
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After an absurd and depressing attempt by David Zaslov to bury Coyote Vs. Acme, it’s finally in theaters. What’s more, it’s great, making WB’s attempts to shelve the movie for a tax write-off seem all the feckless.

Rescued by the odd-duck distributor Ketchup Entertainment, the movie is a corporate satire and legal thriller about culpability and justice in a world stacked against the little guy—represented by the character of Wiley Coyote, and Will Forte, as Coyote’s ambulance-chasing attorney.

Today we’re joined by Looney Tunes expert Connor Ratliff, of The George Lucas Talk Show, Connor Ratliff’s Presents The Acting Class,⁠ Dead Eyes, and more, to discuss the movie, its rocky history, and a great deal of Looney Tunes lore. We get into a history of Ketchup, the movie’s surprisingly heartfelt center, which Looney Tunes are MAGA, and get into a little behind-the-scenes discussion with the help from Connor, including some of the film’s notable absences, and Senator Elmer Fudd’s official political affiliation.

Next week, we’re going to Camp Miasma! See you then.


Email us! CriticalDarlingsMailbag@gmail.com
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