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Mike Schulz talks with Dave Levora and Darren Pitra about how Taylor Swift’s forthcoming concert film Eras Tour will not only benefit fans of Swift (Schulz mentions they’ll be getting better seating), but the AMC theatre-chain, given how the Hollywood actors’ strike knocked the Fall film schedule for six. The upshot of Swift’s having bypassed the major studios to work directly with AMC is that AMC stands to get 43% of every ticket sold (rather than the usual 20% starting-point, escalating every subsequent by 5% — and now you know why theater-chains are eager to hold films over for as long as they can; they can’t rely entirely on concessions to turn a profit) while Swift can expect to reap higher profits from an expected $200 million in first-weekend release-sales alone. Davenport is devoting six or seven screens to Eras Tour — all two hours and forty minutes of it — and will charge $20 a ticket (though $13 if you’re a kid). Seems like a win-win for everybody, doesn’t it? Except, perhaps, for the major studios, who are already paying for their deal-making intransigence in more ways than one. Schulz, who acknowledges that his taste has its limits — he doesn’t get the appeal of anime, for instance — and is farming out the review of Eras to a dedicated Swift fan, so. . . look for that. What is more in Schulz’s ballpark is the recently-remastered version of Jonathan Demme’s 1984 concert film of a live performance by Talking Heads, Stop Making Sense. Schulz caught a matinee showing, which meant he was the only one present for the showing, and that kind of saddened him, though it also meant that he could have shimmied in the aisles like no one was, uh, watching. Instead, Schulz elected to remain seat-bound for the entire ninety-minute run-time as he was reminded of details he last witnessed some thirty years ago: The single-cam pan on David Byrne for “Once in a Lifetime,” his pas de deux with the lamp-stand for “This Must Be the Place (Naive Melody).” Schulz didn’t mention that the performance high that Byrne and his bandmates exuded throughout (though most inescapably on “Swamp”) was largely chemical courage, as accounts of that performance mentioned the copious amounts of cocaine taken by everyone; every time there’s a change of clothing, you can bet everyone backstage was busy putting furniture up their noses ahead of their cues. Conversely, what is one to say about David Gordon Green’s The Exorcist: Believer? Too many drugs, or not nearly enough? Schulz says the film was bereft of frights, regardless of how the trailer framed the scenes, and he’s kicking himself over how he was suckered in. What really distracted him was the sight of Lidya Jewett (Angela) and Olivia O’Neill (Katharine) clearly having the time of their lives. Part of what made the 1973 Exorcist original so gripping was how director William Friedkin made you feel for Regan (Linda Blair), the girl possessed by Pazuzu, and how committed the characters (Max von Sydow, Jason Miller, Ellen Burstyn) appeared toward releasing her. Perhaps the actual suffering Blair underwent under Friedkin’s direction helped put her character’s ordeal across; perhaps she might have done as good a job had Friedkin recourse to CGI. Anyway, you get no sense of commitment of any kind in this latest iteration of a film that didn’t need a sequel but got a bunch of them anyway. On Hulu, Schulz caught Brian Duffield’s No One Will Save You, which he thought a lot of fun. Starring Kaitlyn Dever as Brynn, a shut-in who finds herself attacked by aliens. The unusual attraction of this film is that there is no character dialogue for most of the ninety-minute run-time — but a lot of weird noises, lest you think this is a silent film and the piano-player has gotten tied up by his day job back at the brothel. So you can ignore Believer and catch No One Will Save You — and you can remain a shut-in, too! Outstanding! Then there’s Flora and Son, directed by John Carney and starring Eve “Son of Bono” Hewson, Orén Kinlan, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Levora really gets into the Irish brogues of the characters — adjust the volume accordingly. Schulz notes that the film is R-rated on the strength of its profanity — and, in the tradition of Irish films, are as profane as fook. No previews this time around, but there’s a lot on Netflix Schulz intends to watch, so. . . watch for that.
“Stop Making Sense,” “The Exorcist: Believer,” “No One Will Save You,” “Flora & Son”