WINNER: Travis Knight/Masters of the Universe: We all know not to fully trust those “first reactions” to upcoming films — a way for studios to preempt the critics by screening a movie for a curated group that includes fanboy influencers. But a couple of trusted colleagues likewise saw Travis Knight’s Masters of the Universe, and says the glowing early buzz about Amazon MGM’s adaptation of the 1980s animated series is accurate: Masters of the Universe is ridiculous and fun and better than the trailers make it look (and if you suffer from a Jared Leto allergy, no fear — his Skeletor is great, and you can’t tell it’s him).
WINNER: Curry Barker / Inde Navarrette / Focus Features: “No, no, no, no…“? Yes! Barker’s directorial horror debut Obsession was made for only $750,000. It’s already grossed $27 million. The film has managed to hit No. 1 at the box office for a few days, making it what might be the lowest-budget movie to pull that off in decades. The film also has a perfectly equal 95 percent positive scores among critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. While star Inde Navarrette is earning raves for her performance and becoming a meme queen for playing the world’s most devoted girlfriend.
WINNER: Jordan Firstman: The I Love LA actor’s directorial debut, Club Kid, premiered at Cannes Film Festival and landed a $17 mill sale to A24 following a bidding war with a whopping six studios vying for the rights. Firstman told Variety he felt a bit like an industry “punching bag” in recent years, “I was low-level depressed … since 2021. There was a hum of ‘everyone hates me’ for a long time.” Which, to be fair, is how most of Hollywood feels walking around most of the time. My favorite part of this is Firstman says HBO boss Casey Bloys connected him to a psychic who predicted his film would sell to A24 and be a big hit. One wonders if HBO brass sneaking off to psychics also resulted in executives canceling Westworld without a final season and dropping “HBO” from the streamer’s name for two years.
WINNER: Eric Kripke: The Boys has always seemed like an acclaimed hit show that tried, but never quite, broke into that vaulted A-tier of prestige TV — too gross, silly, and caustic to be regarded on the same level as projects like Serious Chef Show The Bear and Serious Doctor Show The Pitt. The Boys‘ final season has been incredibly prophetic in its Trump administration mockery and had a rough time online — endings are hard, as the showrunner of every serialized drama over the last two decades can attest. But the final season’s ratings set series records for Prime Video, and the finale itself managed to avoid crashing out. The plane came down hard, fast and bumpy, yet stuck the landing. The season also set up things well for next year’s spin-off, Vought Rising.
WINNER: ABC/Tim Allen: Supposedly for the first time in ABC’s 82-year history, the network renewed every one of its scripted series for next season — including 10 dramas and three comedies. Yes, even Shifting Gears, where Tim Allen — and I write this with honest admiration — has somehow managed to continue playing the same character across various sitcoms for 35 years.
LOSER: Blue Dot Fever Victims (Meghan Trainor, Post Malone, Dolly Parton, Zayn, The Pussycat Dolls, Kiefer Sutherland and, supposedly, Demi Lovato): A purported epidemic is virally spreading to infect touring artists as Trump’s summer of sky-high prices takes hold (squeezing consumers when the average concert ticket last year already costs $132, according to Pollstar). Blue Dot Fever symptoms include a visible rash of unsold Ticketmaster seats (shown as blue dots on the seat maps), an artist’s red face from the embarrassment of having to cancel shows, and disappointed fans.
Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino has furiously called Blue Dot Fever a fictitious disorder, tweeting, “We have about 15,000 shows on sale; 100 will be canceled. That would be typical.” Live Nation insiders are also reportedly blaming scalpers (then why not have Ticketmaster make it considerably tougher for scalper bots to snatch up the best seats? This Spotify Reserved effort might help, or could just be another early access corporate perk like some credit cards offer). RFK Jr. recommends ailing artists take a full course of ivermectin, do some pull-ups, and perhaps lower their prices.
LOSER: Spencer Pratt (and the Endorsement of Doom): Pratt spent the last few months trying to seem nonpartisan — while echoing every right-wing talking point about Los Angeles — and along comes Donald Trump to curse him with praise, including a line that Karen Bass’ campaign couldn’t have scripted better: “I heard he’s a big MAGA person.” Pratt’s other L.A. mayoral opponent, Nithya Raman, tweeted that line so fast you would think she’d been refreshing her feed waiting for it all week. Tough break when less than 15 percent of L.A. voters are Republican, and that press coverage is drowning out what’s arguably Pratt’s best, and most sincere, ad. (Speaking of which, somebody should tell Pratt to quit wearing ballcaps — ditch Trump-coded politician accessories if you actually want to not appear Trump-y).
In case you’re wondering, “What about The Mandalorian and Grogu?” I got into that a couple weeks back.
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