Popflick Confidential: "Blue Beetle" Flies Into Life After Barbheimer

It had to happen someday. Box-office champs "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer" are ceding screens to new titles pinning for audiences. Sure, there have been new movies in the last week, but none was a serious contender. Let's face it. For all its arrogance, the masses were not necessarily clamoring for "Meg 2: The Trench." In the rarefied realm of IMAX, the Christopher Nolan biopic pushed the opening of Neil Blomkamp's "Gran Turismo." My local Art House Cinema had to reprogram not one but two releases because their 70mm shows sold out consistently (shout out to the Coral Gables Art House Cinema!).

And now, here comes “Blue Beetle.” Angel Manuel Soto’s Latino-flavored superhero origin story will discover what the Rolling Stones knew when they booked them after James Brown in “The T.A.M.I. Show.” Sure, you might be good. Great, even. But following up on a phenomenon is a losing game. 

The movie is also going to face pressure in the executive suite. This is the first DC-Warner release after the flame out of “The Flash.” It was an expensive failure, bringing in just $160M worldwide. It doesn’t sound bad until you remember it cost over $400M, including marketing expenses.

“Blue Beetle” is also coming into a regime change in the DC Universe. New studio bosses James Gunn and Pater Safran already cut the “Superman” franchise at the legs announcing a restart, switching Henry Cavill for David Conrenswet. A third Wonder Woman movie with Gal Gadot was nixed, too. Gunn said “I can’t wait for audiences to meet Jaime Reyes, who will be an amazing part of the DCU going forward."

Sure, Jan! But if Hollywood has taught us anything, it’s that nothing is written in stone. If “Blue Beetle'' bombs, they will drop him like a hot potato. Furthermore, I will not be surprised if they blame the Latino-ness of the project if the movie fails to bring in blockbuster-sized audiences. Diversity will take a hit. Check out how the sequel to "Shang-Chi: The Legend of the Ten Rings" is on hold, even after amassing $432M worldwide.

I have not seen the movie, and chances are I will not. What can I tell you? Superhero fatigue is real, even more so when you are, well, an adult. Early reports suggest DC’s great Latino hope will fall in the lower end of projections, with $25.4M. Enough to secure first place at the box office, but not enough to ward off the stench of failure left by “The Flash.” If it fails to turn into a sleeper hit, you can bet Gunn will drop any sequel plans and won’t look back.

Hollyshorts closes down just before "Hurriquake" rocks and soaks L.A.

No, it’s not a faith-based film festival. The “Holly” in Hollyshorts stands for Hollywood. As you can figure out from our handy-dandy article, it is one of the film festivals that can get your movie pre-qualified for the Academy Awards. The winners for 2023 were announced just in time before storm Hillary and an earthquake hit California this weekend.

Four categories carry the magic ticket to the Oscar shortlist. The Grand Prix went to Tari Wariebi’s “We Were Meant To.” It is his seventh short film. The plot follows a black kid blessed with wings, aching to take his first flight. The movie premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year but lost the big prize to Kayla Galang’s “When You Left Me In That Boulevard.” But that’s not what’s important here! The important thing is to know you might miss in one competition but score on the next one. And heads up! Hollyshort does not require your submission to be a world or US premiere. Check out Wariebi’s brief interview out of Sundance.

The other three shorts blessed with a passport to the Oscar semi-finals are Milan Harriman’s “The After,” winner of Best Live Action Film. Mexican animator Rita Basulto’s “Smoke,” which competed at the Annecy Animation Festival, won Best Animated Short. With four ambitious shorts under her belt, Basulto also worked in the camera and electrical department of "Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio" (2022). Elisa Gambino’s “Every Day After” won Best Documentary.

Besides these four categories, Hollyshorts gives away a whooping 31 prizes. Most end up in the hands of unknown, up-and-coming talents, but an established star flexing creative muscles in new disciplines might sneak in. That is the case of actor Alden Ehrenreich, who won an Honorable Mention in the Kodak Best Shot on Film Award for his directorial debut “Shadow Brother Sunday.” The 15-minute comedy follows a failed musician who steals his movie star brother’s computer with plans to sell it to the paparazzi. He might not get an Oscar nomination via a Hollyshorts prize. However, we like his chances in the Best Supporting Actor race for his role as a senate aid assisting Levi Strauss (Robert Downey Jr.) in “Oppenheimer.”

Check out the “Shadow Brother Sunday” trailer, released in time for its Tribeca Film Festival premiere.

The Other Hitchcock

We celebrated Alfred Hitchcock's birthday on August 13. The Master of Suspense came to life in London, England. In the next 81 years of life, he would create a body of film works that take your breath away. Imagine my surprise when it came to my attention that his wife, Alma Reville, was born just one day later in Nottingham. Those birthday parties must have been fun!

Hitchcock and Reville met at the Famous Players Lasky Studios. She started working in her teens, overseeing continuity on the sets and cutting negative. By the time Hitch arrived, she was an assistant director. They worked together and married soon after. She got screenwriting or story credits in “Suspicion” (1941), “Shadow of a Doubt” (1943), “The Paradine Case” (1947), and “Stage Fright” (1950). However, her contribution to Hitchcock films is immeasurable and lost in the secret corridors of a couple’s life. One must credit her for bearing Hitch’s obsession with his blonde leading ladies.

Reville survived Hitchcock for two years. She died in 1982. They had one child, Patricia, who acted in brief roles in some of his father’s movies and TV shows. Her meatiest performances were in “Strangers on a Train” (1951) and “Psycho” (1960).

Get into a Hitchcock state of mind with an episode or two of his TV series "Alfred Hitchcock Presents," now streaming at Popflick.