Room – 93%

The film that brought Brie Larsen to fame and an Oscar, Room is the story of Joy and Jack, a mother and son. Joy has been held in captivity for seven years by a person known as Old Nick, her five-year-old son only knowing the confined space of the room they are held in. The film explores what happens as Joy tries to explain to Jack that the outside world they see on television is real and that the situation they are in is a very bad one.

Saint Maud – 93%

Seen by many as one of the great horror films of recent years Saint Maud is the story of a very religious nurse hired to care for the cosmopolitan and sophisticated former dancer Amanda. It is not long before Maud’s extreme religious ideas clash with the freer lifestyle enjoyed by Amanda and we realise Maud is not just religious but prepared to do terrible things as part of her beliefs.

First Reformed – 94%

A highly critically acclaimed film, First Reformed stars Ethan Hawke as Reverend Ernest Toller, a minister of a small – but historic – church, Toller is struggling with his own faith and the future of his church while trying to offer support for his congregation. After a woman asks Toller to speak to her husband, whose behaviour increasingly causes for alarm, he agrees to help and becomes more involved in the family.

De Palma – 95%

This is a documentary by Noah Baumbach on Hollywood legend Brian De Palma, director and writer of films like Carrie, Snake Eyes and The Untouchables. This is an extensive conversation with De Palma himself and archive footage from his films, he talks about filmmaking, the difficulties of working with companies to make films and film censorship in America.

Amy – 95%

A heartbreaking documentary about singer-songwriter Amy Winehouse looking at her life both before and after she became famous as well as looking at her addiction issues and how those issues were handled by the media and what impact this had on her. The film captures a lot of the highs and lows of Winehouse’s life but what is perhaps the most striking is reviewing the media speculation on her life and the outright bullying that came with it – Amy Winehouse became a constant punchline to tv hosts, comedians and more, with no consideration given to how this would impact her and those around her.

Everything Everywhere All At Once – 95%

The newest entry on the list is the uncategorisable, undefinable and perhaps un-reviewable Everything Everywhere All At Once. This is a film so brilliant and bizarre that a whole article just reviewing this one film would be insufficient let alone a collection of reviews. The film is a martial-arts blockbuster romantic-comedy avant-garde sci-fi family drama and one of the most enjoyable films of recent years.

Menashe – 96%

Menashe is a comedy-drama about a recent widower, Menashe, trying to raise his son in New York. As Menashe is part of the Orthodox Jewish community the rabbi insists his son lives with his aunt and uncle, as a single-parent family cannot possibly raise a child (in the eyes of the rabbi). Menashe is clearly a devoted and caring father who throughout insists he knows what is best for his family, and for his son. This film is almost entirely in Yiddish, with only a few instances of characters speaking in English.

The Florida Project – 96%

The Florida Project is a comedy-drama about a struggling mother and daughter, living in a motel, a stone’s throw from Disney World. There is a near-constant contrast between the financial difficulties of the family and a titanic symbol of American culture and success, indeed, the motel is called The Magic Castle, to either evoke the theme park or trick unsuspecting tourists that it is the Magic Kingdom of Disney fame. The daughter, six-year-old Moonee, is left to her own devices as her mother works and she spends time with other guests and the area around with motel manager Bobby as a protective figure to the various children.

First Cow – 96%

A film set mainly in 1820s America with a plot revolving around the first cow of a tiny town, two men, chef Cookie and Chinese immigrant Lu, concoct a money-making scheme where they will steal the milk from the cow to make cookies and other treats. Their idea is very successful with the small and isolated town lacking just about everything cookies are a luxury that everyone wants but they both know this is a serious crime and inevitably things become more complicated. The film is a sad but loving tale of the friendship between Cookie and Lu, as well as the impossibility of a poor person to better themselves without breaking the law.

The Farewell – 97%

The Farewell is based on the true life experiences of director and writer Lulu Wang; Billi is an aspiring Chinese-American writer living in New York and finds out that her grandmother, Nai Nai, still living in China, only has a few months to live. The family have made the decision to not tell Nai Nai and let her live her life unaware of the terminal diagnosis, and arrange a large family gathering in China. Billi’s family suspect she will turn her Nai Nai the truth and much is made of the different cultural norms in China and America, Billi feeling like her Nai Nai has a right to know the truth versus her family’s idea that they can spare their beloved relative fear and suffering.

Lady Bird – 99%

Already considered one of the great coming of age movies Lady Bird is an emotional and hilarious film and goes through many of the typical teenage dramas everyone goes through. The film was written and directed by Greta Gerwig in her first major directorial role and with a 99% score on Rotten Tomatoes and five Oscar nominations, she probably considers it a successful first outing.

On The Seventh Day – 100%

Despite having a truly spectacular 100% score from Rotten Tomatoes this is not a particularly prominent film. A 100% score means that all of the thirty critics listed on the site reviewing the film gave it a positive review. On Rotten Tomatoes The Godfather has four critics willing to damn that film and no one said anything bad about On The Seventh Day. The film is a story about a young undocumented immigrant, Jose, in America who as well as working as a delivery worker plays on an amateur football team and with the championship coming up, Jose’s boss insists he works that day. The film takes place during the seven days between Jose learning his boss wants him to work and the championship game as he tries to work out what he should do.

Also Read: The Unlikely Success of A24

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The Odd Beginning

The first film the company produced was A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Charles Swan III back in 2013 and seems to be as odd as the title suggests. It’s not a film I’ve seen but it starred Charlie Sheen, who to put it mildly, is not the most reliable of actors. The film has an IMDb rating of 4.8 and an appallingly low score of 16% on Rotten Tomatoes and had a near-universal drubbing by film critics. The film did not lack for talent, directed and written by Roman Coppola, and aside from Sheen featured Bill Murray, Jason Schwartzman and Patricia Arquette but seems to have not been a good film. I can’t help but feel it was a mistake to cast Sheen, who according to distribution executive, Nicolette Aizenberg, didn’t show up to the premiere. Sheen landed this role after his very public firing from Two and a Half Men. So an inauspicious beginning but it didn’t hold them back for long.

The Founders

Co-founder Daniel Katz already had a lot of experiences in the film industry, being the head of the film-finance division of Guggenheim Partners (they have lots of money and invest in stuff). Katz was involved in Zombieland, The Social Network and the Twilight franchise, showing a grasp of everything from cult hits, critical smashes and hugely successful franchises.

David Fenkel’s background is a little odd, before A24 he was a co-founder of Oscilloscope Laboratories, a film production and distribution company. The other co-founder was Adam Yauch best known as a member of The Beastie Boys and as can be imagined it was an odd company. If you google Oscilloscope the little blurb beneath the website says that only work in the film industry to raise money for their time machine. Similarly interested in independent film, Oscilloscope Laboratories has not shared the runaway success of A24.

Three Important Films

I am going to look at three key films in A24’s story, Spring Breakers, Hereditary and Moonlight. Spring Breakers is often seen as the start of their success, a very unusual film that tested very badly with audiences and that no one thought would succeed. Not only was the film a huge success it helped make their name. A24 were the distributors of this film, rather than the production company, making the notorious “Consider This Sh*t” Oscar campaign for James Franco.

Second, we have Hereditary. a film considered one of the best horror movies of recent years and said by at least one critic to be this generation’s The Exorcist. It is A24’s second most financially successful film. And it is one of the most unnerving films I have ever seen and in the era of horror film franchises and endless jump scares it felt new and original.

Finally, Moonlight. This is not A24’s only Oscar success but winning the 2017 Best Picture award was incredible. For a company that makes – relatively – small films winning that Oscar is probably the clear sign that they’ve made it. Moonlight was adored by critics and because of its subject matter of huge cultural importance. It also won two other Oscars that year, for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali and was nominated for five more. You could say Moonlight won the Oscars that year.

The Secret Of Their Success

An article in GQ interviewed many of the directors, writers and actors A24 had worked with and the founders received nothing but praise. Again and again, the message seems to be – these guys are not in it for the money. Now I personally don’t believe anyone who runs a company can completely shut out financial concerns, but it does seem like they think the best way to be successful is to let talented filmmakers do what they want to do. Their most financially successful film is the still the very niche Lady Bird which made around $50,000,000 and with IMDb estimating the budget at $10,000,000 that is a very successful film. While to many pretentious indie film fans – i.e. me – the directorial debut of Greta Gerwig was something very special it was hardly a sure-thing success. Another success story was The Witch (estimated budget of 3,500,000 box office of $25,000,000) and while it is a great film it must have been a hard film to pitch. It’s the story of one family, living alone in the 1630s while odd things, possibly magical/satanic things, happen around them but maybe nothing happened at all.

This strategy is by no means always going to be successful. A Glimpse Inside The Mind of Charles Swann III was directed by Roman Coppola, a long-time collaborator of Wes Anderson and clearly someone with a lot of talent but the film was a failure. And we can all think of pet projects of extremely talented people that go completely off the rails.

I think the surest sign of their success is that I would go to see a film purely based on it was made by them and I can think of no other studio where that is true. A24 is becoming synonymous with brilliant and original films.

Also Read: The Formula for a Successful Film

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