Summer Movie Winners & Losers: WB, DC, and Netflix Celebrate While A24, Marvel, Pixar, and Sony Commiserate

Happy Wednesday, folks — though we sadly begin today with some sad news, as Anonymous Content is being forced to lay off nearly 15% of its 130-person staff, per Deadline. This is becoming a common refrain throughout Hollywood, unfortunately.

Having been laid off multiple times for no good reason (Variety, Collider, The Tracking Board), I completely empathize with those affected by today’s cuts, and if I can be helpful at all, please let me know.

Anonymous Content’s upcoming releases include Jessica Chastain’s Apple TV+ series The Savant, Sydney Sweeney’s TIFF-bound boxing drama Christy, and documentaries about Elon Musk and Luigi Mangione.

Last night, I saw Darren Aronofsky’s crime thriller Caught Stealing, which was better than I thought it would be — I’ll try to write a longer piece soon — and then I attended Collider’s special screening of The Long Walk, which was something of a mixed bag, in my opinion. I’ll have more to say about that Stephen King adaptation soon as well.

Meanwhile, over the weekend, I binge-watched all 10 episodes of The Paper, Peacock’s follow-up to The Office that remains under embargo until Sept. 3, and I also watched Predators, the spectacularly creepy and provocative documentary about To Catch a Predator and like-minded copycats that premiered at Sundance.

Speaking of Sundance, I also watched the closeted cop drama Plainclothes starring Tom Blyth and Russell Tovey, which was one of those movies that I liked but didn’t love while watching it, kind of like Aftersun, but like that movie, it got me at the very end, as I found a tear sliding down my cheek. Blyth comes off like a young, British Miles Teller and delivers an impressive performance that rises above the fussy direction from Carmen Emmi.

Plainclothes is pretty much the opposite of Eenie Meanie, Hulu’s throwback crime movie starring Samara Weaving and Karl Glusman. I found it to be a guilty pleasure thanks to its two leads and general dirtbag energy. On the downside, writer-director Shawn Simmons can’t pick a lane, so the film is a bit tonally confused, and it co-stars Marshawn Lynch, who is fine, but surely there are better actors out there.

By the way, today, People confirmed my scoop that 20th Century Studios’ remake of The Hand That Rocks Cradle will debut on Hulu this October. Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Maika Monroe star in the domestic thriller, which arrives just in time for Halloween.

It’s just the latest InSneider scoop to be confirmed. If you’re new around here, last week was a big one for this little newsletter, which broke the news of a Kobe Bryant movie in the works at Warner Bros., as well as stories about Nicolas Cage starring in the new season of True Detective, and Jason Momoa and David Leitch teaming on The Pirate at Amazon MGM Studios.

Meanwhile, Anya Taylor-Joy’s casting as Joni Mitchell has yet to be confirmed by the trades, but stay tuned on that front. And if, for some reason, that deal doesn’t close, I already told you who the runner-up was.

Tonight, you’ll read about this summer’s winners and losers, as mostly dictated by the box office, though not entirely.

There are also items about the cast members leaving SNL, Universal’s Knight Rider reboot, a new Blake Lively movie, a new Matthew McConaughey series, a YA series based on The Wizard of Oz, and new films from producers Adam Sandler and Trevor Noah, followed by my thoughts on the trailer for Netflix’s latest murder mystery, The Woman in Cabin 10, starring Keira Knightley.

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