Year 14 of Marshall and the Movies
And 2 years on Substack!
14 years ago today, this adventure started over on WordPress…
“I don’t know where or when this will end.”
It continues to amaze me that this is still going. That no one has stopped me. That opportunity still remains. That the ceiling doesn’t seem to exist. That I have not tired of finding ways to translate my lifelong passion for movies into something that can have meaning and value for others.
Whether you’re a longtime follower dating back from the WordPress days who didn’t dissuade me from following this crazy idea or a new reader who found this newsletter from the Substack network, whether you click on links out or just scroll through the posts, all I can say is thank you for being part of the journey. You sustain me in more ways than you can ever realize. You keep the flame alive within me to share my ideas and insights with the world. It certainly beats limiting the enthusiasm to just my bedroom wall.
It’s also been two years over on Substack now, which is crazy in its own right! I’ve loved having this direct connection with so many people, and I appreciate you welcoming me into the personal space of your inbox.
The theme for year two of the Marshall and the Movies newsletter, at least inside my own head, was curation. Of course, familiar favorites The Upstream and Downstream kept a steady pulse of immediately actionable recommendations — and that is never going away. Other practical guides like Oscar predictions, top 10 movies of the year, festival season previews, and more are also not going away. (A personal favorite post that is going to become a mainstay: the yearly culture recap.)
But I also wanted to push myself to think about different ways that I could communicate more thematically linked series of films, inspiring a spirit of curiosity and discovery. You saw things like a guide to French director Mia Hansen-Løve’s filmography, COVID-era cinema, or the Romanian New Wave. There was a lament for the underutilization of Nicholas Hoult. I explored vague connections that could tie together 10 movies, such as sweaty cinema for the summer, patrilineal trauma for Father’s Day, or movies that didn’t treat the ‘80s like a hallowed time.
And because I’m nothing if not a glutton for punishment, I made the work behind the newsletter very obvious in sprawling projects like ranking every A24 movie ahead of the studio’s 10th anniversary — not to mention every single Best Picture winner before this year’s Oscars. The latter was the culmination of a multi-year effort, and I hope you found it a valuable guide to how varied the Academy’s taste has been over 95 years.
The goal of this Substack will always be to provide utility and fun at the free level. I don’t intend to gatekeep too much from anyone, but if you value the writing you receive from signing up for Marshall and the Movies, I’d like to once again invite you to consider a paid subscription. Beyond enabling me to continue putting resources and time behind this newsletter, I’d like to show you some of the added value you receive.
I provided a first look at some of the big titles that broke out of Sundance and took you behind the scenes at my first Critics Choice Awards as a voting member.
I got personal in an essay about going to the movies alone and played around with the format in a recent post about my disappointing experience with the ScreenX format.
I wanted to go deeper into stars like Sandra Bullock and Matt Damon, examining what their star image contributed to new releases like The Lost City and Air. I also took a closer look at directors whose work matters, ranging from Steven Spielberg to Nicole Holofcener.
I brought some of the leading critical voices on certain directors or films into direct dialogue just for the newsletter’s subscribers. These conversations included Sophie Monks Kaufman on The Darjeeling Limited, Hannah Strong on The Bling Ring, Siddhant Adlakha on The French Dispatch, Ethan Warren on Licorice Pizza, and Christina Newland on Raging Bull.
My interviews are usually formatted in the Q&A style, so I wanted to challenge myself to go further into the profile format. You saw that in my pieces on French director Stéphane Brizé’s trilogy of labor and making sense of the Ryusuke Hamaguchi phenomenon.
But perhaps most importantly, I went long on movies that I think deserved more than a blurb, ranging from an Italian classic like Federico Fellini’s I Vitelloni to a contemporary favorite like Jason Reitman’s Young Adult. Sometimes these had seasonal pegs like Everybody Wants Some!! to MLB opening day, but often I just wanted to examine why I was drawn back to Rachel Getting Married after attending 5 weddings within 6 months.
If these are things you want to read — or just support the existence of — consider upgrading your subscription! There’s great stuff in the pipeline for year 3 of Marshall and the Movies. You can expect a lot of the same elements here with even more experimentation.
But if you aren’t quite ready to make the financial leap yet, there’s a way to dip your toes in the water of the paid tier of Marshall and the Movies. Substack has a referral program where you can earn free months of a paid subscription simply by sharing the newsletter with your network of friends.
HOW TO PARTICIPATE
1. Share Marshall and the Movies. When you use the referral link below, or the “Share” button on any post, you'll get credit for any new subscribers. Simply send the link in a text, email, or share it on social media with friends.
2. Earn benefits. When more friends use your referral link to subscribe (free or paid), you’ll receive special benefits.
Get a 1 month comp for 3 referrals
Get a 3 month comp for 5 referrals
Get a 6 month comp for 25 referrals
To learn more, check out Substack’s FAQ.
So thanks again for reading and being a part of this. It’s an honor and a privilege to be a part of your life and guide you toward the great cinema that brings light into this world.
Yours in service and cinema,
Marshall