Brian Formo
Verified
As seen in:
Letterboxd,
HuffPost,
IGN,
Rotten Tomatoes,
Collider,
Complex,
Complex UK,
Fandango,
Mandatory,
The Letterboxd Show,
Flaunt
Covers:
Film, TV, Art, Oscars, Golden Globes, Box Office, Technology, Protests, Trends, Football
Senior Editorial Producer @letterboxd — video, podcast, awards; previously @Fandango, @Collider, @Complex.
Articles by Brian Formo
Growing Pains: Mike Flanagan on teenage cruelty and telekinesis in his adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie
Mike Flanagan is no stranger to taking shorter works of gothic fiction and elongating them across his own mindscape into captivating television series.
Larger Than Life: Alejandro González Iñárritu on Digger's X-ray vision and the singularity of Tom Cruise
For almost 30 years, Alejandro González Iñárritu has been on a quest for the truth. From his first feature film, 2000’s Amores Perros, a triptych set in Mexico in which a group of strangers is forced to confront the true realities of their lives after after a fatal car crash links them together, all the way to his most recent, 2022’s BARDO, a semi-autobiographical tale about a filmmaker’s odyssey to find his sense of self, the director has sought to make sense of an increasingly unstable reality.
Human Conditions: Will Poulter on Union County, character psychology and making movies that matter
A patient, painful and sensitively observed portrait of individual resilience amid the opioid epidemic, Union County stars Will Poulter—in the most striking work of his career thus far—as Cody Parsons, a man recently released from prison who has been assigned to a county-mandated drug court program in rural Ohio.
Way Down: Reeve Carney, Amber Gray and Eva Noblezada on Hadestown: The Musical’s theatrical triumph
“Lover, when I sing my song, all the rivers’ll sing along,” Orpheus declares to Eurydice early in Hadestown: The Musical, professing belief in the power of his art to make spring come again. “Times being what they are, hard and getting harder all the time,” the impoverished Eurydice bemoans of their broken world by way of response, hesitant to marry this young, hungry poet without certainty he can provide for them.
About Time: Every Christopher Nolan film, ranked by the Letterboxd community
“Don’t try to understand it. Feel it.” So says the scientist to the protagonist—or, more specifically, to the Protagonist (John David Washington)—in Christopher Nolan’s Tenet.
Sensitive Content: Daniel Goldhaber and Isa Mazzei on bringing Faces of Death up to snuff for the modern era
Why would anybody remake Faces of Death? For a certain generation, John Alan Schwartz’s 1978 mondo-horror film was a gruesome cult curio, infamous for claiming to depict real-life murders, suicides, autopsies, executions, plane crashes and even stranger morbidities.
Making Miracles: Mona Fastvold, Daniel Blumberg and Celia Rowlson Hall on The Testament of Ann Lee • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
According to the team behind The Testament of Ann Lee, there is no incorrect way to shake. A sprawling, heart-in-your-throat retelling of the life and faith of Ann Lee—founder of the radical religious cult that began in the 1700s—the film lives and breathes on the resurrection of this explosive movement that defined much of the group’s existence.
I’m With the Band: Almost Famous filmmaker Cameron Crowe on forging a career by meshing music with movies • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Almost Famous, as writer-director Cameron Crowe explains in his new memoir, The Uncool,is the type of personal story that can be green-lit after a bona fide mainstream hit.
Meerkat Manners: Shih-Ching Tsou on Left-Handed Girl, Taiwanese cinema and child’s-eye perspective • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
It took more than two decades for Shih-Ching Tsou to make Left-Handed Girl, during which time she gradually evolved into a filmmaker uniquely equipped to bring the vibrant, Taiwan-set family drama to life. A longtime close collaborator of Sean Baker, Tsou co-wrote and co-directed 2003’s Take Out with the indie auteur at the beginning of their careers, as well as produced Starlet, Tangerine, The Florida Project and Red Rocket; Baker, in turn, co-wrote and edited Left-Handed Girl.
Hell Is Other People: the deep, clear-eyed impact of modern French classic The Taste of Others • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Some films aren’t only great in themselves; they also carry an idea of how and why to make movies at all. For many, Agnès Jaoui’s 2000 directorial debut, The Taste of Others, is one such film. Like Letterboxd member Lino, I, too, am “amoureuse du Jaoui Bacri cinematic universe”. Indeed, the picture was penned by its director alongside Jean-Pierre Bacri, Jaoui’s long-term writing and life partner—a collaboration that earned a different nickname from filmmaker Alain Resnais: the “JaBac” duo.
Dave Green | Collider
'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2' Director Dave Green on Transitioning to Big Budget Fare ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows’ Review: Flawed But Fun Adventure 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows': Stephen Amell Introduces Casey Jones, Talks Turtles 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2' Cast Vows to Make Sequel Better New Trailer for Sci-Fi Adventure EARTH TO ECHO New Trailer for Found Footage Sci-Fi Adventure EARTH TO ECHO Disney Hires Dave Green to Direct Untitled Wolf...
O.J.: Made in America
O.J.: Made in America TV-MA Documentary Biography Crime Release Date 2016 - 2015 The 35 Best Documentaries of All Time, Ranked Movie Talk: 'Green Hornet' Reboot in the Works; Steve Carell May Lead 'Minecraft’
Wiener-Dog | Collider
The Most Iconic Movie Animals of 2016 ‘Wiener-Dog’: Director Todd Solondz Explains Why It Took a Few Years to Make This Movie First Images from Sundance Premiere Films Including 'Frank and Lola' and 'Wiener Dog' Sundance 2016 Premieres Announced: Includes Latest from Kenneth Lonergan, Whit Stillman, and More
Down with the Sickness: examining 30 years of Todd Haynes’ medical marvel Safe • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
If Jeanne Dielman, 23, quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles and 2001: A Space Odyssey had a baby, it would be Todd Haynes’ Safe. The writer-director’s sophomore feature, which was theatrically released 30 years ago this week, combines the radical banality of Chantal Akerman’s slow cinema masterwork with the cold, futuristic austerity of Stanley Kubrick’s interstellar epic into its own vision of spiritual malady that feels as audacious, haunting and timeless as the two classics that influenced it.
Alone Star State: Wim Wenders on the deep impact of Paris, Texas at 40 • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
It was in the seventeenth century that John Donne wrote that no man is an island, and in the twentieth that Wim Wenders seemingly took that famous line of the English poet’s ‘Devotions upon Emergent Occasions’ and built a whole universe around it with Paris, Texas. “Entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main,” Donne’s writing continues. That man, in 1984, is Travis Henderson (Harry Dean Stanton), and the main continent is America.
Live From New York…: it’s the Saturday Night cast and Jason Reitman on the behind-the-scenes race to bring the series debut to life • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Saturday Night Live is back for its 50th season, and it’s already receiving a bounty of anniversary goodwill. With Maya Rudolph, Dana Carvey, Jim Gaffigan, Andy Samberg, James Austin Johnson and Bowen Yang tackling the significant figures of the 2024 election cycle, the hallowed series has already posted its highest ratings since… well, the last election.
Never Look Away: lessons in life, war and art from Lee director Ellen Kuras, actress Kate Winslet and their leading men • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“Hers was a unique eye,” says Lee director Ellen Kuras of the groundbreaking WWII photojournalist, Vogue model and her surrealist muse Lee Miller. “One could argue it’s a female gaze, but I tend to think of it as a humanist gaze; someone who really looked at people and cared about people and believed in justice. That’s what drove her.” Having first met Kuras while co-starring in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,Kate Winslet (with her producer hat on) tapped the cinematographer to direct Lee.
Killer Queen: the deep, delicious impact of Sofia Coppola's Marie Antoinette • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
It was a flop. The facts and fiction that made up the life of Marie Antoinette may never stop being disputed, but one truth is indelible: Marie Antoinette, on the big screen, did not thrive. The 2006 film’s director, Sofia Coppola, says so unashamedly. Box office takings weren’t great, reviews were mixed, the shoot was hard. While the process and final product were amazing and enlightening, the whole thing was so taxing that Coppola nearly gave up on filmmaking.
Civil Women: Kirsten Dunst and Cailee Spaeny on the mentorship of Civil War • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
In Civil War, there’s a scene that is striking for how it lets Kirsten Dunst, briefly, engage with a war film like she’s on a Sofia Coppola set. Alex Garland’s latest feature is set in a fictional second American Civil War that’s been going on for an unknown number of years. Dunst plays tenured war photographer Lee Smith, whose reputation is widely known but has taken a decade-plus toll.
Hold on Tight, Monkey Man: Dev Patel on the action and revenge films that influenced his biting debut feature • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Monkey Mandeploys an underground boxer in Mumbai, who dons a monkey mask in the ring, to explore the iconography of Hanuman, God of Wisdom, Strength, Courage, Devotion and Self-Discipline. In making the visceral action film, Dev Patel couldn’t have had a more difficult road to getting his feature debut out of a movie industry boxing match and into the world.
Toy Stories: Problemista’s Julio Torres on brave toasters, sincere eggs and monster-ifying Tilda Swinton • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
No one familiar with his work will be surprised by this insight, yet it still bears emphasizing: Julio Torres loved playing with his toys as a child. As Torres grew up in San Salvador, El Salvador, his mother, an architect and designer, and his father, a civil engineer, cultivated his imaginative tendencies with care. “[I was] always just off in my own little world,” the multi-talented comedian tells me. “I was in a sort of daydream incubator growing up.
Murder, My Sweet: Anatomy of a Murder’s radical social politics and rascally Jimmy Stewart • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
It’s the 1950s, and a man has been murdered in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. There’s no question about that. Lieutenant Frederick Manion (Ben Gazzara) has been arrested and confesses to the act. The question, however, is whether or not Manion was justified. According to his wife Laura (Lee Remick), the deceased—a local barkeep named Barney Quill—raped her, which sent Frederick into a rage in which he shot Barney down.
Hollywood Ending: Sleater-Kinney’s Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker on The Godfather, Nicolas Cage and their tour-bus watchlist • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
In a rehearsal studio in Burbank, Los Angeles, Carrie Brownstein and Corin Tucker are reflecting on their favorites from the recent awards season, predicting accurately that by the time this interview is published, Da’Vine Joy Randolph will have an Oscar for her work in The Holdovers. Brownstein and Tucker are the founders of Pacific Northwest indie rock legends Sleater-Kinney, which they formed in Olympia, Washington in 1994. Sleater-Kinney and the big (and small) screen go hand-in-hand.
Cuisine Art: Juliette Binoche and director Tran Anh Hung on cooking up The Taste of Things • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
If you follow global cinema, you probably first heard of The Taste of Things under a different name: Tran Anh Hung’s film premiered at Cannes 2023 under the title The Pot-au-Feu. Despite that very French name (which is, literally, the pot on the fire—an important food dish in the culinary film), it was even retitled in France to La passion de Dodin Bouffant.
Host with the Most: Jason Schwartzman accepts the honor of Letterboxd’s most-watched actor of 2023 • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Grieving father, two animated villains, bloodsports commentator: last year, Jason Schwartzman performed a cinematic hat-trick, deploying his charm and humor to steal every scene he was in, even when not the film’s protagonist. It was this home-run that saw Schwartzman, in the eleventh hour, catapulted to Letterboxd’s most-watched actor of 2023—a prize he finally took delivery of last week.
Scorsese’s Screening Room: Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio share the films that have fed their many collaborations • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
“I was asked what films I introduced to you, but considering you’ve seen every film ever made up until 1980, it’s pretty hard to say.” Those are actor-producer Leonardo DiCaprio’s shrewd opening words to writer, director and Letterboxd member Martin Scorsese, as they meet to share with Letterboxd their memories of some of the films they’ve recommended to one another over the years. The one exception? Scorsese had a Hayao Miyazaki blindspot, it turns out.
Sins of Omission: an unforgettable history lesson with Killers of the Flower Moon author David Grann • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
David Grann, staff writer for The New Yorker, was a National Book Award finalist for chronicling the immense conspiracy of the racially driven Osage murders in Killers of the Flower Moon. His 2017 book is now a major 2023 motion picture directed by one of the greatest filmmakers of our time, Letterboxd member Martin Scorsese, starring his two most important muses, Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro.
The Zack Snyder Q&A: your questions about the Snyderverse—and new sci-fi saga Rebel Moon—answered • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
No filmmaker has a more vocal online army than Zack Snyder. That’s just facts—even on Letterboxd, where best practices indicate that in order to properly rate and review his work you should note the exact version of his films you are watching.
Star Persona: Todd Haynes on the films that influenced the psychodrama of May December • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
One of the most enjoyable aspects of watching a Todd Haynes film is the conversations afterward. He is an analytical filmmaker with many layers to his narrative, often without a clear ending; his films can occupy your brain long after they’ve ended.
The Official Marty Watchlist: Martin Scorsese shares the cinematic companions to Killers of the Flower Moon and his wider filmography • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Nobody appreciates cinema more than Martin Scorsese. Through his work at The Film Foundation, which he established in 1990 to support the preservation and restoration of motion pictures, he and his team have saved over a thousand classic works from obsolescence. Upon the release of his latest epic, Killers of the Flower Moon, the prolific director has joined Letterboxd to continue this noble mission.
A Marriage on Ice: Anatomy of a Fall director Justine Triet on the intimate intricacies of her courtroom drama • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
The French procedural is having a moment right now. Earlier this year, France’s submission for the Best International Feature Oscar was Alice Diop’s Saint Omer,and Dominik Moll’s The Night of the 12thwon six César Awards, including Best Film. At this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Justine Triet became the third woman to win the prestigious festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, for her courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall.
Make Some Noise: Paul Middleditch and Hamish Bennett on the cultural roots of their 1980s coming-of-age rugby protest film Uproar • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
In the new feature film Uproar, Josh Waaka (Julian Dennison, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, Deadpool 2) is the only Māori kid in a mostly-white 1980s New Zealand high school. He’s also bookish and nerdy, and wants to find his voice and his own path–be it an activist filmmaker, dramaturg or player on the rugby field.
Life in Balance: ten arthouse classics that have influenced poetic cinematic experimentalist Godfrey Reggio • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
We only get a Godfrey Reggio feature film once a decade and each is one to savor. He began in 1982 at 42 years old with Koyaanisqatsi, which quickly became the benchmark for experimental documentaries (currently it is ranked sixteenth in Letterboxd’s official all-time top documentaries list). Celebrated for innovative time lapses, slo-motion frame-speed and Philip Glass’ original score, it was the first in the Qatsi trilogy.
View to a Kill: four macabre films that influenced the look of A Haunting in Venice • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
While Kenneth Branagh’s Murder on the Orient Expressand Death on the Nilefollowed in the footsteps of previous cinematic adaptations of those Agatha Christie novels, the third entry in his Hercule Poirot franchise, A Haunting in Venice, is a tale never-before-witnessed on the big screen. More exciting than that distinction, Venice adds a little gothic spookiness to the mystery, secluding us in a dark palazzo far away from its transportation-themed predecessors.
Strike FAQ: a film fan’s guide to the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Will you still be asking people for their four favorites? For sure! But we’ll be respecting the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strike rules. You won’t see picketing workers attending red-carpet premieres, Q&As, film festivals, awards shows, Comic-Con or other events or making social-media posts to publicize a project at the behest of a struck company. After all, a big part of screen actors’ jobs isn’t just to act, but to participate in promotion.
Surrender Dorothy: Griffin Dunne and Amy Robinson on the enduring wackadoodle energy of After Hours • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
It’s got such rich detail that everytime you watch it, you can pick up on something else in the background. Are there any little moments like that which you love that you feel like a lot of people have missed? AR: That’s interesting. Well, I don’t think people really miss this, but I love the moment when Marcy and Paul are leaving the diner and she blows the kiss to the man working there. I can’t remember that gentleman’s name. He was an actor who was in movies in the ’50s. Dick Miller, right?
Big Country: Centering Indigenous voices at Cannes 2023 • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
You never bet against Marty, but even he knows when he needs some extra advisement. Killers of the Flower Moon, the latest epic from the legendary director, has received a rapturous reception from its premiere at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, including an outpour of ecstatic reviews on Letterboxd.
Blood, Sweat and Oil: The risky end-to-end journey of How to Blow Up a Pipeline • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
Many of the in-person screenings that have taken place around North America for How to Blow Up a Pipeline have been held in conjunction with various activist groups. These include two fundraiser screenings in Atlanta: one for the Atlanta Solidarity Fund, the other for Defend the Atlanta Forest, both raising money towards protecting the endangered Weelaunee Forest (which the city’s police foundation wants to turn into a $90-million-plus training compound).
Lunch with a Legend, Part One: Martin Scorsese on making room for everyone at the cinema • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
I understand that the goal of being a legend should be to infuse excitement and enthusiasm to the next generation of artists; to inspire and ultimately really to be a good teacher. So I hope that my legend is to help make it possible for these new generations, who are with us now or in the future, to actually reinvent the art form every time. And they’re doing it. They’re doing it. —⁠Martin Scorsese
Storytelling Siren: Filmmaker Nikyatu Jusu on creating a new cinematic language with Nanny • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
You incorporate vampires into your short, Suicide by Sunlight, and Anansi and Mami Wata into Nanny. Are there any horror archetypes or folkloric figures that you feel called to explore on screen? There’s a lot of culturally specific folklore that has not been introduced to the American horror mainstream. I’m getting stupid questions from interviewers who are like, “are Mami Wata and Anansi real?” And it’s like, well, you could Google it yourself and take some initiative.
Fable Man: Tony Kushner on writing Steven Spielberg’s life • Journal • A Letterboxd Magazine
I was very close friends with [Where the Wild Things Are author] Maurice Sendak. I learned that the function of children’s literature, the function of a book like Where the Wild Things Are, which [Steven and I] talked about a lot when we were working on the movie, is that it scares the shit out of you the first time you read it. Then you read it over and over and over again. By the time you’re done, you’ve cycled through the book for a year or whatever and you’ve memorized it.
'Blonde' Review: Ana de Armas Turns Celebrity Skin into Body Horror as Marilyn Monroe
Andrew Dominik’s Blonde is a powder keg of a movie; it is beautiful, mesmerizing, contemptuous, distressing, and extremely volatile. A glass box of walls closing in, with Hollywood as a fiery hellscape of commodification. Perhaps most importantly, Blonde is not a biopic of Marilyn Monroe but a faithful adaptation of author Joyce Carol Oates’ fictionalization of Monroe’s life as Norma Jeane.
'Don't Worry Darling' Review: Olivia Wilde's Thriller Girlbosses When It Should've Sucker-Punched | Venice 2022
Let’s pretend you’re not terminally online. Now let’s also add a setting that you only care about “Oscar movies” after the nominations have already been announced and have no preconception of film festival rollouts or campaigning for six months to win a trophy. Okay, now we can proceed with talking accurately (and not hysterically) about Olivia Wilde’s Don’t Worry Darling, a new thriller starring Florence Pugh, Harry Styles, and Chris Pine.
‘The Banshees of Inisherin’ Review: Martin McDonough Serves a Delicious "Foe" Gras | Venice 2022
A Civil War is often described as brother vs. brother. Martin McDonough’s follow-up to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri is titled The Banshees of Inisherin, and it is not about a Civil War or battle. Battles are remembered. Songs are written about them. The front page is loaded with informational updates from the front. And they will make the history books. Here, brother vs. brother is reduced to a macro level of pal vs. pal.
‘The Whale’ Review: May the “Brenaissance” Continue Beyond Darren Aronofsky's Film | Venice 2022
Brendan Fraser was one of the biggest movie stars for a solid decade. His disappearance was sudden, but it perhaps didn’t register because he was a different type of movie star. He was likable. There was no method acting, bad boy drama. And the movies that made him famous were easily likable, too, without being arthouse favorites. Attentions drift to headline makers and new thunderbolts who balanced complicated fare with blockbusters.
‘Pearl’ Review: Ti West's ‘X’ Prequel Is a Horror Tease | Venice 2022
Ti West’s X is one of 2022’s most acclaimed horror movies. It follows a batch of 1970s filmmakers who clandestinely shoot a skin flick in a farmhouse they rented. When the elderly homeowners discover what’s going on they aren’t horrified, they’re hornified. And when their libidos aren’t respected by the young hotties the bodies start piling up dead. Mia Goth played both the hot new porn ingénue and the old woman, Pearl.
‘Master Gardener’ Review: Paul Schrader Puts Some Hope Into His Narrative Template | Venice 2022
At this point in his career, Paul Schrader (First Reformed) is simply working from a template: a man in his 40s with a murky past seeks redemption. He has a unique profession. He will define his life by that profession. He will journal about his profession. A younger outsider will disturb his small, hidden life. When times start to get tough he will question why he even journals anymore because it no longer helps him process his (now disturbed) rules and order.
‘Bones & All’ Review: Timothée Chalamet and Taylor Russell Eat, Prey, Love | Venice 2022
Timothée Chalamet reunites with his Call Me by Your Name director, Luca Guadagnino, for a 1980s road trip love story, Bones & All. Michael Stuhlbarg even shows up for a campfire chat about “when everything changes” between two people. Even though it centers on young love again, this is a far cry from that trio’s first film together. The sprawling Italian villas have been traded in for lonely US highways, cornfields, rundown homes, and an unreliable truck.
‘Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths’ Review: Too Calculated to Be Personal | Venice 2022
In the past 70 years, Alejandro G. Iñárritu is the only director to win the Best Director Oscar in back-to-back years (for Birdman and then The Revenant). That feat happened twice in the 1940s. Unlike John Ford and Joseph L. Joseph L. Mankiewicz, however, Iñárritu didn’t start by making movies in Hollywood. His first feature, Amores Perros, was one of the biggest international shotgun blasts to announce a major new filmmaking talent.
‘TÁR’ Review: Cate Blanchett Conducts an Acting Master Class | Venice 2022
To give a hint at what's special about TÁR you needn't look further than the opening credits. The opening credits start backwards with members of the crew that generally are at the very end of the end credits, like catering and production units and assistant editors. This is a movie about how an ego can grow too big and turn to manipulation when one role gets too much credit in a collaborative field.
Show More
loading
Actions
Get in touch with Brian
Contact Brian, search articles and posts on X, monitor coverage, and track replies from one place.
Learn more about Muck Rack