support the girls

Juliet, Naked

Star Rose Byrne talks about the shift in focus of the story from book to movie with IndieWire.

More on the music created for the soundtrack, this time with a focus on former Lemonheads member Jesse Peretz.

A clip showing the interplay between Byrne and Hawke was released to help keep some positive word of mouth going.

BlacKkKlansman

More from the real Ron Stallworth on how he helped John David Washington prepare to play him. There’s also this additional interview with screenwriter Kevin Willmott.

Spike Lee shared a music video for the previously-unreleased Prince song he managed to secure for the movie.

Crazy Rich Asians

Just in the first early screenings the movie reportedly recouped what Warner Bros. had spent on TV advertising.

Yes, Michelle Yeoh has a long history of being incredible on film.

Quartz has some additional details on how Singapore’s tourism bureau, an official partner for the movie, is using it to draw more travelers there.

Constance Wu spoke here about how she and other Asian actors are becoming more bold in their choices. And Jimmy O. Yang appeared on “The Daily Show.”

There’s a cottage industry that’s sprung up in the last week devoted to producing stories like this about how the movie differs the book. Similarly, quite a few guest essays such as this have been published to various culture sites making it clear the movie does not represent all Asian people.

Director Jon M. Chu is ready for the movie’s success to open up some doors for him. Chu’s letter to the band Coldplay asking permission to use their song “Yellow” also garnered several thousand headlines.

This is one of a few profiles I’ve seen focusing on the movie’s costume designer, which makes sense given the attention people are paying to the wardrobe sported by the characters.

One more business-oriented story that’s been approached from various angles is the makeup of the audience itself. Asian-Americans turned out in much larger numbers for this movie than others (unsurprising). That was powered by Asian-American artists who helped get the word out for opening weekend, throwing off a tracking system that not only doesn’t do well with non-white audiences but which isn’t engineered for celebrity-driven efforts that mimic “get out the vote” campaigns more than those for other movies. Both of those, as this story points out, should get the studios’ attention.

Representation is again the theme of this interview with the film’s producers.

The Wife

Another profile of star Glenn Close and her impressive career here.

Papillon

A few days before the movie hit theaters I started to see promoted Tweets like this and others.

A new interview here with stars Charlie Hunnam and Rami Malek about the bond they forged during production.

Searching

As part of the #GoldOpen campaign – meant to encourage Asian-American audiences to turn out for movies featuring people like them – the star and director of Crazy Rich Asians bought out a showing of this movie.

Director Aneesh Chaganty hits on an important point here regarding representation, that volume and the freedom to be mediocre without negative repercussions is what truly marks progress on that front. He also talks about making the movie on iMacs and other tools.

Given the movie’s working class themes, it’s refreshing to see director Andrew Bujalski talk about how in reality not everyone who he’d like to see the movie can afford to go to the movies.

Terminator Salvation

Nine years after the movie came out, a VR experience is opening in a new entertainment venue in Orange County, CA.

Chris Thilk is a freelance writer and content strategist who lives in the Chicago suburbs.

Just last week a story made the rounds about how Millennials had mounted their latest corporate head to the wall of businesses and industries they’ve killed, in this case Hooters. The chain was shutting down, the story went, that generation just isn’t that into boobs, the connection provided by some sketchy numbers from Pornhub. Never mind that Hooters and restaurants like it are vestiges of gender norms firmly rooted in Boomer mentality that younger people have largely rejected.

While the restaurant featured in Support The Girls isn’t Hooters, it’s a similar establishment, one that promises sub-par food served to a leering clientele by women in short shorts and tight shirts. The movie stars Regina Hall as Lisa, the manager of Double Whammies, who plays the role of mother hen to the girls who work there, keeping them safe and helping in whatever they need. One day her relentless optimism is tried as a series of events make her life and job more challenging than it’s been.

The Posters

Regina Hall is front and center on the poster, standing in front of the bar two of her waitresses are standing on. She looks serious but fun while the other girls are playing it up like they’re flirting in the middle of dancing. Bold copy placed over that photo is pulled from early reviews and establishes it as a comedy and praises Hall’s performance.

The Trailers

Lisa is the focal point of the trailer as we see her trying to maintain a positive attitude amidst all sorts of chaos swirling around her. There are rude customers, supervisors with unrealistic expectations, girls who are barely mature enough to keep their own issues together and so much more.

The trailer doesn’t lay out any single conflict or issue Lisa is fighting against, it’s just sold as her trying to make it through each day with everything still running as well as possible despite so many obstacles.

Online and Social

The official website has elements like “Trailer” and “Story” along with links to Magnolia’s site where you can download a press kit as well as official versions of the poster and trailer. There are also links to the Twitter, Facebook and Instagram pages.

Advertising and Cross-Promotions

Nothing I’ve seen, though I wouldn’t be surprised if there had been some social advertising I’d missed.

Media and Publicity

The movie had been scheduled to appear at the SXSW Film Festival and was acquired by Magnolia just before that screening. Still, it picked up some pretty good word of mouth, especially for Hall, from that screening. Both Hall and writer/director Andrew Bujalski spoke about the movie, the latter going into what made him write about such a topic, while in Austin.

Hall was interviewed later about what attracted her to the story, how she’s enjoying a hot period of her career and more. She did likewise on “Late Night,” “Good Morning America” and in a visit to BUILD as well as a few other interviews.

Overall

The focus is squarely on Regina Hall and that’s very much a good thing. She’s obviously the character the audience is being asked to invest in most heavily and so it makes sense to put her front and center.

It looks like a sweet, funny movie about women owning their sexuality in a powerful way. I kind of wish there had been a bit more attention paid to the waitresses at the restaurant – even if it was just a few little video bios or something – to add more context there, but that’s a small issue.

PICKING UP THE SPARE

Director Andrew Bujalski was interviewed about how the story of the movie is indeed timely but it wasn’t intended to be so as well as what inspired him to hit this particular topic. More on that as well as what lead him to cast Regina Hall in the lead here.

Given the movie’s working class themes, it’s refreshing to see director Andrew Bujalski talk about how in reality not everyone who he’d like to see the movie can afford to go to the movies.

Hall has some thoughts about how men can meaningful support women, including a handful of substantive changes in how society is structured. And more here from her on her previous roles, what this movie means and how she approaches the work overall.

Buzzfeed’s new profile of Regina Hall emphasizes how she has, to date, been underrated and under appreciated as an artist but that needs to change.

The arrival of awards season brought with it a new round of profiles and interviews of and with Hall.