The Popular Alternative

Nicholas Russell writes an incisive essay on the state of A24, the distribution company-turned-studio known for films such as Everything Everywhere All at Once, Uncut Gems, The Brutalist, Past Lives, The Whale, and Minari. During a period when moviegoers craved originality and thoughtfulness over the latest Marvel flick, A24 emerged as a champion of cinema. Critics, however, see a “zeitgeist-chasing machine that hawks products rather than art.” Russell examines the film industry’s current landscape, A24 as a brand that produces and markets slick and sophisticated content, and why this has worked in Hollywood.

Now, other companies are stripping its reputation for parts. Take one of the online teasers for the upcoming Marvel film Thunderbolts*. Interspersed between clips above a techno track, the following title cards appear in glitching, neon letters: From the stars of Midsommar, A Different Man, & You Hurt My Feelings; the writers & director of Beef; the cinematographer of The Green Knight; the production designer of Hereditary; the editor of Minari; the composers of Everything Everywhere All At Once. The ad communicates what Marvel’s marketing department assumes its audience wants: the prestige and quality of an A24 film. Pair this with, say, the upcoming A24 Celine Song drama Materialists, starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal—each the leads of Marvel films, all seeming to retreat back into ostensibly “adult” fare—and one could be forgiven for wondering what the substantive difference between Marvel and A24 is. Maintaining what Nandan, the head of TV and nonfiction, calls the “A24 look and vibe” is as much about exclusion as it is inclusion. A24 doesn’t do every kind of movie, but it wants its audience to believe it could.