A whole lot of people went to see A Quiet Place: Day One this past weekend, and they probably came out raving about Lupita Nyong’o’s ferocious lead performance, the visceral alien special effects — or the cat named Frodo who steals the movie from everybody. But for anyone who saw 2021’s moody revenge thriller Pig, the latest film in the A Quiet Place series is unmistakably the work of writer and director Michael Sarnoski, whom I talked to on this week’s Prestige Junkie podcast.
I had a blast watching A Quiet Place: Day One and got to pepper Sarnoski with all of my questions big and small, from how to work with actors like Nyong’o and Joseph Quinn on such a large-scale production to what was apparently an unintentional nod to Titanic.
By building the film around Nyong’o’s character Sam, a woman with terminal cancer who is determined to get one last slice of New York pizza, Sarnoski created an utterly unique kind of disaster movie character. “At their core, a lot of these movies tend to be about survival,” Sarnoski told me. “What if our character didn’t even really want to survive?”
This jam-packed episode also includes a conversation with my longtime friend, The Ringer’s Joanna Robinson, who joins me to celebrate the 35th anniversary of what’s still a landmark indie film: Steven Soderbergh’s sex, lies, and videotape. We take a look back at Soderbergh’s autobiographical inspirations, the performances that hold up the best — and why the Oscars weren’t quite ready for this movie, even if they would be now.
L.A. Private Schoolers’ Appetite for Ozempic Dr. Allie Melendez has made the rounds of elite private schools asking high school seniors about weight-loss drugs — and couldn't believe what she learned
Theaters Had a Grim May. Streaming Movies Fared Worse What the hell just happened to straight-to-streaming films? What we missed while worrying about the box office — and what Netflix and Prime Video need to do now
Jay Penske: Free Palestine! Tumbling down the slippery slope of a media mogul bowing to pressure. Plus: Paramount searches for pennies and Starbucks Studios saves the day
