WEEKLY RECAP #103: Alamo Drafthouse Strike, Twin Movie Trend & MORE!

4/13/25 -- 4/19/25

Remember the Alamo Staff

It’s been two years since the start of the major strikes that rocked the film & television industry in 2023, and the fact that they did indeed reach a conclusion has given a lot of folks (including, I’m sure, many of you reading this right now) a sense of relief. And don’t worry, guys, I’m not here to be a wokescold and yell at you for not paying attention to the trades! It is totally normal to feel satisfied after a strike ends… but it’s *also* important to remember that there are similar labor struggles still happening countrywide, and even if they might not jump out at you, they deserve attention nonetheless. On that note, this week saw the conclusion of a movie-related strike you may not have heard about, one that first began back in February: the staff of two NYC Alamo Drafthouse locations (Lower Manhattan & Brooklyn) collectively abstained from work in solidarity with 70-odd staffers who were laid off in an abrupt manner that the union reported as violating labor law. Well, after 58 days of striking alongside United Auto Workers Local 2179, the theater employees ratified an agreement with Alamo management, which ensures that the previously laid-off workers will be reinstated, along with their paid time off, sick time, seniority and hire dates restored.

While this is an undisputed dub, the Alamo Drafthouses in the Big Apple aren’t the only locations for the exhibitor chain that have had issues. Since Alamo was acquired by Sony last summer — goddamn it, those bastards are always at the scene of the crime — employees at their Sloans Lake theater in Colorado briefly went on a strike due to layoffs in February, and the staff at their Austin, Texas location have announced plans to unionize after a reduction in force that was reportedly the “last straw” for them. It seems to be a running theme for this company, which is a shame, since (IN MY HUMBLE OPINION) the theatrical experience they provide is worth the expensive-ass prices they charge. I’m sure I don’t need to remind any aspiring screenwriters or actors reading this who witnessed the promising-but-flawed agreements that both the WGA and SAG-AFTRA reached, but pushes for better rights is a constant uphill battle. Here’s to hoping no Alamo employees across the country are laid off without warning any time soon — and, most importantly, here’s to everyone once again being able to eat their delicious dry rub wings without being considered a scab (#notsponsored).

Twinnem Twenty-Five

As a man with zero opinions or notable traits outside of fervent media consumption, I have gradually begun to notice a certain pattern repeating in film throughout the years. Many people don’t even bother pointing out when similar films are released around the same times, as they believe it points to nothing more than simple coincidence. However, as someone who has spent a staggering two months vaguely thinking about trends within art & society, I think there is relevance in looking back at which types of movies were the most popular in which years. Years from now, historians are going to point back in time and assess what the culture was feeling in each era, so we might as well get a head start and reflect on how our hopes and fears have been reflected in our movies up to now.

And, for the record, it *is* a tangible pattern you can study — most of the time, at least. For example, 2019 was obviously the era of Eat the Rich. (Parasite, Joker, Ready or Not, Knives Out, Us, Hustlers, etc.) Things got a little funky once COVID hit, but 2023 had a chilling running theme of White Men Reflecting on the Mass Murder They’ve Committed (Oppenheimer, The Zone of Interest, Killers of the Flower Moon), and 2024 had a delightfully promiscuous outing as the Year of the Misunderstood MILF (The Substance, The Last Showgirl, Babygirl). So what’s the trend of 2025 shaping up to be, now that we’re heading into the summer? Some might stay it’s far too early to make a call, but if you asking me, the writing’s on the wall, and it’s spelling out a four-letter word…

T-W-I-N.

Seriously, guys — have you noticed how many twin movies have released this year? There was The Monkey, where Theo James plays both the neurotic nerd protagonist and his dickhead twin brother. There was Mickey 17, where Robert Pattinson plays an awkward underling who comes face-to-face with an abrasive clone of himself. There was The Alto Knights, a movie you definitely didn’t see, where Robert De Niro plays two famous crime bosses who I can only assume spend the runtime silently mugging at each other. And, with this weekend, we have now seen the release of Sinners, in which Michael B. Jordan plays twin brothers named Smoke and Stack. Four major twin movies in the span of only a few months.

What does any of this mean? It’s hard to tell. Whereas the trends of 2019 and 2023 are clear indicators of anxieties the working class is developing about the corrupt world they live in, the Year of the Twin is a bit harder to parse in terms of greater significance. Maybe it’s just a weird trend of screenwriters all having a shared interest in twin shenanigans. Maybe identity theft is becoming a greater threat in the general populace. Maybe it’s a sign from our collective subconscious that, as capitalism decays around us, our sense of selves are slowly eroding as well, with each member of the proletariat seeming less distinguishable from the man beside him, and the removal of superficial signifiers like birth certificates and status symbols revealing that we are all a lot more similar than we think…

…but, of course, it could also just be a coincidence.

“Stay jealous, babe!”

Here’s a story that’ll put a smile on your face: Mikey Madison, fresh off her Best Actress win for portraying the titular character of Anora, has just turned down a huge offer that many are shocked by. What offer, you ask? Only an offer to be in Shawn Levy’s new Star Wars movie, of course!

Now, depending on your knowledge of Star Wars and/or Shawn Levy, this news will either come across as baffling or exciting. From a distance, it seems bizarre — how could anyone turn down a Star Wars movie? However, zooming in even just a tad, it becomes pretty clear how. You see, Dear Reader… Star Wars has been sucking booty cheeks as of late. And that’s not even a controversial opinion anymore! Pretty much any fan by now will agree that Tony Gilroy’s streaming series Andor is far and away the only promising content to have come out of the franchise in the past eight years. Plus, Shawn Levy is also on a bit of a worrying streak himself, with his most recent projects being Ryan Reynolds slop vehicles Free Guy and Deadpool & Wolverine.

Now, I’m not saying that everyone involved in the new Star Wars project by Shawn Levy is a hack by default, but I *am* saying that any actor or actress coming off an Oscar win should only be able to join such a project out of cynical, money-driven reasons. That’s why it’s really refreshing to see such a young breakout actor like Madison have the balls (and, quite frankly, taste) to politely reject such a cornball project straight out the gate. Seriously, good on her — she’s on top of the world right now, and joining the Glup Shitto brigade is the last thing her career needs! Unfortunately, the same cannot be said about Jeremy Allen White, who has been cast as Jaba the Hutt’s son named Rotta in The Mandalorian & Grogu. (Now there’s a sentence that makes me want to kill myself for having typed it out… it’s been a minute since I’ve had a good one like that.)

I’m Edding on Her Ton

YAYYYYYYYYY!! DADDY ASTER IS BACK!!

Ahem. Excuse me, everyone. I just get very excited when one of the people on my Directors Who Give Me a Reason to Keep Living list drop a new trailer. This time around, it’s Ari Aster, whose new film Eddington has its first trailer and poster released. The plot details have been rumored for a while now, but with this trailer, we finally get confirmation of the movie indeed being a social thriller set in a New Mexico town during the COVID-19 pandemic, with Joaquin Phoenix playing an ambitious sheriff and Pedro Pascal playing a mayoral candidate. The teaser shows Phoenix doomscrolling on his phone, with social media showing glimpses of different cast members spewing a ton of crazy shit, as well as a bunch of brilliantly deranged parodies of 2020-era social media posts (ie. a white girl doing a TikTok dance with the caption “When you finish reading James Baldwin’s “Giovanni’s Room”). Yeah… it’s leaning into that kinda shit.

People are already rolling their eyes about the very premise of a pandemic-set movie, but here’s the thing: BOOOOOOOOOOOO, SHUT UP! Listen, I get that people are tired of thinking about how miserable and crazy we all were during lockdown, but if anybody is qualified to make a movie about COVID mania, it’s Ari Aster. Seriously, though: if there’s any subject more primed to be portrayed through the lens of disturbing, fever-dream-esque horror, it’s American politics. I trust Ari with my life, so it should come as no shock to any of you that I’m trusting him with a concept this ballsy. If anything, you should respect the guts of him for having *this* be his follow-up to the already-polarizing Beau is Afraid. Dude may be anxious and have a weird-ass family-members-getting-beheaded complex, but he’s also one brave motherfucker.