Paramount Pictures
Celebrated Italian filmmaker Luca Guadagnino, who once sang the praises of Joseph Kosinski’s “Top Gun: Maverick,” has changed his tune on the film after praising it back in 2022.
The “Call Me By Your Name,” “Challengers,” and “Suspiria” helmer recently gave an interview at Foglio’s Innovation Festival, where he spoke about nostalgia in films and how it is something of a problem.
Nostalgia still does very big business at the box-office, but it’s not always a guarantee – this was aptly demonstrated this past weekend with the disappointing debut for “Masters of the Universe”. That said, some old franchises continue to power through with ‘Maverick’ seen as a textbook example of a successful nostalgia play.
Guadagnino started out talking about Steven Spielberg’s new film “Disclosure Day” which he sees as the director going back to an old-fashioned alien movie. Here’s the translated text (via The Playlist) from the original Q&A video session:
“‘Disclosure Day’ is part of the economy of nostalgia, which is one of the fundamental themes of the last 20 years, right? The whole imagination is built, even politics, is built on nostalgia and therefore how to move inside ourselves what we think we’ve lost and find it again.
I remember when I was making “Challengers,” I went to see “Top Gun: Maverick” in a packed theater. It was huge for thousands of people, and it was a very bad movie. But at the same time… people were screaming, throwing popcorn, they were very happy because the economy of nostalgia right seems to be the only commodity that can be dominated by all types of market, easy politics, right? It’s what I think right now….it’s a problem of raw material.”
It is being seen as an odd take, especially now as one of Guadagnino’s upcoming films is a new adaptation of “American Psycho”. His immediate next is “Artificial” which stars Andrew Garfield and Ike Barinholtz.