Good morning 🐣

I’m a little scared, y’all.

I can’t see or hear anything anymore.

Over the past few years, the picture’s gone dim and I sometimes can’t make out what people are saying. I thought, I must be losing two of my core senses! But thanks to the latest advancements in medical technology and the good doctors at /Film (read “Slash Film”), it looks like I might finally have a diagnosis.

First, Ben Pearson wrote an extensive piece titled “Here’s Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It),” along with an accompanying video:

“There are a number of root causes,” says Mark Mangini, the Academy Award-winning sound designer behind films like “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “Blade Runner 2049.”

“It’s really a gumbo, an accumulation of problems that have been exacerbated over the last 10 years.”

Then there’s the really dark screen where you can’t make out what’s happening. Leave it to two Marvel crews to give a partial explanation. One of the cinematographers on “Moon Knight” talks about lighting and underexposure, while the visual effects team behind Marvel’s “Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings” explains that they tried to inject color and vibrancy into an industry process that has become very gray: When it comes to computer animation, “a more muted subdued color palette is absolutely helpful to make things feel more real.”

Announcement 📢

Next week is going to be a little wonky. Please be sure to check your inboxes on Monday morning rather than the customary Wednesday drop. Thanks!

Now watch this 👀

If you’ve ever wanted to see someone stop an oncoming motorcycle with a stomp of their foot — causing it to flip in the air — and catch it with their bare hands, swinging it around like a baseball bat, then “RRR” is the movie for you. If that doesn’t sound appealing, watch “RRR” anyways and then cradle your head in your hands at the foolishness of not having demanded to witness this epic feat the moment you left the womb.

Now available on Netflix in Hindi with English subtitles, though originally filmed in the Telugu language, “RRR” is the rare hit to break out of India and take the world by storm. It played in thousands of theaters earlier this year in the U.S. alone, at one point being number three at the U.S. box office after “The Lost City” and “The Batman.”

All while being three hours long with subtitles.

The story follows two men, Raju and Bheem, living in 1920s India under the control of the British imperialists. They were real-life revolutionaries rendered in this film as Hindu gods.

Ram Charan plays Alluri Sitarama Raju, the ultimate cop’s cop with a killer mustache. A police precinct is being inundated with independence protestors. When one of them throws a rock and breaks a framed photo, Raju is sent out into the angry crowd of thousands to bring in the perpetrator. He’s like the Terminator; no matter the odds, he will find his man. Then we meet N. T. Rama Rao Jr. as Komaram Bheem, who outruns a wolf and battles a freaking tiger in the forest. When a young girl from his village is kidnapped by the British, it is Bheem’s duty to travel to Delhi and bring her home.

Both of these scenes are fundamentally insane. They establish these two men as superheroes capable of leaping long distances and wielding the strength of Hercules. This is also where we first learn how much the camera adores their bodies — muscles rippling, pecs quivering.

And it’s not all wham-bam fighting! This movie has literally everything: romance, melodrama, comedy, politics, and most importantly an epic dance-off between our heroes and a snobby British aristocrat at a formal garden party. It’s a magical scene that makes fighting imperialism look fun, while also acting as another character- and plot-driving mechanism. The aftermath even uses a shoulder ride as the setup for a final fight scene, which I’ll get to later.

Song plays a huge role too, especially in a somber moment when the two men turn on each other, Raju publicly whipping Bheem as punishment for his crimes. As his blood flows through the dirt, Bheem spontaneously bursts into a song that ends up inspiring the gathered crowd to rebel against the colonialists.

When they finally mend their rift (did you really not see this coming?), the battle is glorious. Remember that shoulder ride I mentioned? The two fight together as a unit, one sitting on the shoulders of another. They run and punch and climb and flip like a human centipede. And it only gets crazier from there. It’s a literal manifestation of the entire movie’s theme: we have to come together to shrug off our oppressors.

When they clash, they CLASH with a capital C-L-A-S-H. When they become the very best of friends, they become BROTHERS. Their friendship is genuine without ever being undercut by jokes or irony.

Even at three hours long, “RRR” never grows old or tiring. The film’s energy, visual inventiveness, and unironic bromance is so appealing and cinematic that it puts Hollywood to shame. “RRR” is spectacle that’s relatable, rather than overwhelming, numbing, or airless. Without being at all hyperbolic, it’s some of the most fun you’ll ever have watching a movie.

Thanks for reading and don’t forget to check your email on Monday.

Until next time! 👋