The Zeitgeist of A24
Iâve become late-to-the party obsessed with independent film company A24.
Iâve become late-to-the party obsessed with independent film company A24.
I first became aware of A24 after seeing âAmerican Honeyâ and being surprised at how long that movie stuck with me, even though it was far from perfect.
I told my friend Amanda about it and she said, âthatâs A24âââtheyâre the only people doing great cinema right nowâ.
Five months after âAmerican Honeyâ was released, A24 put out âMoonlightâ, itâs first original production. And five months after that, âMoonlightâ won the Oscar for Best Picture.
It took just four years for A24 to reach the apex.
âThereâs music labels I can think of as well. Where itâs like: Iâm in. I just trust, you know, Drag City or Merge or SST or Dischord. Thereâs aesthetic and political values to the people behind the company. Itâs super inspiring.â
â James Ponsoldt, Director, âThe End of the Tourâ
These two articles from Slate and GQ paint a picture of a young, scrappy company building digitally native campaigns around their movies with a keen eye for the changing distribution landscape.
So far, A24 has managed the balance between commercial success and critical adoration. But beyond that, A24 has so far maintained what Spring Breakers director Harmony Korine describes as âheartâ.
âI want to do the most radical work, but put it out in the most commercial way.â
â Harmony Korine
The inspiring part of the A24 story is the faith in the films themselves.
Moonlightâs director Barry Jenkins recalls the early days of âMoonlightâsâ release:
At that point, none of us were thinking, âHey, weâre gonna win Best Picture!â But we wanted to give the movie the chance to have as much of a life as we possibly could. And with the opening weekend, with the numbers that we did, it became very clear that, yes, this is a viable strategy, to keep this very small, gay, art-house hood-ass filmâââlike, yeah, weâre just gonna keep it in theaters. They had faith that people would continue to show up. And they did.
That faith in a âvery small, gay, art-house hood-ass filmâ like âMoonlight, in the genuine weirdness of âSpring Breakersâ and âThe Lobsterâ, and in the acrylic neon tragedy of America outside the safety net captured so vividly in âAmerican Honeyâ and âThe Florida Projectâ is inspiring.
This is one of the things theyâre great at: taking something small and delicate and giving it the kind of support that other people canât.
â James Franco
A24âs the kind of company where they say, âYeah, they donât need to know what itâs about. They just need to know how it feels.â
â Barry Jenkins, Director, âMoonlightâ
On a smaller scale, A24 is having its moment in 2017 like CAA did in the late 1970s.
âAmong critics and cinephiles I know, the A24 label is starting to mean something in the way that a 4AD record meant something in 1988, or a Grove Press book meant something in 1955.â
â David Ehrlich, Slate
That moment propelled CAA through two decades, but as documented in âPowerhouseâ, a poison set in at CAA, the hunger was lost, greed flourished and the great art suddenly disappeared.
The fascinating question for those who combine commerce and art into a moment of transcendence is how to maintain that moment.
How do you make sure the assumptions that made you successful donât doom you as you propel forward?
How do you avoid being a 1987â1997 Miramax (who put out Pulp Fiction, Good Will Hunting, Shakespeare in Love, Clerks, Trainspotting, The Crying Game, Sex Lies & Videotape, Swingers, Life is Beautiful, The English Patient, Jackie Brown, Reservoir Dogs, The Piano, and Chasing Amy in a ten-year span) and ending up a 2017 Harvey Weinstein?
âI hope they donât get too big that they forget what got them started.â
â James Franco
I was reminded watching A24 documentary âDe Palmaâ of the inevitability of failure in creative endeavours.
You see it in the music industy too. Dr. Dreâs early days at Aftermath with Jimmy Iovine come to mind as an example.
A24 has put out roughly 50 movies, not all of them were as good as âMoonlightâ. Not close. Barely Lethal, Bling Ring and Ballad of Lefty Brown all fell flat for good reason.
But like Brian De Palma, and Dr. Dre, and anyone who has created through multiple decades, the key isnât the fall, itâs the rise again, and the belief in moving in a singular direction, whatever the tide.
A belief strong enough that it doesnât waver through the inevitable rise and fall.
It will be fascinating to watch where A24 goes to from here.