Kaleem Aftab

This isn't just Cannes. Every brand, festival, institution has learned: pick a safe cause, make it visible, look progressive. The work can be real and strategically convenient at the same time.

So what conversations aren't happening while everyone celebrates women in cinema? Palestine. Iran. Power structures. The harder geopolitical questions stay quiet.

Moral Glamour: The Cause Cannes Can Safely Celebrate cinemainonetake.substack.com/publish/posts/… @Festival_Cannes #Kerring #Chopard

Opening night at a film festival is the hardest night to program. Everyone wants to be there. Nobody wants to sit through the whole movie. Here's why. The Opening Night Paradox: Why the Biggest Festival Slot May Be the Worst Time to Watch a Film open.substack.com/pub/cinemainon…

Devil Wears Prada 2 hits $100M+ globally day one. Worth noting: audiences didn't just show up for the stars. They showed up for a film that takes journalism—and its collapse—seriously. Our full piece on what the film gets right open.substack.com/pub/cinemainon…

and on Apple podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/cin…

And link for the podcast on Spotify open.spotify.com/episode/4oCLM4…

The Devil Wears Prada was about gatekeepers. The Devil Wears Prada 2 is about what happens when the gates are still there, but the authority behind them is tenuous. We just analyzed how the film captures the real crisis in modern journalism.

I break down how it works—from inside the system. How critics lost the opening weekend: cinemainonetake.substack.com/p/how-critics-…

Critics haven’t disappeared. Their power is now conditional. Big-budget films with the resources to dominate visibility? Critics can be sidelined. Independent films, documentaries, limited releases? Critics still matter enormously.

Studios have figured out how to make critics irrelevant. Not by banning them. Not by ignoring reviews. By controlling the release sequence so that by the time critics publish, audiences have already committed. Michael is the test case.

Michael is now outpacing box office expectations. which is exactly the point of our essay from yesterday: critics and audiences are watching completely different films. The Michael Jackson Biopic and the Limits of Film Criticism open.substack.com/pub/cinemainon…

Here's the uncomfortable truth: critics reviewing films about Black artists often end up reviewing their own opinions instead of the film itself. we spent an episode unpacking how that shaped the reaction to Michael. open.substack.com/pub/cinemainon…