TGIF: The Afterparty S2

Roll that beautiful mind movie!

A few times this summer in the newsletter, I’ve mentioned how much I enjoyed the exuberant and daring Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. It’s a frequently imaginative and stunning film to behold, and the type of thing I expect to pore over on future viewings, less because of the intricacies of the story and more due to the intricacies of detail in each frame of the animation. You watch a movie like Across the Spider-Verse, and it’s at turns amazing and frustrating, the latter because you want more animated movies to look like this.

But, of course, for a movie to look that distinctive, it requires a great deal of man-hours and — in this specific film’s case — it requires a lot more than just the requisite blood, sweat, and tears. If you haven’t yet read this exploration of the unpleasant working environment alleged by some animators, you ought to. It’s not a flattering depiction of Phil Lord’s animation and management style, but sometimes it’s best to confront the grim truth of how great art comes to be.

I bring up that Vulture piece not to bemoan the fact that yet another person within the industry believes that to make something great, you have to suck people dry in a sense. (Though it remains vexing that so many in Hollywood seem to think you have to be shitty to do great things. You don’t!) What caught my eye — at least as it reflects to this post — is a sentence midway through: “Miller, for his part, was said to be MIA for much of the production.” That’s a reference to Chris Miller, one-half of the Lord-and-Miller production team that brought you the first Spider-Verse, the enormously funny Jump Street movies, and more. Though Miller is a credited executive producer, he was reportedly not as involved in the second Spider-Verse.

I would imagine he was focused on the second season of the Apple TV+ series The Afterparty, seeing as he’s credited with writing and directing a few episodes. And I hope that the production was less acrimonious.

I also wish that this follow-up was as successful as Across the Spider-Verse.