The Junketeers

Those were the daze..

Back in the “good ole days” before a global pandemic and the burgeoning breakdown of democracy there was a time where Hollywood had budgets and entertainment journalists from the four corners would gather in 5 star hotels across the world to worship at the altar of movie marketing. We call these gatherings “Junkets” and at those gatherings - LA, NYC, Tokyo, London, Paris, Sydney, Singapore - we would all lurk the corridors expectantly with our notebooks waiting outside hotel rooms for our 4 minute interview slots with the actors and filmmakers de jour. What a time to be alive!

For a wide-eyed bushy-tailed lil rookie kiwi film nerd, those early days stalking these haloed halls were lonely and fucking TERRIFYING.

Until I met Stevie.

I Hug Stevie

He enveloped me in his geekiness, welcomed me into his inner circle of cool cats - Didier (France/LA), Mathilde (Germany), Raya (London, Beirut, Dubai), Neala (Melbourne), Andrew (LA/OZ) and our beautiful Ward (Belgium) who we love so dearly and lost too soon and miss every day. This primo posse of international filmheads/journalists/critics/storytellers became my junket family, they kept the loneliness of being away from home so much at bay, helped me cope with the guilt and stress of being a working mum and took care of me in ways I’ll never forget.

20 years of friendship, 20 years together watching movies and talking to movie-makers and talking to each other about movies and moviemakers. It really was only a matter of time before Stevie and I took the obvious next step and RECORDED one of those chats - and so here we are!

Stevie’s fabulous film Substack

Asian A.V. Club

is a must follow and how stoked was I when he invited me to be his inaugural guest on his very first “What to Watch” Substack pod - what FUN! Trust me when I say this was in fact twice the length - Stevie had quite the edit trimming us down to an hour ha ha! So feel free to pop in your AirPods while you do some housework or have a wee lounge somewhere comfy as we cover quite a bit of ground ;) Stevie et all had just finished up their Cannes coverage and he has so much insight into this year’s fest and films, and then we dive into some of the big cinema and streaming shows out now.

We love you Stevie, our Commander in Chief Junketeer, thanks for having me and thanks for being my friend 🎬💘

Also Dear Kiwi Readers don’t forget Materialists has just landed in cinemas across the motu. You’ll find my full *spoiler-free* review from my previous edition of The Projector below:

PS I have the gift of a Zoom conversation with the brilliant Celine Song tomorrow morning, so will fire that up asap!

And speaking of spoilers, for those of you who HATE spoilers as much as

Karl Puschmann

and I do - click on his excellent RNZ story “Do spoilers need to shut their big mouths, or do spoiler-phobes need to get over it?”

And if you wanna know where I sit on this, and I quote:

“I fall in the camp where anyone who goes around spoiling movies for other people — including trailer makers — has a very special place in hell reserved just for them.”

Have a PHENOM weekend fab film fam and remember.. You're not a bitch. You're bitchin', but you're not a bitch.

KR xx