Inside the Wild World of a Film Critic

Film critic and entertainment journalist, Mara Reinstein joins host Sandra Abrams to talk about the state of the film industry from someone who covers it for a living. The life of an entertainment journalist may look glamorous, but it is not. Between the impossible deadlines when the Emmys run late, followed by an early morning screening for a major studio film, it can be a marathon for various publications. Reinstein also explains why large studios focus on remakes or franchises, fewer movies are in theaters, and the impact it has on the movie-going public. But there are a few breakout categories, and she gives insight into the new Tom Cruise movie, DIGGER, a satirical black comedy from director, Alejandro G. Inarritu, set for release in October 2026. Reinstein also shares more of her recommendations for movies to see this fall, plus she tells us about who her favorite actor was to interview - in a restaurant that was cleared out for their conversation!

Check out Mara's website at maramovies.com   

Transcript

Speaker 1:
Welcome to Media Makers Spotlight, I'm your host Sandra Abrams.

Speaker 2:
Are you the type of person who rushes to see a movie on opening day? Or are you someone who waits to hear what the critics have to say? Either way, this episode is for you.
Joining me today on the podcast is film critic and entertainment journalist, Mara Reinstead. Mara is going to share with us what films are coming up later this year and how the industry has changed, plus some funny stories. Welcome to MediaMaker Spotlight.
Hi, thank you for having me. So I read in your bio that you moderate Q&A with such places in the 92nd Street Y, the Directors Guild, Screen Actors Guild. And I even met you at the Annapolis Film Festival where you're doing a Q&A. So tell us, how did you get started in actually being a film critic?
And what are some of the publications that you contribute to?

Speaker 3:
I started extremely young. I was actually a teen movie critic. I grew up in Detroit, Metro Detroit, I should say.
And I was a teen critic for the Detroit News starting when I was 15 years old, if you can believe it. I mean, while I was still a sophomore in high school, I won a contest. I mean, I was always such a huge movie buff.
My dad took me to really inappropriate films starting at a very young age. So I put together at a very young age that if somehow I can make money watching movies, this is a path. And so I did that for a few years.
I went to college, studied journalism, and I was an entertainment journalist and then became an official movie critic again in 2011 for Us Weekly magazine.

Speaker 2:
So I want to go back to when you said your father took you to inappropriate. Anything you can share?

Speaker 3:
Oh, my God. Well, I mean, when I mean inappropriate, I mean, it really runs the gamut. Like he took me and my, I should say I have a twin brother.
And he just saw movies as a form of babysitting. So I remember he took us to see the movie. Well, he famously took us to see this B movie called Saturn 3, when we were like three, starring Farrah Faustin and Lee Majors, when we were like three or four years old, like this really like B movie science fiction thing.
And he took us to see Tootsie, again, when I was in kindergarten. He took us to see The Right Stuff. He took us to see Chariots of Fire.
Now, mind you, some of these are real classics. But when you're in kindergarten, you don't know about the war and chariots of fire and what was going on. I just sort of registered as it like two men in a race.
So with good music. Oh, yeah, it was. I'll tell you the one really funny story is that he took us also to see the movie Airplane.
Now, mind you, the movie Airplane came out, I believe it, 1979 or 1980. Yeah, 1979, right. Yeah, I was a toddler, a toddler.
I saw the movie as very literal, like they were really going to crash, that an inflatable doll was really going to land this airplane. And I was screaming bloody murder. I remember I had it. It's weird.
This is like one of my first memories of being alive. I had to be taken out of the theater because I was screaming. I was so scared for everybody.
And I did not understand satire. I couldn't even tie my shoes. How would I know what airplane is?
So that said, I did see some greats. I never said no when he took us to the movies. I always wanted to go.
So that is still a running joke in our family that we saw all these movies, like super, super young. We saw some Disney movies, too, but I don't remember crying at Bambi. I remember crying at Airplane.
So that basically sums it up.

Speaker 2:
It's true. That's fantastic, though. It really guided your path, though, for you.
So not everybody can say that you were set. And you started off screaming at one of your early screenings. You know, it's funny.

Speaker 3:
I still have a hard time watching the movie Airplane. I really do. It's sort of like this core memory of just being so upset watching it.
It's so weird how, like I said, kids won't watch Bambi. I won't watch Airplane because I remember just being so frightened. When the eggs came out of that woman's mouth, I think that's when I was screaming.
Remember, like, she's screaming and all of a sudden an egg comes out, then another egg comes out. I did not know what to make of it. I'm just like, ah!
So that was a horror movie to me. Yes.

Speaker 2:
well then if you uh screamed at airplane i i how did you get from new york down to the annapolis film festival did you fly down or did you touch it's so funny i travel so much for my job now

Speaker 3:
that i think nothing of it by the way i don't know if you remember but in apple when we did when we had the annapolis film festival that's when those all those horrible lines at tsa um because of the shut down. So I took the train, very grateful that I did not take an airplane. However, I would have been fine taking an airplane. Would I watch the airplane as the in-flight movie?

Speaker 2:
No. But, yeah. Well, speaking of the Annapolis Film Festival, so you did the Q&A. You were the moderator following uh tova phil shoots uh film tova which was uh i produced and directed by david and i may have his last name wrong serio serraro i believe is yeah yeah yeah yeah and he was a character unto itself but tova came out and she was like a spark plug you know after after the film. So how did that gig come about? Is there any backstory there? I was asked to moderate. I

Speaker 3:
moderated, I think, maybe 10 Q&As during that festival. I actually was a substitute. My friend Joe Neumeier is usually the, does a lot of the hosting and moderating for Annapolis. He had a prior commitment. He recommended that I step in. I was happy to do it. And also just that one Sunday morning was part of the Jewish festival experience and me being Jewish and a huge fan of Tova's.

Speaker 2:
Yeah, that was definitely a thrill for me. She was absolutely fantastic. I really enjoyed hearing what she had to say. And I just couldn't believe it. I was like, she's how old? And she had so much energy and then she was talking about how she went on that uh whatever was that huge hike whatever yeah mount kilomanger yeah yeah it's like what i'm like i barely i complain about walking to the

Speaker 3:
grocery store you know what's funny is that literally this past weekend um tova spoke speaking of my mom and dad. She spoke in Detroit at the JCC and apparently during the Q&A, again with David, and during the Q&A, apparently she was not happy that the swimming pool was not filled at the JCC because she couldn't do her laps. So she is, yes, extremely active. I believe she is 77 years old.

Speaker 2:
So yeah, an inspiration for all. Yes. Yeah, absolutely. Speaking of these Q&A, have you ever done one with somebody that you didn't like their film or you didn't really care for the person? Has that ever happened? I've done some for some not so great movies.

Speaker 3:
And you just, you know, it's part of the job. You just, once you're on the stage, you just kind of, there is always some redeeming quality in something and you just focus on that. Um, no, everyone for the most part is really, um, in terms of the talent and the behind the scenes, the director, the writer, as everyone is really amenable for the most part, because, you know, they're in front of an audience and even if they're having a bad day, they don't take it with them.
They're totally professional. Now I've had a few bad audience experiences. Oh, okay.
Please share. Oh, my gosh. This was, I'm going to say, maybe four years ago, I was doing a Q&A with the cast of Dexter. Not the original Dexter, the spinoff or the prequel, one of the Dexters, on Showtime, now Paramount+.
And, God, a guy from the audience just was hammering the director on something that had nothing to do with the show. Something like politics, but not politics. Like, something just indirect.
And I finally, I had to shut it down and just say, listen, let's stay on topic. But he just wouldn't let it go. And it was like a screen actor's guild.
Like, it wasn't some random person. Yeah, it was a private screening. It was uncomfortable because it was a private Q&A and the director of the show, I should add, that just never happens.
The next, Jay wrote me an email thanking me for the way I handled it because it could have gotten ugly in a hurry. And I have to say, none of the publicists or security people were doing anything about it. So either it was up to me or this guy was going to just take it over.
So it was a little messy. And always, like, when you open it up for audience, you know, there's always, it's always you just never know what you're going to get. In fact, for Tova, I specifically did not open it up for questions just because you just never know, especially what's going on in the world today, where it was going to go, some of those questions.
So, yeah, it's, they can be, the audience is definitely the wild card when you're moderating a panel.

Speaker 2:
It's really not the people on the stage. Well, let's switch gears and talk about some films. I read that you like to quote lines from The Devil Wears Prada.
Let's hear some of them. But how did they compare? Because now The Devil Wears Prada 2 was just out.
So there's no line.

Speaker 3:
This is this is we can do a whole podcast on The Devil Wears Prada. I love The Devil Wears. Unabashedly, I'm a fan.
I know that's on my bio. I think for Parade that I quoted every day. I wrote that bio in 2017.
I've never updated it. And even 10 years, that was 11 years since the original movie came out. It's now been 10 years since I wrote that bio.
And I still have friends and I, well, we will just say it in our text messages. We'll end it by saying that's all or am I reaching for the stars? We don't even do like the A-list quotes.
We'll do like the deep dive double wears product. I was being like, just saying the twins also need flip flops. Or where was that piece of paper I had in my hand yesterday?
Or I'm hearing this and I want to hear that. It's endlessly quotable, maybe because I just get so annoyed so easily and expect perfection like Miranda Paisley and Emily. But I think it is a that screenplay.
I understand that some of it was improvised. some of it was it actually in the screenplay some of those lines but oh my god those zingers will never get old they always apply not just in journalism and in terms of the sequel i was i was fairly disappointed you know really well yeah listen it i thought it was good to see everyone again it looked good i guess it's commendable that the screen writer brought the story of media into the 2026 lens, which is not good. But I didn't think the dialogue was sharp enough. I don't think people will be quoting anything from it in 20 years, let alone 20 months, who knows in 20 days. It's just, it wasn't as strong as it should have been. There were a lot of plot threads that didn't make sense to me. I've seen it twice already. I thought it wasn't bad. It just, with the first one, you know, is the gold standard. There was bound to be some disappointment otherwise.

Speaker 2:
I'm sorry to hear that because I haven't gone and I was thinking I definitely want to see it.

Speaker 3:
So see it, but just keep expectations in check. Okay. All right. No, that's good to know. Now,

Speaker 2:
you mentioned you saw this film twice. What's your normal, I guess, MO for, you know, screening? Because I also read that somewhere you went to the Emmys and then the next morning at nine o' clock on a Monday, you were screening one battle after another. I was like, is that normal for you?

Speaker 3:
Go do that. Okay. That's actually not quite accurate, but it was still insane. I write quite a bit for the Television Academy, which of course puts on the Emmys. I wrote, the Emmys were on a Sunday night, I had to turn around a cover story for Emmy Magazine that night. So I was not at the Emmys because I had to write about the Emmys. So I watched the Emmys, which of course in New York,

Speaker 2:
they go past 11, wrote a 2,000 word story. That's a lot. I know. It was a lot.
Yeah, when I was a print person, I did, you know, 700 or something. Well, it was a cover story. Yeah, it's a cover story for a magazine.

Speaker 3:
So, yeah, that's typical for a print story. Now, the funny part of all this, first of all, was like, of course, I was freaking out about the deadline, getting it all turned around, making a cohesive story. So I thought I would be smart and pre-write some of it with the idea that the show Severance was going to win the top prize.
So I had this lead all ready to go. Like, I'm going to save myself some time. Almost like I'm a sports reporter sort of pre-write it with the team winning.
And then at the bottom of the ninth, they come back. So what happened was that Severance got completely shut out on the Emmys, except for like a couple of wars. The Pit won everything.
Noah Wiley won. It won for Best Drama. I had to start from scratch anyway.
All my pre-planning was for naught. And yeah, I just sort of got in a mode. I did it.
And the next morning at 10 a.m. was that screening for one battle after another. There was no way I was missing it. I went to Starbucks.
The crazy part is that the Starbucks across from the movie theater closed the very next week. So that Starbucks on the Upper West Side on 68th and Broadway saved me. But you know what?
One battle after another, Starbucks or no. That was such a compelling movie that I did not even close my eyes for two seconds. Maybe I was just completely amped up from basically pulling an all-nighter. So I had to turn around the official Emmy story for Emmy magazine about the Emmys and then go see one battle after another.
And that night I moderated a panel, by the way. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, I moderated a panel that night.
So I got back, took a nap, got changed, obviously, and then headed over to, I believe that was at the Director's Guild. So that was a very high stress, but fun 24 hours in my career. They're not like that.
Usually that's a once in a year phenomenon if that would happen. But that was basically gives you an idea of what a very high stakes day as an entertainment

Speaker 2:
journalist really is. Oh, it sounds like it. No.

Speaker 1:
Yeah.

Speaker 2:
And I know that area. I used to live in 84th and Columbus. Oh, okay.
Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny.
I used to live on 85th and Columbus.

Speaker 3:
I don't anymore. But yeah, they closed a bunch of Starbucks on the Upper West Side.

Speaker 2:
Very important. And it sounds like critical to your job. So, you know.

Speaker 3:
I mean, that morning, I just was like, I don't care if I'm one minute late. I am going to get that Starbucks in hand for that 10 a.m. And it's funny that that theater is very famous. It's the Lincoln Center and the Lincoln Square.
Yeah. And depending on the time of day, I would either grab a, I don't drink coffee. So I would grab a tea.
Or if it's later in the day, I go to Grey's Papaya and just grab like a hot dog and a papaya juice just to get me something in my system before I hear it for one of those screenings. Because they're usually at like dinner time or at breakfast time. And you got to have something.
It's a, yeah.

Speaker 2:
Not that I recommend eating a hot dog, but sometimes you say, you don't hear my, you know, people promoting Grey's Papaya. Grey's Papaya! I mean, outside in New York, you know, people don't really understand that, you know. It's the best.

Speaker 1:
It's 30 seconds.

Speaker 3:
You plop down like four bucks. You get a dog and a papaya juice. Salty and sweet.
It does the job. And like, it's four blocks away. And then by the time you finish it, you're at the theater.
You're good to go. It's my little hack.

Speaker 2:
All right. Hear that, everybody? She's giving us some tips here.
I wanted to, you know, speaking, so it was The Devil Wears Prada 2, but there's a lot of, I guess, movies in a series. I don't want to say remakes, but, you know, there's Fast and Furious. I think they're up to like number 20 or something.

Speaker 1:
Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 2:
Glass Onion, Knives Out is coming out with another one. And, you know, what do you, you know, what does it say about the industry and what's your take on, you know, when you go to you screen these films? Because it's like one more.
It seems like it's, oh, is it the same Mission Impossible? Yes, Tom Cruise is great, but. This is what it is.

Speaker 3:
Although I will say, I think people treat this as like a new phenomenon. this summer you can go back to like the summer of 1989 and you would see sequels to indiana jones and ghostbusters so it's not like this just happened but the the difference is that in 1989 you also had dead poet society and so many other classics just during that summer alone so there used to be much more of a mix whereas now it's really the familiar the familiar is going to drive in people. Maybe it's sequels. Maybe it's a biopic to Michael Jackson. Maybe it's a Minecraft movie, but it's called IP, intellectual property. So there's some sort of familiarity walking into a theater because it drives audiences. They want Delors Prada. No, even Delors Prada was based on a book. The original wasn't completely original. So that's just what the audience craves. And listen, The movie-going experience has been in dire straits really ever since the pandemic.
It took such a hit. I think even if you saw the movies, the lineup between 2019 and now, you would see more original offerings on top of the familiar. You had a Once Upon a Time in Hollywood on top of Avengers Endgame.
So you don't really have that anymore. You will get a few. There's a new Steven Spielberg movie out this summer.
By the time this airs, maybe it'll already have been out. But there are always going to be a little bit of that. That adult-oriented, original drama.
It's really very rare. Even the biggest one we've had this year is Project Hail Mary, also based on a book. So we don't see it very often anymore at all.

Speaker 2:
Well, speaking of movies that are coming out, can you share with us, you know, what movies are coming up either later this summer or into the fall? Anything that's on your radar? Yeah, there are a couple of movies on my radar, two especially.

Speaker 3:
Well, really three. The first one is the sequel to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, only because Quentin Tarantino, one of my favorites, has not written anything since that movie, which was already seven years ago. And it's directed by the great David Fincher.
So I'm really, yeah, who, you know, who's done? I haven't loved a few of his most recent ones. I didn't love Mank.
But listen, the guy is a master starting. I mean, there's such dumb a list that seven in the game. I really am a fan of Fincher's work, Quentin Tarantino, Brad Pitt.
So I'm curious about that. But that's also a Netflix release. So I don't know.
I don't know. We'll see if it gets a big theatrical rollout or not. I'm really curious about the social network sequel.
There's going to be a sequel to that. Yeah, it's the social reckoning. Speaking of, there you go, David Fincher directed the original.
I knew I was missing a big one. He directed that. However, for this one, it's Aaron Sorkin who won an Oscar for a screenplay.
He's writing and he's directing. I don't think he's the greatest director. Like, I didn't love the being the Ricardos movie.
Molly's game went on for too long. Like, it just, we'll see. And most importantly, Jesse Eisenberg is not playing Mark Zuckerberg.
Jeremy Strong from Succession is. Jeremy Strong is. Yeah.
Okay, all right. I mean, I loved him in Succession. Sure. But like, I just associate on screen Mark Zuckerberg with Jesse Eisenberg. So it might take a minute for me to adjust. And I'm not sure what the story involves a journalist exposing some corruption. Jeremy Allen White, Mikey Madison are in it as well. It's a big question mark, but I love social networks so much. It's one of the great movies of the 21st century. My opinion should have won Best Picture. It didn't. So I'm curious about that. And then the biggest question mark is this movie called Digger. It's an Alejandro Iñárritu movie who did The Revenant and Birdman.
The reason why I'm singling it out is because this is a movie that stars Tom Cruise. And we haven't seen Tom Cruise really do a non-action, non-Mission Impossible Top Gun. Like, talk about it. He's such an IP guy these days. We've even seen him really bust those acting shops in many years. And he has not paired up with an Oscar-winning director in many years. I mean, we're talking, I could probably go back decades. So I'm not really sure. There's a lot of mystery about Digger as to what it's about, what his role is. It's apparently a comedy, but obviously it's not going to be a traditional comedy.
But we know Tom Cruise can do comedy because he popped up in Tropic Thunder. That movie is almost 20 years ago, though, at this point. Tropic Thunder, he played the movie executive, and that was a Ben Stiller movie.
He played his scenes with Beth McConaughey. He was great in it, but it was really broad and comedic. But he was a stand-up.
So we'll see what Digger really is. But it's going to be... I am an unapologetic Tom Cruise fan.
I know it's hard to explain away whatever he does off camera, but as an actor, the guy is still a movie star. I think he makes some interesting choices. And I'm really curious to see what this is all about.
If anyone is due for an Oscar in Hollywood, it is Tom Cruise. He is way overdue. Should have won for Jerry Maguire 30 years ago.
And you could argue he brought the industry back from the pandemic with Top Gun Maverick. So this is something that a lot of critics are really, really itching to see. And like I said, it's called Digger.
And it's coming out this fall.

Speaker 2:
Is there any independent films that you are hearing any buzz about that sometimes can, you know, everything everywhere all at once and movies like that suddenly come out of nowhere. and then they become the darling. Is there any buzz that you're hearing on any of those?

Speaker 3:
Well, listen, it's hard to say in early May. We're a few weeks out from the Cannes Film Festival. That's when things really start when you get an anatomy of a fall or a parasite.
Those all started out with zero buzz. And I mean, zero ahead of Cannes. And then they popped in Cannes.
They won big prizes and they won Oscars. So if you interviewed me a month from now, I would have better answers. And then the fall film festivals is when Telluride, New York, Toronto, that's when you also get some of these indie movies that a few of the right critics see them, they get buzz, and all of a sudden people are like that.
The only thing I would say, because this literally happened today, is that A24 released the trailer for this Anthony Bourdain biopic. Ooh. And yeah, it's set in the 1970s before he became Anthony Bourdain.
It stars an actor named Dominic Sessa, I think is his name. He was in the movie The Holdovers with Paul Giamatti a few years ago. Paul Giamatti was nominated for an Oscar for that.
Divine Joy Randolph won the Oscar for that. So I read Bourdain's Kitchen Covidentials like this classic memoir. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2:
I think everybody who has read that, I mean, I was like, you know, yeah, my nephew gave me that book and I couldn't put it down.

Speaker 3:
Oh, it's so good. I mean, no one eats fish in restaurants on Mondays because of that book. But he told some wild stories about growing up on the East Coast.
Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And so I don't know what this movie will be.
A24 is a movie studio that always picks up some interesting choices along the way. Marty Supreme was last year they did it. That was in everything, everywhere all at once was in A24.
So right at this moment in early May when we're recording this, that's my pick. Watch it go nowhere.

Speaker 2:
But that's my answer for now. Any animated films that you're hearing about?

Speaker 3:
Toy Story 5?

Speaker 2:
Really?

Speaker 3:
Okay. Sure.

Speaker 2:
Why not?

Speaker 3:
I mean, Toy Story is still the gold standard for all Pixar movies. It really is, especially those first three. They're amazing.
So we'll see. We'll see. It's the only one that comes to mind right now, but for good reason.
And yeah, it's been over 30 years crazy enough since that first one. So we will see. But yeah, Toy Story 5, you never know.
Those movies, they really have got to build some buzz. It's, again, other than Pixar, you're just going to... Oh, you know what?
Actually, I take that back. I heard The Sheep Detectives was really good. I heard that today at a screening.
I believe Hugh Jackman is in it. I think it's like a hybrid, but keep your eye out on The Sheep Detectives also.

Speaker 2:
The Sheep Detectives.

Speaker 3:
Yeah. All right. I literally heard it.
I had two screenings today. And in the elevator on the way down from screening number two, a critic told me how much he loved it. So there you go. Haunt up the press.

Speaker 2:
Chief detectives. A lot of people, you know, hear about entertainment journalists and they think red carpet. You know, what about you? Have you done the red carpet? Do you have any stories?

Speaker 3:
You know, anything you can share? I haven't done a red carpet in at least 25 years. I hate doing red carpets. I did them very early on in my career. Some people are great at it. I have a friend who does it all the time for a TV station in LA. I find it like, I just, it's not for me. I do not like standing there with a tape recorder or a biker phone waiting for a celebrity to walk by to give you 30 seconds of their time when they're not going to get anything interesting out of them other than why did you pick this role?
So red carpet reporting is not for me. I do a lot of more in-depth interviews. I do quite a bit of those.

Speaker 2:
Tell us about a legend you spoke to that you just really enjoyed speaking with.

Speaker 3:
I have to say, and I always say, I will always regret in 2018, I had a private breakfast with Robert Redford and Sissy Spacek in an Upper East Side hotel. So wonderful. And they cleared out the entire, it was a restaurant inside a hotel.
They cleared out the entire restaurant. So it was literally me and the two of them. And I always regret not asking a waiter to take a photo of it.
Because I don't ask celebrities for their photos after, I mean, one in a thousand, maybe. But I was definitely not going to do it for Sissy's Basin and Robert Redford. But I have the interview and I have the story and I have the memory and I have the memory of Robert Redford.
ordering a chicken salad sandwich off the menu and talking to him about Sundance. He's eating this big sandwich, but I don't have like a visual of it.

Speaker 1:
And I'm just like, that was once in a lifetime.

Speaker 3:
I mean, listen, I've interviewed, like I said, I just interviewed Sally Field a few weeks ago. I've been on the phone with Clint Eastwood. Like I have like real, Dick Van Dyke. I mean, just like real, real legends. But to have a private breakfast with like two of the greats just is always going to be a highlight for me.

Speaker 2:
It sounds like that was a dream interview. No.

Speaker 3:
Oh, I was so nervous. I should also add that I've interviewed Michael J. Fox twice. He was like my childhood crush.
He was like my hero. Like, I just I've never been more nervous in my life. I was more nervous ahead of the Michael J. Fox interview than the Redbird Breakfast because I just like I just love Michael J. Fox so much.
I wasn't sure given his condition. Like I was a little bit nervous about how I was going to play out, but he could not have been nicer and more personal. And he this is a great story, but I don't think if you go to New York City, he has a bench.
He has a bench in Central Park and Grave that his wife, Tracy Pollan, gave him for his birthday. And it's so, I knew this bench existed. I've never been able to find it.
And he told me exactly where the bench was. And he set me on this like scavenger hunt. And I'm literally like, you know, listening to the audio recording of this interview.
He gave me like these exact directions. And I found the bench and I was so proud of myself. and it says like to Mike Fox and Gus, Gus was his dog at the time, real New Yorkers.
And it's so hard to find. It's like on a second level, there's a second level in one of the areas of Central Park. And when I found it, it was like the golden ticket at Willy Wonka.
So I was just like, I thought it was so cool that he was so, that he told me where it was. He sort of gave me the secret and he was a great guy. I just interviewed him again in the fall.
So just as a, like, Redford was obviously iconic, but Michael J. Fox will always be one of my favorites, too.

Speaker 2:
All right. Challenge to the audience. You have to go to Central Park and you have to find the Michael J. Fox bench. I've had all the clues.

Speaker 3:
I've had friends who were like, Mara, send me the transcript. I need to find it. Like, I just, it is, it is so tough.
It was like literally me with a tapering corner. I'm not tapering over my phone and the earphones on a Sunday morning being like, I am determined. But my big hint is that it's on a second level.
So I didn't even know a second level. I lived in New York for almost 30 years. I did not even know that there was a second level to Central Park that even existed.
But there is. All right.

Speaker 2:
Well, I used to live there as well. So I'll have to think about where that was. Yes.
Anyway. All right. This is a challenge, everybody.

Speaker 3:
Throw it down. if you see it take a photo and send it to me well anything else that you wanted to share about uh

Speaker 2:
the the uh industry the entertainment industry that you think is relevant and you know important for people to understand just please keep supporting the entertainment industry it really

Speaker 3:
hasn't recovered since covid there were two strikes in 2023 the writer's strike and the actor's strike Like, it's just always an uphill battle. There's constant layoffs in the media. Disney, it's powerful as Disney is.
They just did like a thousand person layoff. So these are not easy times. Just keep going to the movies.
Keep, you know, don't be so cynical about the offerings. And keep reading journalists and supporting your favorite journalists as well.

Speaker 2:
Right. Well, where can people find you? you have a website yeah i have like a regular regular you know once a month you're putting something out you know i i i wish i had a better answer for this um because my job is so crazy and

Speaker 3:
i write for like 12 different outlets um on a regular basis uh so i do have a website it's maramovies.com however i really don't update it but that's where you get all the information about who I am and some of my previous reviews, a lot of my reviews, weirdly enough, are not online. They're in print. They're in Us Weekly. They're in Reader's Digest. Print, print, print. So they're really hard to find, which is super unfortunate for me. I also stopped posting to Rotten Tomatoes a few years ago because I found Rotten Tomatoes to be really corrupt. And that's a whole other conversation. So sorry to bring it out of downer. To answer your question, I'm on Twitter at Mara Reinstein. I'm on Instagram at Mara Movies. I post a lot of my stuff on Facebook. You can friend me.
But I write every, I have a story that posts almost every single day. I'm writing a story as soon as I get off this podcast, I'm going to be writing. I'm going to finish a story. I'm writing a movie review tomorrow. So I'm constantly busy. I'm everywhere. And yeah, that's the life of a freelance entertainment journalist. But I should be better. Now that I'm saying this out loud, I should be better about social media. But you know what? Like, I'm also just, I'd rather be writing than constantly posting. That's just the way I am. I'm a hustler in that sense where I'd sooner be, you know, emailing an editor about work than just posting random opinions.
And it's hard on social media also to post, be honest, because it's just tough. You know, you don't want to say the wrong thing. And then a publicist, this is kind of a whole other podcast conversation.
You say you hate a movie on Twitter, you might not get access to interviewing the star for the next movie. So it's really a dance. It's a really complicated dance that no one wants to talk out loud about.
But I have to be super careful because the journalists don't have power. The talent holds power. There's a whole food chain.
And sometimes the journalists are unfairly on the bottom of the food chain. So I am not going to tweet something controversial, even if I'm thinking it, if it means that I lose access because I still have to pay my rent. It doesn't mean I'm going to lie.
It means I'd rather say nothing. I'd rather say nothing than say, I hated your movie and it deserves to go away. It deserves to go away.
I mean, but there are movies that are like that. I'm not going to do it. I'm in no position to do it.
So I'm just going to post my stories. There are a lot of critics who are completely authentic and they will speak the truth. but a lot of them also go to premieres and they are influenced by you know they again everyone is just still trying to get a seat at the table even in 2026 i don't care how many decades you've been in this industry for you want to sit at the table you don't want to be kicked out of the room and if it means liking a movie a little bit more than they deserve then that's the price to pay because journalism is in a perilous state. Entertainment is in a perilous state. But there's, I would like to think that it's not ever going to really go away. And that as long as, you know, people still love it, the journalists still have a passion for it, people still have a passion for it,

Speaker 2:
that it's going to sustain in some form. Thank you, Mara, for coming to MediaMaker Spotlight. Thank you for your insight. I loved all the honesty you had. That was fantastic.

Speaker 1:
I heard about some upcoming films.

Speaker 2:
We heard about the reality of what's happening in the industry. And we also heard, you know, the reality of what it's like to be an entertainment journalist. You know, to be a freelancer. And that was great information. Great advice for everybody.

Speaker 1:
So thank you so much.

Speaker 3:
Listen, it's not easy. But you know what? I wouldn't want any other career.
That's the bottom line. Just to leave it on that note for all my, like, the sky is falling. If you told me tomorrow, like, oh, do you want to go work at this office job and be an accountant, no offense to the accountants of the world, including members of my own family, not a chance.
I love what I do. I will never complain about seeing two movies in a day. It is, in some ways, I am definitely lucky and fortunate to have my job.
And I hope it continues for many years to come.

Speaker 2:
I'm sure it will. No, this was fantastic. Thank you for joining us on Media Maker Spotlight.
You can send us your comments. And folks, if you want to tell us what's your favorite film or a film that you're looking forward to see, send us an email to podcast at wif.org. That's W-I-F-V for women in film and video dot org.

Speaker 1:
Thanks for listening to Media Maker Spotlight from women in film and video. To learn more about WIF, visit wif.f as in Frank, v as in Victor.org. This podcast is produced by Sandra Abrams, Candice Block, Brandon Ferry, Tara Jabari, and Jerry Reinhart, and edited by Michelle Kim, with audio production and mix by Steve Lack, Audio, and Ed Saltzman. Subscribe to continue learning from more amazing media makers. Please visit MediaMakerSpotlight.com for more information.