Today marks the streaming release of It’s What’s Inside, the wonderfully twisted new sci-fi thriller that Netflix acquired for $17 million from this year’s Sundance Film Festival. This movie is one of my favorites of the year so far, so naturally I was curious about writer and director Greg Jardine. It’s What’s Inside is his feature debut. He started making short films and music videos, and eventually got the chance to make a full-length feature. In the intervening years, he paid his living by overseeing promotions for Netflix shows, including series such as “13 Reasons Why” and “Wednesday.” One of Jardin’s promos in particular, created for the canceled live-action version of “Cowboy Bebop” starring John Cho, Daniela Pineda and Mustafa Shakir, captured the same kind of energy and It’s full of enthusiasm. That’s infused into his new feature film. Even though it’s been years since the show ended, this promo is still very original, fun, and well-executed, so if you’ve never seen (or even heard of) “Cowboy Bebop,” But I would argue it’s worth watching.
Cowboy Bebop: Lost Sessions is full of style
Impressive, right? I especially love what he’s doing here with split screen. He takes one of the oldest film techniques and bends and shapes it to suit his needs as a director. I can’t remember ever seeing story and form collide like this before. This short film is ostensibly just a commercial for a TV show, but I didn’t expect the characters to do something as creative and interesting as literally grabbing a screen-splitting barrier and wielding it as a weapon. Although critics enjoyed the show, the live-action version of “Cowboy Bebop” ultimately received poor reviews. When I shared this short story with a friend, she replied, “They could have shown it that way, but they didn’t?” I haven’t seen this show myself, so I can’t speak to whether it made sense to maintain this level of kinetic energy through multiple episodes, but either way, at least this promo is something to look back on. .
The same kind of freshness (including the fun use of split-screen and some of the same color palettes) is on full display in “It’s What Inside,” even though Netflix hasn’t done it yet. I highly recommend that you look for it. Tons to promote it. I had a chance to talk to Greg Jardine this week about the film, and I also asked him about The Lost Sessions. You can hear his answers on today’s episode of the /Film Daily podcast.
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