David Sims

New York

Staff Writer at The Atlantic

Co-Host at Blank Check with Griffin & David

we are in a cage (Staff Writer @TheAtlantic | Host @blankcheckpod)

Articles

Hollywood Is Hiding Behind Live-Action Remakes

2 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

There’s a coincidental yet meaningful connection between two of this summer’s buzziest movies. The new Lilo & Stitch and How to Train Your Dragon are both remakes; beyond that, they’re both live-action adaptations of animated films—each of which happened to have been co-directed by Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders. Lilo & Stitch has made a fortune at the box office since its late-May debut; How to Train Your Dragon, which opens today, seems similarly poised for success.
Dua Lipa finally confirms she’s engaged to Callum Turner

2 weeks ago | newsini.com | David Sims

Dua Lipa confirmed to British Vogue that she’s engaged to Callum Turner. Dua Lipa finally confirmed she’s engaged to Callum Turner. “Yes, we’re engaged,” she told British Vogue in an interview that took place in mid-April but was published Thursday. “It’s very exciting.” The singer, 29, went on to detail that the actor designed her sparkling ring after talking to her best friends and sister. “I’m obsessed with it. It’s so me.
‘John Wick: Ballerina’ and the Trouble With Spin-Offs

2 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

What makes the John Wick movies work isn’t the premise—that John Wick, the character, is a man out for vengeance. Yes, that was the breathless elevator pitch of the first Wick installment, a cult hit in 2014 whose plot my colleague Sophie Gilbert effortlessly summed up as: “An idiot killed his puppy and now everyone must die.” But Wick (played by Keanu Reeves) became the face of a billion-dollar franchise because of the strange, darkly cartoonish universe around him.
How to Root for a Merciless Man, According to Wes Anderson

3 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

The Manhattan hotel at which I’m interviewing Wes Anderson has striking views of Central Park out of its windows. Looming a little more ominously, however, is the Trump International Hotel and Tower, one of the president’s many jutting edifices dotted around the globe. I wouldn’t have noted it, except that Anderson’s new film, The Phoenician Scheme, is about a tycoon with hands in many pots: arms dealing, manufacturing, large-scale infrastructure projects.
Horror Movies Don’t Need to Be Highbrow

4 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

The horror genre has come to feel oversaturated with message films: artistically rendered stories that use scares less to frighten and more to manifest psychological or philosophical themes. So when the Philippou brothers—a pair of Australian directors (and twins) who got their start on YouTube—premiered their feature debut, Talk to Me, it felt like a burst of youthful energy.
What ‘Mission: Impossible’ Couldn’t Actually Do

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

Ethan Hunt, Tom Cruise’s most enduring role, was rarely much more than a name. That’s the point of him; as the Mission: Impossible franchise’s secret agent extraordinaire, Hunt can pretend to be anyone, accomplish basically any physical task, and uncover conspiracies with aplomb. He’s a cross between James Bond and a vaudeville performer. But personality was not part of that package, and a backstory was entirely superfluous.
What Horror Films Could Learn From ‘Final Destination’

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

Final Destination, as a horror franchise, is known for its reliable results. Each of its first five movies begins with someone having a premonition of a terrible disaster (a plane crash, a highway pileup, a roller-coaster accident), persuading a group to avoid it, and then spending the rest of the movie dodging the Grim Reaper, who seeks to collect the souls he lost. Death exists in these films as an amorphous concept; there’s no cloaked villain carrying a scythe.
The Problems That Trump’s Hollywood Tariffs Wouldn’t Solve

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

Hollywood trade publications often call attention to how the film industry is in danger: If a hotly anticipated movie bombs at the box office, it’s evidence of people not going to theaters anymore; if a studio shelves a completed film in exchange for a tax write-off, it’s a sign of diminished optimism in cinema both commercially and artistically.
No One Knows How to ‘Save’ Hollywood

1 month ago | yahoo.com | David Sims

Hollywood trade publications often call attention to how the film industry is in danger: If a hotly anticipated movie bombs at the box office, it’s evidence of people not going to theaters anymore; if a studio shelves a completed film in exchange for a tax write-off, it’s a sign of diminished optimism in cinema both commercially and artistically.
Why I Thought I’d Hate (And Grew to Love) ‘Taskmaster’

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | David Sims

For ages, various friends of mine recommended that I check out Taskmaster, a British comedy game show in which a group of five comedians earn points by completing a series of silly challenges. The show, which first premiered in 2015, has crossed the ocean in recent years to become a word-of-mouth hit, with fans drawn to its comic hijinks and nonsensical premise. Yet every time my friends nudged me toward Taskmaster, I’d wrinkle my nose.