“Sadly, I was the last editor of the magazine”
What Steven asked Matt Maytum, film critic at the Movie Wingman, and the final editor of Total Film magazine.
Matt Maytum is a film critic at the Movie Wingman and the final editor of Total Film magazine. Once Steven got over his jealousy, he met Matt at the Nutmegs Patisserie in Rainham to talk about what happened to the magazine, why he launched a Substack newsletter, and how he overcame his fan status to interview Chris Nolan.
What is your official occupation?
I'm a freelance writer and film critic at the moment.
Do you have any other additional roles, either paid or unpaid?
I'm helping out on a small independent website called Celluloid Junkie. They cover the exhibition side of the industry. That is equivalent of one day a week.
Where can people look to find your film criticism?
I suppose the best place would be Movie Wingman on Substack.
Anywhere else?
I'm on Twitter and Instagram.
I also do reviews for twice-weekly and SFX magazine, and a couple of other outlets
What is the Movie Wingman?
The Movie Wingman is a twice-weekly email newsletter, and it basically came about because I worked for Total Film magazine for a long time. I started there on staff in 2012, and then I worked through various roles on the website or magazine. Finally, I was the editor of the magazine, but sadly, I was the last editor of the magazine. It closed fairly shortly after I became editor.
Correlation or causation?
I like to think correlation. It was very sad.
The Movie Wingman was basically a way to try and keep writing about film, quality film writing, as I hoped it would be. Exploring a new format basically.
Is the Movie Wingman just you?
It's me and a couple of colleagues from Total Film. We share it really.
I brought the idea up, but we equally wanted to get into it. I didn't want there to be a real hierarchy when we got that because I kind of thought we're all investing our own time and everything into it. If they wanted to get on board, it's all equal partners.
We want there to be a place for the smaller releases to get reviewed as well
What movies do you cover?
We cover quite a spread really, another thing that was a bit of a driving force behind it. We'll always lead on the most mainstream film of the week. Basically, on Tuesdays, we have our features email. It could be anything from a think piece, an interview or coverage of a press conference, reactions to some big film news. Then Fridays, we have a review round up. We try to cover all the key releases, but we try to cover quite broadly where we can, documentary releases, foreign language and things like that. Again, that was a part of the thinking behind it. A lot of websites now, because of chasing the SEO and the traffic, they'll cover all the biggest films and TV shows. We were thinking we want there to be a place for the smaller releases to get reviewed as well.
When I first contacted you about an interview, you weren't sure whether Movie Wingman would survive. Is it doing okay?
We slightly changed. When we first started, it was paid. We did a paid tier on Substack and a free tier, and we explored different things, but it was mostly that the first half of the email was generally free, and then the second half was for paying subscribers.
I recognise the model…
To be honest, the paying subscribers never really grew that much. After a fair bit of thought, we just want to see if that's putting people off as a barrier to people joining. We thought we would rather grow the audience and make a small amount more money off it. I guess this is where maybe if you can bring it to people's eyes, people might try it out. It's all free now, you get both emails.
The Movie Wingman
Do you still get to go to press screenings?
That was another thing that was beneficial. We thought because of having all these contacts already through Total Film and then as a member of the London Critics' Circle film section as well. That provides contacts, and they do a lot of screenings when it comes to the awards season as well. I still get to go to a lot of press screenings, which is obviously good, so you can review things in a timely manner and hopefully have all the new big releases reviewed in time for that Friday edition rather than having to run the next week.
What happened to Total Film?
It was a number of things basically, because it wasn't the lowest selling magazine at Future Publishing by any means at all, but it was fairly expensive to produce. The words and use of high-end photography.
That was the short answer. They deemed it too expensive to continue.
I suppose I knew in my mind it wouldn't last forever, because of print being in permanent decline. But I was taken aback, because I didn't expect it to happen like it did and that quickly. We did all we could in terms of proposing budget cuts and things like that. But the higher-ups deemed it not feasible. I don't agree with the decision.
It was sad because I'd been a reader since my teens. I was sad as an employee and as a reader.
As a style guide, is there a significant difference in the way you'd write a review for Total Film to now writing for NME or SFX?
Not massively, no. I suppose you always take a slight awareness of the audience into consideration. Broadly speaking, with NME and SFX, I would consider them similar audiences. If I was writing for a very different publication, maybe I would change the style, but not too much. Generally, we are writing in the third-person. Occasionally, in the Movie Wingman, we do first-person pieces, but reviews are still pretty much always third-person.
In the world of film criticism, what is an unpopular opinion that you have?
I wasn't blown away by One Battle After Another, Sinners, Marty Supreme. I know a lot of people who were just absolutely blown away by those films.
What should have won last year?
One of my favourite films, I mean again it's tricky because there's certain types of films, but out of the best pictures, I love The Secret Agent, which was this Brazilian film. That was maybe one of my favourites out of the selection. It was unjustly denied. A really small British film as well, that I hoped might do a bit better than it did in terms of awards. It didn't really even do much at the BAFTAs, although it got a few nominations, was The Ballad of Wallis Island. I really loved that film, and it stuck with me. There are not enough people watching it.
Who is the most famous film person you are one degree of separation from?
I don’t know if I've got any that I could truly say I'm one degree of separation to. I interviewed Christopher Nolan quite a lot of times for Total Film. I sort of have ways I could try and get in contact, but I can't guarantee a response.
Generally, the giddiness comes out after you leave the room
Being such a fan, what's your advice to someone in terms of how to keep your cool in that moment of interviewing?
It's difficult. I suppose for me, how I've always felt is that you just get in the zone when you go into it, and you're thinking about the piece and making sure you do it right. And yeah, try not to embarrass yourself.
Generally, the giddiness comes out after you leave the room. I don't really know to be honest. I guess it's practice as well over the years. You're unlikely to ever go straight in with your absolute favourite. You're probably going to work your way up a bit with smaller names. I guess I did that a bit and got used to it. I would say as well, I still always feel a little bit of nerves before an interview. The classic thing that if you don't feel a bit nervous, maybe it's time to stop or something. I always have that slight edginess.
Obviously, a lot of the time when you interview people, or when I've interviewed people for work, it’s in quite a formal, arranged set up. You go to this hotel, and you're meeting at this time, and it's arranged by PRs. But then, I still get weirdly excited if you just bump into someone in real life. Once I’d been to Comic Con or somewhere like that, and I was flying back, and Tom Hardy was on the same plane. Then he was at the luggage carousel, and that felt more weird and more exciting than when you go and actually speak to someone in this agreed set up.
