Category: media

Many filmgoers say they believe sound levels have been crawling up the decibel scale, and not just for the adverts and trailers. Several sufferers also argued that a lack of balanced settings in an auditorium can create an unpleasant booming sensation. – The Observer (UK)

Taika Waititi’s new movie Jojo Rabbit is far from the first movie to satirize the genocidal leader. But many people object to the movie on pure concept. “Is it right to make comedy of a man who did such transcendently horrible things?” – Slate

Uh-oh, Ang Lee, what happened to you? “If you’re wondering why a filmmaker as good as Ang Lee couldn’t, in this case, see the forest for the schlock, the answer may be that Gemini Man, which was shot at 120 frames per second, indicates that he’s become an apostle of technology first and a filmmaker second. He’s been to the mountaintop and has seen the light of high frame rate. He wanted a big dazzling action movie to hang his new world on, and he found one.” – Variety

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is making a lot of movies and TV in Utah. “This year, BYU Broadcasting, which owns BYUtv, is in production on 25 shows including TV movies, scripted dramas, reality shows, religious content and a cooking show. It is staffed by 158 full time employees, more than 200 students who work part time, and a small army of freelancers who operate in just about every job, from directors and producers to grips and production assistants.” – The New York Times

Of the world’s 6000 languages, half are in linguistic collapse. A new film records their music. “The musical landscape is sometimes gentle, sometimes aggressive, but it always keeps our attention on the rich, incomprehensible, often overlapping chorus of words.” – The New York Times

Films like Always Be my Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Farewell, and Searching create new images for larger mass consumption. “In these complex films, Asian American mothers are transmitters of domesticity, culture, and care, and their tragic deaths leave behind relatives who are struggling to find themselves in their absence. It’s a new and different kind of familial negotiation for Asian American families. On many shows, including All American Girl and Fresh off the Boat, Asian mothers are immigrants whose accents and domineering personalities are played for comedic relief.” – Bitch

Apparently this is, or was, a new process; “Digital humans have been put into shots before, but, according to Guy Williams, a visual effects supervisor at Weta who is quoted in the film’s press notes, ‘this is the first time where one of the leading characters of the film is a totally recognizable human.'” The details are new, but the fountain of youth for established actors isn’t (think, if you will, of Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury and Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson in the set-in-the-early-1990s Captain Marvel). Will Smith’s digitally ageless baby face might be a harbinger of many, many movies to come. – The New York Times

“The final episode of Studio 360 will air in February, … [and] host Kurt Andersen’s role with the program will end later this month. … John Barth, PRX’s chief content officer, would not discuss details about why the program is ending … [and] PRX spokesperson David Cotrone said only that Studio 360 is being canceled ‘for a variety of factors.'” – Current

“Bong’s last two films, 2013’s Snowpiercer and 2017’s Okja, were his first to be made in English: they weren’t exactly misfires, either critically or commercially, yet both clearly had designs on being bigger deals than they were. … A globally minded film-maker with big-dreaming genre nous, he spent the last few years making a bid for mainstream Hollywood clout, only to finally make an international phenomenon from his own doorstep.” – The Guardian