David Thomson: “The shrewdest thing to say about Pauline Kael – beyond recognising that she was essential – is that she was kind of crazy. Yet determined to seem rational or in control.”
Kate Muir: “Her language is spankingly crisp and her reactions that of a ticket-buying human, not someone sweating ink as they try to impress.” – The Guardian
Category: media
TV Academy Disqualifies Actors For Conspiring To Vote Emmys Together
According to a Wednesday memo sent to the group and obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, a few members were found to have engaged in or advocated for block voting. That is to say, they discussed voting with other members of the group with the intention of all voting for one or more specific projects. – The Hollywood Reporter
How Disney Has Been Redirecting The Fairy-Tale Notions Of Love It Did So Much To Spread
“The happy ending of our most-watched childhood stories is no longer a kiss. Today, Disney films end with two siblings reconciled despite their differences, as in Frozen (2013); or a mother and a daughter making amends, as in Brave (2012) and Inside Out (2015); or a child reunited with long-lost parents, as in Tangled (2010), Finding Dory (2016) and Coco (2011). Love remains the all-important linchpin of these stories … but over the past 10 years, we have been told to love a new kind of love.” – Aeon
Remember ‘Dr. Strangelove’ And ‘The Day After’? Why Don’t They Make Movies Or TV About Nuclear War Anymore?
After all, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists’ Doomsday Clock is still set at two minutes to midnight, most of the Cold War-era nukes (or their replacements) are still here, and the world isn’t exactly seeming stable these days. Stephen Phelan looks at Hollywood’s portrayals of nuclear apocalypse, both older and more recent. – Boston Review
Streaming TV Is Racing To Its Next Phase
The siloed age of television has arrived, a time when people will be paying six or seven different monthly fees, if not more, to keep abreast of pop culture—and the cost will end up approximating the hefty cable bill that every cord cutter has sought to avoid. – The Atlantic
Erotica Arrives In The Podcast Marketplace
“Dipsea is just one of a growing set of companies that are developing audio porn, targeting both people who don’t get off on the extraordinarily explicit visuals provided on standard porn sites and those who want to take porn outside the bedroom without discomfiting others.” – OZY
Samoa Bans Elton John Biopic For Gay Content; Activists Say To Samoa, “Oh Puh-Leeze, Miss Thing’
“The banning of Rocketman, a biographic film about the life of musician Elton John, in Samoa has prompted criticism by human rights activists of ‘selective morality’ in a country where transgender women are widely accepted.” – The Guardian
There’s One Corner Of Hollywood Where Women Are Making Real Progress: Animation
“Women hold half of the leadership positions at the major film animation companies, new research has found. And, of the top 120 animated films over the last dozen years, nearly four in 10 had female producers, which is more than double the number of women who produced live-action films in that time.” (Things don’t look as good for nonwhite women, though.) – The New York Times
How Sacha Baron Cohen Tricked Dick Cheney Into Signing A Waterboarding Kit On-Camera
On pretending to be a bogus Israeli anti-terrorism expert for his film Who Is America?: “The character creation is a reverse character creation. You have to think, Okay, we got Dick Cheney, he’s agreed to do this. How am I going to convince one of the most cynical, suspicious, brilliant minds that I’m real? How am I going to get him to say things he’s ultimately going to regret? That becomes the process of fully learning your character and making sure there are no holes in your character.” – Vulture
One-Dimensional Diversity Isn’t Actually Very Equitable At All
“Over the history of our big and small screens, audiences have been treated to thousands of variations of whiteness. White people have stood in as the face of humanity’s fullness and complexity. We’ve watched white people traverse the boundaries of class, history, sexuality, gender, disease, fame and technology.” Now it’s time for everyone else to get that fullness, complexity, and – The New York Times