Category: media

The photographers used Cinema Treasures, a database of American movie theaters past and present, to track down some of the country’s most spectacular movie palaces. At first they focused only on abandoned theaters, but after discovering some tastefully repurposed palaces, such as Brooklyn’s cavernous Paramount Theater—now used as a gymnasium by Long Island University—they expanded the scope of their project.  – Wired

Wesley Morris: “Romantic comedy is the only genre committed to letting relatively ordinary people figure out how to deal meaningfully with another human being. … This is moviemaking that explores a basic human wonder about how to connect with a person who’s not you. And here we are dancing on its grave.” – The New York Times Magazine

“The long-running row between the Cannes film festival and Netflix has taken an unexpected turn as the Directors’ Fortnight, one of the key strands of the festival that runs in parallel to the official selection, has selected a Netflix film for its lineup. This is in marked contrast to the official festival, which has maintained its exclusion of films distributed by the streaming giant for the second year in a row.” – The Guardian

Emily Yahr: “After all, we’re in an era where television is more fractured than ever. Big TV events are increasingly rare, and it’s refreshing to have one topic to discuss around the virtual water cooler of the Internet — especially something that you could easily catch up on in one episode.” – The Washington Post

The board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences “left intact Rule Two, the one that established that a film” — including one produced by Netflix or Amazon — “can be eligible for Oscars if it has a minimum 7-day theatrical run in a L.A. County commercial theater.” (Sorry, Mr. Spielberg.) – Deadline

The Story of Yanxi Palace and Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace smashed viewing records for the streaming services that showed them. Then the journal Theory Weekly (a title only a Communist bureaucrat could love) published an article condemning the series as “incompatible with the core values of socialism” and “[a] negative influence on society.” State media condemnation went on from there, and the series disappeared. Why? – The New Yorker

The writers’ union’s memo also claimed, “Most of the writers who haven’t yet signed termination letters are retirees or no longer actively working.” – New York Magazine