Category: media

“Netflix has morphed into an international service that streams in nearly every country around the world. This fast-paced growth has meant that the company’s dedication to improving models now extends to just about everything it does. Another reveal at Labs Day was that it has even created an online translation test, called Hermes, that helps it recruit the best foreign talent to dub its shows and movies.”

“Drive-ins also appealed to a new audience-a mixed bag of viewers of different classes, neighborhoods, and races. … They were some of the South’s first integrated sites, and African-American moviegoers felt more safe and respected there than in the dirty balconies of Jim Crow movie theaters. Obese and disabled people, housewives and children, and working-class families also flocked to drive-ins. This sense of mixing … created anxiety among cultural and business leaders and a perception of the movie theaters as ‘passion pits’ where anything could happen.”

Well, if “golden age” is the right term. “If you have a massive appetite for high body counts, stunning fight choreography, and general onscreen savagery, Hollywood might finally be meting out enough punishment for you to scream your safe word.” Jordan Crucchiola looks at how and why this has happened.

“On 19 March 1977, the world changed, after which there was a long uncomfortable silence.” Danny Leigh goes looks into the background and influence of a movie that, after four decades, has lost none of its power to freak people out.

Yes, that’s despite Slumdog Millionaire, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, and Steve Jobs. In a Q&A, he tells Kevin Lincoln what on earth he means by that.

Years after most Americans switched to flat-screens, we’re just now beginning to deal with the long-term ramifications of sustainably disposing of old cathode-ray televisions and computer monitors. This dangerous, labor-intensive, and costly undertaking will have to be done for each of the estimated 705 million CRT TVs sold in the United States since 1980.

Richard Brody considers Samuel L. Jackson’s controversial comments about the casting of black British actors in African-American roles (in particular, Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out and David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King in Selma) – in particular, how Jackson may have a point.

The Film Censorship Board of Malaysia had declared that four minutes of what they deemed sensitive material must be cut before they approved release of the movie: in response, Disney withdrew the film from the country. Now the Board has relented, though they’re giving this fairy tale a 13-and-over age rating. (Well, that’s better than Russia did.)

“There are only three known episodes in which the character ‘Grump’ appears, each time playing the villain in a moral allegory. Whenever Grump visits Sesame Street, chaos is not far behind.”

“Cinema watching in the traditional way is definitely in decline. Television is growing partly because of the physical quality of televisions these days. Plus the combination of programmes made with proper production values so you can have a proper experience at home. All the money goes on the screen.”