Category: media

“They are dark and bleak and often end in death. Some double as articulations of the political exceptionalism of ordinariness itself. Most, though, do something more basic, and more pessimistic: They assume the fundamental dirtiness of politics, and the related idea that any hope we’ll have of purifying the system must come from outside of it. They leave very little room for optimism about the hulking beast that is “the establishment,” very little room for hope that the system in place—one populated by career politicians—can take compassion and make it scale.”

“L.A. has seen a staggering 95% drop in on-location porn permit requests in the last four years, following the passage of a separate 2012 county measure requiring condoms, according to county permit data. But porn industry leaders say they are now bullish that the defeat of Prop. 60 as well as other recent condom-related victories will reverse the exodus.”

“It may be hard to believe at the moment, but there was a time in the US when spouting racist and misogynistic hate speech would damage your career, rather than propelling you to its highest office. Just ask Mel Gibson.”

Well, besides the 200+ movies over 56 years and the countless broken bones. “For anyone who has doubts about Mr. Chan’s skill onscreen, here are five clips that, together, illustrate some of his most impressive work.”

Between 1910 and 1929, the height of the silent film era, numerous women had developed enough skill and clout to helm their own movies. But most of their work had been set aside and forgotten, and one distributor has launched a project to put it back together.

“The service has 47 million subscribers in the United States, and its movie library is affected not only by the limitations of particular licensing deals, which means that the number of titles is constantly contracting and expanding, but also by what subscribers actually watch. To use the contemporary buzzword “curated,” Netflix would argue that it does indeed take a curatorial approach to movies, but one that’s appropriate to a consumer product rather than a museum. It does not see its mission as a conservational one. And the hard truth about the future of streaming services is that even those with the loftiest stated ambitions will be obliged to balance those ambitions against market demand.”

The director of such classic films as “Spirited Away” and “Howl’s Moving Castle” can’t quite seem to stop working. “Ghibli producer Toshio Suzuki commented that Miyazaki will draw storyboards until he dies.”

Christina Laughlin: “You were given power so that you can use it. You were given people who follow you, and look up to you, so you can point to things in the world that are unjust, and call those people to action. You were given that giant, swelling bank account so you can use that money to ease the suffering of someone, something, somewhere, in the world. You were given the ability to do the right thing, because it needs to be done. Because the world needs real heroes, not the ones you play on the screen.”

“The powerful women in or near the Oval Office on Scandal, Veep, Madam Secretary and House of Cards, who until Nov. 8 seemed to reflect or be just a step ahead of the news, now seem like an increasingly distant dream. And on shows like Designated Survivor and Graves, about a current and former president, respectively, outlandish plots about ethnic bias and immigration pop out and appear more believable.”