Category: media

Ignore (or listen to, should you prefer) the specific movie recommendations in this piece, but revel in the knowledge of boutique streaming options that can fill up the empty hours until Season 3 of Orange Is the New Black drops.

“Not only was it an astute embodiment of the phenomenon we might call ‘Beatletime’ – frantic, fractured, breathless and intoxicating – it was born of speed itself. To be ready when the lights went down for the command performance before Princess Margaret in London in July, 1964, the movie had to be shot and completed in only four months.”

“The glory days are back in the nation’s film heartlands. Buoyant, expanding and home to some of the world’s biggest stars, the leading studios are full to capacity and taking unprecedented bookings from international film-makers.”

“At the very least, the worst movies ever made offer some comfort: Even in absolute disaster, there’s something to be learned about why we make entertainment, and how it can go wrong. Occasionally, the failure even succeeds, albeit on a different rubric than the one it originally had in mind.”

Michael Bay’s fourth Transformers installment racked up $134.5 million in its first five days in China, which is higher than the $121 million it had earned in North American theaters by July 1. – See more at:

“We actually make more money per viewer streaming than we do on television. If you stream our programming online, you’re seeing a full complement of advertising—you can’t bypass it.”

“Gone are a distributor’s financial guarantees, which in the case of This American Life, reached seven figures. Instead, Mr. Glass will now be responsible for the show’s marketing and distribution, as well as for finding corporate sponsors. It’s the equivalent of Radiohead’s releasing its own album … or Louis C. K.’s selling his own stand-up special – except all the time, for every show.”

Neil Genzlinger: “That television will kill you isn’t particularly new … But this critic, at least, has stopped paying attention to any report that begins, ‘A new study finds that watching television could …’ He has done so because there are so many of them, and they have sent confusing, sometimes contradictory messages.”

“Because 88 percent of Americans learn about health issues from television,” says CDC public affairs director Barbara Reynolds, “[the] CDC recognizes that primetime and daytime television programming are rich and productive channels for disseminating public-health messages.”

“Heading into summer, overall box office was actually up roughly 9%, compared with 2013. But since early May, the wind has gone out of Hollywood’s sails, and that healthy head start has been wiped away. With the summer season typically making up as much as 40% of the studios’ overall annual revenue, the recent box office swoon has been worrying for the industry, though perhaps not panic-inducing.”