Category: media

“The full-tilt injection of energy and optimism at Sundance this year wasn’t just hype. It was about a new, evolving vision of the independent film world that is starting to take hold, and that’s making the future of that world look more and more rosy.”

“If anything, independent films that train a careful eye on that singular moment when someone begins to first define who they are, who they will become, are a deeply entrenched Sundance tradition. But no more. Oh, the young and troubled are still here in force, but the rules are being rewritten by filmmakers with a genre-busting consistency that suggests something larger and much more exciting is at work.”

“Is there any truth to the idea that 3D TV, which gives the illusion of depth by flicking between two separate images, could be dangerous?”

“The average ticket price at theaters in the U.S. last year rose to an all-time annual high of $7.89, up 5% from $7.50 in 2009, according to the National Assn. of Theatre Owners. In the fourth quarter, the average price was $8.01, up 5% from the year-ago period.”

“Because the movie industry keeps its real financial numbers secret, we’re left to academics and journalists to glean what information they can. Their research indicates that Oscar-nominated films benefit financially, but perhaps not as much as you think.”

Life in a Day, made by British Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald, tells the story of a single day on earth, shot by thousands of ordinary people across the world. “It seemed very novel and unusual, and we would be using technology that had literally not become available in film until now. Also, there was this idea of having a vast outreach around the world.”

“For the past 20 years, the Academy Awards for ‘best foreign language film’ have become the baby food shelf of global cinema: It’s where you find movies that are bland, safe, and unambitious. Which is why it’s downright shocking that this year’s shortlist features Confessions by Japan’s Tetsuya Nakashima, the darkest and most intense director working today.”

“It isn’t an offshoot of a blockbuster franchise like CSI, it isn’t a critical darling, and characters don’t make a habit of bursting into song. How to explain the success of this old-fashioned procedural?”

“[A] false sense of ownership over art is the driving factor. How dare my Bond get rebooted for these jokers who don’t know that in You Only Live Twice, Bond had surgery to create an epicanthic fold in order to make him look Japanese? … How dare my Bond get rebooted for people who just want another generic action flick that removes most of what makes 007 what it is?”