I wrote about WarnerMedia, its panicked conglomerate (and investors), and why streaming might be the future of cinema but might end up killing media production as we know it.
-
-
Moneyball 2011
Honestly hard to swallow not because of Beane but because how all the billionaire owners took the wrong lessons of this accomplishment and decided to no longer pay players what they’re worth. In 2011, the tech revolt hadn’t happened yet and no one knew how they would fake economic growth through future valuation so well to exploit all of us over the decade and extract every ounce of labor. Like The Social Network, a film almost preposterously dated by its…
-
-
-
-
-
Millions of Us 1935
This week I'm on the Film Formally podcast discussing the montage sequences that appeared in early Hollywood sound films. We discuss the technological transition, the politics of the form as it moved from the USSR to Hollywood, the idea of style and narrative, and more. In particular we discuss the early career of Slavko Vorkapich, who went from The Life and Death of 9413: A Hollywood Extra to MGM's best asset. If you go to the show page, you'll find…
-
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 2011
Say what you will about James Bond’s Anglophilia dude, but at least it’s an ethos.
-
Pom Poko 1994
When I discussed this film with James Leo Cahill alongside his excellent book, Zoological Surrealism, we talked about how this film could possibly be imagining a future for humans under climate change, watching ourselves become more and more closed off while trying to simply preserve the little bits of our way of life without changing too much. This, we thought, might happen at the end of our lifetimes.
Anyways, I would argue Pom Poko is truly the ultimate COVID movie.
-
-
Can't Stop the Music 1980
The Man with a Movie Camera of Disco Cinema and no I won’t be extrapolating this point.
-
Uncut Gems 2019
“What the fuck is it with you Jewish ni**ers and basketball anyway?”
“I’ll have you know the first two points in the NBA was a Jew.”
“Yea yea Fred Flinstine?”
“No. Oscar Schectman. In 46 he played for the Knicks.”Passing Strange.