LET'S TALK ABOUT IT 2024:1

Happy 2024! General chat about films & TV; if the thread gets too long (ca. 200 postings?), I'll start a 2024:2. Continues: LET'S TALK ABOUT IT - SEPT 2023.

For specific films, see: What Are You Watching in January-April 2024 -TV Shows or Film!

For books about movies & TV, see: Books on Movies & TV.

For thoughts on books made into movies, see: BOOKS MADE INTO MOVIES OCT 2023-? (Not the lengthiest of threads!)

Calum Marsh. NYT, 01/02/2024: Anime Is Going Digital. Fans Are Wary.

"In an era where many films and albums are stored in the cloud, "streaming anxiety" is making people buy more DVDs and records – as younger digital generations fear having their life histories erased."

Clare Thorp. BBC Culture, 01/03/2024: Oppenheimer and the resurgence of Blu-ray and DVDs: How to stop your films and music from disappearing.

The "Movie Club" discussion at Slate is one of the year's most entertaining traditions. Four movie critics take turns sharing their thoughts on the films, performances, and trends of the year gone by. Four rounds of posts, with occasional interruptions from other Slate writers. This year, Dana Stevens is joined by Bilge Ebiri, Esther Zuckerman, and Mark Harris. The conversation begins here:

https://slate.com/culture/2023/12/best-movies-2023-barbie-oppenheimer-barbenheim...

Shivani Gonzalez. NYT, 01/07/2024: Golden Globes Winners 2024: The Complete List.

Highlights:
Best motion picture, drama: Oppenheimer
Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Poor Things
Best Motion Picture, Animated: The Boy and the Heron
Cinematic and Box Office Achievement (interesting category!): Barbie
Best Motion Picture, Non-English Language: Anatomy of a Fall
Best Director, Motion Picture: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Drama: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Drama: Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Emma Stone, Poor Things
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Best Television Series, Drama: Succession
Best Television Series, Musical or Comedy: The Bear
Best Limited Series, Anthology Series or a Motion Picture made for Television: Beef
For the most part, actors in the TV series that won awards also won awards, but:
Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting Role: Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

Addendum, or, a dissenting voice:
Stuart Heritage. Guardian, 01/08/2024: ‘One of the greatest actors on Earth went home empty-handed!’ All the shocks from the Golden Globes.

so glad these two won, they were both amazing

Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Elizabeth Debicki, The Crown

love emma stone, need to see poor things

jI did not like boy and the heron at all; granted the animation was splendid but the story was all over the place

>6 cindydavid4: I love Paul Giamatti - I enjoyed his role!

>3 featherbear: I can totally see that.
Streaming provides quicker access to many items and often times legitimately free. In some cases it expands access to an item.
However, I have noticed the draw back of content switching between distributors and how that causes inconvenience for the end user and how some content is sometimes not avaliable to stream.

Therefore in our family, for any family favorites that we will frequently want to watch we buy a DVD copy and we have a designated shelf space. If we get tired of something, we pass it on. If it is just a once in a while watch, we watch when avaliable via streaming.

The strike delayed 75th Emmy awards.

Rachel Sherman, compiler. NYT, 01/15/2024: Emmy Winners: The Full List

Highlights:
Best comedy: The Bear (FX, Hulu)
Best drama: Succession (HBO)
Best limited series: Beef (Netflix)
Best actress, comedy: Quinta Brunson, Abbott Elementary
Best actor, comedy: Jeremy Allen White, The Bear
Best actress, drama: Sarah Snook, Succession
Best actor, drama: Kieran Culkin, Succession
Best Actress, Limited Series or TV Movie: Ali Wong, Beef
Best Actor, Limited Series or TV Movie: Steven Yuen Beef
Documentary or Nonfiction Series: The 1619 Project (Hulu)
Documentary or Nonfiction Special: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie (Apple TV+)

gosh ive seen none of those (tho have watched John Oliver and Trevor Noah in their shows which won awards as welll. Wonder if im missing something...

Hope this isn't paywalled:

Brandon Streussnig & Bilge Ebiri. Vulture, 01/17/2024: The Stunt Awards Are Back Here are the nominees for Vulture’s second annual celebration of stunt professionals — and the action movies they make great.

Guardian, 01/23/2024: Oscars nominations 2024: the full list.

No noms for Greta Gerwig or Margot Robbie.

Catherine Shoard. Guardian, 01/23/2024: Oscars nominations 2024: Oppenheimer eclipses Scorsese, Poor Things – and Barbie.

If you're wondering where you can catch the various Oscar nominees, here's a list of where they're available for streaming in the US. The ones marked "streaming/rental" aren't available for free streaming anywhere, but are widely available for rental; you should be able to find them at Amazon or Apple+, among other rental sources.

STILL IN THEATERS: American Fiction, The Boy and the Heron, The Color Purple, Godzilla Minus One, Napoleon, Poor Things, Society of the Snow, The Teacher's Lounge

2024 US RELEASE: Perfect Days, Robot Dreams

US RELEASE PLANS UNKNOWN: Io Capitano, To Kill a Tiger

STREAMING/RENTAL: 20 Days in Mariupol, Anatomy of a Fall, Four Daughters, Mission: Impossible -- Dead Reckoning Part One, Oppenheimer, Past Lives

APPLE TV: Killers of the Flower Moon

DISNEY+: Bobi Wine: The People's President, Elemental, Flamin' Hot, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

HULU: The Creator, Flamin' Hot

MAX: Barbie

NETFLIX: American Symphony, El Conde, Maestro, May December, Nimona, Nyad, Rustin, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

PARAMOUNT+: The Eternal Memory, Golda

PEACOCK: The Holdovers

Most of the short film nominees are not available for streaming in the US, but you can find these:

HULU: The Last Repair Shop

NETFLIX: The After, The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar

PARAMOUNT+: The ABCs of Book Banning

YOUTUBE: The Barber of Little Rock, Knight of Fortune

>14 KeithChaffee: Thanks for this -- lot of Netflix watching to do; btw I noticed that Peacock will be streaming Oppenheimer in Feb.

Was willy wanka too late for the oscars? thougth both leads outstanding, and the 'prequel was lots of fun

No, Wonka was eligible, but it wasn't ever really expected to be a contender for any awards.

In part, that's because the Academy is increasingly reluctant to look at more than a handful of movies in its nominations. In the "above-the-line" categories -- picture, director, acting, and screenplay -- the 45 nominations went to only 14 different movies.

Some happier notes about the nominations: The Best Picture field includes three movies that are entirely or largely in a language other than English, and three movies directed by women. Seven of the twenty acting nominations went to POC actors; two went to openly LGBT actors playing openly LGBT characters, only the 3rd and 4th such nominations ever. Ten of the acting nominees are nominated for the first time.

Should win (of the actual nominees): Anatomy of a Fall, Triet, Giamatti, Huller, Gosling, Randolph. Will Win: Oppenheimer, Nolan, Murphy, Stone, Downey, Randolph. Only one of those that might be close is Best Actress, where I can imagine Gladstone winning in order to give Killers something.

Happiest surprise: Colman Domingo making it in over (most likely) DiCaprio.

Most appalling inclusion: The painfully overpraised The Zone of Interest in every category that included it.

Most egregious omission: No, not Robbie or Gerwig. I'd have preferred Robbie to Mulligan or Gladstone (who I think belongs in supporting), but I understand why Robbie was left out; the Academy rarely takes comedy seriously. (America Ferrera got in for what is the movie's most serious moment, and Gosling got in because his was a much weaker category than either Robbie or Gerwig faced.) The worst omission was Charles Melton; I'd have booted De Niro to make room for him.

Richard Brody. New Yorker, 01/23/2024: Now That the Oscar Nominations Are in, Here’s What Deserves to Win.

Caryn James. BBC Culture, 01/24/2024: Oscars 2024: The real reason Barbie's Greta Gerwig and Margot Robbie were snubbed by the Oscars.

>15 featherbear: Oppenheimer was quite good but long.

Or not:

Shirley Li. Atlantic, 01/30/2024: The Sundance Movie That Sent People Running for the Exit: Sasquatch Sunset.

Rather unexpected list from this website:

Eunjin Choi & Rita Raley. Public Books, 01/30/2024: PAYBACK: KOREAN REVENGE DRAMAS WILL DO IT FOR YOU.

"Revenge in its purest form—distilled down to cold, primal, retributive fury—is one of the signature themes of South Korean media. Two decades ago, Park Chan-wook’s Vengeance Trilogy set the tone. But in the intervening years, the revenge genre has exponentially expanded beyond film and settled into television, where it is right at home: tailor-made for both streaming services (with fewer constraints on explicit content) and TV networks (the standard K-drama format, with its sensational plot twists, keeps audiences in place for their eight-week runs)."

>21 featherbear: I can see why

Mike Hale. NYT, 02/11/2024: The Super Bowl Ads, Ranked.

I missed a number of these because the 1st 3 quarters were rather dull w/lots of miscues (the football game; glad I hung around for the 4th & overtime). I did like the Walken/BMW commercial, I'd watch Aubrey Plaza in anything. Thought the list did underrate the T-Mobile w/Jason Momoa, the couch potato/Pluto (major identification), the Dove girls in sports, Kawasaki mullets; sorry I missed Mighty Patch (Pop me!) & the Dunkin' one w/Affleck, & I had problems remembering the Uber Eats jokes.

At HARD DRIVE, critic Matt Fresh offers a ranking of all 95 Best Picture Oscar winners by how good a Muppets version would be:

https://hard-drive.net/hd/entertainment/every-best-picture-winner-ranked-by-how-...

Niela Orr. NYT, 02/14/2024: Tubi Is Reviving a Lost Joy: Watching Really, Really Bad Movies.

"Tubi, which debuted in 2014 and was purchased by Fox in 2020 for $440 million, has surged in popularity since the pandemic. Gaffe-rich projects certainly haven’t held the service back. In January 2021, Tubi had 33 million active users; by February 2023, that had gone up to 64 million, and by September it was 74 million."

this sounds an awful like Mystery Science Theater 3000 which I long adored

Guardian, 02/18/2024: Baftas 2024: the complete list of winners.

Dune 2 is outstanding; really captures the book; looking forward to the third one Dune Messiah which I think is actually better than Dune.

Peter Campion. LARB, 02/26/2024: Wake Up, Sleepyhead. Review of: Remotely: Travels in the Binge of TV / David Thomson.

>29 cindydavid4: Couple of questions from someone who's seen Villeneuve's Dune 1 & the Lynch version as well:

a. Does it complete the arc of the original novel, or would a Dune 3 be required? i.e., not a film based on the sequel to the original novel. I've only read the original novel, decades ago.

b. Since I'll be unable to see it in theater, did you watch it in IMAX? (what will I be missing sigh?)

c. As a whole (i.e. part 1 & 2 together), better than the 80s version with Sting?

A) Dune 3 will be required, but it does follow the original with some cuts that bothered me but worked nonetheless

B) we say it in IMAX and cant imagine seeing it any other way, but I assume it will be just fine in the theatre

C) I did not like that version at all cant remember why now, but Id been reading that book since 1974 and it did not match my image of it... the one version that comes close to this one is the 1984 scifi station series, which completes the book

>32 cindydavid4: Much thanks. I'll try to take a look when it gets to one of the streaming services. Won't be IMAX, but I saw part 1 on my large screen TV, & it was fine, though I can only dream about seeing it on one of the super screens -- don't think I've ever seen anything on IMAX. Not sorry for having seen the DeLaurentis version, but the Villeneuve is probably closer to Herbert's vision.

I'll take this opportunity to put in a good word for the 2013 documentary Jodorowsky's Dune, currently streaming on Max and available to rent/buy at Amazon and Apple+.

The Chilean director Alejandro Jodorowsky had something of a cult following in the early 1970s; his style was a sort of surreal mysticism. And for a few years, he attempted to make a film of Dune.

He planned to cast his 12-year-old son in the starring role, and wanted to fill other roles with Udo Kier, Mick Jagger, Orson Welles, and Salvador Dali. Dali had never acted before, and demanded a salary of $1,000,000 per day. He recruited H. R. Giger to design the movie and Dan O'Bannon for special effects (if you're not a SF movie person, those are legendary names in the field), and Pink Floyd was to score the movie.

With that combination of ambition and lunacy, it's no surprise that the film never came to be, but the documentary turns Jodorowsky's failure into a marvelously entertaining story.

Ian Bogost. Atlantic, 02/28/2024: YOUR TV IS TOO GOOD FOR YOU: 4K resolution is a sham.

Kerry Hegarty. The Conversation, 03/04/2024: How non-English language cinema is reshaping the Oscars landscape.

I'm not too familiar with Greta Garbo; I've only seen Ninotchka & Grand Hotel, but I've got Camille waiting on my DVR. More to explore.

Ella Dorn. Guardian, 03/04/2024: Alone time: reassessing Greta Garbo, 100 years after her screen debut.

A review of a picture I'd like to take a look at, though reactions have been decidedly mixed. Meanwhile, the second part of Shoah is still waiting on my DVR.

David Hering. LARB, 03/04/2024: Viewing the Ob-scene: On Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.”

>38 featherbear: I got hold of a box set as I had seen only a few of her films. Queen Christina is amazing. Garbo has great chemistry with the ill-fated John Gilbert.
I also love her in Ninotchka.

Perhaps I should have posted to the RIP 2024 thread:

Travis M. Andrews. WaPo, 03/05/2024: The Oscars’ In Memoriam bit will break your heart (one way or another). "For 30 years, the montage for the recently deceased has touched, confounded and angered just about everyone."

Sarah Bregel. BBC Culture, 03/04/2024: Why is the Dune 2 popcorn bucket going viral?

As an alternative to TCM's "Month of Oscars," a new March collection on Criterion Channel: films honored by the Golden Raspberry Award, for the worst film of the year; "they have often inadvertently shed light on films so out-there, so uncompromising, so beyond the bound of accepted "good" taste that they demand attention ..." On offer this month:

Cocktail
Showgirls
Xanadu
Heaven's Gate
Barb Wire
Cruising
Freddy Got Fingered
Under the Cherry Moon
The Wicker Man
The Blair Witch Project
Gigli
Swept Away
Querelle

I'll admit Heaven's Gate is in my DVD collection; I've seen Showgirls & Blair Witch (neither particularly memorable for me); meanwhile, still working my way through my Starz freebie week checklist (Sunday is the last day).

PS This just in: Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey got most of the 2024 awards; "Sylvester Stallone's Expend4bles also picked up two awards." (per BBC) Soon to appear on my Peacock Premium subscription I imagine.

Still awake due to Oscar hangover or Daylight Savings mind-scramble.

I watched most of it from ca. 7:15PM EST, toggling between a YouTube watch party & the ABC presentation, using the mute for much of the ABC, though I listened to some of the musical nominations (including the Vegas-y Ken number from Barbie & of course the actual announcements). Rather brisk. As advertising for the 2023 films, the Emma Stone movie definitely caught my eye -- just looks like great eye candy & I've liked another of Alasdair Gray's novels -- Lanark, so I hope to rent a streamer one of these days. Should try to finish watching Oppenheimer. Academy doesn't seem to like long Martin Scorsese movies (cf. The Irishman); I'll wait till the streamers offer a better rental price on the Killers (it's around $20 last time I checked). The In Memoriam presentation was rather hard to follow for my aged eyes, and at the end there was a long illegible list of deceased who didn't rate a photo/memoriam, though a more detailed website list flashed by. Al Pacino did the best picture presentation & didn't bother to name any of the nominees; foregone conclusion? I'm hoping the Miyazaki anime shows up on HBO/Max as a result of its Oscar. Also, as an explosions fan, I should take a look at Creator which must be rentable somewhere, as well as this new Godzilla movie that seems to have been Oscar'd for being made on the relative cheap -- the bits shown at the Oscars show looked pretty good. I think there was a piece in The Atlantic or The New Yorker on the use of background sound in the Auschwitz movie, so it seemed appropriate that it got an Oscar for sound.

Shivani Gonzalez. NYT, 03/10-11/2024: Oscars 2024 Winners: See the Full List: The complete list of winners for the 96th Academy Awards.

Addendum. The following is better, since it lists the runners-up (unlike Al Pacino):

Guardian Film. 03/10/2024: Oscars 2024: the full list of winners. "All this year's winners & nominees."

Oscars
I usually like the lists of the actors who had passed away at the Oscars but the screen was so small you couldn't read the names!

>45 JulieLill: This appears to be the official Oscars In Memoriam list, with pics when available:

https://aframe.oscars.org/news/in-memoriam

The NY Post was outraged: "Oscars 2024 viewers outraged over botched In Memoriam segment: ‘An astronomical failure’"

>45 JulieLill: That was the one really awful moment in a show that was otherwise quite well done. It was one of the most entertaining Oscars in a long time.

>47 KeithChaffee: Al Pacino ignoring the runners-up for best pic was ... somewhat surprising

I was less bothered by that than some. I mean, each picture had already had its little spotlight montage. And it's the one award where everyone in the room knows exactly what's been nominated; would have been something else entirely if a presenter had forgotten to read the nominees for, I dunno, Production Design.

But yes, it was a bad choice from the producers. When you send Al Pacino out there, you know something weird is going to happen. He should have had a presenting partner who could have made sure that the presentation went according to plan and gracefully covered for his eccentricities, like when Liza Minnelli and Lady Gaga presented Best Picture two years ago.

Gift links to a pair of terrific TV-related articles from the NY Times:

Mark Harris on the disappearance of the Gay Best Friend:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/11/t-magazine/gay-best-friends.html?unlocked_art...

James Poniewozik on the 50th anniversary of the TV special FREE TO
BE...YOU AND ME:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/09/arts/television/free-to-be-you-and-me-50th-an...

>49 KeithChaffee: Now it can be told!:

Sian Cain & agencies. Guardian, 03/11/2024: Oscars 2024: Al Pacino says he was told not to name best picture nominees.

Kaj Larsen. NYT, 03/13/2024: What the ‘Rust’ Shooting Case Is Really About.

"The conviction last week of the film’s armorer, Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, for involuntary manslaughter, and an assistant director’s plea of no contest to a charge of negligent handling of a deadly weapon, underscore the systemic nature of the problem. It’s not just about individual lapses in judgment but about a broader culture of laxity and disregard for the lethal potential of firearms on set.

"The very language Hollywood uses, particularly the term “prop gun,” is emblematic of the problem. The phrase “prop gun” suggests something inauthentic, a harmless facsimile of a real weapon. This is a dangerous misnomer. The guns used in films are typically real firearms, often modified to fire blank rounds or to be nonfunctional. By referring to them as mere props, the industry perpetuates a false sense of safety, downplaying the genuine risks these weapons pose."

>52 featherbear: interesting, hadnt thought of that before but it makes sense.

Tom Nichols. The Atlantic, 03/15/2024: The TV Shows That Don’t Solve Their Mysteries.

"I know, I know. Almost everyone loved Jodie Foster and Kali Reis in True Detective, and they were great. The show lured us in with a horrifying mystery: a “corpsicle” of naked, mutilated, frozen bodies in the Alaskan snow. Characters began to see ghosts. The dead spoke to the living. Body parts showed up in a mysterious lab. And after several episodes, we finally learned …

"Nothing. We learned nothing. The frozen guys had been made to strip and go freeze to death at gunpoint by some local women for a bad thing they had done earlier. The end.

"If you watched the series, you might have been among the many people yelling, “What about the tongue on the floor?” I imagine the writers would answer that True Detective is more than a mystery: It’s a character study, a view into the lives of Indigenous women, a meditation on death and darkness and other Deep Questions.

"Yes, yes, that’s all very important. But what about the tongue on the floor?

"This is now the umpteenth time I’ve fallen for a show that promises dark secrets and a big reveal but tells me very little. If you have a monster lurking about, you should show us the monster, as the old rule of horror movies once decreed. And if there’s a mythology behind the series, then the writers should keep faith with the viewers and be consistent about it."

The author attributes part of the problem to series runners & writers "winging it" with renewable series (e.g. Lost), but the True Detective: Night Country example was a limited series that "paid off" in loose change. Still, when browsing Netflix or HBO/Max, I look for the limited series label in hopes of at least some creative discipline. Not sure if the recent Amazon Prime Mr and Mrs Smith was intended to be limited, but the way it ended it could have been either way: Amazon Studios keeping its options open as it cuts back, adds commercials, & seems to aspire to become a hub for other niche streaming services & rentals. I recently started the Netflix series The Witcher Season 2 after a long hiatus, but realized I'd forgotten much of Season 1, so I started re-watching 1, which in itself is pretty confusing, since it has a lot of non-signaled flashbacks that make the storylines hard to follow, even on a second go-round; the series being open-ended, though, I suspect trouble ahead. Is this why geezers my age are attracted to those British police procedurals like Vera, Endeavour, Midsomer Murders, etc with resolution at the end of 90 min & no open-ended story arcs (new DS in Season X? Oh, the previous one moved to Australia; no mention of it at the end of Season IX) we can only leave to our heirs.

Richard Brody. New Yorker, 03/19/2024: The Best Bio-Pics Ever Made. A list of 33.

J. Oliver Conroy. Guardian, 03/27/2024: The film fans who refuse to surrender to streaming: ‘One day you’ll barter bread for our DVDs.’

Though you'll have to barter family members for DVD players.

Li Yuan. NYT, 03/27/2024: Filmmaker Draws Censors’ Wrath: ‘A Price I Have to Accept.’ "Wang Xiaoshuai is among the few Chinese artists who refuse to bend to state limitations on the subjects they explore."

>57 featherbear: Very interesting article and gives a lot of motivating factors.

Altthough I really enjoy watching movies and TV shows, i stream mostly now unless it's a movie or show that I know I will watch multiple times.

I have however noticed that there are some tv shows that were well written but were canceled and have been forgotten and as far as I can tell have not been avaliable in any format since originally airing.

I have encountered a similar perspective with music, so I understand the frustration. ( I enjoy a wide variety of genres from various decades. Between the radio djs and Spotify this gives me access to a lot of mainstream music. However, there are some off beat artists from a while back that can only be found via vinyle record. A lot of times before I found a cheap record I had never ever heard of the artist. Although not a talented musician I was in several music classes through school so I assumed between the enthusiastic teachers and fellow students that I had at least heard of many of the successful artists of the past.)

I just wonder how many of the great cinema works that will be forgotten.

As we prepare for tomorrow's final episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm, NY Times TV critic James Poniewozik wants to do away with the notion that a TV finale has to "stick the landing." Gift link:

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/06/arts/television/curb-your-enthusiasm-finale.h...

T.M. Brown. NYT, 04/09/2024: Want to See This Film? Movie Studios Won’t Let You. "As in the case of ‘Coyote vs. Acme,’ sometimes an entertainment company sees more value in not selling you its products."

>60 featherbear: Thank you for sharing this. No wonder a lot of people think new content is lacking.

A few arguments that I think should be made by the public to Warner Brothers

* If they did not like the direction of the movie, why was the movie finished?

* Viewers have different taste and the hype of the movie could bring in sales.

* So okay so this is not going to released, is it going to be on the free Warner Brother streaming series? And by the way when is the free Warner Brother streaming series going to launch?

Peter Markham, interviewer Sophie Roell. fivebooks.com, 04/10/2024: The Best Book-to-Movie Adaptations.

Other recommendations?

I liked Mina Kimes's remark on Twitter:

"Shogun is like Game of Thrones if Ned Stark was smart"

>59 KeithChaffee: Might be of interest:

Paula Mejía. Atlantic, 04/11/2024: Larry David Learned Nothing, and Neither Did We. Chef's kiss to the opening anecdote.

>63 featherbear: ha!

Haven't fully absorbed this article, but I've started the Fallout series on Amazon Prime, & I'm considering resuming watching The Last of Us with NCAA basketball over, & of course alien communication is via a video game in both the novels & the 2 recent adaptations of the Cixin Liu trilogy, 3 Body Problem (HBO/Max) & 3 Body (Amazon Prime & Peacock).

Maria Bose & Jason Willwerscheid. LARB, 04/12/2024: Watching Pixels Die: Sony, HBO, and “The Last of Us.”

Nicole Sperling. NYT, 04/14/2024: Netflix’s New Film Strategy: More About the Audience, Less About Auteurs. "Dan Lin, the streaming service’s new film chief, wants to produce a more varied slate of movies to better appeal to the array of interests among subscribers."

>67 featherbear:

Interesting article

Used to Netflix used to be seen as a streaming service that you had a variety of shows that the whole family would like. I have many fellow coworkers whom have mentioned they considered cutting or had cut Netflix and went with another streaming service. Plus with it increasing cost over the years they were going to go with something that would fit their niche interest.

I think in some respects writers and creates of shows needs to think in the perspective I assume they did when there were only 4 or 5 network channels, no streaming, and few had cable or satellite. In order to make it on air and stay on air you had to create to serve multiple demographics. The really successful shows and movies succeeded with this and are usually remembered for years after.

But beyond this, I think that they should have the subscription with no ads and offer an open version with ads of older hit original Netflix content, season premiere only of new shows, and hit subtitled shows from other countries that they think might be of iterest in another country.

By doing this I think they could generate intest back and rebrand the direction they want to head.

Saskia Solomon. NYT, 04/25/2024: Shelley Duvall Vanished From Hollywood. She’s Been Here the Whole Time. "After two decades, the actress known for her roles in era defining films like “The Shining” and “Nashville” has returned to acting. But what happened to her?"

James Poniewozik. NYT, 04/27/2024: The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV.

>70 featherbear: Skimmed this article totally agree with this happening.

To a certain degree there has always been a demand and will always be a demand for mid content.

When you are doing mild paperwork or homework and need background noise (you can turn off when needed) a mid-show or non-complex tv snow or movie is helpful. Try to watch a witty or plot twisting content you are watching more than working.

Also sometimes a mid show or movie is sometimes the only thing that a non-close group finds nonconfrontational. The more in sync you are with tastes the easier it is to find content and sometimes it is still hard to find something everyone will like. (Everyone wants to be a critic :).)

What I have noticed is there seems to be either a lot of this midcontent and then there are shows that are extremely on their soapbox all the time. There seems to be less shows that occasionally get on their soapbox, but not constantly. The characters anymore seems to be perfect or spiraling out of control. Where are the characters that are unperfect, stumbling occassionally, but are trying to live better and trying to not to cast judgement upon others.

Peter Bradshaw. Guardian, 04/29/2024: What’s the perfect movie length? Only a lightweight needs toilet or food breaks.

Elizabeth Alsop. LARB, 04/29/2024: The Past Is Never Dead: On TV’s Backstory Problem.

Jason Bailey. NYT, 04/30/2024: Are You Screaming for a Free Streaming Choice? Try Shout! TV.

Jada Yuan. WaPo, 05/25/2024: ‘Anora’ wins Palme d’Or award at Cannes — and more festival highlights.

"“Anora,” a touching, high-octane comedy about a sex worker from American director Sean Baker (who shot his 2015 film “Tangerine” on an iPhone), won the Palme d’Or.

"Grand Prix went to “All We Imagine as Light,” a delicate, poetic story of sisterhood among single women in Mumbai that is the first Indian film in competition in 30 years, from female director Payal Kapadia.

"And “Emilia Peréz,” director Jacques Audiard’s genre-bending musical about a Mexican cartel boss transitioning to become a woman, won not just the third-place Jury Prize, but a rare ensemble best actress award for Selena Gomez, Zoe Saldaña and lead Karla Sofia Gascón, a telenovela star who is now the first trans actress to win at Cannes."