It announces itself with a simple logo and no music. Maybe simplicity is part of the message (I do enjoy the music signatures of 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Universal, Paramount, and Lionsgate, when I get to hear them.)
Saturday, October 28, 2017
Meet the film distributor A24, master of eclectic independent film
The little film distributor A24, in NYC, is indeed getting
some attention for distributing eclectic independent films, as particularly
explored in this GQ article that interviews some moguls (they do include Harvey
Weinstein prior to his fall).
The company, founded by Daniel Katz, David Fenkel, and John
Hodges, has specialized in releasing eclectic films that may not always be
politically correct or share everyone’s social norms.
Some of the most important are “Moonlight” (2016 Best Picture),
“The Lobster” (2016), “Room” (2016), “Amy” (2016), “Ex Machina” (2015), “Locke”
(2014), and “Enemy” (2014).
The company is willing to invest in character-driven films
centered around people with unusual, even eclectic challenges and motivations.
It announces itself with a simple logo and no music. Maybe simplicity is part of the message (I do enjoy the music signatures of 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Universal, Paramount, and Lionsgate, when I get to hear them.)
It announces itself with a simple logo and no music. Maybe simplicity is part of the message (I do enjoy the music signatures of 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Universal, Paramount, and Lionsgate, when I get to hear them.)
Here’s a good article on A24 by Eric McInnis from Arcadia
University, here.
Friday, October 27, 2017
Some Real Men Won't Survive Halloween
Today’s short film will be about not surviving Halloween, so
I didn’t put the name of the short in the blog post title. When I say "real men", I mean "cis men". I'm not totally convinced Milo Yiannopoulos would make the cut on his own list.
Something is about to happen at the beginning of this video,
although it definitely seems consensual. Actors go through a lot (most of all
Jake Gyllenhaal, the master of fungibility).
Sunday, October 22, 2017
"Titan: Saturn's Largest Moon -- An Alternative Earth?": visit the volcanoes, lakes, and sand dunes
“Titan: Saturn’s Largest Moon – An Alternative Earth?”, from
Space and Astronomy, 13 minutes.
The film gives more spectacular footage from Huygens, as
well as realistic artist renditions of landscapes on Titan, with plateaus of
ice cut by rivers of hydrocarbon, which soaks into the ice; volcanoes of water-ammonia ice, big lakes,
and sand dunes near the Equator, or organic particles from the Sky.
Friday, October 20, 2017
"Why We Built a Cat House"
“Why We Built a Cat House”, by Ministeading.
A young man, apparently in Minnesota, explains how his
family captures and neuters cats and releases them. They defend the territory and reduce the
population of wild cats.
But the family built them a house for shelter and gives them
about have their needed calories, and lets them hunt for the rest. The cats tend to bond to them and remember
them and return.
Why We
But in South Africa, even larger cats (servals, cheetahs and
even sometimes leopards) will behave this way.
Thursday, October 12, 2017
The Weinstein scandal, bad for indie films
The Harvey Weinstein scandal certainly has rocked the
movie world, as for how far back it goes, how many women were allegedly abused.
Does the scandal undermine the continued future of
TWC, The Weinstein Company, which succeeded Miramax (the remains of the day, so
to speak, went to Disney).
In the long run, this not a good development for
independent film.
Some younger women are saying that he was an "older, unattractive man" only interested in youth. Like a straight Oscar Wilde. There are also reports that he could undermine the careers of women who complained.
Some younger women are saying that he was an "older, unattractive man" only interested in youth. Like a straight Oscar Wilde. There are also reports that he could undermine the careers of women who complained.
Tuesday, October 10, 2017
"Black Holes: The Arks of the Universe": Can you live inside one, where no one can ever find you?
“Life Under a Black Sun” narrated by Jack Daniel of Strange Mysteries, examines the idea (proposed in Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar”, Nov. 2014), that a planet could revolve around a black hole and derive life from the energy difference between the cold black hoke and the ambient cosmic radiation.
In a supplementary video (3 min) for Patreon subscribers, "Black Holes: The Arks of the Universe", Daniels explores the idea that solar systems could exist inside a black hole,
shielded from normal existence, revolving around the singularity at he
center. he video also shows what a Dyson
Sphere around a black hole might look like.
The universe will be kaput in a few hundred trillion years.
If you look inside a black hole, you might fall in. Be careful.
By Tetra quark - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Sunday, October 08, 2017
"Brokeback Mountain": a brief retrospect
I wanted to recognize here one of the most important LGBT
films of all time, that was the 2005 nominee for best picture, “Brokeback
Mountain”, directed by Ang Lee. (Focus Features) it's based on a novella by Annie Proulx.
In 1963, two young men go to work in the Big Horn Mountains
of Wyoming as sheep herders, complete with horse and bedrolls. The get to know each other pretty quickly,
and twenty minutes into the movie, passions erupt.
Later, Jake Gyllenhaal’s character will utter the famous
line, “I wish I could quit you” – a monument to upward affiliation (not, as a
reviewer said about my own book, a “monument to convolution”). With t Heath’s character is married with a kid, and
eventually the wife (Michelle Williams) observes them together back in Texas,
and he winds up a single dad.
With the stunning scenery, I wondered why Lee stuck with a
1.85:1 aspect ratio.
I saw this at Landmark’s Bethesda Row on a Sunday night, and
shows were indeed selling out.
By Montanabw - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, Link
Saturday, October 07, 2017
"The Bachelor" warns people who inherit wealth about "the dead hand"
This is a good time to recall the 1999 satire of family
values, “The Bachelor”, by Gary Sinyor, from New Line Cinema, based on a play
by Roy Megrue Cooper in turn based in a 1925 play “Seven Chances” by Jean
Havez.
Chris O’Donnell, looking less than a real man in the bod
realm, finds himself, as he approaches 30, compelled to get married, procreate,
and stay married and stay home for ten years to get an inheritance. Talk about “the dead hand”. There is even a moral lecture about sacrificing
the self for future generations.
It used to be more common for recipients of inheritances to
be required to get married and produce kids than it is now; in fact we rarely hear about this today. But
the film is a warning that inherited wealth can come with real strings
attached.
It's more common that unmarried or childless people have to raise grandchildren or siblings' children ("Raising Helen").
This has nothing to do with the 2002 indie film of the same
name by Mike Fleiss, about serial dating, which I have not seen.
See an earlier very brief summary on Sept. 19, 2007.
See an earlier very brief summary on Sept. 19, 2007.
Labels:
dead hand,
family issues,
major studio comedy,
New Line
Thursday, October 05, 2017
"Will Sirius B Supernova Destroy Earth"? (Patreon)
Anton Petrov in “What a Math” for Patreon asks “Will Sirius
B Supernova Destroy Earth?”
Sirius B is a White Dwarf rotating around Sirius A, the Dog
Star, the brightest star in the sky, 8.3 light years away. If Sirius A got large enough, Sirius B might
acquire enough mass to blow up as a supernova.
On Earth the sky would brighten, but the atmosphere of Earth
would be fried away by radiation in about 70 years. Think of it as a really super solar storm.
But Sirius A really won’t enlarge enough to make Sirius B
gain mass any time soon. We’ll die of the usual things first.
By NASA/SAO/CXC - CHANDRA X-ray Observatory CXC Operated for NASA by SAO, url=http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2000/0065/index.html, Public Domain, Link
Sunday, October 01, 2017
"Chicken Little": Disney animated film has surprising warning about online reputation pre-Facebook
I thought I would re-visit my old review of the animated
Disney 3-D film, “Chicken Little”, written and directed by Mark Dindal in
2005. I remember seeing it at the old
National Entertainment complex in Merrifield before it was torn down to build
the Angelica Mosaic complex (centered around the new Target, with huge
apartment complexes).
In the film, Chicken Little (voice of Zach Braff) gets hit
by an acorn falling from a tree. When he posts that the sky is falling on the
Internet, it goes viral (from Google, in the pre-Facebook days) and his online
reputation suffers, as does his family’s.
Chicken little redeems himself in a baseball game by hitting a pop fly
that goes for an inside the park home run when the opposing team falls asleep
out of lack of respect for him.
What a lesson in how (not) to draw attention to yourself
with passive marketing.
In the Army, at Fort Eustis, they called me “Chicken Man.”
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