What I think it is…is how our sentimentality for storytelling can cloud our objective analysis of a work. I think I paid more attention to the art process because I had designs on becoming an animator when I was young.
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I fucking HATE The Little Mermaid because the story is so horribly sexist that she LITERALLY has to give up her own beautiful voice to have her man.
But some good songs in there.
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That’s pretty much a given with Disney, even when it’s trying to be progressive, right?
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I thought it was especially retro in that movie
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Perhaps, but when I said it was great, I hedged with “fairly” because I wasn’t thrilled with the story, but ultimately I succumbed to the spectacle of the thing.
Uh…sure…
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I’ve been enjoying this Youtube series lately:
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This sums up much of my own concerns with the way streaming is turning out… that it’s essentially being employed by studios to create a new kind of monopoly that can easily disenfranchise minority voices and visions:
Note that Disney and WB essentially controls about half of our pop culture TV/film market at this point.
Why does it matter? Because storytelling is one of the most crucial qualities that makes us human, I’d argue. Pretty much anything that tries to make sense of the world is what makes us human, I think. And so much of our political thinking has been projected onto mass culture since it’s inception. The struggle over that terrain is fundamental to our understanding of the capitalist project over all…
I need to think more on this, as I have a bunch of half-formed notions about this.
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This made me think about my current concerns over CBS All Access. A company that has reaped the benefit of having free public airwaves since its inception many decades ago has decided to put all its new, desirable shows behind a paywall.
If they made it possible to watch the shows, say for 2 weeks, before they went behind the paywall, or something like that, I wouldn’t be thrilled but it would be more acceptable.
And I can’t help wondering if it’s because CBS has been known as the Baby Boomers channel, so maybe the people in the decision-making positions are trying to figure out the new digital order without having the slightest clue how to make it work.
(N.B. I’m a Boomer who wouldn’t make this mistake, so that’s not really much of an excuse.)
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Honestly, this is one of the things about Netflix that has scared the crap out of Hollywood, but, as usual, the money guys in Hollywood thinks it’s the “people will pay a fee to us instead of the cable company to watch on their own schedule! And we don’t need to even have infrastructure in there area!”, while the old white guard are afraid of something else.
Netflix has picked up or developed shows from places where people aren’t white and/or they don’t speak English, and offered them to mainstream American audiences who might never have seen or heard of them. They’ve worked with minority creators for Netflix shows. So you have people like Spielberg agitating for changes that protect the white male creative.
Now, I am not saying Netflix is the shining hero, defender of minorities. Far from it. The did see a relatively unexploited niche and moved into it. They made a lot of money offering people novelty. Especially while they were the only one on the block.
What’s happening is the usual capitalism of seeing someone making money, and not understanding why it’s working but wanting a piece of it. And instead of us getting what we want, we get what we’re told we want, which isn’t the same thing at all, and somehow manages to protect traditional power structures.
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HBO’s “Chernobyl”: a total of five hour-and-a-half episodes. Do not miss.
And be prepared: reality is so much more frightening than any horror story a human can dream up.
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I made it to John Wick 3 - The WICKENING… er, no … Parabellum
Decent GunFu action but somewhere I’d become under the impression it was the last of the franchise.
It obviously isn’t, so I’m not sure how I feel.
I think the entire movie was the writers largely going, “hey remember that movie where they did that thing? Yeah, let’s add that.”
Although, I did really like “Guns. Lots of Guns”
Good fun. Hope they actually do wind it up in the next one.
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Saw it with a friend. Actually it triggered me in a lot of ways because my (now separated from) husband is very good with guns and the kung fu fighting. I wasn’t really expecting to feel that impacted by such a silly movie. I also think it’s that Keanu is very good with trauma face.
Thanks to everyone who recommended Russian Doll. It was great! Exactly why Disney should not own Netflix.
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The soundtrack to Russian Doll is what’s been getting me to the end of my day at work these days.
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Just watched the Alicia Vikander Tomb Raider flick.
It’s a fun action-adventure film, but the kind where you feel compelled to audibly call “bullshit” on what’s happening on screen every few minutes (there’s one particular scene involving a long fall into a river, then a waterfall and the rusting carcass of a plane, where I was calling bullshit about every ten seconds for a few straight minutes).
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Black vaudeville with a (to my modern eyes) wondrously eccentric turn from comic Tim Moore (in blackface, you have been warned.)
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Fans of Russian Doll, Groundhog Day, Run Lola Run, etc. might also appreciate
It used to be on Netflix, which is where I found it, but these days who knows
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So, I have roughly 48 hours to binge watch my last few things on Amazon Prime. I enjoy crime/detective/psychological/suspense. I’m giving Homecoming season 1 a try right now.
I’ve seen the latest Endeavour, all of Mr. Robot, Whitechapel, Sneaky Pete, Bosch, Hanna, The Widow, Jack Ryan, Unforgotten, Luther, Patriot, The ABC Murders, The Tick, and I’m about to do the HBO free trial through tomorrow night just to watch Chernobyl. Anyone have any other suggestions?
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The Man in the High Castle.
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The 4th episode out of 5 just released yesterday, so I’d wait a bit. The 5th episode won’t show up until next Monday the 3rd of June.
Or are you saying you’re most of the way through the free trial already?
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No, I’m saying my Amazon Prime expires Thursday night or Friday in the early am (though I’ll be away most of the day Thursday). I can continue Chernobyl on pirate streaming, I guess. It just won’t be smooth like Amazon.
Yup. Been there, done that.
What about The Romanoffs? Does anybody give that a thumbs up?
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