Category: media

Question is, which theatres will still be around by then? (And is Warner Bros. 2021 slate of movies to HBO Max plan going to devastate those same theatres?) – The Verge

Cannes’ Thierry Fremaux: “Cinemas have been through other trials: they died often, and yet they’re still alive because the public yearns for collective experiences. In their absence, theaters — which are our homes, our churches and our rituals — have never been so present. When will we see each other again? Soon. We must!” – Variety

But Pixar did a lot more, Foxx says, than just hire a Black man to be the lead character. “The filmmakers enlisted a host of A-list cultural, music and faith consultants — including Ryan Coogler, Kenya Barris, Quincy Jones and Yo-Yo Ma — to lend their expertise and perspective to the film’s story, in addition to the artisans who worked on the film directly, like Jon Batiste (who composed original music for the film) or Daveed Diggs and Ahmir ‘Questlove’ Thompson (who voiced characters Paul and Curley in the film, while also consulting on the story).” – Variety

Let the Slate Movie Club kickstart that conversation (and perhaps explain where to find all of these so-called best movies of a year when we mostly couldn’t go to the cinema). Start here, and work forward, for discussion of everything from First Cow to Beanpole to Bacarau and so many more. – Slate

There’s the 23andMe email telling a Christmas-obsessed woman that she’s 50 percent Jewish; there’s the central character who is an outsider to Judaism; there is the “We’re just like you!” theme, and then there are the many, many, many, many, MANY Hanukkah decorations. “The trend is an assimilationist project which tests the meaning of the increasingly buzzword-y, amorphous concepts of ‘diversity’ and ‘inclusion.’ Do Jews really want or need to see themselves in Christmas Movie World?” – HuffPost

It’s not like there’s much else to do here at the tail end of the year but try to cram in Oscar bait or kids’ Christmas movie or soul-enhancing shows that lead us down internet rabbit holes or terrible superhero movies that lead to massive excellent live-tweeting sessions. So: What’s the best streaming service out there? Our lives, after all, depend on it. – Fast Company

In her Christmas Day sermon, the Vicar of Dibley – on the long-running, eponymous show – took a knee and discussed racism. The character “is shown being filmed by parishioner and farmer Owen Newitt as she tells the audience she has been preoccupied with the ‘horror show’ of the death of George Floyd, who died while in US police custody.” – BBC

Could it be – is it possible – that Korean Americans aren’t seen as American? (And that last year The Farewell, another Asian American written and directed movie, dealt with similar anti-Asian racism?) “It’s a multilingual film that reflects the reality of Americans that are multilingual. So it’s authentic to have that dialog in the language that would have been spoken growing up in a family like this growing up in rural Arkansas. What could be more American than that?” – The Guardian (UK)

To corner the audio ad market, of course. But execs insist that the company is not going to be evil: “Having watched how companies like Facebook and Google built up the digital ad ecosystem, Spotify’s Jay Richman, who heads the company’s ads business and platform, says the streamer is determined not to focus on scale over quality.” – Axios

“The Enola Holmes case hinged on Sherlock Holmes’ complicated copyright status. Most Holmes stories sit in the public domain, and stories like Enola Holmes — which reimagines Holmes (played by Henry Cavill) having a younger sister — can freely repurpose their elements. But 10 of Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories are still protected by copyright, and the Doyle estate argued that they depict a meaningfully different version of the character.” – The Verge