Category: media

When Francis Lee first read about Mary Anning, he felt a connection to her. Then he did the work to make gritty Lyme come to life. “I did extensive research to make sure that not just the facts about Mary but the facts about the day and how people lived their lives and what it meant to have no money in this time. … All of that is very, very factual.” But the film’s detractors have fastened their (homophobic) outrage on the relationship at the heart of the film between paleontologist Anning and geologist Charlotte Murchison. – Los Angeles Times

The director says she didn’t direct it as a series, though: “I actually treated it as long-form cinema. It’s about rhythm for me. It’s about trying to find that thread that takes us through. And of course, music for me … is really the oxygen that drives my cinema.” – NPR

Or so says one of Slate‘s TV critics. Read the whole series of posts if you can – you can start here and work your way back – but there’s a serious discussion to be had about TV in 2020. “For so much of this year, watching TV felt like watching these weird remnants of another world. They would resonate or fail to connect just like TV always does, but they’d be reaching out to a completely other world than the one they originally intended to reach.” – Slate

Sorry, multiplexes: It’s the indies that will survive. “To put it bluntly, people who just want to gobble popcorn while gaping at the latest special-effects extravaganza … will be happy enough doing so in their basements and living rooms, whereas folks who appreciate the theatrical experience as the communal, quasi-religious ceremony that it is will be back.” – Oregon ArtsWatch

In its latest warning cry, it said it needs $750 million “to remain viable” through 2021. Even if it raises that, it still risks bankruptcy next year if moviegoing doesn’t pick up — and Warner Bros. may have made that harder to accomplish. – Deadline

“Spoiler culture” has become the preferred term for the angry whiplash of consumers who don’t want to know anything — and I mean anything — about a particular work of art or entertainment ahead of time. As a cultural phenomenon, spoiler culture has grown in scope and intensity along with the Internet, and it has now reached a level where it’s hard for people like me to get any work done. – Boston Globe

“Initially dreamed up as a storytelling showcase for Chicago audio artists and new writers, it now regularly wins awards – including one Pulitzer – for its in-depth international reporting, and boasts several spinoffs, among them the hit podcast Serial,” and the broadcast and podcast together get 5.3 million listeners a week. But now younger radio types gripe about “the hegemony of This American Life.” Says longtime producer Nancy Updike, “I recognise that we have become The Man.” – The Guardian

“I’ve expressed a great many opinions in this magazine over the past 23 years, and looking back on them, I’m reminded of the fact that if you judge a movie critic by the accuracy of his opinions, you’re never going to like any movie critic ever.” – Washington Examiner

Created in 2014 by the game media entrepreneur Geoff Keighley, the awards attracted almost 50 million viewers last year because, unlike the Oscars, The Game Awards are a forward-looking news and entertainment show, not a backward-looking nostalgia vehicle. – Protocol

“The new metric, Nielsen One, is slated to begin rolling out in late 2022, and Nielsen says it expects that measurement to become the industry standard for buying and selling ad inventory — a $100 billion annual business — by fall 2024.” – The Hollywood Reporter