Did the FORBIDDEN FRUITS 4DX experience*

*saw FORBIDDEN FRUITS in the mall AMC

The implicit media consensus is that urban voters should not be able to overrule rural voters, but that rural voters should be able to overrule urban voters, an assumption so axiomatic and unquestionable that nobody even understands they're making it.

Mrs. Parker and the Vicious Circle
Van Gogh (Pialat)
Raging Bull
The Puppetmaster

MADAME WEB 2 - Her Web Connects Some of Them

Feel like this would be a good first date question, who you’re rooting for in a bullfight. If they answer the bullfighter, they’re probably some kind of fascist, if they answer “well bullfighting shouldn’t exist” they’re in denial about the nature of the world.

Good job bull

- PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT -

DO NOT BE CONFUSED! These are TWO DIFFERENT movies about unrepentant pedophiles with the same title. Markus Schleinzer's 2011 pedophilia-themed drama MICHAEL is NOT the same movie as Antoine Fuqua's 2026 pedophilia-themed drama of the same title.

Followed up SPEED RACER with another digital film about the impossibility of artistic pursuit in a world ravaged by capitalism and run by greed and narcissism.

Unsurprised to find almost all of the sub-four-star ratings for SPEED RACER from people I follow on Letterboxd are the scolds

For sure. The tech upgrade was nice but end of the day I think the appeal of DVD was just being more convenient than VHS. They were smaller, didn’t need to be rewound, took awhile to break, and because CDs got there first, storage options were plentiful.

But there are still a handful of films from that era I adore, most of all SPEED RACER and DEAD MAN’S CHEST. And I’ll always be infinitely grateful for that onslaught of the new.

Eventually streaming wiped out the home video returns, 3D wiped out audience trust with too many rush jobs at higher prices, trades wiped out the geek press that promoted the tech drive above all else, and the recession wiped out everything else that made the nonsense engine churn.

Lord knows they weren’t all good, but that misses the point. The point was they were trying to figure out this new thing, and along the way there were some truly divine inspirations - technologically, aesthetically, even narratively. Ways the camera could be something it’d never been before.

I often think about that onslaught - SPIDER-MAN, LORD OF THE RINGS, MINORITY REPORT, HULK, the PIRATES movies (especially the sequels), SKY CAPTAIN, KING KONG, WAR OF THE WORLDS, SUPERMAN RETURNS, 300, BEOWULF, SIN CITY, TRANSFORMERS, DISTRICT 9, AVATAR, TRON: LEGACY, SCOTT PILGRIM, so many more…

As an audience member at the time, being able to go to the movies several times a year and see something that had never been done before, or had just been tried a year or two prior but was suddenly so much better, was constantly exhilarating.

But there wasn’t the pipeline that exists today, the declining standards, and a lot of money was thrown very quickly at people who seemed like they understood how to merge live action and animation.

After THE MATRIX and especially THE PHANTOM MENACE, it became a technological arms race for the future of the medium. The DVD boom brought unparalleled resources from back catalog sales and the certainty that nearly any movie would make its money back.

The thing about loving SPEED RACER when it came out is it wasn’t, at least for me, just about loving a movie very few liked at the time. It was part (and a significant pinnacle of) that was revolutionary, but largely despised and remains incredibly devalued - the first wave of CGI blockbusters.

Seated for the SPEED RACER rerelease, haven’t seen this in theaters since opening weekend. Psyched.

It’s really weird they’re still doing the “you have to watch X to understand Y” after seeing that strategy thoroughly disproven over like a dozen films.

THE MATRIX. I was just barely too young and insulated to see it when it came out, so by the time I did, I knew what The Matrix was, the big set pieces, etc., and it was already sort of absorbed into culture. But I had seen the ads pre-release, so I still had - still HAVE - the itch for the mystery.

I fly around 16-20 times a year, but never missed a flight. Came close twice, once for long security line, so basically my bad, but the more amusing one is when a woman next to me accidentally brought a gun through security. That really gummed up the works. Made it to my flight with 5 min to spare.

Unless I’m traveling internationally or need to eat dinner specifically at the airport I never arrive more than an hour early (and if I park at the terminal that includes that time). It’s not really a “wasting time” thing for me, I just find it more pleasurable.

The c-suite class doesn’t rely on customers for their wealth. Eventually of course the lack of customers will leave them no more stocks to short and manipulate, no more property worth a damn, but they’re presently too divorced from the engine of commerce to fully grasp that.

What’s the Matter With Kids Yesterday?

Wayne’s World, Basic Instinct

My overall answer to even the widest-ranging time travel question is “attend that one test screening they did of the full cut of AMBERSONS”

THE CHRISTOPHERS - You guys have to stop reading Soderbergh interviews and question if he’s actually doing anything with his filmmaking

There just aren’t a lot of a-list stars in their forties who seem Kinda Tired

You know what else would win a half-marathon?
A car.
Or even a person on a bicycle.
A machine exceeding the capability of an unassisted human is not news just because it has leg-like appendages.