Under six feet of ground, no-one can hear your characters scream for attention. This could be a tagline for the recent purge of content announced by both Disney Plus and HBO Max, which has since renamed itself as simply Max.
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Boy, was May a crazy month full of wonderful recordings, unforeseen developments and surprises! Here’s what we managed to accomplish this month over at Uncut Gems Podcast!
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Some movies are strange in that they are much more pleasurable to think about and talk about than they are to actually watch. Brandon Cronenberg’s most recent exploit Infinity Pool not only fits this description, but also helps to define the boundaries of its usefulness by veering to its most extreme interpretation.
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If I had a penny each time I wanted to open my review with that now tattered quote from Rainer Werner Fassbinder about filmmakers being creatures of habitual obsessions compelled to revisit the well and effectively remake the same the movie over and over again by virtue of being haunted by the same artistic demons… Well, I don’t think I’d be Jeff-Bezos-rich, but I’d easily have a pound and some change for my troubles. Which is still a lot and illustrates the chokehold some obsessions hold over many artistic creators.
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Are you there, God? It’s me, Jakub. I know we haven’t spoken in a while. In fact, I believe it must have been quite a few decades since I figured out you were fake. Also, apologies for asking your devout disciples very uncomfortable questions. I was young and didn’t quite realize yet that people consumed by whatever ideology were not only unlikely to change their minds when confronted with contradictory opinions and – heavens, forbid – testable facts, but also that they were more likely to dig their heels in and go down swinging. I have since chilled, but I presume you are still holding a grudge. I should know based on available evidence, The Old Testament, that holding a grudge is how you rock on Sundays. So, I can only surmise that you are either still sore about the militant atheism of my salad days or that you don’t, in fact, exist, because it would have been a nice gesture on your behalf to send me a sign – I don’t know, a burning bush or a bolt of lightning… nothing too dramatic – to let me know I should not go to see Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret.
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In the words of one Dave Grohl, I’ve got another confession to make. I am not a fan of the John Wick series. Despite my best efforts and cleanest of intentions, I could never extract enough enjoyment from watching any of its instalments to join in on what seemed to look like unanimous acclaim. Every time I find myself at odds with the mainstream consensus, I always scratch my head and wonder why that is. I don’t necessarily wish I was a part of the ‘in’ crowd, but I am still curious where this dissonance is coming from. And after much deliberation I surmised that John Wick movies are not movies. They are video games. Or at least they are built like them.
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Remember El Mariachi, Desperado, From Dusk till Dawn or The Faculty? These movies were made three decades ago by a filmmaker who was propelled by a burning passion to make cool movies and it didn’t matter if he had enough money to do so, or if they would appeal to wide enough audiences to elevate him to stardom. These movies were great because they felt organically connected to a voice behind the camera; a voice telling you with an almost embarrassing conviction that things you were about to witness were cool, fun and… interesting. Sadly, thirty years is a long time and the same filmmaker who once made these phenomenally magnetizing genre pieces is no longer in attendance.
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Much has been made over the years of the fact that Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight, arguably the most widely acclaimed superhero movie ever made, owes its existence in large part to Michael Mann’s 1995 masterpiece Heat. In fact, Nolan himself has never hidden away from this comparison and openly embraced it. However, the fact this relationship between The Dark Knight and Heat exists implies on the basis of what’s known in science as the principle of microscopic reversibility (i.e. that if a process is true in the forward sense, then its microscopic reverse is true as well) not only that The Dark Knight is Heat with Batman in it, but perhaps it suggests that Heat could be seen as a superhero movie in its own right.
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Recent reports suggest that Disney is restructuring and re-engineering Disney Plus. They have announced: (1) the rollout of an ad-supported tier across Europe, (2) full consolidation of Disney Plus and Hulu, (3) a scaling down of production of content intended for consumption on the Disney Plus platform, and (4) impending removal of unspecified amounts of films and TV shows from the platform. And it’s not good news for anyone.
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AI language models are taking the world by storm with companies in all corners of the planet looking to implement them in their workflows, make savings, and find efficiencies. Unfortunately, this is often code for trying to make their expensive workforce redundant because ChatGPT does not need to be paid, demand time off, or unionize, at least until it becomes sentient. Though, in this latter case, AI workforce engaging in collective bargaining will be the least of our worries.
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Flasz On Film 