Lon

I recently graduated from the California State University Northridge school of Cinema and Television Arts with an emphasis in film production. Currently I'm working for an online jazz station; McQsJazz.com and it's pretty cool. On the side I'm working on breaking into the industry. One step at a time.

Christopher Nolan Calls Warner Bros.’ Shift To Streaming New Movies ‘A Great Danger’

Uncategorized

by Ari Shapiro

The pandemic has made 2020 a crazy year for the movie industry. And Warner Bros. made a recent announcement that guarantees next year will be just as upside-down. 

The company said that with many movie theaters operating at reduced capacity, all 17 of its films slated for release in 2021 will be available on the streaming platform HBO Max on the same day they’re released. That includes the superhero flick Wonder Woman 1984, Lin Manuel Miranda’s musical In The Heights and the sci-fi epic Dune. 

“No one wants films back on the big screen more than we do,” said Warner Bros. CEO Ann Sarnoff. “We know new content is the lifeblood of theatrical exhibition, but we have to balance this with the reality that most theaters in the U.S. will likely operate at reduced capacity throughout 2021.”

Many people in the movie industry were furious. 

In an essay in Variety, Dune director Denis Villeneuve wrote: “With this decision, AT&T [Warner Bros.’ parent] has hijacked one of the most respectable and important studios in film history. There is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here.”

Another vocal critic was director Christopher Nolan, whose blockbuster movies for Warner Bros. have made billions. In a blistering statement to The Hollywood Reporter, he called HBO Max “the worst streaming service.”

In an interview with NPR, Nolan — whose films include The Dark Knight, Dunkirkand Tenet — called this shift in Hollywood “a sign of great danger” for the people who work in the movie industry.

Nolan was asked whether the move to streaming is really about the pandemic or something bigger — Netflix had more 2020 Oscar nominations than any other studio.

“There is this idea that that’s been sort of put forward a lot, that the pandemic is sort of accelerating a trend that was already happening,” he said. “But 2019 was the biggest year ever for movies financially. That doesn’t suit the narrative that the tech companies or the big corporations kind of want to put out there right now. 

“But the reality is there was enormous success in 2019 and 2018 wasn’t bad either. If you’re asking where moviegoing is going, I think the long-term health of the movie business depends on people’s desire to get together and experience a story together. And I don’t see any signs that that’s going anywhere anytime soon.”

Interview Highlights

These have been edited for length and clarity.

Were you satisfied with how you learned about the Warner Bros. decision and what went into it?

The way in which the studio went about it was very unfortunate because they didn’t include any of those filmmakers. And my film [Tenet] isn’t caught up in this. I’m not a part of this. I have no skin in the game. But I look at those filmmakers for that slate and the production partners weren’t even spoken to in advance.

But more than that, the economics of it are unsound unless you’re purely looking at movements in share price, number of eyeballs on the new streaming service. Theatrical is really only one part of what we’re talking about here. You’re talking about your home video window, your secondary, tertiary windows. These are things very important to the economics of the business and to the people who work in the business.

And I’m not talking about me. I’m not talking about Ben Affleck or whoever. I’m talking about the grips, the electricians who depend on IA [the International Alliance union] and IA residuals for pension and health care. I’m talking about SAG [the Screen Actors Guild]. I’m talking about actors. I’m talking about when I come on the set and I’ve got to shoot a scene with a waiter or a lawyer who has two or three lines. They need to be earning a living in that profession, working maybe sometimes a couple of days a year. And that’s why the residuals structure is in place. 

That’s why the unions have secured participations for people down the line. So when a movie is sold to a television station 20 years after it was made, a payment is made to the people who collaborated on that on that film. And these are important principles that when a company starts devaluing the individual assets by using them as leverage for a different business strategy without first figuring out how those new structures are going to have to work, it’s a sign of great danger for the ordinary people who work in this industry.

It sounds like you are accusing Warner Bros. and its parent company, AT&T, of basically throwing these movies and everybody who worked on them overboard in order to boost HBO Max, the streaming service that wasn’t doing very well. Is that what you’re saying?

No, I’m not. And I’m not accusing anybody of anything. I’m looking at the statements they’ve made themselves and saying that what they see here is an opportunity to promote HBO Max using the slate of movies for next year. And there is a danger with that that needs to be addressed through appropriate negotiation with unions, with talent and all the rest. 

There are enormous number of questions that come out of that about the economic structures that allow working people in Hollywood to maintain their lives and raise their families and have health care and all the rest. And I’m saying these are all things that haven’t yet been thought through and they need to be.

The point I’m trying to make is not about, you know, anybody’s intention or why this should be happening or what people are trying to achieve. My point is when you think of the film business, you need to think of working people as well as highly paid, high-profile people. On the theatrical side as well, it’s very important that everybody remember that the exhibition business provides hundreds of thousands of jobs for ordinary people. 

And my work has only ever got out there in the world because of the hard work of people working in those businesses. And so, you know, they need to be taken into account as we’re looking at how our work is shown and where it’s shown and how the business moves forward.

The audio story was produced and edited by Fatma Tanis and Courtney Dorning. Avie Schneider adapted it for the Web.

Let Us Be Your +1 To ‘The Prom’

Film,

by Glen Weldon, Aisha Harris, Mark Blankenship and Margaret H. Willison

THE PROM (L to R) ANDREW RANNELLS as TRENT OLIVER, JAMES CORDEN as BARRY GLICKMAN, MERYL STREEP as DEE DEE ALLEN, NICOLE KIDMAN as ANGIE DICKINSON THE PROM. Cr. NETFLIX © 2020

Based on a sudsy, splashy 2018 Broadway musical, The Prom has been adapted for Netflix with big stars like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman, Keegan Michael-Key and James Corden. But will the theater-people in-jokes land in your living room the way they did on Broadway?

Show Notes:

The audio was produced by Will Jarvis and edited by Jessica Reedy.

‘The Blade Between’ Walks The Boundary Of Horror And Noir

Arts,

by Gabino Iglesias

There are violent ghosts, flying whales, and dead people with mouthfuls of saltwater hundreds of miles from the ocean in Sam J. Miller’s The Blade Between, but it all makes sense. It all makes sense because the story takes place in Hudson, New York, a place built on the remains of slaughtered whales, where their unused parts were buried underground and the scraps were fed to animals later used to feed people. Hudson is full of angry spirits, but now a different monster is destroying it: gentrification.

Ronan Szepessy is a famous photographer and influencer who promised himself he’d never return to Hudson, where he was born and then grew up as a lonely, bullied gay kid. But now he’s back. The drinking, sex, and drugs of New York City were getting out of control — and his father is sick. While his memories are intact, the sleepy town he remembers is gone, replaced by a bustling town full of hipsters and artists where rent has skyrocketed and the streets are lined with antique shops for tourists. Unsure of why he’s there and what is pushing him to stay, Ronan reconnects with two friends from high school: Dom, a cop who was his first love, and Attalah, Dom’s wife, who hates what’s happening to her hometown. The three friends hate gentrifiers, so Attalah and Ronan start plotting ways to change things — including blackmail — and Ronan and Dom rekindle their relationship, but their actions unleash something darker in the process.

The Blade Between is a book about broken people. The creepy atmosphere and ghosts make it horror, but the drug abuse, evictions, cheating, and destroyed lives make it noir. Also, Miller’s writing and vivid imagery, especially when describing dreams, make it poetry. The mix of genres, much like the mix of elements, makes no sense, but it works. People are angry and sad. Poverty is rampant. The opioid crisis has destroyed many of Hudson’s residents. Failed drugs tests separate kids from their mothers. Corporate interests destroy places locals considered sacred. When those things come together, the flying whales and apparitions, what Ronan calls the town’s “supernatural miasma,” are no big deal because the darkness and pain underneath them, the carnage of daily life, is astonishingly real and painfully relatable.

Miller pulls readers into a universe where the banality of everyday life in a small town and the extraordinary weirdness of the supernatural collide, but the collision somehow results in a strange balance. On one side there are dying businesses, junkies, closeted gay men looking for sex on apps, and people struggling to get by and deciding they will offer gentrifiers everything they have for money and a chance at a better future. On the other, there are unreliable narrators, a creature Ronan creates on his computer, made up of various photos of attractive men, that comes to life, and the ghost of a young gay man who serves as a sort of guide to Hudson’s hidden world.

There is plenty of strangeness and action in The Blade Between, but Miller also finds ways to tackle important subjects within the chaos.

Grief and guilt are driving forces for many characters. People know their vices and bad decisions have messed them up, but they’re unable — or unwilling — to do anything about it. Homophobia is a recurring theme that helps readers understand why Ronan is the way he is and why he stayed away from Hudson for two decades:

“But I couldn’t have stayed. Not as who I was. I’d have had to keep myself in some kind of horrible closet. How I made it out at all, without being the victim of a homophobic crime, is still a mystery to me.”

This is a complex novel that never allows one storyline to overpower the others. The fight against gentrification lies at its core like a rotten chunk of whale flesh buried under a crumbling building, but there’s enough going on to build a whole town on top of that. For example, Dom and Attalah have an open relationship, but when Dom and Ronan become lovers again, things get complicated. Also, Ronan wants to kick the gentrifiers out, but even so he’s tempted to sell his father’s property and return to New York.

The Blade Between is more than a dystopian sci-fi thriller with a dash of poetry; it’s an explosive narrative about a small town caught between the decaying ghosts of the past, the shattered dreams and mediocre lives of its residents, and the monster of gentrification that threatens to erase it all under shiny new buildings and fancy coffee shops. That Miller manages to discuss all three while also exploring the interstitial spaces between homosexuality, technology, and class privilege and resentment is a testament to his storytelling skills, and a powerful reason to read this haunting tale.

Gabino Iglesias is an author, book reviewer and professor living in Austin, Texas. Find him on Twitter at @Gabino_Iglesias.

‘Mank’ Takes On Hollywood Politics And The Legend of ‘Citizen Kane’

Film

by Stephen Thompson, Aisha Harris, Bilal Qureshi, and Monica Castillo

Starring Gary Oldman and Amanda Seyfried, Mank captures the artistic process behind the conception and writing of Orson Welles’ first movie, Citizen Kane. Director David Fincher’s black-and-white ode to classic film is a story about tycoons, studio heads, addiction, creative credit, and the politics of Old Hollywood during the Great Depression.

‘Time’ Names Its Kid Of The Year: Water-Testing Scientist Gitanjali Rao

Uncategorized, , ,

by Bill Chappell

Gitanjali Rao, a Colorado teenager who invented a mobile device to test for lead in drinking water, is Time’s Kid of the Year for 2020. The magazine announced the award Thursday, citing Rao’s ability to apply scientific ideas to real-world problems — and her desire to motivate other kids to take up their own causes.

It’s just the latest recognition for Rao, 15, who was named last year to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list. She won praise in 2017 after she responded to the Flint, Mich., water crisis by creating a device named Tehys, using carbon nanotube sensors to detect lead in water. The Lone Tree, Colo., native was named America’s Top Young Scientist when she was in the seventh grade. She went on to collaborate with scientists in the water industry to try to get the device on the market.

More recently, Rao has developed a phone and Web tool named Kindly, which uses artificial intelligence technology to detect possible early signs of cyberbullying.

“You type in a word or phrase, and it’s able to pick it up if it’s bullying, and it gives you the option to edit it or send it the way it is,” Rao tells Time. “The goal is not to punish. As a teenager, I know teenagers tend to lash out sometimes. Instead, it gives you the chance to rethink what you’re saying so that you know what to do next time around.”

The debut Kid of the Year award comes from a partnership between Time and Nickelodeon. Rao was chosen in part because of the way she has followed up her technical work with efforts to get other young people to work on solving the problems they see.

“I don’t look like your typical scientist. Everything I see on TV is that it’s an older, usually white man as a scientist,” she told Time. “My goal has really shifted not only from creating my own devices to solve the world’s problems, but inspiring others to do the same as well. Because, from personal experience, it’s not easy when you don’t see anyone else like you. So I really want to put out that message: If I can do it, you can do it, and anyone can do it.”

In one week, Time will select its Person of the Year, which was won last year by another teenager: climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Thunberg was the first person younger than 25 to win the long-running award. Timesays the new Kid of the Year recognition is a way to highlight young people who are having a positive influence on their communities and using their innovations to help solve problems. Five finalists were selected from more than 5,000 candidates between 8 and 16 years old. A committee of kids then made the final choice, along with comedian Trevor Noah.

Each of the finalists will get a cash prize from Viacom, Nickelodeon’s owner, as well as appearing with Noah on an upcoming TV special. The candidates are responsible for a wide range of positive work, from guiding discussions about racial injustice to growing food for the needy and making toys that all kids can enjoy, regardless of their abilities.

The other finalists, who are also profiled in the Time article, include Tyler Gordon, 14, from San Jose, Calif.; Jordan Reeves, 14, from Columbia, Mo.; Bellen Woodard, 10, from Leesburg, Va.; and Ian McKenna, 16, from Austin, Texas.

Alt.Latino Film Festival: Fandangos And Mockingbirds

Film

by Felix Contreras

This fall, Mexican folk music takes the spotlight in two separate documentaries. 

Linda and the Mocking Birds takes a trip to a small town in northern Mexico with Linda Ronstadt. She accompanies a group of young musicians and dancers from the Bay Area cultural group Los Cenzontles, which translates to “mockingbirds.” For decades, Ronstadt has supported the group and, despite her low public profile these days, she wholeheartedly participates in telling a story of how music and culture transcends any kind of physical boundary.

In Fandango at the Wall, pianist/composer Arturo O’Farrill takes a musical and personal journey to the border. His father was famed Afro-Cuban jazz composer and arranger Chico O’Farrill and his mother was born in Detroit of Mexican roots. The movie explores the Mexican state of Veracruz and the music (son jarocho) that connects Tijuana and San Diego.

It is a happy coincidence that there are two current documentaries that feature Mexican folk music; they not only reinforce the humanity but also the historic musical ties between Mexico and the U.S.

‘These Violent Delights’ Transports Romeo And Juliet To 1920s Shanghai

Food For Thought,

by Caitlyn Paxon

Romeo and Juliet gets a hardboiled makeover in this historical drama set amid the turmoil of a city torn apart by colonialism: In 1920s Shanghai, where we lay our scene, two rival gangs must join forces to hunt down a monster.

Juliette Cai, the daughter of the Scarlet Gang’s powerful head, has only just returned from America, where she was banished in the wake of a catastrophic romantic dalliance. Now she needs to prove to everyone that she can be every bit as ruthless as her father in the quest to keep the Scarlet Gang in charge of Shanghai. But when her people begin dying of a mysterious plague that causes them to rip out their own throats, and she hears whispers that a terrible creature in the river may be the source, she has no choice but to go against her family’s will and team up with Roma, the heir to the White Flowers – sworn enemies of the Scarlet Gang.

To make matters worse, Roma’s the reason her loyalty is always slightly in doubt, because it was falling in love with him when they were only 15 that got her banished in the first place.

Roma shouldn’t be happy about their shaky alliance, but he never did manage to get over Juliette Cai. Now she’s back in his life and making everything harder than it needs to be as they work together to unravel a mystery. The Russian White Flowers may be relative newcomers to Shanghai, but their power in the city runs deep, and if Roma’s father finds out that he’s collaborating with the enemy, his birthright won’t protect him.

But the fact is, none of these petty power struggles will matter if everyone dies of a strange, violent plague. Unless the plague is actually just one more weapon in the war for control of Shanghai.

There is a lot going on here. Romeo and Juliet in 1920’s Shanghai is an elevator pitch; add in a mystery, a monster hunt, and the complexities of Western imperialism and you have almost more than the elevator can hold. It makes These Violent Delights difficult to classify. It isn’t exactly a tragedy, for while many deeply sad things befall its characters, we never linger long upon them. It isn’t a romance, despite the angsty tension between Juliette and Roma, because they barely get a chance to stop and feel it. It’s one part detective story (with Juliette cast as the weary detective and Roma as the femme fatale) and one part heist as the main characters run around the city with their minions in tow, investigating and snooping and generally causing more mayhem than they prevent.

More than anything, These Violent Delights is a rich portrait of a seldom-depicted time and place. I went in knowing very little about early 20th century Shanghai, and was struck by the extent to which the colonizing influences make it feel like a Western city. They didn’t call it “the Paris of the East” for nothing. It’s a city pulled in many different directions as the consequences of historical events spill into the streets – the Opium Wars, the rise of communism, the ongoing supremacist battle between the French and English – it’s all here on the page, tangled up and complicated.

The plot is also a bit tangled up, and at times, the reader is a few steps ahead of whatever discovery the characters are making, creating a bit of a lagging feeling in the pacing. But the characters themselves are interesting, offering queer representation and a lot of moral complexity as they all grapple with the violence that is expected of them. Overall, they are a charming bunch to pass the time with. I was in some ways reminded of an ensemble heist drama like Six of Crows, though this focuses more on the main two characters.

I did find myself questioning whether These Violent Delights really feels like a young adult book. The true teenage feels are mostly located in the backstory as we gradually learn of Juliette and Roma’s early romance and subsequent falling out. In the present of the story, they both feel more like world-weary adults, wielding their power and accepting the fact that who they really are doesn’t matter because their power comes with bleak responsibility. But I think it likely that, in our current, turbulent times, that mood will speak to teen and adult readers alike.

Caitlyn Paxson is a writer and performer. She is a regular reviewer for NPR Books and Quill & Quire.

Can’t Find A Chess Set? You Can Thank ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ For That

Television, , ,

by Neda Ulaby

THE QUEENÕS GAMBIT (L to R) ANYA TAYLOR-JOY as BETH HARMON in episode 103 of THE QUEENÕS GAMBIT Cr. PHIL BRAY/NETFLIX © 2020

Who could’ve predicted chess sets might become as difficult to find as toilet paper during the early weeks of the pandemic? Not Gerrick Johnson. The toy analyst with BMO Capital Markets found himself stymied while searching for a particular Cardinal chess set a few weeks ago.

“It was sold out everywhere I went,” he says.

Sales of chess sets have skyrocketed, says Mary Higbe, director of marketing at Goliath Games. The company sells six different kinds of chess sets, including those familiar red-boxed Pressman sets you’ve probably seen in the toy aisle at Walmart.

“Our October sales for chess were up 178% over the same period last year,” Higbe says. That’s a big increase. But something else unexpected happened at the end of the month. Now, she says, “our chess sales are up 1,048%.“

Every so often a game comes along that captures the popular imagination. In November 2020, that game is chess. The reason? A Netflix period drama that debuted in late October.

“Ever since The Queen’s Gambit launched, our chess sales have increased triple digits,” marvels Elizabeth LoVecchio, vice-president of marketing at Spin Master. The huge toy company has a division of classic games — such as chess, checkers and backgammon — that owns about 70% of the market share in the United States.

LoVecchio says sales of these games started spiking back when people first hunkered down last spring and played games with people in their bubbles to keep themselves entertained. But what’s happening with chess sales since The Queen’s Gambit is “unprecedented — and we anticipate our sales rising further,” she adds.

Chess sets sales are rising in the secondary market as well. eBay registered a 215% increase in chess set and accessory sales since The Queen’s Gambit hit Netflix, with shoppers seeking out wooden chess sets nine times more than plastic, electronic or glass ones, according to an eBay spokesperson. Toy analyst Gerrick Johnson now warns that demand will outstrip supply.

“Six months ago, a year ago, these retailers weren’t saying, let’s load up on chess sets,” he notes. “Good luck finding a chess set this holiday!”

Both LoVecchio and Higbe agree a chess shortage may be added to 2020’s woes.

“Oh, for sure. I believe it,” Higbe says.

Chess has long been alluring, even dramatic. But The Queen’s Gambit makes it seem accessible, Higbe adds. And that just adds to the appeal of a game that’s both eminently affordable and pleasingly different every time you play it.

“You have to have patience. You have to really think about strategy. You have to plan ahead,” she says.

Valuable skills for playing chess — and getting through the dark few months before us.

THE QUEENÕS GAMBIT (L to R) JACOB FORTUNE-LLOYD as TOWNES and ANYA TAYLOR-JOY as BETH HARMON in episode 102 of THE QUEENÕS GAMBIT Cr. PHIL BRAY/NETFLIX © 2020

Leslie Jones Reinvigorates ‘Supermarket Sweep’

Television,

by Stephen Thompson and Travis Larchuk

Leslie Jones is the host of ABC’s Supermarket Sweep.
Eric McCandless/ABC

The game show Supermarket Sweep has run in the ’60s, the ’90s and the aughts. This fall, it’s been revived for a fourth iteration — this time in primetime on ABC. While the previous two versions of the show were hosted by the affable David Ruprecht, the new Supermarket Sweep is hosted by the delightfully amped-up Leslie Jones. She helps a new generation of shoppers as they run around a fake grocery store and attempt to fill their shopping carts with high-priced hams, fancy olives and anything else that adds up to big money. 

The audio was produced by Candice Lim and edited by Jessica Reedy.

In ‘Fargo,’ Everything’s Up To Date In Kansas City

Television,

by Aisha Harris and Glen Weldon

FARGO — Year 4, Episode 1 – Pictured: Jeremie Harris as Leon Bittle, Chris Rock as Loy Cannon, Corey Hendrix as Omie Sparkman, Glynn Turman as Doctor Senator. CR: Elizabeth Morris/FX

The fourth season of Fargo stars Chris Rock as Loy Cannon, a ruthless Kansas City crime boss battling an Italian-American gang for power in the 1950s. In order to keep the peace while doing business, Loy and his rival swap their youngest sons as hostages. The series is both an immigrant tale and a migrant tale viewed through the familiar lens of a gritty mobster saga. Though true to the Coen Brother’s sensibilities, creator Noah Hawley injects it with darkly oddball humor and characters.

The audio was produced by Mike Katzif and edited by Jessica Reedy.