Media

The proportions of movies’ height and width have changed several times over the course of cinema history, but, for practical reasons (projectionists don’t like changing equipment all the time), at any given time the ratios have been standardized. Until the rise of digital projection, that is. Now it’s fairly easy for filmmakers to play with aspect ratios, and that’s what they’re doing. Ben Kenigsberg looks at four examples from this fall’s releases. – The New York Times

“After a few false starts and a little offscreen drama, AppleTV+ finally makes its big debut with a slate of shows, Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, and a billion potential customers ready to see what original programming looks like from the world’s largest company, led by CEO Tim Cook.” – The Hollywood Reporter

In the 1940s, John E. Reid and Associates developed a commonly-used, and now-controversial police interrogation method called the Reid Technique. That method is mentioned once, briefly, in When They See Us, DuVernay’s recent Netflix series about the Central Park Five; based on that mention, Reid and Associates argues in its court filing that its reputation has been damaged by the script’s mischaracterization and false assertions. – Variety

In the game’s final moments on Sunday evening, a giant explosion took place, sucking the world into a black vortex, leaving players stunned and confused. Brilliantly, Epic took the explosion out of the “fiction” of the game, so that the menu pages and user interface were also pulled into the black hole. – The Guardian

Many filmgoers say they believe sound levels have been crawling up the decibel scale, and not just for the adverts and trailers. Several sufferers also argued that a lack of balanced settings in an auditorium can create an unpleasant booming sensation. – The Observer (UK)

Taika Waititi’s new movie Jojo Rabbit is far from the first movie to satirize the genocidal leader. But many people object to the movie on pure concept. “Is it right to make comedy of a man who did such transcendently horrible things?” – Slate

Uh-oh, Ang Lee, what happened to you? “If you’re wondering why a filmmaker as good as Ang Lee couldn’t, in this case, see the forest for the schlock, the answer may be that Gemini Man, which was shot at 120 frames per second, indicates that he’s become an apostle of technology first and a filmmaker second. He’s been to the mountaintop and has seen the light of high frame rate. He wanted a big dazzling action movie to hang his new world on, and he found one.” – Variety

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is making a lot of movies and TV in Utah. “This year, BYU Broadcasting, which owns BYUtv, is in production on 25 shows including TV movies, scripted dramas, reality shows, religious content and a cooking show. It is staffed by 158 full time employees, more than 200 students who work part time, and a small army of freelancers who operate in just about every job, from directors and producers to grips and production assistants.” – The New York Times

Of the world’s 6000 languages, half are in linguistic collapse. A new film records their music. “The musical landscape is sometimes gentle, sometimes aggressive, but it always keeps our attention on the rich, incomprehensible, often overlapping chorus of words.” – The New York Times

Films like Always Be my Maybe, To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Farewell, and Searching create new images for larger mass consumption. “In these complex films, Asian American mothers are transmitters of domesticity, culture, and care, and their tragic deaths leave behind relatives who are struggling to find themselves in their absence. It’s a new and different kind of familial negotiation for Asian American families. On many shows, including All American Girl and Fresh off the Boat, Asian mothers are immigrants whose accents and domineering personalities are played for comedic relief.” – Bitch

Apparently this is, or was, a new process; “Digital humans have been put into shots before, but, according to Guy Williams, a visual effects supervisor at Weta who is quoted in the film’s press notes, ‘this is the first time where one of the leading characters of the film is a totally recognizable human.'” The details are new, but the fountain of youth for established actors isn’t (think, if you will, of Samuel Jackson’s Nick Fury and Clark Gregg’s Agent Coulson in the set-in-the-early-1990s Captain Marvel). Will Smith’s digitally ageless baby face might be a harbinger of many, many movies to come. – The New York Times

“The final episode of Studio 360 will air in February, … [and] host Kurt Andersen’s role with the program will end later this month. … John Barth, PRX’s chief content officer, would not discuss details about why the program is ending … [and] PRX spokesperson David Cotrone said only that Studio 360 is being canceled ‘for a variety of factors.'” – Current

“Bong’s last two films, 2013’s Snowpiercer and 2017’s Okja, were his first to be made in English: they weren’t exactly misfires, either critically or commercially, yet both clearly had designs on being bigger deals than they were. … A globally minded film-maker with big-dreaming genre nous, he spent the last few years making a bid for mainstream Hollywood clout, only to finally make an international phenomenon from his own doorstep.” – The Guardian

The city’s Pacifica Radio station, which for six decades has aired leftist-leaning news coverage and alternative programming, has been in chronic turmoil for the past several years, with constant financial crises, heavy employee layoffs, frequent management turnover, and vicious battles over governance. (Not to mention shrinking listenership.) Things came to a head early Monday morning, when, without warning, Pacifica changed the locks, fired the staff and volunteers by email, and started broadcasting a feed from its California stations. Staffers got a judge to block the shutdown and reopen the station, but Pacifica did not comply. (So staffers broke the new locks.) – Gothamist

Dan Brooks: “Ostensibly too sophisticated for superhero stories, our critics have accepted the Joker’s power to corrupt the masses in real life, on a more literal level than the most addled comic-book fan ever would. That’s a failure to maintain critical distance, but it’s being projected onto an audience that critics imagine to be more suggestible than themselves — insanely more suggestible, almost comically so.” – The New York Times Magazine

Scorsese says Marvel movies aren’t cinema, but are more like theme parks. Jackson (who is, famously, Nick Fury in the Marvel Cinematic Universe): “That’s like saying, ‘Bugs Bunny ain’t funny. … Everybody’s got an opinion, so it’s OK. It’s not going to stop anyone from making movies.” – Los Angeles Times

Euzhan Palcy’s A Dry White Season earned Marlon Brando an Oscar nomination, but that didn’t impress Hollywood executives, she says. When she pitched other films with black leads, “‘They were very matter of fact: they’d ask: ‘Can’t the lead be white?’’ she said. ‘I was pitching a story about a black freedom fighter and they asked me if he could be white. Incredible things like that.'” – The Guardian (UK)

And for the big sequel, Before Sunset, Delpy got half of her co-star’s salary. For the third movie in the trilogy, Before Midnight? She refused to do it without equal pay. – Variety

After ten years, and as the ever more popular show expands from the US to the UK (with plans for Canada and Australia), it’s impossible to deny that Drag Race has brought drag a once-undreamed-of level of mainstream acceptance. But has it also made drag less varied and more conformist? – BBC

“Now, with Madea behind him — he was fed up with playing her — Perry’s cultural legacy remains complex, ever evolving, and dependent on what he does next. In the short term, that means opening sprawling new studios [in Atlanta that] will serve as the home for an astonishing six new shows, all of which he has written and will direct — part of a major content deal with Viacom. Is he sacrificing quality for quantity? Perry said he was not aspiring to great artistry.” – The New York Times