“Independent filmmaking is wilder and freer than ever, owing in part to the readier availability of equipment and in part to the mere march of time and proliferation of ideas. But, at the same time, Hollywood filmmaking is even more brazenly commercial. The gap between the independents and the profit centers is increasing along with the quality of independent films.”

“These films strip away almost all of the moral and political ambiguities of international conflict, in its place giving us a singular tale of physical and mental heroics dripping in red, white, and blue. It’s hard as an American to not be affected at some level. Although an unintended consequence of such powerful patriotic storytelling could be its political ramifications.”

“Mohammed says one of the film’s opening scenes, when Kyle spots a woman and child who appear to be preparing to attack US troops during the initial invasion of Iraq, had the entire audience on the edge of their seats. ‘When the sniper was hesitating to shoot [the child holding the RPG] everyone was yelling ‘Just shoot him!” he said.”

“In the upcoming movie White God, … the canine actor Bodie plays Hagen, a mutt that – after he is separated from his owner – leads an uprising of hundreds of dogs against the men who mistreat and abuse them.” The director, the animal trainer, and Bodie tell us how they pulled it off. (video)

“France has a vibrant film and television sector thanks to a system that requires television networks to hand over a proportion of their turnover to back domestic production, on top of a series of public grants and funds. The result is a diverse field of many small- to mid-size production companies, unlike in the United States, where studios and listed entertainment conglomerates dominate.”

“The voices on podcasts and public radio are informed, interesting, gentle friends. They keep me company as they share important, entertaining, and sometimes tragic stories. But the timbre, accent, inflections, rhythm, metaphors, and references of these voices reflect class, region, ethnicity, gender, and other components of identity.”

“Plenty of amateur films have been shot using iPhones, but by all reports, this is the first movie at the Sundance Film Festival to be shot almost entirely on an Apple device. It was a decision that indie writer and director Sean Baker made to accommodate the film’s small budget. But you’d never guess the camera, to look at it.”

Adam Gopnik: “The ruling deity of this form of panic and pensive regret is Lewis Carroll’s White Queen, from Through the Looking-Glass. The White Queen, in some Joseph Campbell realm of archetypes, is indeed surely a variant of Hans Christian Andersen’s Snow Queen, and so perhaps it’s no wonder that in Carroll’s rendering she governs the Kingdom of the Snow That Fell Before It Started Falling.”

“Branded toys routinely make more money than the films and cartoons on which they are based—sometimes a lot more—so it’s logical in a way that yes, children’s television shows and movies are basically long, elaborate toy commercials.”

“Whatever impact a film might have on those who see it, the reality is that events, attitudes and present-day understandings affect and shape how we view movies as much, if not more. This cultural exchange doesn’t apply only to new films.”

“Willful or malicious interference with Wi-Fi hot spots is illegal…The Enforcement Bureau has seen a disturbing trend in which hotels and other commercial establishments block wireless consumers from using their own personal Wi-Fi hot spots on the commercial establishment’s premise.”

“In short, Italy has created a popular, realistic, beautifully rendered TV series – which is what has so many people worried. The international success of Gomorrah could turn into bad publicity for Naples and Italy, just as the young government of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi is trying so hard to restore confidence among foreigners.”

Okay, not absolutely every one, but the roadside eatery is so common in films that American viewers have long taken a diner scene for granted. As it turns out, a diner serves a couple of very useful purposes in a screenplay.

“The landscape has changed dramatically since the Comcast-Time Warner Cable deal was announced last February.”

James Poniewozik: “There is, arguably, richer potential in landing a TV deal than making an independent movie, shopping it around, and trying to get it attention in theaters. … But I’d also argue that TV is a good match for indie filmmakers for other than economic and practical reasons.”

“A crucial part of the Disney magic has always been its total control over ‘the vault,’ its 80-year-old catalog of animated features that are only released for sale for a limited time before becoming artificially scarce again.” But the studio has been busy remaking many of its classic animated titles – Sleeping Beauty (as Maleficent), Cinderella, The Jungle Book, Beauty and the Beast (not to mention the 1996 101 Dalmatians) – in live action. Why?

“The decidedly lowbrow dramas — with names like ‘Bad Housewife’ and ‘Red Bean Bread’ — have, in fact, become something of a cultural Trojan horse, sneaking visions of the bustling South into the tightly controlled, impoverished North alongside the usual sudsy fare of betrayals, bouts of ill-timed amnesia and, at least once, a love affair with an alien.”

“The organisation, which describes itself as the largest Arab civil rights organisation in the US, said it had collected ‘hundreds of violent messages targeting Arab and Muslim Americans from movie-goers,’ mainly from Facebook and Twitter.”

“The show tells us that men are bothered by women who casually fuck men, it tells us there’s a virgin/vamp dichotomy in society. It tells us that male monstrosity isn’t monstrosity at all, but exists on a spectrum that includes hapless lovestruck officers of the law. It informs us that women can be unfeeling, that murderers can be empathetic, that men often mistake misogyny for art. True, all perfectly true, but the presentation is very After School Special.”

“The victory is seen as a predictor of the Academy Awards. For the last seven years, the winner of the producers’ honor has gone on to win the best picture Oscar. And like the Academy, the organization uses a preferential ballot and allows more than five nominees.”

Which is good, because web shorts pay in what’s known in the biz as “deferred compensation” – aka nothing.

“The underperformance of films like Turbo, Mr Peabody & Sherman, Penguins of Madagascar and Rise of the Guardians has wiped almost 40% from the studio’s share value, leading to 500 layoffs, a change of management and a heavily reduced release slate.”

“These games subvert the usual arc of heroic triumph … at last breaking away from the technicolour militarist bloodbaths that dog the reputation of computer games. … Finding a mouldy crust of bread to eat is often a higher priority than blazing away at the robots.”

“The first surprise is the wide range of propaganda subjects on which bans are still enforced” – not only anti-British, -French, -Russian, and (of course) anti-Jewish propaganda, but also films promoting fighter pilots (a musical, no less), the Hitler Youth, euthanasia, and the repatriation of ethnic Germans in Poland. Richard Brody considers why these movies are still forbidden after 70 years.

Shirley S. Wang takes a look at the ever-expanding phenomenon of advertising disclaimers.

“India’s film censorship organisation is in crisis after the resignation of its chair, Leela Samson, amid complaints of ‘interference, coercion and corruption’, and more than half its board members.”

“Independent film used to define the cutting edge in entertainment, but the indie crowd has lately ceded ground to television … The festival, fiercely proud of its heritage as America’s foremost showcase for independent cinema, is working to hold on to that identity. At the same time, it is tentatively embracing an art form, television, in which innovation and energy abound.”

“Collecting sounds is important. The experience of listening to them is as close to time travel as we’ve ever come. From the rare or iconic to the ephemeral and everyday, recordings give a living picture of the world changing around us. … This is urgent: these recordings go back to the late-19th century, and many of the formats on which the sounds were originally captured … are disappearing.”

At the Television Critics Association press conference for the new ABC series about an Asian-American family, the first question wasn’t about creating the show or issues of assimilation or any such thing. It was about chopsticks.