"(They) crossbred throwback Western with modern antihero drama, grazed on the myth of the West and hormone-injected it with rural-vs.-urban culture war. ... Yellowstone might be the one show that can tell your right-wing uncle that white people stole America and not make him change channels to Hannity." - The New York Times
"The Pakistan government has banned Joyland, the film that will be its Oscars contender, after pressure from hardline Islamic groups who called its depiction of a love affair between a man and a trans woman 'repugnant' and 'highly objectionable'." - The Guardian
As a practical matter, turning out movies that look worse in a theater than they might on a TV screen is a real problem for an industry that desperately needs box office revenue to survive. - Washington Post
The director "was certain that viewers would never mistake her absurdist, autobiographical ... queer coming-of-age film, in which the titular heroine battles gender dysphoria and a toxic romance with a fellow comedian, for an official DC Comics movie." Warner Bros. disagreed. - Los Angeles Times
"The highly anticipated sequel to Disney and Marvel Studios’ 2018 blockbuster Black Panther shattered the domestic opening weekend record for the month of November," despite the pandemic and a generally sluggish box office. - Los Angeles Times
More than a million watched the first episode on launch day - and about 100 TVs (laptops, mobile phones, and tablets weren't counted) went the distance through episode 10. - BBC
But they can be saved, with some creative planning. "Theaters balance the immersive spectacle of art and technology with the emotional network of a crowd. When we sit in a theater, the art is actually shaped by the location." - Fast Company
"Mark Zuckerberg's empire has lost hundreds of billions of dollars in value and laid off 11,000 people. ... Elon Musk's takeover of Twitter has caused advertisers to pull spending and power users to shun the platform. It's never felt more plausible that the age of social media might end." - MSN (The Atlantic)
Spend on Australian features reached a record A$786M ($508M) during the period, an increase of 59% on the previous year, even though the overall number of productions declined. - Deadline
"In the years following its release, Hollywood started producing a string of (movies) which, like Baby Jane, provided veteran actresses including Barbara Stanwyck, Tallulah Bankhead, Shelley Winters and Debbie Reynolds with villainous, yet deliriously camp roles within horror that ensured their careers could keep on rolling." - BBC
A minimum viable product for moderation without censorship is for a platform to do exactly the same thing they’re doing now - remove all the same posts, ban all the same accounts - but have an opt-in setting, “see banned posts”. - Astral Codex Ten
"Disney's direct-to-consumer division, which also includes Hulu and ESPN+, on Tuesday reported an operating loss of nearly $1.5 billion, more than doubling its loss of $630 million during the same quarter a year earlier" — even as it added 12.1 million subscribers for a total of 164.2 million. - Yahoo! (Los Angeles Times)
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab have been brainstorming ways of putting deepfakes to good use. Some of these are in healthcare and treatment. - The Conversation
