• 0 Posts
  • 40 Comments
Joined 1 year ago
cake
Cake day: July 15th, 2023

help-circle


  • I’m very familiar with the best picture winners. The only qualification is that the members voted for it. And the members are creatives in the film industry who either have already won an Oscar for something like best actor or best director or who have been sponsored by multiple other members for membership.

    So those members clearly recognized or connected to something in the movie that has merit to vote for it for best picture. I think it was the fact that it was both unique and surreal but also accessible with an emotional core. Personally, I’d rather see more films that take chances like that than traditional “Oscar bait” (most of which I also enjoy).


  • Here’s the thing. There are a lot of people who are unhappy with the way their lives turned out. Or they have relationships that they wish were different. Regret is a universal theme. And this movie explores what might have been for characters in those circumstances with the possibility of changing those things in their past that they regret, while at the same the movie maintains a surreality and sense of humor that’s memorable and endearing.

    I think it might resonate more with people who have lived long enough to experience that feeling of “is this all there is?”—and I don’t mean younger people whose lives are still mostly ahead of them. I mean those people who are divorced or contemplating divorce, parents with disappointing relationships with their adult children, those caring for an older family member who feel trapped. There’s a reason most actors in the film are in their 50s and 60s, as well as 40s.

    If you didn’t like it, maybe that’s why. I finally reread The Great Gatsby when I was approaching middle age and it resonated with me in a way that it didn’t when I was in high school, to the point where it became one of my favorite novels. You are literally and figuratively a different person when you experience something at a later age.

    I’m not suggesting everyone of a certain age or experience should like this movie. I’m just saying it might be why some didn’t connect with it.











  • I don’t know what the contract says, of course, but the Paramount that produced the series is a different corporate entity from Paramount+. The former Paramount almost certainly still owns the home video release rights despite the tax write-off from Paramount+.

    The former Paramount did a good job of releasing all of season one across two sets, and are typically very good about home video releases for Star Trek generally, so I wouldn’t be too worried about a physical release.

    Also, Netflix used to do physical releases. I have the first two seasons of Stranger Things on 4K. Would be nice if they ever released the rest. Hulu did the same thing with Handmaid’s Tale; I have the first three or four seasons (whatever they released), and then they stopped.


  • Big-budget blockbusters: often no. I love movies, but the audience is often just too inconsiderate. Some genres more than others. Super-early matinees are how I see these movies now (no Alamo nearby anymore), and I’ll just get lunch afterward.

    Small-budget movies, 70mm rereleases, classic films still unreleased on disc: yes. These audiences are film fans and they are well-behaved for the most part. Theaters like Nitehawk in Brooklyn (for example) are wonderful for this, but there are many good ones in larger cities.




  • This group is the outlier. The reality is most people will either accept ads or pay the $3 extra per month for the content they already had ad-free before.

    Because of these price hikes, I’m slowly paring down the streaming services I subscribe to. I get Disney+ and Hulu “free” with my phone plan. I’m only subscribing to Paramount+ for new Star Trek: Lower Decks episodes at this point, and once this season wraps up I’m out for at least a year. Apple TV+ brought me back for the MLS season, but I’ll just cancel again until they bring back Severance or the next season starts.

    I used to subscribe to Netflix. I used to subscribe to Max. HBO used to be appointment television for me, but now it’s all superheroes and reality TV.

    In earlier times, I subscribed to VRV (Crunchyroll). I subscribed to Hidive. I even subscribed to Seeso.

    And in three months when MLS playoffs end I’ll just be down to the two bundled options plus Prime (now with ads)…