Movie Review: The Fantasic Mr. Fox

Most anthropomorphic animal stories are really about people. The conventional argument says that children find animals easier to relate to as characters. because they’re simpler than human beings, have clearer motivations, and more intuitively suggest archetypes. This is true of many animal characters created specifically for children, like The Cat In The Hat, and it’s also true of most animal characters created for adults, such as the politically-minded rabbits in Watership Down, or the bourgeois pigs in Animal Farm. None of those animals are meant to be taken seriously as animals. All of their animal characteristics are meant to evoke human characteristics. Any reader who asks seriously why The Cat doesn’t walk on all fours, or how Napoleon the pig is able to speak, is in for a condescending conversation from a well-intentioned friend.

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Jobs I Could Do: 92Y Tribeca Moderator

I had the privilege tonight of seeing director Wes Anderson and actor Jason Schwarzman converse onstage in Manhattan. It was fun being in the same room with them, and watching them interact with each other. I just wish that Anderson would have been asked better questions.

Dave Karger, an editor for Entertainment Weekly, began by asking Anderson and Schwarzman, who have known each other for over twelve years, about their initial impressions of one another. And so, the two men once again trotted out the now legendary story of Schwartzman showing up to the audition for Rushmore in a private school uniform that he made himself. After Anderson made an offhand reference to “Jason’s cousin Sofia,” Karger made a point of stopping the discussion to clarify to the audience that this was Sofia Coppola, and then making a joke about his own name-dropping. Perhaps noticing that both the guests and the audience were nonplussed, Karger mercifully bit his tongue when Schwartzman later said, in passing, “my mother, who is an actress,” referring to Talia Shire. Watching Anderson, a quick thinkinker and a genius of nuance, field a long series of softball questions, was like watching him get his head wrapped slowly in cotton candy. Read the rest of this entry »

Julie Powell Fan Fiction

The best moment, for me, in the movie Julie & Julia happened when Julie Powell, powerless bureaucrat turned famous blogger, finds out that her idol and inspiration, Julia Child, is unwilling to spare a kind word for the work that she inspired. Apparently, Child has less than flattering things to say regarding Powell’s blog, which is about Powells’ own efforts to cook her way through Childs’ famous cookbook.

“Julia hates me,” says Amy-Adams-as-Powell to her husband, and he gently assures her that this is not literally true, and that anyway, it doesn’t matter.

I have nothing against Powell, who impressed me enough with the article, artfully laden with subtext, that she wrote about the movie’s portrayal of her cat, that I plan to read her book, which surely has merits not explored by the film. But this painful moment was my favorite part of the movie because it was also the part that was the most real. Read the rest of this entry »

Kari Farrell Escapes, Revealed As TOK Series Terminator

Kari Farrell, recently taken into custody, has broken out of the Philadelphia jail that held her. According to several witnesses, she punched through a wall with her bare fists and tossed aside guards “like they were made of paper mache.” Photos from bystanders also reveal that in the melee, part of Farrell’s face was blown off, revealing an adamantine endoskeleton.

This is really interesting, for several reasons.

This might not be Kari at all. As we’ve seen in the recently-cancelled TV show, TOK series Terminators are often modeled on specific humans. This unit might have already killed Kari and assumed her identity. If that’s the case, then who knows how long ago the world lost the “real” Kari?

Many people from Kari’s past (including myself) have noted a profound difference in her attitude towards other people between then and now. What happened? Well, maybe it’s because she’s been replaced by a cybernetic killing machine from the future. Read the rest of this entry »

What Is Hollywood’s Business Model?

For a while they tried what’s become known in the industry as the “theater” model. It was based on the way that stage plays used to make money. Basically, you only show the movie in one physical location at a time, and you don’t allow people to go there unless they first pay ‘admission.’

But This fell apart rather quickly. Nobody likes to be forced to go anywhere to buy a product, let alone consume it.

I have a few suggestions:

• An ad-based model, in which the user implicitly agrees to accept a certain amount of “product placement” in exchange for free content. The products in question might appear as props within the movie itself, or in the form of a 300×250 that would float near the main character’s face until clicked upon. Each scene in the movie could represent one ad impression, and the studio could price according to act (I, II, or III), whether the ad appears before or after the climax, a happy or sad part of the movie, etc.
• An “extras” model, where the content is given away for free, but if you pay for it, then you get something special, like a T-shirt with the name of the movie on it. It might even be a production crew t-shirt, as if to suggest that you sort of helped make the movie retroactively.
• A premium level of viewership. At the free level, the resolution of the movie is lower quality, and gets interrupted periodically with a nag screen. At any point, you can choose to upgrade, and then watch the rest of the movie in peace.

This last option may also be tested out with different types of “lower quality” films. The screenwriter can lower the quality of the story by softening character motivation, inserting obvious anachronisms, and cheapening the dialog with references to pop culture. Viewers can watch this version first, and then decide whether they want to upgrade to the premium version, which would have strong arcs, a solid mis en scene, and witty repartee.

image by tiseb