Category: New Media (Page 6 of 14)

How do I top that?

October 8, 2009 / Bob Westal

It’s a crazy and very busy day, I’m still recovering from some extremely mild case of the blahs or something, and surely doubt there’s anything I can write more interesting than the colloquy in the comments of my earlier post on mega-online entertainment news/opinion doyen Nikki Finke, in which Ms. Finke posted a response, I posted a response to the response…and, well, you can all see for yourselves but parts of it were not pretty.

Still, I’d like to draw your attention to an interesting and not unrelated post on the whole question of journalistic — if that’s the world — ethics in this brave new online world we’re all in by Anne Thompson. Not only is her piece on the issues brought up recently food for much thought, but the ad hoc symposium in comments is must reading and includes comments by several well known critics, including her immediate subject, James Rocchi, as well as guest appearances by Harry Knowles, Jeffrey “the Dude” Dowd, Todd Gilchrist, and many other fine folks including a brief comment by me. It might be a bit inside baseball/meta for some, but definitely worth a look for anyone interested in this whole new media world we’re all carving out right now.

Just for the record, I don’t consider what I do here and elsewhere journalism in the normal sense but an attempt to honestly entertain and educate whoever happens to be reading. As long as the acceptance of a free DVD, screening, a paycheck, or fabulous all-expenses trip to fabulous Bermuda or Culver City doesn’t get in the way of that, there’s no problem. And, if it does, we have no one to blame but ourselves and you readers will eventually catch on. I also try to avoid actually reviewing movies by people I actually know personally a bit too well to be objective or even commenting on them without noting the relationship. For example, this link to a very exciting, violent, and sensual tongue-in-cheek extravanganza is only here because I’m friends with the filmmaker and I’m actually in the movie. Honesty — always the best policy.

Look here’s a great (and NSFW) trailer I just discovered. Ignore the little balding guy with the strippers!

External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, New Media, News, Reviews

Anne Thompson Harry Knowles Headlines James Rocchi Jeffrey "the Dude" Dowd Jeffrey Dowd Nikki Finke Sugarboxx Todd Gilchrist

Think Finke

October 7, 2009 / Bob Westal

One item I skipped over recently that I don’t want to ignore forever was the recent New Yorker profile of Nikki Finke, complete with an illustration of her from “Love and Rockets” cartoonist Jaime Hernandez. Finke’s response was a nasty — even by her standards — megasnark smack down of the article which basically had her bragging about how she hates the venerable magazine these days, how she, various industry types, and Harvey Weinstein supposedly manipulated the content of the article, and how she claims to have played editor David Remnick and writer Tad Friend in a way that the legendary Finke could, of course, never possibly be played.

Nikki Finke as drawn by Jaime Hernandez Maybe it’s my lingering demi-illness throwing me off, but am I to understand that I’m to applaud Finke for doing the same thing she regularly attacks people for doing with regard to manipulating the press? Or is it okay to manipulate, but not to be manipulated? Does it only take one to tango? Or is it just cool to be as nasty as you can possibly be? It sure seems to work for her commenters. It’s as confusing as the time she counseled me not to be a “hater.”

Of course, when we’re dealing with someone as apparently mercurial as Finke, the levels of double and triple meanings in a post like hers are so deep as to basically cancel themselves out. While it’s level of absolute metaphysical truth is impossible to discern, personally, I think Friend’s article does a pretty good job of capturing the appeal and power of Finke and the sort of inherent meanness of so much of the business side of Hollywood which, all to often, Nikki Finke seems to celebrate.

External Entertainment, External Movies, Movies, New Media, News

David Remnick Harvey Weinstein Headlines Jaime Hernandez Legally Blonde Nikki Finke Tad Friend The New Yorker

Another Friday night news dump

October 2, 2009 / Bob Westal

I’ve been distracted wrapping up another project, but a few things of note did transpire to cap off this doozy of a week while I was otherwise absorbed.

* Both Variety and Nikki Finke are reporting that Miramax, the once groundbreaking “mini-major” founded and eventually sold by Harvey and Bob Weinstein that was named after their parents, Mira and Max, is being downsized/restructured by Disney. Meanwhile, grinning Disney Channel head Rich Ross is apparently a near-certainty to step into the void left by the departed Mousehouse chair, Dick Cook. I’m not sure why, but I have a funny feeling about this.

* Finke also has word that The Hollywood Reporter (aka THR) may well become a weekly as well as going behind a ‘net “wall.” If so, that’s going to leave a heckuva void for someone to fill online. If Finke has any visions of empire, this could be her moment — but she can’t do that alone. Personally, I’ll miss the video versions of the box office prognostications of the man I call “jolly Carl DiOrio.” He just seems so happy when he talks how well movies are going to do each week.

* THR has details on the 1993 settlement between Roman Polanski and his now adult victim. The odd part is that the records here don’t show whether or not Polanski ever paid it. If he didn’t, the woman is one extra-forgiving lady. I suspect he did.

* I’m not quite a diehard member of his cult, but I’ve always had a soft-spot for director John Carpenter (“The Thing,” “They Live,” “Escape from New York”) since seeing the original “Assault on Precinct 13” — a clever combination of Howard Hawks “Rio Bravo” and George Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead” with gang members replacing frontier desperadoes and zombies. His latest project, reportedly called “Riot” deals with another relic of my childhood, Arnold Shapiro’s “Scared Straight.” I’ll never forget how shocked I was to hear F-words coming from my TV set. Who knew that one day cable TV would make that a near daily occurrence.

Now, I was the kind of kid who freaked out if a teacher even looked at me in a cross fashion. Nevertheless, it definitely worked on me as I’m here to tell you that I’m pretty sure I’ve never committed a felony, even by accident, though it’s always possible I’ve forgotten something. On the other hand, my parking ticket past is thoroughly checkered.

Anyhow, the latest news on the project via Krystal Clark at ScreenCrave is that Nicolas Cage, who was at one point attached, has likely left the project and the same may also go for Carpenter. Could’ve been fun, I guess.

And now a moment of vintage Carpenter.

Action Movies, Actors, External Entertainment, Horror Movies, Movie Dramas, Movies, New Media, News

Assault on Precinct 13 Bob Weinstein Dick Cook Disney Escape from New York George Romero Harvey Weinstein Headlines Howard Hawks John Carpenter Miramax Nicolas Cage Night of the Living Dead Nikki Finke Rio Bravo Riot Roman Polanski Scared Straight the Hollywood Reporter The Thing They Live THR

Friday film news dump

September 25, 2009 / Bob Westal

Howdy folks, I’ve been a bit distracted by a couple of big pieces I did earlier, but the movie world moves on and, in the tradition of the White House emitting unpleasant stories late on Fridays to avoid too much notice, we have a couple of new bummer items and some more typical stuff from before that I missed.

* Nikki Finke is breaking the news of some possibly very serious fiscal problems at MGM, though I have to admit that these sorts of details are about as clear as mud to this innumerate fiscal ignoramus. In any case, the once-dominant studio has long been a shadow of its former self and isn’t even really a studio anymore (though it owns UA, and boy is that a complicated story for a tired guy to follow/remember right now). It sold off its historic lot in 2004 — where I actually spent a few hours on Tuesday, as it happens — to Sony, which is a change I’ve yet to get used to. Still, they have their fingers in a few pies. As Finke reports, if the not-studio really does go bankrupt, it could affect both the upcoming adaptations of “The Hobbit” and the ever-present James Bond series through its ownership of the also much-smaller-than-it-used-to-be United Artists.

* In news that is worse because it’s certain, the popular Cinevegas Film Festival is taking a break next year and, it sounds like, the year after that and who knows for how long if the overall economy doesn’t pick up. Of course, Las Vegas is probably one of the most shell-shocked places in the U.S. by the real estate bubble and general over-development. During the boom times, I would go to Vegas, look at all the ultra-high end restaurants, spas, and especially the stores and wonder when they’d run out of rich people.

Action Movies, External Entertainment, External Movies, Horror Movies, Movie Comedies, Movie Dramas, New Media, News, Sci-Fi Movies

1776 Alfred Hitchcock Barbie Cinevegas David Cronenberg He-Man Headlines James Bond Ken Howard Lincoln Logs MGM Stephen Colbert The Fly The Hobbit The White Shadow Thomas Jefferson UA United Artists Variety

Hanging with the new flesh

September 25, 2009 / Bob Westal

We_Live_in_Public_1

“Your reality is already half video hallucination. If you’re not careful, it will become total hallucination. You’ll have to learn to live in a very strange new world.” – Media philosopher Brian O’Blivion in David Cronenberg’s “Videodrome” (1983)

So far, the bulk of gifted documentarian Ondi Timoner’s work has dealt with the forces that persuade human beings to give up some part of themselves, whether it be in pursuit of creative growth, God, or fame. Her latest film, takes that as far as it can possibly go. Unlike her remarkable “DiG!,” about the cultish neo-psychedelic rock band, the Brian Jonestown Massacre, or “Join Us,” about an actual religious cult, this time the cult is not just a few fanatics, it’s you and me.

I first praised the Sundance Grand Jury prize-winning “We Live in Public,” opening Friday at L.A.’s Nuart Theater (with special Q&As Friday and Saturday nights), back in June when I saw it at the Los Angeles Film Festival. The screening was capped off with the then somewhat surprising appearance by the documentary’s antihero, Internet entrepreneur and self-styled conceptual artist Josh Harris. Having returned from an idyll in Ethiopia, he said that his next project was something he called “the Wired City” and that, in his view, a typical human’s life in the future is going to be something like the present day existence of “a Purdue chicken.” He also said he hadn’t seen the movie and wasn’t sure when he would.

Back in the 1990’s, Harris made a large fortune largely by being one of the first to see the full communications potential of the web and was a dot-com era sensation via his groundbreaking web entertainment company, Pseudo. Leaving that when his eccentric and creative side grew to be too artsy and weird for the corporate room, he then spent a good chunk of that fortune on two highly provocative experiments/art projects.

We Live in Public First came “Quiet” – basically a month-long party/community in an underground compound on the west side of New York with overt fascistic overtones. Harris recruited roughly 100 artists and creative types to live there 24/7 for an indefinite period (it turned out to be a month). He would provide all the food, (legal) party favors, a firing range and plenty of weaponry (blanks only, I’m told), as well as a fake church and real interrogation tactics borrowed from the Cold War-era East German secret police.