RogerEbert.com/John Lichman
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“Comic Book Movie Comment Section Bingo” – Sometimes the best writing comes in capsule form, and this image from John Lichman over at RogerEbert.com screams back at the internet.
“James Gray: American Cinema’s Secret Jewel” – Bilge Ebiri at Vulture shouts as loudly as possible about a fantastic talent who hasn’t quite caught on.
“Gray makes a type of movie that barely exists anymore. His films are serious, literate, medium-budget dramas – a vanishing middle ground in an industry increasingly polarized between ginormous tentpoles and micro-budget indies. Many filmmakers in that range have migrated to TV, but that’s not where Gray’s passion lies. His films yearn for the big screen; alongside their carefully constructed stories, they also have old-school stylistic virtues like lush production design (on a budget), expressive camerawork, and intimate close-ups that demand to be seen on a 30-foot screen.”
“I call bullshot on that” – Matt Singer at The Dissolve advocates we port over a common phrase from video game fandom to help call shenanigans on a too-common practice in film advertising.
“A bullshot is a promotional image for a videogame that has been deliberately sweetened or enhanced to fool potential buyers into a purchase. Just as movies are anticipated by months or years of trailers and publicity photos, videogames are hyped by screenshots and demos at conventions like E3. Since the games are still under construction at that point, you would expect the finished products to look superior to the ads, but that is frequently not the case. Instead, the demos, which have been specially and specifically rendered to look their best, often greatly surpass the visual experience offered by the completed games. When that happens, the earlier, better images are dubbed bullshots – a combination of ‘bullshit’ and ‘screenshot.’”
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