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The best movie culture writing from around the internet-o-sphere.
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“Why Hollywood Can’t Ignore Digital Distribution” – Sahil Patel at The Video Ink breaks down two large, numerical reasons for why the studios need to push faster toward revolution.
“We Need to Talk About Forrest Gump” – Amy Nicholson at LA Weekly contemplates the dark sequel that never was.
“How Grown Ups 2 Led to Chris Rock’s Hysterical New Top Five” – Sean O’Connell at Cinema Blend explains that something good actually came out of the Adam Sandler group hug.
“Time Jumps: Why TV’s Latest Trend Might Already Be Out of Steam” – Joanna Robinson at Vanity Fair is tired of time being a flat circle.
“This “let’s skip to the good stuff” attitude is why Sons of Anarchy leapt ahead 14 months to jump over the time the crew spent in prison. We’d much rather see SAMCRO out causing havoc on the road than ruling the roost behind bars. The real question with this brand of time jump, though, is whether these short cuts feel earned. This is the “have your cake and eat it too” approach to storytelling. Leslie Knope should have a family, Carrie Mathison needs an unbreakable connection to Brody, the outlaws of Charming, California, ought to have their misdeeds catch up to them at some point. All that happens without any of the narrative downsides of slowing our characters down from doing what they do best. But is that honest storytelling? Skipping the rough stuff?”
“The long cons of Rian Johnson” – Nathan Rabin at The Dissolve examines the Looper director’s tendency to send us in one direction only to smile when we reach a destination on the other side of the road.
“Jason Reitman on Men, Women and Children, Adam Sandler and What He Learned From the Failure of Labor Day” – Mike Ryan at Screen Crush gets the vulnerable side of the filmmaker.
“But, you don’t know. I remember I was 23 years old and I just broke up after being seven years in a relationship and I moved into an apartment alone. You’re fucking terrified, it’s an empty apartment and you think I will die alone in this apartment. I needed to feel better and the movie I put on was ‘Happy Gilmore.’ It got me through tears, it made me smile – that movie was sooooo important to so many people.”
