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Election Movies Released During Presidential Election Years — Do They Make Any Difference?

"Some film-makers are explicit in their intention to affect election outcomes. ... Others come from the opposite direction, reckoning that an election year is the perfect time to draw attention. ... The Guardian chose films from each election year of the 21st century and interviewed the people who made them." - The Guardian

On Being A Woman Of A Certain Age In The Marvel, And Hollywood, Universe

Kathryn Hahn on Agatha All Along: “It does feel like a really radical thing that we've been able to pull off. Though, because my currency in this business wasn't my sex appeal, I feel like I've been able to just kind of walk into more complicated parts.” - NPR

What’s Up With Celebs Glamorizing Smoking?

If you remember the 2005 movie Thank You for Smoking, you’d be forgiven for anticipating this is a Big Tobacco thing. “Nine out of the 10 films nominated for the Oscars top prize earlier this year featured smoking, which is up from the seven in the year before.” - BBC

Video Gamers Have Become Ukraine’s Deadliest Drone Pilots

The movie image of elite soldiers as macho hulks has fueled concerns that today’s flabby and screen-addicted youths couldn’t cut it in a real fight. But piloting drones demands quick thinking, sharp eyes and nimble thumbs, the kind of prowess more readily associated with computer games than military combat. - The Wall Street Journal

London Film Festival Reports Largest Audience In Ten Years

Figures published by the BFI said attendance across both free and paid-for in-person screenings and events at London venues increased by 92%, with 49% of tickets being booked by first-time LFF attendees. - Deadline

The Psychosocial Dread That Underpins Japanese Horror Films

For instance, after the emperor died and the tech bubble popped in Japan, “filmmakers leaned into the anxieties of late-twentieth-century life–including, prominently and presciently, the ghostliness of digital technology.” - Criterion

Who Owns Wheel Of Fortune?

We don’t mean that in a mystical sense, but in the sense that Sony and CBS are in the midst of a legal fight over the popular game show and its (perhaps even more popular) sibling, Jeopardy!. - Los Angeles Times

Where, Oh Where, Is Clint Eastwood’s Latest, And Probably Last, Movie?

"Eastwood fans in the UK will have no problem seeing Juror #2, where it’s enjoying a wide release in more than 300 cinemas nationwide. Across the whole of the US, however, it’s screening in fewer than 50 cinemas” with no plans for a wider rollout or awards campaign. - The Guardian (UK)

What Should You Do If You Make Money From A Film Whose Topic You Find Fairly Gross?

Looks like Anna Kendrick, director and star of the Netflix film Woman of the Hour, which is about a serial abuser and killer, thinks the best thing to do is donate the money. - Los Angeles Times

A.I. Might Actually Be Good For Hollywood

Right now the key benefit is in visual effects: what requires hundreds of hours and people to accomplish using CGI takes a second or two with generative AI. What's more, "agentic" AI (as it's called) can suggest optimum marketing plans and release schedules. - The New York Times Magazine

Comcast Suggests It Might Spin Off Its Cable Channels

“We are now exploring whether creating a new well-capitalized company owned by our shareholders and comprised of our strong portfolio of cable networks would position them to take advantage of opportunities in the changing media landscape and create value for our shareholders.” - Fast Company

Why, Even After 40 Years, “The Terminator” Is Still Unkillable

"Often, films that are products of their time are not wholly embraced until that time has passed, and so it is with The Terminator, an ’80s novelty of remarkable longevity … that touches on all sorts of temporal mind games: the Grandfather Paradox, the Butterfly Effect and the would-you-kill-baby-Hitler thought experiment." - The Washington Post (MSN)

The Jump Scare: All About One Of Horror Movies’ Most Effective Tricks

"Carrie’s final-act stinger was a turning point for jump scares, interrupting what appeared to be a peaceful epilogue. It united viewers in a shared moment of tension-puncturing shock; over the next decade, directors such as Tobe Hooper, Sam Raimi, and George Romero scrambled to deliver bigger and badder scares." - Atlas Obscura

Online Recommendations Are Deeply Broken (Compromised). We Can Fix That

Today’s automated social-media feeds deliver increasingly indistinguishable content now sometimes generated by artificial intelligence; in the face of this onslaught, we crave content with evidence that a real person actually stands behind the products or works being touted. - The New Yorker

What You Can Tell From An Imagined Audience

As researchers have noted, the less an actual audience is visible or known, the more communicators depend on their imaginations. Because journalists can never know precisely who consumes their work and why they do so, they instead form mental constructions of audiences. That has material consequences. - NiemanLab

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