Revisit SNL for its fortieth anniversary

Saturday Night Live doesn’t really turn 40 until next October, but the folks at NBC decided that now was the right time to celebrate four decades on the air. SNL is indisputably one of the biggest and most important comedy programs of all time, having weathered constant changes in style and quality and producing some […]

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Vulture reflects on Ousmane Sembène, father of African cinema

This year’s Sundance film festival hosted the premiere of Sembène!, a documentary about African filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. You might not know that name, but Sembène is one of the most important figures in the birth of African cinema. He arguably started the entire African film movement with, as Vulture describes, “no film equipment, no professional […]

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Today in unexpected fandom: David Cronenberg loves Dilbert

Director David Cronenberg has made a name for himself as a purveyor of dark psychological films, from self-contained thriller experiments like Cosmopolis to the extra-gory body horror that made him famous in Scanners and The Fly. As befits his style, you might expect his tastes to skew towards the terrifying or distressing. But surprisingly, Cronenberg […]

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Dig into net neutrality in Barbershop Punk

Only a few hours ago, FCC chairman Tom Wheeler announced his proposal to reclassify Internet services as “common carriers,” a major victory for net neutrality and the prospects of an open Internet. We’ll come right out and say that this is fantastic news. The American Library Association has made it clear that open and unfettered […]

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Pixar offers a cautionary tale for filmmakers reluctant to back up their work

The good folks at mental_floss recently uncovered a particularly incredible story from film history that serves as a warning for filmmakers working in the digital age. Pixar was one of the first studios to work with fully digital animation, and as trailblazers in the industry, they learned hard lessons about the perils of that once-new […]

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Super Bowl trailer offers a rare insight into the modern CGI process

You may have watched the Super Bowl yesterday and caught the new trailer for Jurassic World. Pretty cool, right? Dinosaurs! Panic! Familiar music! But between the screaming crowds and velociraptor herds, you might not have noticed the significant changes to the film’s general tone an appearance. As Slashfilm points out, the two trailers are a […]

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Alternative programming: The art of healing

Super Bowl XLIX is imminent, and the NFL is under arguably greater scrutiny than ever over many of its policies and behaviors. Some of the greatest continued focus is reserved for the league’s treatment of concussions and injuries, which we covered during last year’s Super Bowl. This is still a big topic, but we discovered […]

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