One handy tool for cultural analysis is to measure how often words are used within a given set of texts, whether that’s transcripts from Congress or every document ever written. It’s much easier to search through the written word for obvious reasons, leaving audio-visual media left out of the content analysis process. Luckily, a very […]
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Cultural fragmentation begets bizarre niche film festivals
If you pay attention to film news, you may have noticed a brouhaha this weekend over the Telluride Film Festival, one of the first stops on the road to Oscar contention and a recurring favorite for independent filmmakers. But back in May, you might have missed out on Blobfest, a festival that only screens movies […]
Continue readingHappy National Ghostbusters Day!
Today marks the startling thirtieth anniversary of Ghostbusters, maybe the most successful comedy film of all time. The film was so successful at release that it stayed the number one film in the country for seven solid weeks, and adjusted for inflation, it is still one of the highest grossing films of all time. Now […]
Continue readingHave we reached the age of the post-plot movie?
Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy was a massive success this weekend, proving once and for all that people will see a sufficiently entertaining movie starring a tree. Guardians received rave reviews from fans and critics alike, and it may surprisingly end up the biggest movie of the summer. But as one writer points out, it […]
Continue readingFamous directors throw money to stall the imminent death of physical film
Ever since the all-digital release of 2002’s Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones, filmmakers have steadily moved away from traditional film reels in favor of the increased power of digital cameras. As the Wall Street Journal points out, Kodak film consumption has decreased by nearly 12 billion linear feet in the past 8 […]
Continue readingSurvey claims you rewatch movies more than you’re willing to admit
We all enjoy rewatching our favorite movies. Sometimes we get more out of the subtext or themes, but often, it’s just fun to revisit our favorites scenes and characters. If you’ve ever had a Marvel marathon or watched whatever Will Ferrell movie was on Comedy Central multiple times in a row, you probably know this […]
Continue readingA peek into Mostly Lost, the Library of Congress’s mystery film festival
The Library of Congress’s film archives, located in Culpeper, Virginia, house hundreds of films from the silent era with seemingly no identification attached to them. Most if not all of the cast and crew of these films are no longer alive, and it’s unlikely that the nation’s archivists will ever positively identify some of these […]
Continue readingStill a boys’ club? Only 22% of film crew members are women
Much has been written about how the film industry skews male. Significantly more blockbuster films star male leads, and only one woman has so far won the Academy Award for Best Director. It should come as little surprise, then, that other sectors of the film world have similar issues with gender representation. According to a […]
Continue readingNetflix offers job to watch movies, fulfills your deepest dreams
We don’t know if anyone from the UK reads this blog, but if you’re an ex-pat or for some reason just enjoy reading American library blogs, we want to direct your attention to what may be the greatest job of all time. As we’ve mentioned before, Netflix categorizes movies through a massive tagging project that […]
Continue readingToday in film theory: A thoughtful critique of “Bayhem”
Michael Bay, love him or hate him, is an auteur, a director with a definitive and immediately recognizable style that overshadows every film he produces. Every moment of, say, Transformers or Armageddon is coated in Bay’s fingerprints. His frenetic and explosive style has earned him an ignominious place in the film industry, but even more […]
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