Are Romantic Comedies About Love or Money?

Posted on November 9, 2014 at 8:00 am

I really enjoyed this essay by Meredith Haggerty at Medium about the way that romantic comedies have dealt with money issues through the years. Of course, all movies reflect the economic environment of their eras — the eras in which they are made as much as the eras they are depicting. The most astute reviews of “Magic Mike” noted that it was as much about the recession economy as it was about male strippers.

I recently watched a few episodes of a late 1980’s romantic comedy and was amused by the many elements of the storyline that were as radically different from today’s world as the awful 80’s clothes and hairstyles. There were plenty of jobs available in journalism, for one thing. Airplane travel was very different. Though they had small, primitive computers, this was long before Google and Wikipedia, so when asked a research question, the characters still looked in books for the answer.

Haggerty compares the heiress and the commoner era of the Depression (“Bringing Up Baby,” “My Man Godfrey”) with the Meg Ryan era (“Sleepless in Seattle,” “You’ve Got Mail”) and the “Recession Romances” of films like “Obvious Child” and “Enough Said.” I love this graphic from Mark Nerys.

Movies Are Mirrors: Seeing Ourselves in Movies

Posted on November 8, 2014 at 8:00 am

MVP of the Week: Robots

Posted on November 6, 2014 at 5:23 pm

Two of the biggest movies of the year open up this week and they have one more important similarity — they both feature robots. Disney’s animated “Big Hero 6” has a robot named Baymax, created to diagnose and treat a wide range of medical issues. He was specifically designed to appear unthreatening and endearing, so he looks like a cuddly white marshmallow. The voice is provided by “30 Rock” star Scott Adsit.

And “Interstellar” features TARS, a retrofitted military robot who looks like a cross between pillars and pick-up sticks. He explains that he has been programmed to be sarcastic, humorous, and not always honest to contribute to the morale of the crew. His voice is provided by MacArthur genius grant recipient Bill Irwin.

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

What Makes Scary Movies Scary

Posted on October 28, 2014 at 8:00 am

Vox has a very good essay on what makes scary movies so scary, illustrated by thirteen classic scenes that demonstrate different techniques: introducing the monster, building suspense, silence and noise, and looong takes.

Is This the End of Television?

Posted on October 22, 2014 at 3:24 pm

Last week both cable giant HBO and broadcast giant CBS made announcements that signal the end of television as we know it. Both responded to the clear message of the market and said that they would make their content available in the form and via the delivery system consumers prefer — the internet. For the first time, viewers will be able to watch HBO movies and series via their HBO Go platform with a separate subscription, even if they do not get HBO via cable. And CBS will start showing its programs online in real time, as they are broadcast on television. It is certain that the other networks, premium and basic cable, will follow suit.

We will look back on the 1950’s-2000’s as the last time people watched the same program via the same medium at the same time. Once television sets had only four or five channels. Then, with cable, there were more than one hundred. Online-only content from Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, and YouTube and webseries on “stations” created by individuals and small groups will be at the same level as big-budget series like “Scandal” and “Game of Thrones.” This is great news for creators and consumers, but the big businesses behind the large-scale productions will need to be nimble to maintain revenues.