Trailer: Bombshell

Posted on August 23, 2019 at 8:47 am

If you want a master class in acting, watch the faces of three brilliant actresses as they take a an elevator in this trailer for “Bombshell,” based on the sexual harassment scandal at FOX News.

Margo Robbie plays Kayla Pospisil, Charlize Theron plays Megyn Kelly, and Nicole Kidman plays Gretchen Carlson. The powerhouse cast also includes Alice Eve as Ainsley Earhardt, Allison Janney as lawyer Susan Estrich, and John Lithgow as the late Roger Ailes.

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Trailers, Previews, and Clips

No, Fox News, “The LEGO Movie” is Not Anti-Business

Posted on February 9, 2014 at 12:55 pm

Perpetuating its favorite ploy of simultaneously riling up and soothing its viewers with its message of victimhood, Fox News now claims that the charming, funny, and very smart “LEGO Movie” is anti-business propaganda, designed to inculcate the next generation into hating capitalism. The absurdity of this assessment is evident on its face — this is a movie that is fundamentally a feature-length informercial for one of the world’s biggest toy brands.

As I have often stated, corporate villains are found in movies in every category and genre. They make convenient villains because everyone knows them, they are impersonal, they don’t have the kind of defenders that various ethnic groups do, and they fit very well in the almost-universal theme of films of the individual against the machine. That does not mean that the people who make films are anti-corporate. On the contrary, films are utterly capitalist enterprises, often costing and making hundreds of millions of dollars. They are produced by corporations and they make a lot of money for the executives and shareholders. They have “partners” — in the case of “The LEGO Movie” the licensing arrangements include McDonald’s, Barnes & Noble, Delta, Microsoft, and Stride-Rite. If corporations think that a movie will make money making some other group the bad guys, they will make it.

However, this is not a movie with a corporate bad guy. While the villain, played by Will Ferrell, is called “Lord Business” or “President Business,” the film’s conclusion makes it very clear that the name comes from an idea that is much sweeter and heartfelt than a generic attack on big, impersonal, companies. It isn’t “The LEGO Movie” that is stuck in a cliched narrative. It’s Fox News.

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Commentary

Why Fox is Wrong About the Muppets

Posted on December 7, 2011 at 8:00 am

Fox news caused a stir when Eric Bolling accused the new Muppet movie of promoting a left-wing agenda because the villain in the movie, played by Chris Cooper, is in the oil business.

Nonsense. There’s no agenda here. This charge shows a stunning ignorance (or intentional disregard) of the basic facts of film-making — and of capitalism. The budget for this movie was around $50 million, which could only be undertaken as a matter of pure business. The movie was made by Disney, one of the biggest corporations in the world. They made the film for the most capitalistic of reasons: to sell tickets, DVDs, MP3s, and Muppet toys, lunchboxes, toothbrushes, and anything else they can associate with Kermit, Miss Piggy, and their friends. They don’t want to offend anyone.

But it’s true that a lot of movie bad guys are corporate. As I wrote earlier, corporations are convenient bad guys for movies because they are big, faceless, institutional, and offend no cultural sensibilities. I explained on the Ebert show that is not because of any political agenda, however. Most movies are made by corporations. Corporations want to make money, and if that means making a corporation the bad guy, that is what they will put in movies. It’s been going on since the silent movie days through films like “The Apartment” and “Resident Evil.” That same capitalistic zeal just might just be why Fox, a part of News Corp., decided to try to make Muppets the villains, too; taking on the universally beloved Jim Henson creations attracts attention. But it’s worth noting that another portion of News Corp., is in the movie business. Bolling might want to check out the portrayal of the corporate world in films like “Shame,” “I (Heart) Huckabees,” “Fast Food Nation,” and “Rise of Planet of the Apes.”

Be sure to check out the Twitterverse response on this issue, with the hashtag #GOPMuppethearings. I like this one from dvnix:

“Mr. Grover, can you tell me WHICH one of these things is not like the other and why? Please remember you’re under oath.” #GOPMuppetHearings

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Understanding Media and Pop Culture

Fox News and the term ‘Baby Mama’

Posted on June 12, 2008 at 10:26 pm

I have always disliked the terms “Baby Mama” and “Baby Daddy.” Originally they were used only to describe unmarried parents and the implication was that their connection through the baby or children was all that remained of their relationship. The implication is derisive and distancing. As often happens with slang, the expressions originally from one segment of the culture (Jamaican terms adapted by African-Americans) appeared in popular song lyrics and were then picked up by the mainstream. Salon’s Alex Koppelman noted that Fox News used the term “Obama’s Baby Mama” in a graphic for a story about criticism of Michelle Obama and Fox is now responding to criticism that the term was inaccurate, inappropriate, offensive, and racist by saying that its producer used poor judgment.
Families should talk about how words used in different contexts can have different meanings and how slang terms move from the fringes to the mainstream and yet still be seen different ways by different people in different circumstances.