Hello, my lovelies! This week I have brought you offerings on David Lynch, soap operas and more!
On the 20th, Will Johnson reviewed David Lynch’s new short, What Did Jack Do? for 25 Years Later:
“Lynchians rejoice! Not only is today the 74th year in which David Lynch has graced us with his presence here on Earth, but the birthday boy decided to give us a present on this day of celebration: a new short film. Entitled What Did Jack Do?, now streaming on Netflix, Lynch does what Lynch does best: shock, bewilder and flummox you.”
I don’t usually share soap opera stuff, but I thought some of you might be amused by this article on the Evil/The Young and the Restless crossover that Rachel Dillin wrote for The Inquisitr, also on the 20th:
“Fans of The Young and the Restless received quite a shock today when the show returned from commercial. It just so happened that the ad before the show’s return was from the CBS Primetime show, Evil, which airs on Thursday nights at 9/8 Central.”
Simon Van Zuylen-Wood gave us a behind the scenes look at Rotten Tomatoes, on the 21st, over at Wired:
“Strange as it is, a website that evaluates films via cartoon tomatoes might be the closest thing our fractured, post-gatekeeper culture has to an arbiter of good taste. The site’s Tomatometer has become, as one early employee put it, a Good Housekeeping Seal for visual entertainment. Red means good, green means bad. The Tomatometer is run by a team of ‘curators’ who read just about every known review from a gigantic pool of approved critics, then decide if each is positive or negative. Once a movie has five reviews, it is Tomatometer-eligible.”
On the 22nd, Jack Allison discussed his strange feud with Michael Che, on The Outline:
“This vehement aversion to criticism seems to have taken hold across rich professional comedians. Jerry Seinfeld, worth nearly a billion dollars, can’t bear to step foot on a college campus for fear of an 18-year-old getting mad at him. And this is not generational: Last year, Che’s SNL castmate Pete Davidson stormed off the stage of a show at the University of Central Florida after calling them ‘privileged little assholes.’ Then, in December, hours before performing, ticket holders to a Davidson stand-up performance were required to sign a legally binding non-disclosure form. Venues are more often requiring audience members place their phones in Yondr bags — a locked pouch that prevents the use of smartphones.”
Also on the 22nd Rob Sheffield of Rolling Stone, paid tribute to Terry Jones:
“Farewell, Terry Jones — in Monty Python’s box of chocolates, he was always the crunchy frog. This man was a comic genius, the soul of Python — their most unselfish performer, their most wide-ranging mind, and their most stubborn arguer, which is why he ended up directing their movies. (Who else could out-argue John Cleese? Nobody.) To put it another way: His entire life was a juicy chunk of fresh Cornish ram’s bladder, flavored with sesame seeds, whipped into a fondue, and garnished with lark’s vomit.”
Ricky D’Ambrose interviewed Hal Hartley for Filmmaker, also on the 22nd:
“People started using the name “Long Island trilogy” later on. But no, it wasn’t something I thought about at the time. Maybe The Unbelievable Truth, which was so site-specific. I wrote it for the neighborhood I grew up in. And the characters’ relationship to the train—the train that takes you from Long Island to New York City—was important. For me, this is about Lindenhurst. But Trust (1990) was meant to take place in any representative American suburb. It didn’t need to be Long Island. When I started writing Simple Men (1992), it was very specifically for Long Island, this story of two brothers trying to get away from the law and going the length of Long Island.”
Finally, on the 23rd, Cezary Jan Strusiewicz of Cracked, share a listed of oddly prophetic movies:
“Whenever a movie turns out to be strangely prophetic, it usually means that either the writers did a great job of observing society, or that today’s ‘new’ problems are in reality just part of an endless cycle of bullshit. Hey, maybe it’s both!”
Enjoy!