In Victorian London (but not as we know it), the physically deformed scientist Dr. Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) has lovingly — if irresponsibly — saved the life of a young woman who jumped off a bridge by transplanting the brain of her unborn baby into her own head and re-animating her (yep). He christens her Bella (Emma Stone) and sets to work accelerating her mental development to match her body with the help of Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef), a budding surgeon who comes to love this gleefully unfettered woman-child. Finding herself to be “a flawed, experimenting person” who is into masturbating in a big way, Bella decides that before she is married off to a life of relative imprisonment with Max and her father, she must see and explore the world, setting off for a sexual odyssey with debauched lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, never more hysterically funny than this).
Holy shit. Sign me up. Full disclosure, I absolutely hated The Lobster. But, I will always give Lanthimos the benefit of the doubt. His films are hard to love for obvious reasons, most notably, his cold and cruel worlds are full of stoicism and absurdity that is just relentless. However, Poor Things appears to have some levity and stylistic frivolity unseen in his previous works (I mean Dogtooth was just so unbelievably bleak). So, I’m a little excited for this one.
A young boy named Mahito yearning for his mother ventures into a world shared by the living and the dead. There, death comes to an end, and life finds a new beginning. A semi-autobiographical fantasy about life, death, and creation, in tribute to friendship, from the mind of Hayao Miyazaki.
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Danny Elfman is a musical genius. The man really needs no introduction. But, for those who are unaware, a small sampling of his talents includes: The Simpsons, Nightmare Before Christmas, several Tim Burton films, Mission Impossible, Spider-Man, MIB, hundreds of collaborators, and that’s just abridged resumé. Batman (1989) was a groundbreaking movie at the time, and the score is iconic to say the least.
I saved an excerpt from his interview with GQ on the Batman score below because it’s simply amazing. Warner Bros. Studios wanted Elfman to collaborate with Prince to make a score for Batman. I don’t hate it, but it would have changed the movie in unimaginable ways I can’t even fathom:
I’ve never done anything harder than Batman because first off, I had to prove myself. You know, it’s like, okay, he’s the quirky comedy guy, and here I am doing like this Batman movie. Understandably, I think they were like, “uh, we need somebody who knows how to do this kind of music.” But, nobody knew what kind of music it was. There really was no superhero music. There was just Superman. And, we said we know we don’t want it to be Superman — John Williams.
And, then there was an element with the producer in the studio of wanting it to be a pop score. There was definitely this moment of like, “Danny, we want you to collaborate with Prince and co-write the score.” And I go, I can’t do that. People go, “you really said that?” I love Prince, but not for that score. I already knew what the score was, and I knew that if I collaborated, he’d be writing tunes, and I’d be orchestrating his tunes, and I would be essentially a glorified arranger rather than a composer, you know. Because he was world famous, and I was still nothing.
I had to walk away. I was so depressed. I felt like I just blew up my own career. And then a month later I got the call saying, Danny, you’re back on. It’s like this gamble paid off. But, it was a miserable period of time. On the other hand, I already heard the music in my head. I knew what it was, and I was determined that that was gonna be the score. The producer was so hard on me, John Peters, and then [they’re finally] he’s in — I think it’s the third presentation. And, I didn’t know how to do presentations.
I was playing this weird music stuff that was all like inspired, you know, crazy. And then Tim says, play the March, “play the March, play the march!” [That’s] what he called the titles. I go, “oh yeah, I got this piece here.” And of course, now I know, you lead with your headline, obviously. I didn’t really know, or understand that back then. And I put this piece of music on, and John starts conducting in his chair. And then at a certain point he stands up, and he’s going like this. [Danny waving his arms like a conductor] Tim looks at me and he’s like [Danny laughing], “yeah, we got it.”
Another fantastic episode from NYT Cooking’s Mystery Menu with Sohla and Ham. I was pleasantly surprised that processing durian and cooking it, neutralizes the aromatics, but elevates savory flavors in dishes! Also surprised to see acid and durian making a great pairing. Also, Sohla has explored some variations on the kolar pitha before, but this durian kolar pitha looks so good!
Unless YouTube has a killer app, I cannot see the reasoning behind even testing games, much less launching them to the public. Netflix has a selection of great mobile games that anyone with a subscription can download for free, and yet hardly anyone does.
If Netflix is having a hard time with their mobile game adoption, I think the writing is on the wall for this one. YouTube is going to have a difficult time competing with basically the entire web and App Store’s gigantic selection of free games.
I wonder if YouTube will make certain titles available to Premium subscribers only. Perhaps the maximum saturation of premium subscribers has been met, and product is thinking up new features for YouTube Premium.
“‘Hot Ones’ was just the dumbest idea of all time,” Schonberger said, only half-joking. “How is it, philosophically, that the dumbest idea is the best?”
“It’s like, well, we can’t just have people get drunk or high,” he went on, “but I think we can get people to eat spicy food, which might just be hilarious.”
It’s true. The best ideas, are almost exclusively the dumbest ones. Hot Ones came about at the perfect time too. Right around the same time Hot Ones was taking off, the Hot Pepper Challenges were making the rounds on YouTube and the web. Sean Evens and the show came onto the scene at the perfect time. I hope their spicy wings burn bright and strong forever 🔥
I am coming up on my seventh year living in New York City. During my tenure living here, I’ve learned a lot about myself. I feel like I’ve hardened myself, forged a worthwhile career here and sharpened all of my senses. It’s a vast nexus of creativity, food, technology and people. All walks of life live here, and it’s chaotic as fuck, but it all somehow works.
Thanks to LL 30, New York City’s language access law provides access to City services for all New Yorkers in 12 languages. Arabic, Bangla, Chinese (simplified Cantonese), French, Haitian-Creole, Italian, Korean, Polish, Spanish, Urdu, Yiddish and English. That alone is incredible. You’d be hard-pressed to find any government notices in more than two languages anywhere in the continental United States. There’s no place like New York City anywhere on Earth. Sure, lot’s of cities are like NYC, but there’s something that sets thistephen.news apart from other large metropolitan cities.
NYC isabsolutely, full ofwonderfulweirdos. Weird stuff happens when you put 8.5 million people together in one spot. Enter Patrick Willems video essays. First off Willems breaks it down for us like this — it’s a masterpiece film that we’ll probably never see the likes of every again (Hollywood in a post-MCU world would likely never permit another MIB to happen). It’s an action buddy-cop movie about aliens in NYC sure, but it’s really an ode to New York City. That goes double for folks who have lived in NYC, and finally move out of the city. The feels are real.
If you haven’t been following Primitive Technology on YouTube, you will now. The channel, created by John Plant features an impressive stream of videos that dissect how-to-survival techniques. Each video is roughly 10 minutes in length, features no VO (voice-over) or backstory. Each video stands alone and covers a singular topic in survival. Methodically-cut shots, and well-written subtitles to explain in further detail John’s movements and decisions.
The end result is often a high-quality video. He has set the bar for survivalists YouTube. While there are many imitator channels, he remains atop the throne of high-quality uploads in this category.
His latest upload, is another chapter in inching closer to Iron Age content. Take one look at the comments in any of his uploads and you can see his audience clamoring for more iron smelting, casting and blacksmithing:
Oh man, that’s what I wanted to see. You building up to the iron age. You released a video years ago with some iron in it and was looking forward to the next one. Here we are
The long arc from Neolithic-content to Iron Age-content on Primitive Technology is remarkable. In his earliest days, Plant was creating huts, firestarters, basic stone tools, clay bricks, kilns and even pottery. Using the very same tools in later videos, he’s laying the groundwork for a mythology in his channel. A speedrun of human prehistory. It’s fascinating to watch:
It was a big weekend with this game leak. GTA 6 peaks and leaks are hyped up so much, they’re about on par with the level of hype Half-Life 3 confirmed memes. It just isn’t going to happen and everyone doubts the claims when users post them on Reddit.
On Sunday morning, the hacker posted a 3GB file containing 90 videos of early GTA VI gameplay footage, which aligns with previous reports that indicate the game could feature a female protagonist for the first time.
Which of course elicited a response from Rockstar:
Wayback Machine screenshot of the fabled megathread on r/GTA6
While the gameplay is still in early development, the footage and content looks absolutely fantastic. Game leaks can be a kiss of death from the public. However, support for GTA 6 has been overwhelmingly positive following the leaks. Probably due to the size and variety of what was shared. In previous leaks, such as the Nvidia PC Leak of 2021, not much qualitative data was obtained. This was a gargantuan leak, and according to the hacker, more is yet to come.
The videos (which have been taken down in most of the links on Twitter and Reddit) were very convincing and very Rockstar-esque. But, I found these two still photos from the deleted megathread to be the most convincing evidence:
It’s bittersweet that these details were leaked. But, not much can be gleaned from the story from these videos and photos. There’s evidence of a male and female lead (which was previously leaked but these photos suggest a confirmation on the Bonnie and Clyde story mode) — but apart from that, not much else is known.
What is known, is the hacker that stole the footage and data from Rockstar (which included source code mind you), is in some very hot water.
Joywave, a rad indie band that hails from Rochester, New York is known for their penchant for the meta and the weird. Just watch their 2015 music video for Somebody New and you’ll see what I mean. In 2019, Joywave released the single Obsession, in preparation for the full-length Possession slated for March 2020. The single came with goodies, a delicious music video that is oozing with nostalgia and American culture.
Here’s a few of my favorites stills from the music video:
The music video is well produced. It’s also very visibly Los Angeles. THat’s not a slight either. It’s really beautiful. It has the weight of a hundred films, and shows just how flexible the Los Angeles landscapes can be for filmmakers. Check it out:
As part of The Met’s 150th anniversary in 2020, each month we will release three to four films from the Museum’s extensive moving-image archive, which comprises over 1,500 films, both made and collected by the Museum, from the 1920s onward. This includes rarely seen artist profiles and documentaries, as well as process films about art-making techniques and behind-the-scenes footage of the Museum.
The closing credits go to Robin Lehman as producer and director for this short film. It’s unclear if it is the same Robin Lehman on IMDB, but what a lovely, charming and informative short.
Guns Akimbo is the sophomoric return of Jason Lei Howden. A marriage of America’s favorites: a balance of high-octane action and one-the-nose comedy. The film stars Daniel Radcliffe, and Samara Weaving of Three Billboards fame. The breadth of character both of these stars will bring to the big screen is going to be so much fun.
I love how much of a good sport Howden is being about YouTube’s notorious comments section on the trailer:
Give the trailer a watch, leave a comment (he is reading them after all) and share. It’s pretty awesome. Guns Akimbo opens in select theaters on February 28, 2020.
According to an exclusive 6-minute sneak-peek hat premiered before Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in IMAX, there’s quite a lot to take in. Birth.Movies.Death reports there’s counterterrorism, Nolan’s trademark quick-cuts, and featured the infamous time-rewind car scene:
Tenet has a pretty well-put together cast. Many are Nolan alums from Dunkirk, The Prestige,Inception and The Dark Knight. It has all the hallmarks of a classic Nolan success, but interesting enough, Tenet is missing his favorite composer, Hans Zimmer.
For this film, Christopher Nolan opted for Ludwig Göransson, a Swedish composer who’s résumé includes some action-packed heavy hitters such as Venom,Creed,Death Wish and the knockout Marvel hit, Black Panther. Ludwig is a righteous choice, but not an obvious one. The trailer reveals an industrial tone and has a memorable cacophonous percussion. In fact, the escalating beats, and echoey hits has me jonesing for a classic progressive house bass drop.
If we can expect anything, it is that Nolan will present us with something delicious. Resolution or not, the mysterious plot of this movie awaits us.
Sometimes, advertising can be really really fun. BBC really outdid themselves here. Drive or walk by this billboard during the day and you see one thing — but at night you see a ghastly vampire visage. Very clever:
