Category Archives: Popular Culture

Business, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Popular Culture, Social Commentary

Ricky Gervais

12 Comments

I don’t watch awards ceremonies, but apparently he handed woke Hollywood its ass last night.

[Update a few minutes later]

More from Steve Kruiser, with video.

[Update a few more minutes later]

Boo, hoo. Lorraine Ali is all butthurt.

[Update a while later]

More from Kyle Smith. And Emily Jashinski.

[Update a while more later]

Hollywood proved Gervais’s point.

[Update late morning]

Related, I think: What happened to Howard Stern? If you want to skip the long history, jump to the end, which relates his recent interview with Hillary.

[Tuesday-morning update]

To hell with these gilded charlatans.

[Bumped]

[Update a while later]

The “liberal” reviews are in for Gervais’s performance, and their tears are delicious.

Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Weird

Cats

27 Comments

I’ve never seen the musical, and I’m not inclined to, but nowhere near as much as I’m not inclined to see the movie, which is getting terrible reviews.

[Friday-afternoon update]

“I watched Cats, and I have some questions.”

[Bumped]

[Saturday-morning update]

Follow the whole thread.

[Update a couple minutes later]

Here’s the unroll for that thread. RTWT.

[Update Sunday afternoon]

Universal notifies theaters that the movie will be “updated” for special effects. For a film already in release.

[Update a few minutes later]

This is one of the longest-running Broadway musicals. Can anyone tell me if there is a single memorable song in it other than “Memor<del>y</del>ies”? It seems to me that it’s like Les Miserable; apparently tunes aren’t important in musicals any more.

[Wednesday-afternoon update]

OK, here’s another Twitter review.

And here’s a review of the software update.

[Bumped]

[Saturday afternoon update]

A review of Cats, by cats.

[Bumped]

Business, Media Criticism, Popular Culture, Technology and Society

The Rise Of Skywalker

5 Comments

Peter Suderman gives it a hearty thumbs down:

Skywalker is a frantic, disjointed mess—not a movie with good ideas poorly executed, not even a movie with bad ideas, but a movie with no ideas at all, save for saccharine paeans to fandom and nostalgia. As a story, it is empty and unengaging to the point of boredom. As a cinematic product, it is surprisingly lackluster, with shoddy effects and muddy visuals. And as an entry in the Star Wars franchise, an ostensibly major part of the pop-culture canon, it is a wasted opportunity: a total failure of both creative imagination and corporate brand management.

But other than that, I’m sure it’s great.