Spring Emerges

Greetings all,

As we turn the calendar to April, we transform from a few cinematic events to overdrive. Most of these are later in the month so that I will write more about them later, but I want to give you a heads up, and I suggest you get our calendar app to fill it up. VideoFest has two events the week after next. On Tuesday, April 15, we present the latest episode of Frame of Mind. The film we are showing is “Horton Foote: The Road to Home,” by Anne Rapp. You will not want to miss this.

On Thursday, April 17, we have the North Texas Universities Film Festival at the Violet Crown Theater.

Later in the month, on Tuesday, April 22, we will also have a screening of Richard Baily’s new film at the Violet Crown Theater.

While you have your calendar app, you can add the Dallas International Film Festival, April 25 to May 1, The Thin Line Fest, April 23 to 27, and the USA Film Festival, April 17 to 26. I wish these festivals could select dates that don’t overlap; this is sad!

I watched “The Pitt,” a series about an emergency room in Pittsburgh, on Max this week. I generally am not a fan of the doctor/hospital genre, but this show has good casting and good writing. One element that adds to the tension of the show is the constantly moving camera. This is not the one-shot-for-the-whole-episode mode. We really are seeing more moving long takes in film and TV these days.

Some of it is the director's choice, which adds a more profound sense of realism, but it can also be attributed to the cameras and camera techniques that make it happen. “The Studio,” on Apple TV+, also has its share of this look and even mentions it in the show. Some of my fav long one-shot takes are “The Player,” “The Touch of Evil,” “Hard Boiled,” and of course the whole films like ”Russian Ark,” “1917,” “Birdman,” and “Rope.” And yes, some are actual one-take films, and some are simulated ones.

In cinemas this week, check out “No Other Land,” still playing at the Angelika (thanks), “The Penguin Lessons,” “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” and “The Death of a Unicorn.” And we are looking forward to the end of “The White Lotus.”

Here is this week’s Ed Bark paragraph:

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OK, so why am I still on X, which in somewhat calmer times was Twitter? Why am I still partnering, in the loosest sense of the word, with the chainsaw-wielding driving force of DOGE? Here’s why. In the early stages of Elon Musk’s takeover, moving from X to Mark Zuckerberg’s new Threads became a popular notion. But in the swirling world of social media, I had long since quit MZ’s Facebook after being constantly deluged with “Friend” requests from deceased people or hackers. So no thanks. And now that Zuckerberg has embraced Donald Trump, I feel even more vindicated. Yeah, but what about Bluesky, where like-minded, left-of-center people like me supposedly have flocked? Well, the grass isn’t always greener. Because as I’ve seen all too often, kindred spirits can become ferocious attackers if you’re viewed as asleep at the “woke” wheel. And who needs that? Which means that I’d rather be fighting the “good fight” on X, which still has a wide mix of views. Somewhat to my surprise, I’ve found that striving to be reasonable can still pay off. And that blocking or muting hard-core crazies is seldom necessary. Nor have I ever been censored in the face of some very pointed critiques of Trump. So on X I stay, with the proviso that I’ll never give even a dime to Musk to either be “certified” or block all ads. Does that still make sense or common sense? I hope so.

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-Bart

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Howdy,

Maybe only 18 other people and I care about the Max streaming service's logo and branding changes, but it's changed again and I can't stop thinking about it. A few weeks ago Warner Bros/Discovery announced that the app formerly known as HBO Max, and before that known as HBO Now, would be updating its blue-ish purple-ish logo to a more subdued black and white, reminiscent of the memorable HBO branding. This weekend they launched the new logo and it's pretty much exactly as you would imagine.

Some strange 3D shadowing

The company has really struggled to position the app as "not just HBO" in an effort to appeal to the "Dr. Pimple Popper" demographic. Their press release says "The New Streaming Home Of HBO, Warner Bros., Harry Potter, The DC Universe, Discovery And More" which basically means nothing. Half the DC movies are on Netflix, Harry Potter is more associated with the Universal theme parks (also all the movies are on Peacock), and Discovery still has its own app Discovery+.

The HBO app could have housed shows and movies across franchises just like the channel did for years. Now with "Max Originals" like "The Pitt" the separation makes some sense, but "…And Just Like That" is still considered a "Max Original" even though it's a "Sex and the City" sequel.

In the megaplexes this week is "A Minecraft Movie," a film that zero people reading this newsletter will be seeing. And I love a schlocky children's movie, the little yellow Minions have my heart. Minecraft is one of the biggest video games of all time, so it makes sense to cash in on a big budget blockbuster. The "Super Mario Bros Movie" from a couple years ago did a perfect job of creating a fun animated universe for the titular Nintendo characters.

"A Minecraft Movie" is taking the opposite approach by making a garish, disgustingly "realistic" world that live-action actors are transported into. No film has looked more like it was filmed on a single blue-screened set. Watch the above clip in horror.

-Elijah