Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 08:37:18 JST Jay Baker

   The year's almost over and I can say I've caught up and watched Barbenheimer (yes, both films). If they are supposed to be the height of cinema then our standards are shockingly low. Granted, it's possible to have a 5-minute conversation on the subject matter of both films, but then that's easy enough with almost any picture. No, as I did before seeing them, I still think Barbenheimer is merely a testament to manufactured viral "must-see" movie marketing. That's the brilliance of film: unlike hearing a song played and then buying that very song, box office can be big based on teasers and trailers and hype even if people leave the movie theatre disappointed. And then in turn box office can influence reviews anyway. Most of the stuff I loved 25+ years ago was trashed and is now held in high regard; conversely, some stuff I thought was overrated yet was popular didn't endure.

   • Embed this notice
     Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 17:55:40 JST Jay Baker

     in reply to

     • Anti. 🐘

     @antiaall3s Very good points. No doubt a crucial part of the whole capitalist culture drive to "get people back out there" in an ongoing pandemic. I mean, I recently realised Eventbrite have been running a blatantly ableist marketing campaign literally called "GTFO" where for example one Halloween-themed promotion stated "couch potato isn't a Halloween costume." Fuck.

   • Embed this notice
     Anti. 🐘 (antiaall3s@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 17:55:43 JST Anti. 🐘

     in reply to

     @MediaActivist Yeah, those movies were meh. I was thoroughly underwhelmed. When i was finally allowed to see them, that is. What struck me the most was that they were the must-see movies *drumroll* IN CINEMAS ONLY. They were the must-see movies bullying everyone back into the movie theaters, no streaming options available until many months later. For those of us who for health or social anxiety reasons need or want to avoid cinemas, this meant we were sidelined by their marketing.

   • Embed this notice
     Jay Baker (mediaactivist@todon.eu)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 18:07:46 JST Jay Baker

     in reply to

     • Anti. 🐘

     @antiaall3s Yeah, their behaviours reinforce the reality of the bizarreness of the culture. Never a good feeling. And as you say, risk of infection "for these shite films" (which at least made me laugh!)

   • Embed this notice
     Anti. 🐘 (antiaall3s@chaos.social)'s status on Thursday, 28-Dec-2023 18:07:48 JST Anti. 🐘

     in reply to

     @MediaActivist My FOMO is strong, so of course when EVERYONE, even some anarchists i respected, started to rave or at least opine about those two fucking movies, of course i wanted to see them. But since zero streaming options and only terrible screener torrents were available, this also meant ALL OF THEM had been to an actual movie theater and risked getting infected for these shite films. Well, they could have in theory watched the screeners. But.