Tag Archive : CULTURE

Hey, tiger. Long week, huh? Between the Jeff Bezos vs. National Enquirer dustup and the acting attorney general of the United States testifying before Congress, there's been a lot of back and forth. But last week also saw the premiere of Ariana Grande's new video and a cat that miraculously came back to life after being frozen in the snow, so it's not all bad. Happy Year of the Pig, everybody!

The State of the Union Is as Boring as Ever

What Happened: After all the shutdown drama, last week President Trump was finally able to give his 2019 State of the Union address. Was it worth waiting for? It depends on how much you were looking forward to bad writing and flat delivery, but at least the audience was interesting.

What Really Happened: Welp, after a lot of political rigamarole, President Trump gave his State of the Union speech last week—and what a speech it was. Clocking in at 82 minutes, it was the third longest State of the Union speech ever. (Unable to break the record for the longest speech ever? Sad!) But journalists aside, nobody really cares about the runtime except for the poor people who had to sit through the whole thing. We'll get back to them later. In the meantime, let's look at what Trump said.

As should be expected, fact-checkers were busy pointing out falsehoods and misstatements, but even they couldn't make people take the speech as anything other than a damp squib, judging by the reaction online.

OK, we meant those not already on the Trump train, as Twitter was all too eager to demonstrate.

Of course, we can't just blame the writing in this case. After all, it is a speech delivered by Donald Trump, and that brings certain … shall we call them perks? Sure, why not.

It's also worth noting what the president didn't mention during the speech.

But let's get back to that lengthy run time. Just how long was the speech this year? More importantly, how long did it feel? Well, let's consider the case of one of the special guests at the speech, brought there by the First Family.

It was a heartwarming story with a twist ending.

So, yeah. It was a pretty bad speech. So bad that a lot of the post-speech discussion online didn't actually focus on Trump's oration, but on people the world was actually interested in. Of particular interest, as is becoming increasingly common these days, was the presence of representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Even among other congresspeople, she was a star.

People were obsessed with what she was wearing (especially as she was one of many women of Congress dressed in white for symbolic reasons)—

—and people were obsessed with how she behaved during the speech itself, with her responses drawing different reactions depending on what side of the political divide they came from.

The speech also launched a meme that put KKK hoods on AOC and the other Democratic women wearing white, but, as ever, Ocasio-Cortez rose above the cheap shots with a blunt, honest response.

To be fair, she may have already won even before the State of the Union thanks to this preview tweet:

Who would have thought that the Twitter President would run too long, and be brought low by someone else keeping to 280 characters or less? Is that … irony?

The Takeaway: This feels like an appropriate summary of what happened during the State of the Union, sadly. More sadly, this could describe so many State of the Unions before this one.

Nancy Pelosi Is All of Us Watching the SOTU

What Happened: Not content with winning people over by standing up to the president during the shutdown, last week speaker of the house Nancy Pelosi became the internet's avatar for State of the Union responses.

What Really Happened: Officially, the Democratic response to Trump's State of the Union speech came from Stacey Abrams, who delivered a short speech that seemed to go over well, triggering talk of a possible presidential run and panic at Fox News. But neither Abrams, nor even AOC, provided the most popular and widely shared Democratic rebuttal to the president's speech. No, for that, the internet turned to Nancy Pelosi. Madame Speaker?

Sure, we all know what a "hell no" look is, but if only there was a perfect example of just how wonderfully passive aggressive Pelosi's clapping looked…

Everyone immediately understood what was going on in the image, and so, a meme was born.

The internet was in love.

It was the clapback seen around the world, and was soon the subject of a number of news stories the next day. When sarcastic applause gets as much coverage as a speech, that’s when you know that nobody was really listening to what was being said.

The Takeaway: There’s one person who recognized exactly what Pelosi was doing: her daughter.

Investigate This

What Happened: As if to reinforce that no one was paying attention to the State of the Union, lawmakers responded to Trump's demand not to be investigated by announcing a new wide-ranging investigation into his administration and campaign.

What Really Happened: One particular line of Trump's SOTU speech would appear to be particularly prescient, given what happened the very next day—and not just because it was an awkward, tortured rhyme.

Less than 24 hours after the president complained publicly that there "cannot" be an investigation into his administration, the House Intelligence Committee—now under Democrat control for the first time in the Trump era—made a couple of big announcements.

No, that wasn't one of the big announcements, although the reason given seemed somewhat curious… Well, until the following two announcements were made, at least.

OK, that was kind of big. (Only kind of, because the Republican-controlled Intelligence Committee voted to release some of those transcripts last year, so it's not as if they were entirely hidden.) Even that was, however, the lesser of the two pieces of news announced by Rep. Adam Schiff on Wednesday.

Yes, the House will really for serious investigate the president and potential wrongdoing, unlike what happened under Republicans, which was clearly not intended to be a serious investigation. Oh, and that's not all: Everyone in America will get to find out exactly what the investigation reveals.

So, you know, that's kind of a big deal. How did the president, who just finished declaring he shouldn't be investigated, respond to the news that he was actually going to be very investigated? The answer is pretty much, "as you'd expect."

That was just the start of his tailspin; the next day on Twitter, he shared how he really felt.

So, the tenor of his reaction seems to be "clearly terrified," then. The next few months clearly aren't going to be boring, at least.

The Takeaway: How best to sum up this week in terms of the volleys between the president and the House Intelligence Committee? This seems pretty accurate, considering.

Bad Yearbook Photos

What Happened: Apparently, every politician of a certain age in Virginia has a personal connection to blackface in their past.

What Really Happened: It's not all about Washington this week, though! Let's take a moment to consider the horror show that is Virginia Governor Ralph Northam's response to the discovery of a photograph that may, perhaps, have featured him either dressed as a member of the KKK or in blackface. After initially apologizing hours after the photo went viral last Friday, he shockingly walked back that apology a day later.

Oh, but it got worse. Much worse.

Yes, that's right; Northam's argument that it wasn't him in a photograph showing someone in blackface was, essentially, "Don't get me wrong, I did get dressed up in blackface, but I didn't look like that." And that's saying nothing about the fact that he almost moonwalked at the press conference, only to be talked out of it by his wife. Let's just say that it was far from the most convincing pushback.

This really didn't go down well with other Democrats.

As of this writing, a full week after the photograph originally came to light, Northam has not resigned—indeed, he reportedly refuses to do so in case that meant he would be branded as "racist for life," as if that's not a done deal already—but the heat has been inexplicably taken off him by the fact that a second Democrat in Virginia came out as wearing blackface last week.

Unsurprisingly, the Republican Party swiftly moved to take advantage of this.

But, guess what? Spoiler alert: It's exactly what you're worried about.

Oh, and then there was this, too.

The Takeaway: What's genuinely shocking about the following tweet is that it doesn’t actually seem over-the-top or out-of-bounds considering what's actually been happening this week.

Liam, No

What Happened: Actor Liam Neeson said some fairly racist-sounding things. Lots of people noticed.

What Really Happened: In what might be an almost-impressive feat of career suicide, Liam Neeson decided to share something that he really shouldn't have last week.

It almost sounds like an Onion joke, but it really wasn't; Neeson did indeed give an interview wherein he admitted to wandering around wanting to attack a person of color after a friend had been raped.

The writer of the Independent story took to Twitter to talk about her experience.

Some people tried to see the funny side of the what was happening—

—but more people couldn't quite see what was worth laughing about.

The interview prompted much discussion across the media. A day later, Neeson attempted to tamp down the controversy, with a second interview on the topic.

People weren't convinced by it, and the backlash continued as public events got cancelled. Would no one stand up for Neeson, preferably with a ridiculous statement that you can't quite believe was shared publicly?

There we go. Celebrities! They're just like us, only they say really stupid things and everyone hears about it!

The Takeaway: Man, remember when Liam Neeson wasn't an embarrassment? You know, like a week ago?

Games get announced, games get cancelled, players get mad. As Lion King fans might say, it's the circle of hype—and it's well-represented in this edition of Replay. Controversies, kiboshes, and the oddly high risk associated with surprise game unveilings. In other words, just a normal week.

Blizzard Announces a Diablo Mobile Game, Making Everyone Furious

At fan gathering Blizzcon late last week, Blizzard capped off their presentation with a surprise announcement: Diablo: Immortal would be a multiplayer mobile game set in the Diablo universe. It doesn't not make sense for the publisher to try to tap the gargantuan smartphone market, but with it having been more than six years since the last core title in the dungeon-crawling franchise (the last Diablo III expansion came out in 2017), hardcore fans were … well, they weren't happy.

This wasn't the announcement a lot of fans wanted, and seeing a game that you don't think is going to be very good is a valid reason for disappointment. But gosh, the internet response was ugly. Here, I have an idea: What if we didn't announce videogames? Just release them when they're ready. Keep hype cycles to a minimum. So much less shouting.

Final Fantasy XV Is One Director (and Three Downloadable Episodes) Short

Square Enix's Final Fantasy XV has had a storied, decade-long history of development limbo, which didn't stop just because the game came out: since release, the creators have worked to put out a wide selection of DLC that serves to patch in missing parts of the story, add multiplayer, and broadly expand its engaging world. That, however, is going to come to an end sooner than expected. Wednesday night, in one of the strangest announcement streams you'll ever see, Square announced that it was cancelling three of the four currently planned DLC packs—everything except an episode about the character Ardyn—and that lead director Hajime Tabata would be leaving Square Enix altogether.

It's not clear why Tabata is leaving, but the announcement mentions that he has another project in the works, and he'll be founding another company to see it through. After everything, it seems, Final Fantasy XV will remain somewhat unfinished. So it goes.

Nintendo Removes Offensive Animation From Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Which, Good

Attentive viewers might have noticed something off about Mr. Game and Watch, a fighter in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate based on the line of retro Nintendo handhelds of the same name. As shown in recent promos, he has an attack based on the game Fire Attack, a game about a Civil War general fighting indigenous peoples and … well, you can see where this is going. During the attack, Mr. Game and Watch briefly turns into a racist caricature. Pretty upsetting stuff.

And, somewhat surprisingly, Nintendo is ahead of the curve on this one, announcing that the animation would be patched out upon release. While it probably shouldn't have ended up in the game in the first place, it's nice to see some swiftness from a company that's generally been less than responsive to concerns about representation from its Western audience. Next time, maybe keep it out of the trailers, too, huh?

Recommendation of the Week: SUPERHOT for PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 (and Oculus/Vive/PSVR)

It's one of those weeks where I just want some good old-fashioned fantastical action. SUPERHOT isn't exactly old-fashioned, but it distills that desire for adrenaline and excitement down to its most basic parts. The premise is simple: time moves only when you do. Shoot your enemies. Survive. That mechanic turns action into choreography, letting you slowly map out moves that would make the heroes from The Matrix jealous. With a basic, stylized art style, it really sings. (And check it out on VR, if you can handle it.)

I have not quite finished Shadow of the Tomb Raider, the latest in Crystal Dynamics' rebooted saga of videogame icon Lara Croft. I'm not sure I want to, either. Following the violent archaeologist on a quest to a hidden city with the lofty goal of stopping an ancient apocalypse, Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a competent, occasionally enjoyable action-adventure romp. It'd be great, if only it weren't so nasty.

Lara Croft is defined by her ability to endure pain. One of the earliest moments of the games is pure claustrophobia. Lara is wedged in a crevice deep underground, nearly crushed between two sheer rock walls as another rock pins her legs down. The camera lingers intimately as she agonizingly uses a knife to work the rock off of her lower leg, scraping off skin, groaning and squirming. The scene immediately before this, the literal first moments of the game, showcase Lara getting into a plane crash.

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The new Tomb Raider series is built on the foundation of Lara's pain. In the first game, the pain was at least expressive, a crucible through which Lara Croft could go from a naive young woman into a hero, a fighter, the insatiable curious and bloodthirsty heroine of the 1990s. Back then, pain was a form of redemption for Lara, and while that isn't without its problems—why must a woman be physically injured to grow?—it was at least a meaningful idea, and Lara's mantra, a slow, breathy "I can do this" before confrontation, had a power to it.

That was two games ago, and yet Lara, supposedly fully developed into her heroic self a long time ago, still regularly gets stabbed, impaled, mauled, nearly drowned, and shot. Every time the player dies in this game, something awful happens to this woman. My own failures made me cringe, as I had to see some horrific punishment inflicted on her.

Lara Croft is born to suffer, and Lara Croft is also born to dole out suffering. Violence follows her everywhere. The game begins with Lara making a terrible mistake out of greed and desperation, a mistake that kills countless people. In another early scene, a supernatural tsunami—caused by Lara's plundering—consumes an entire Mexican town. Another vignette depicts a child dying. This, the game says, is Lara's fault. Shadow of the Tomb Raider then has Lara go on a warpath of her own, murdering droves of her enemies in pursuit of redemption and knowledge, even as the game halfheartedly attempts to encourage Lara to learn to be, well, less of a tomb raider and more of a tomb visitor. Hundreds of people die in this game to teach Lara Croft a lesson in humility.

The problem in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is that this suffering feels without expressive purpose. It doesn't carry sufficient weight to justify itself. In these games, people suffer as mild, milquetoast entertainment. Crystal Dynamics, whether purposefully or by accident, have created games that feel, first and foremost, cruel. This would be less insulting if the games weren't so competently made. The combat, the sneaking, the labyrinths of puzzles that feel both sprawling and tightly focused—it all pops. There is a legitimate and powerful sense of tension here, and in a game that was framed with less brutality, a more bright and cheerful and playful sort of adventure, there would be a lot to recommend.

But over the course of three games, the tone of Tomb Raider has curdled. Lara Croft often gets compared to Indiana Jones, but disregarding their mutual tendency toward appropriation and violence instead of archaeology, the two have little in common. Lara's world is mean in its heart in a way that Indy's never was. Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a nasty game, and if this series continues, I hope it veers in a wholly different direction. I'm tired of watching Lara Croft get impaled on spikes.

Skrulls have been many things in the Marvel Comics over the past 60 years: superhero impersonators, religious extremists disguised as humans, canon fodder in any number of Avengers brawls. In their first appearance, they were even cattle, made bovine by Reed Richards in Fantastic Four #2. (This ended poorly for them in the absurdist 1995 miniseries Skrull Kill Krew when the Cow!Skrulls were slaughtered and turned into hamburgers, resulting in a mad-cow-like disease.) Skrulls are impersonators. Skrulls are terrorists. Skrulls can't be trusted.

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(Warning: Spoilers ahead!)

In Captain Marvel, the Skrulls are something else: people. They are beings whose plight, and fight, has been misunderstood.

This is true not just of a few exceptional Skrull characters, but of the Skrull as a species. The first two acts of the movie may set them up as the enemies, and Captain Marvel's Kree as the saviors, but the third act flips that dangerous assumption entirely. Instead, it presents the Skrulls as a refugee group being hounded across the galaxy by the military of a fascist hegemony, a Kree Empire that denies them their basic dignity. Captain Marvel turns General Talos (Ben Mendelsohn) into a character to be fought for, not against, showing the universe through Skrull eyes.

This isn't entirely new. Marvel comics have given readers sympathetic Skrulls before, but their shape-changing abilities and dramatic ears and chins have historically coded them as untrustworthy and alien. They're a version of the old sci-fi trope of the alien race that infiltrates society to replace humans. They can even, dangerously, be seen as stand-ins for immigrants or minorities; they are Other. Captain Marvel upends that, calling into question assumptions about who is the Good Guy and who is the Bad Guy in any war narrative. Do we side with people who look like us? (Kree, even with their blue skin, still look more human than Skrulls do.) Or do we side with the people who are forced into hiding?

Carol Danvers (Brie Larson), by the end of Captain Marvel, knows which side she's on. She has been hiding too. On the Kree planet Hala, she was expected to suppress her feelings, her unique powers, even her past. After crash-landing on Earth, she slowly learns she had to hold back there too. She couldn't fly combat missions in the US Air Force, and if you read a queer subtext into her relationship with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch)—many already do—then she may have also been hiding her identity during the era of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. Once she realizes her power, and the realities of the Kree-Skrull War, she isn't protecting the Skrulls as a member of the Air Force or as a part of the Kree Empire, she's doing it as herself.

There is some precedent here. Queer-coded Skrulls like She-Hulk's (girl)friend Jazinda or Effigy in Marvel: The Lost Generation have been popping up in the comics for years. (See also: Xavin in Runaways and Teddy Altman, the half-Skrull, half-Kree boyfriend of Scarlet Witch's son.) But those Skrull are portrayed as outliers of their species. Similarly, Hawkeye and friends stumbled on a whole town of Skrull living in harmony with humans in Dungston, Iowa, in Occupy Avengers, but that was one story, not the thrust of the Skrull story.

Captain Marvel, then, is a new chapter in that tale. The movie doesn't just show the galaxy from the Skrull point of view, it asks viewers to identify with them. Like the Skrull, people conceal themselves in order to survive in an oppressive world. When they defend themselves, the oppressors call it war. Like Telos racking through Carol's memories, marginalized groups—and anyone, really—look to other people's stories for a path to survival and to find a safe place they can inhabit as their true selves.

This narrative, this through line of Captain Marvel is central to any discussion of the movie's importance. As the first standalone Marvel superhero film to feature a female lead, it's already a part of the discussion about representation, and the Skrull, as proxies for any number of ostracized groups, are a part of that. But it's not enough to just have Skrulls to identify with. Movies, superhero movies especially, still need more representation of marginalized groups onscreen, still need to move beyond the allegories. Then, perhaps, messages like Captain Marvel's—that someone's difference isn't a threat, that refugees just want asylum—will have truly been heard.

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Like most people, you’ve probably watched Get Out at least once. Maybe twice. But the best way to see Get Out is with Jordan Peele sitting right next to you.

Last spring, long before Get Out's eventual Oscar win, the movie was released on home video with a commentary track from its writer-director. A decade ago, in the pre-streaming era, this wouldn’t have been news: Back then, seemingly every movie got a commentary track, even Good Luck Chuck. Then the DVD market began to decline, and the commentary track went from a being standard-issue add-on to relative rarity. Even recent Best Picture nominees like Mad Max: Fury Road, The Wolf of Wall Street, 12 Years a Slave, and Spotlight were released sans tracks—bad news for anyone looking for behind-the-scenes intel on Mark Ruffalo's little-Ceasar haircut.

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In the last few years, though, several high-profile films—everything from Star Wars: The Last Jedi to Lady Bird to Get Out—have been released with commentary tracks. That means you can spend your umpteenth viewing of Peele's film listening to him talk about how he modeled the opening credits on those of The Shining, or how the film's title was inspired by a routine from Eddie Murphy Delirious. For casual movie watchers, such details may not be too thrilling. But for film nerds who absorb behind-the-scenes trivia and how-we-made-it logistics, tracks like the one for Get Out remain the cheapest movie-making education available.

I've listened to hundreds of commentary tracks over the last 25 years—a pursuit that goes back to the mid-’90s, when it was possible to rent a laserdisc player(!) and a copy of the Criterion Collection’s The Silence of the Lambs, and spend a weekend listening to Jonathan Demme and the film's cast and creators chat for two hours. That track remains a classic of the genre: Demme talks nuts-and-bolts filmmaking 101; Jodie Foster discusses story arc and character; FBI agent John Douglas talks about serial killers. It's like taking a half-dozen freshman-level introductory classes at once.

There are other classics of the commentary genre. Some are practical, like the Citizen Kane commentary in which Roger Ebert breaks down Orson Welles' various on-screen tricks, or the Aliens track in which Jim Cameron discusses the best lens for special effects. Others play out like their own mini-movies: On the track for The Limey, director Steven Soderbergh and screenwriter Lem Dobbs semi-gently spar over how the movie came out—a rare look at the messiness of creative collaboration. Then there are the all-purpose tracks that combine practical-moviemaking details, flotsam of trivia, and hang-out banter, like the crowded Fight Club commentary that covers everything from CGI explosions to Rosie O'Donnell giving away the film's ending on her talk show ("just unforgivable," star Brad Pitt laments).

The best commentary tracks don't bog you down with technical details or fill up dead air with dull plaudits: They footnote the movie experience, answering questions you may not have known you had about everything from casting to cinematography to marketing. "You can learn more from John Sturges' audio track on the Bad Day at Black Rock laserdisc than you can in 20 years of film school,” Paul Thomas Anderson once said.

That might be true‚ but for years the commentary for that 1955 thriller was out of print and near-impossible to find. Eventually, it popped up on YouTube, which has become home to countless bootlegged commentary-track rips, some of them listed under fake titles (and some, like Get Out, are easy to spot). With minimal searching, you can also find MP3s archived on Tumblrs and old blogspot pages, in case you want to download and watch along—or listen to a commentary track while doing errands or exercising (maybe I’ve taken the hilarious, deeply non-informative Step Brothers play-by-play out with me for a long walks).

But there are also hundreds of digitally preserved commentary tracks available through legit means. On FilmStruck—the streaming service featuring older movies from the Criterion Collection and Turner Classic Movies—you can listen to Terry Gilliam discuss Time Bandits and Steve James talk Hoop Dreams. Indie powerhouse A24 has produced filmmakers’ commentary tracks that are bundled on outlets like the iTunes store, meaning you can listen to Paul Schrader walk through every step of his excellent First Reformed. And Disney has been releasing tracks for recent hits like The Last Jedi and Avengers: Infinity War. Only a few years ago, commentary tracks seemed all but dead; now, there are almost too many to keep up with—including the numerous fan-recorded ones available as podcasts and hours-long YouTube clips.

It’s telling that many of the filmmakers (and film lovers) now recording commentaries are in their thirties and forties—meaning they came of age in the first commentary-track era during the Bush/Clinton years. When Peele opens his Get Out track, he notes that it's a "surreal honor" to be recording it—a testament to how crucial these commentaries are for anyone looking to sneak behind the screen. And now, online, you can pretty much stay there forever.

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Star Wars Director Reveals the Secrets Behind Rogue One's Final Vader Scene

It could very well be the best scene in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story— Darth Vader violently pursuing rebels as they try to escape with the Death Star plans. But, as Director Gareth Edwards reveals, the scene fans saw in theaters almost didn't happen.

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It’s been a week that’s seen us inch ever closer to the collapse of NAFTA, seen the White House seemingly confused about how it collectively feels about the death of John McCain, and seen the official death toll of Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico raised by almost 3,000, even though the President still claims the official response was “fantastic”. (No wonder his disapproval rating has hit an all-new high.) But what else has been going on this week? I’m glad you asked! Let’s let the internet answer that question, shall we?

You’re Fired (483rd Twitter Edition)

What Happened: Of all the people the President of the United States has pushed out of the White House, perhaps the White House lawyer wasn’t the best choice.

Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports

What Really Happened: Elsewhere in the legal worries of the leader of the free world, the reportedly perfectly fine, nothing wrong whatsoever relationship between President Trump and White House lawyer Don McGahn took a bit of a turn early this week, as the President tweeted out a personnel update.

Well, this seems perfectly normal and not something that people were cynically expecting after it emerged that McGahn had multiple meetings with Special Counsel Robert Mueller over the past few months. Still, at least he was given time to prepare for this decision…

On the plus side, everyone in Trump’s orbit must have been happy to see him go…

That’s 84-year-old Republican senator Chuck Grassley there, showing some hey-fellow-kids Twitter chops.

Even as everyone was still coming to terms with the White House lawyer being unceremoniously dismissed without notice, some people had some more thoughts to offer on how this related to the bigger picture:

But as with seemingly every bit of reporting, the President couldn’t resist taking to Twitter to argue against the conventional wisdom in his patented “Nuh-uh, just the opposite!” style, as was obvious on Thursday morning:

As should probably be expected at this point, most people took this as confirmation that just the opposite was actually true. But a third tweet made ears perk up amongst the political watchers:

The replacement in question…? That’s an open question at time of writing, thanks to entirely conflicting reports:

Hey, maybe Rudy Giuliani could moonlight once he’s finished working on that counter-report.

The Takeaway: Curiously, McGahn wasn’t the only lawyer to leave the White House this week, although this departure was seemingly more voluntary:

Alienated Citizens of the World, Unite

What Happened: For those who thought that the current administration couldn’t do anything to get more racist, I introduce to you: Telling U.S. citizens they aren’t really citizens because they’re Hispanic.

Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports

What Really Happened: As if there weren’t enough reasons to feel concerned about the administration’s attitude towards immigration (Hundreds of children are still separated from their parents, in case you’re wondering), a new report from the middle of this week brought an additional wrinkle:

The Washington Post’s report alleged that American citizens were getting passport applications rejected in Texas, with “hundreds, and possibly thousands” of Hispanic citizens being accused of using fake birth certificates.

To call this a big deal would be a severe understatement, and the original report was quickly shared by other outlets across the internet. Twitter, too, was shocked by what was happening:

As might be expected, the State Department pushed back on the reports, but there was one obvious problem with that…

Oh, and it’s not just passports or the administration, as it turns out:

The Takeaway: Yeah, this isn’t terrifying in the slightest. Maybe there’s a silver lining to be found somewhere…

From Give and Take and Still Somehow

What Happened: The President and his lawyers have come up with a new plan to combat the special investigation into potential collusion with Russia; release its own fake report. No, really.

Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports

What Really Happened: You know what they always say: If you can’t beat them, release your own version of something and just pretend that they’re entirely equivalent. And speaking of the current special counsel investigation into the President of the United States and potential collusion with foreign entities…

There are all manner of obvious flaws in this plan, such as who would believe a report put together by the subject of the investigation? (I mean, sadly, we know the answer, but still.) There’s also this small drawback:

That is a problem. How can you write a rebuttal to a mystery topic…?

Actually, the apparent truth is only incrementally less likely:

Somewhat amazingly, this turns out not to be the first time the subject has been raised publicly by Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney. But, sure, this definitely sounds like a good use of everyone’s time:

If nothing else, he’ll have to work quickly in order to—as the original report put it—release the report within minutes of Mueller’s official, actually researched, report.

Let's be real: There’s almost no way this could fail.

The Takeaway: Who couldn’t be convinced by a well-reasoned argument from this guy?

Why They Changed It I Can’t Say

What Happened: New York got an unexpected name change this week on certain apps, thanks to an act of anti-semitic “digital graffiti.”

Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports

What Really Happened: New York users of Snapchat, the Weather Channel, and other online services with map services received an unpleasant surprise on Thursday morning:

Of course, this quickly went viral, because of course it did. The root, as it happened, was quickly identified—

—and dealt with:

But what caught some people’s attention was the choice of slur city name—and how much of a failure it ultimately was:

Others wondered if New York's new identity could be an improvement:

Sadly, not everyone was happy with the takeover:

The Takeaway: It wouldn’t be a New York moment without at least one person fondly remembering the good old days…

Slight Return

What Happened: After less than a year away, Louis C.K. has stepped back into the spotlight to return to comedy—and it turns out people aren’t really into that idea so much.

Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports

What Really Happened: Hey, remember last November, when comedian Louis C.K. admitted that reports of his sexually harassing several women, including masturbating in front of them, were true? Remember when he issued a statement saying that he was going to “step back and take a long time to listen”?

Well, that was certainly nine months' worth of listening, I guess. Yes, Louis C.K. returned to the public stage this week (although it turns out he’d actually made a more low-key comeback earlier than that), and it was a return that prompted a very strong response online.

With all kinds of think pieces published in response, the overall feeling about C.K.’s return could be summed up in one simple tweet:

As if to illustrate that last point, an additional fact about C.K.’s set emerged a day later…

The Takeaway: But perhaps we’re being too hard on the comedian…

Late last month, while most Black Friday shoppers were looking for deals on high-definition televisions or new computers, Zach Killebrew was searching for Ingmar Bergman. Killebrew, a 24-year-old software developer, is the creator and moderator of Boutique Blu-Ray, a subreddit for obsessive collectors of high-end (and often pricey) movies. They’re the sort of fans who post photos of their latest Blu-ray scores, document their growing collections, and eagerly share updates on new “boutique” releases, which range from obscure ’80s horror flicks like Maniac to the 30-disc Ingmar Bergman’s Cinema collection.

It was that hefty Bergman box (which lists for nearly $300) that had Killebrew up late the night before its release scouring websites, calling local stores, and even contemplating driving to a mall about an hour away from his home in Smithton, Illinois, just to secure his copy. He eventually landed one right before the collection’s first printing sold out.

For dedicated Blu-ray hunters, such victories are hard-won. To most others, though, the notion of agonizing over physical media in 2018 is completely baffling. “My friends are always are always kind of puzzled when I say, ‘I went Blu-ray shopping,’” says Killebrew. “They usually say, ‘Why don’t you stream it?’”

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Within the small but thriving community of Blu-ray enthusiasts, the answers to that question tend to vary. Some are drawn to Blu-ray because of the unsatisfying video quality of streaming films; for others, it’s the sheer joy of tactile pop-culture paraphernalia, as some small-label discs come with elaborate packaging and hours of extras. “Customers want to see these movies on their shelves,” says Jesse Nelson, owner of Diabolik, an online store that’s been trafficking in rare and specialty movies since 2003. “They want to post pictures of them on Instagram sorted by director or label: ‘Look at all these great titles I have.’”

But one of the main driving forces behind the Blu-ray renaissance is the simple fact that the mainstreamers—which include everyone from Netflix to Amazon Prime to Apple—all have sizable gaps in their movie libraries. Those limitations have become painfully clear in the last year, as some film lovers looked around and noticed that many of their favorite movies, whether vintage releases or even semi-recent blockbusters like True Lies, were nearly impossible to find in digital form.

That point was reinforced by the sudden closure of the ambitious and well-curated FilmStruck, which featured Warner Bros. classics and arthouse flicks from Criterion Collection. FilmStruck’s demise made clear just how ephemeral streaming is: If your favorites aren’t on your shelves, there’s a chance they could disappear on short notice. “There are movies that I want to watch, or share with others, and increasingly they’re not there when I try to find them on Amazon Prime or Hulu,” says Killebrew. “Having a physical copy is my back-up.”

Killebrew’s video collection, which he estimates includes about 300 titles, features everything from arthouse entries to more out-there genre films—evidence of just how expansive the so-called “boutique Blu-ray” market has become. Its biggest players include outfits like Scream Factory, which focuses on classic and next-wave horror; the decades-spanning Kino Lorber, which has released everything from a six-disc box set on early female filmmakers to vintage dumb-fun Burt Reynolds flicks; and Twilight Time, which specializes in out-of-print studio entries, such as Robert Redford’s ace 1972 heist film The Hot Rock.

Then there’s Vinegar Syndrome, a Connecticut-based supplier of impossibly hard-to-find (and sometimes hard to describe) cult films. The company has become a bit of a cult fixation in itself: Its annual Black Friday sales are so popular that its eight-person staff actually shuts down its website for days beforehand, in order to prepare for customers looking for deals on movies like the evil-clown romp Blood Harvest and the 1989 Brad Pitt slasher flick Cutting Class (or, perhaps, some of the label's restored adult-film titles from the ’70s and ’80s). Many of Vinegar Syndrome's titles are low-budget genre horror, sci-fi, and sleaze flicks from the grindhouse and VHS eras, and were in danger of being lost or forgotten altogether.

“We're a film-first company,” says cofounder Ryan Emerson, who became interested in archival film work in the early ’00s. “We think of ourselves not as historians, because that would be a little weird, but as preservationists. When we look at a film, we say, ‘Would this stand a chance of coming out on Blu-ray if Vinegar Syndrome didn’t exist?’ And if the answer is no, we'll dive right in. We want to make sure these films maintain an audience, if not build one.”

Vinegar Syndrome, which operates its own scanning and restoration facilities, has digitally archived nearly 500 titles since launching in 2012. Its catalog includes seminal midnight movies such as the 1982 downtown-sci-fi epic Liquid Sky, as well as outré oddities like the wonderfully out-there 1978 nature-thriller The Bees. The latter is the kind of film that most fans likely never expected to find on Blu-ray, much less one that was digitally scanned from an original 35mm negative. “We get that lot: People saying they can’t believe that we’re doing these films,” Emerson says. “They also can’t believe that they’re actually selling.”

The company recently shipped its 100,000th order, driven in part by the annual Black Friday sale. (Emerson says that the event, which also includes the unveiling of surprise new releases, is so crucial to Vinegar Syndrome that staffers are already planning next year’s holiday.) Some of its customers engage in “blind buying”–essentially picking up a movie without having seen it, based solely on its title, its reputation, or a sense of curiosity. It’s a practice that captures the thrill of the hunt for collectors.

But it also speaks to a key facets of boutique Blu-ray culture: The sense that these films—no matter small or forgotten—are worth keeping alive, and within the conversation, at a time when streaming services are pushing a smaller, far more mainstream movie canon. Diabolik’s Nelson, a cult-film connoisseur, notes that the recent Blu-ray of Maniac, released by Blue Underground, has been a favorite among customers–including himself. “It’s a notorious movie,” he says of the famously gnarly 1980 flick, “but for some reason, I’d never watched it. I needed to have that in my collection.” It's a sentiment to which countless movie maniacs could no doubt relate.

Jennifer Lawrence is one of the best actresses of her generation. She is not, however, great at doing a Russian accent.

According to dialect coach Erik Singer, Lawrence’s accent in Red Sparrow was OK—but it could’ve been much better. "The back of her tongue is very loose and soft," he says in his latest Technique Critique video. "And the front of her tongue is a little bunched and kind of doing the work. I think if she’d flipped that equation so that the back of the tongue was bunched and stiff and sort of anchored and the front of tongue was spread out … I think she would’ve had a foundational logic that would’ve stitched the sounds together and made it more organic and flowing."(Alison Brie’s joke-y Russian inflections in GLOW, however, are great.)

Who else has the goods? Sam Rockwell does a fine job with the Ozarks accent in Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri; Jeff Bridges gets Texas right in Hell or High Water; and Andrew Lincoln’s Kentucky inflections are “fantastic” in The Walking Dead.

Check out the video above to get Singer’s take on further performances from Dev Patel (Lion), Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul), Lucas Hedges (Manchester By the Sea), and more.

A month ago, MoviePass finally gave up on its unlimited movie ticket dreams. The $10 per month plan had cost the company millions, sending its parent company’s stock price plummeting. In retreat, MoviePass instead now offers for the same $10 just three movies per month, with a limited selection. But MoviePass was never the only game in town. And now its less-known rival, Sinemia, has stepped into the void with an all-you-can-watch offering of its own. The unlimited plan is back. It’s just a lot more expensive.

That doesn’t mean Sinemia’s version is a bad deal; that depends on how much you use it. And it closely resembles the plan that made MoviePass famous: see a movie a day, every day—not including 3-D or IMAX formats—at whatever theater you want. You can even reserve seats ahead of time. Instead of $10, though, you’ll pay $30.

Sinemia CEO Rifat Oguz doesn’t expect his unlimited plan to catch fire the way MoviePass did. That’s because he sees it as just another option on a full spectrum of plans—Sinemia’s start at $5 for one movie ticket per month—designed to entice as many potential customers as possible.

“It’s not for everyone,” says Oguz. “There’s no one type of moviegoer. We’re all moviegoers. If you want to target all those segments, which is all the population, I think you need to have every option, even if they want to go every day.”

In fact, Sinemia already offers an unlimited plan in other markets, particularly in Europe—and has for years. It’s not the most popular plan in any of those countries, but it appeals to the most rabid movie fans, and has become a go-to lazy gift.

It also, importantly, hasn’t driven Sinemia to near-bankruptcy. Years of experience and data analysis have taught Oguz the price at which he can offer an unlimited movie buffet—about 2.5 times the cost of a single ticket in a given market—without giving his ledger a world-class bellyache.

That also explains why Sinemia, despite already having 10 active plans at different price points, hasn’t brought an unlimited plan to the US until now. “We couldn’t introduce unlimited because there was an unlimited, and it was $9.99,” says Oguz. “It would have been meaningless to introduce a three-times-more-expensive plan.” That meaning has been found, apparently, in the void left by MoviePass.

Oguz notes also that MoviePass parent company Helios and Matheson is publicly traded, meaning its mandatory financial disclosures provided some valuable clues to finding the pricing sweet spot.

Rifat Oguz, Sinemia

Of course, Sinemia now faces more competition than just the ghost of MoviePass. AMC, the nation’s largest theater chain, recently introduced its own subscription service, which allows for three movies per week, and includes more expensive formats like 3-D and IMAX. It costs just $20, a price point that Oguz has previously decried unsustainable. But while Oguz acknowledges that AMC Stubs A-List is a genuinely good deal, and that three movies per week might as well be unlimited for most people, he sees Sinemia as having its own advantages.

“We give you access to all movie theaters,” says Oguz, whereas Stubs A-List locks you into AMC only. “In our data, we’ve seen that people are more loyal to showtimes than to specific theaters.” AMC also only offers a single price point; if you subscribe month-to-month on Sinemia, you can downgrade to a lower, less-expensive cadence at any time.

Meanwhile, Oguz says Sinemia has seen a significant subscriber uptick in the wake of MoviePass’s retreat even before the introduction of unlimited. Whereas Sinemia's US business had been growing at 50 percent each month for its first year or so since it launched here, it saw a 50 percent increase over the course of just one three-day stretch in August.

“We fill in the gap, so that all customers, whether they’re coming from a competitor or not, they can have the plan that they want,” says Oguz. He also anticipates that Sinemia will continue to execute on its ambitions to broaden the scope of the service, as was MoviePass's original intent. It already integrates with Uber. It recently ran a promotion with Restaurants.com that gave subscribers a $20 gift card to dine out on. And it plans to introduce more night-out partnerships in the next month or so.

That doesn't mean Sinemia is perfect, or necessarily the best option for you. AMC Stubs A-List, in particular, is a compelling offer if you don't mind the theater restrictions, and some Sinemia subscribers have complained about a convoluted user experience.

But if you’re someone mourning the loss of the old MoviePass plan—and doesn’t mind paying what unlimited really costs—here’s your fresh start.