In today’s Movie News Rundown: Martin Scorsese has some warnings about algorithms; Jordan Peele casts his next film; how Vanessa Kirby adjusted to a broken ankle; and a lost interview reveals the extent of David Fincher’s hilarious perfectionism. Plus: The End of The End.
But First: Meet Jack Unterwerger, horrible person. He’s only briefly mentioned in Netflix’s Crime Scene: The Vanishing at the Cecil Hotel, but oh my gosh what a backstory.
Fincher: The Lost Interview: How much of a perfectionist is David Fincher? Such a perfectionist that he wouldn’t let a two-and-a-half hour interview with WTF podcast host Marc Maron be released because “he didn’t think it was right” and believed he “could do more,” according to Maron.
Jordan Peele’s Next Movie: Will star Hustlers actress Keke Palmer, The Hollywood Reporter says. It also reports that Daniel Kaluuya, who also starred in Peele’s Get Out, is in negotiations to join the cast.
Vanessa Kirby’s Broken Ankle: Caleb Hammond has a great piece on how a broken ankle led her to reconsider her The World to Come character — and how she asserts herself with stillness instead of motion.
Scorsese v. Algorithms: Martin Scorsese wrote a (pretty much inarguable) essay for Harpers Magazine about the dangers that algorithms — like those that streaming services use to recommend movies to you — pose to art. “If further viewing is ‘suggested’ by algorithms based on what you’ve already seen, and the suggestions are based only on subject matter or genre, then what does that do to the art of cinema?” he writes.
May I Editorialize?: Like everything, streaming is good in some ways (convenience! saving space!) and bad in others (reinforcing your existing taste!). It’s on all of us to be aware of the algorithms trying to keep us glued to the screen and to make informed choices — by looking to guides like Martin Scorsese, but also to film festivals, books and friends. Why? Because…
Imagine If We Lose Analog Movies: All film and television could become a series of short installments designed to string us along to the next installment. Not very satisfying or artistically enriching, right? It would be the end of The End.
But Algorithms Are Our Friends! No they are not. I highly recommend the New York Times’ Rabbit Hole podcast, which explains how YouTube’s algorithm has helped send people down rabbit holes of misinformation, about — for example — QAnon.
Finally: Here is the trailer for Allen v. Farrow, a four-part HBO Max documentary I suspect we’ll be talking about a lot in the next few weeks.
Main image, above: Martin Scorsese at Dublin’s Trinity College in 2017, courtesy of Shutterstock.
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"Scorsese v. Algorithms:"
I also believe that algorithms are not good for one strong reason, they are not human. How could a machine or computer ever know the deepest feelings of a human being? They cannot. True they are electrical impulses but they do not have a soul. They do not deal with or cannot reason in Love, Emotion, Hate, and therefore how ever could they predict or pretend to know what we as a race of humans like or react to with a response? Simply put, they cannot. And the moment that we as the human race do? We cease to exist both Spiritually and in the Flesh. My suggestion to anyone listening is to go deep down into your soul as our filmmaking forefathers (and for those that are female-foremothers) have for generations and "go with your gut instincts". It always worked for Steven on E.T., CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, INDIANA JONES; it always worked for George Lucas on STAR WARS, and dozens of others before them. Go, and be yourself, be human and make stories we humans crave to hear and be inspired by. It's worked that way since the beginning of Cinema, since man has charred sticks to makes art or rubbed berries on cave walls. It can and will work for you too.