Hitchcock, Werewolves, and Superheroes
It's All Connected
After one of the worst weeks in the city’s history, life is starting to get back to normal in Los Angeles. That includes my daughter returning to school, which has given me more time to do my work. I’m very nearly done writing my next video essay, and I’ve been researching the next episode of Public Domain Theater.
and I will be screening Alfred Hitchcock’s Blackmail, which entered the public domain this year.
It’s not his best work—although I’ll take a B-grade Hitchcock movie over the best film of just about anyone else—but it is interesting, and historically significant. Because it’s Hitch’s (and England’s) first sound film, you can see (and hear) him experimenting with a whole new dimension of the medium. If you’ve never seen it, both the sound and silent versions are on Wikipedia.
We’ll be streaming on Twitch on Monday afternoon. We probably won’t test YouTube again, since last time, we got an actual copyright strike. Substack allows livestreaming now, but only on the app, which is dumb. If you know of another service we can stream to, let us know in the comments. Otherwise, we’ll post the whole discussion here later in the week.
“Wolf” Man (with Sarcasm Quotes)
I was fortunate to see Wolf Man at a test screening a few months ago. Fortunate, because I didn’t have to pay for it. I had to keep my mouth shut, due to the screening NDA, but the movie finally came out this week. According to CinemaScore, the general audience agreed with me—
I wasn’t alone in that assessment, either. This video came out just before Halloween, giving audiences a preview of what the titular monster, and the fans revolted. Which is probably why the trailer never gave you a good look at the creature.
Did you see it? If so, what did you think?
These Boots were Made for…
Moving on to something you should watch: Jill Bearup’s video about female characters fighting in high heels. It’s not just a “why are they wearing heels?!” tirade, but actually a rather nuanced examination of stunt footwear. There’s a lot I never thought of before.
And if you like comic books, you’ll enjoy this classic Simpsons clip—
Just please, don’t call them GrApHiC NoVeLs.
Yet More on AI
I know I’ve talked about AI a lot recently, in movies and for movies, but
just published his take on the phenomenon of generative AI as a whole. It’s worth a read, if for no other reason than to cool down some of the hype you’ve almost certainly encountered elsewhere.
As to why this is happening, watch No Boilerplate’s recent video—
If all of this is making you want to nope out of the Internet entirely, be sure to watch my friend
’s video on how to correctly get off Facebook.