Every week, With a Little Help from Our Friends highlights the best pieces of writing on film, television, and literature published around the Internet. Check out the links, and feel free to share more good stories in the comment section.
For your reading enjoyment …
“Joan Rivers, a Comic Stiletto Quick to Skewer, Is Dead at 81” by Robert D. McFadden
“Mr. Van Meter wrote: ‘She pushes as far as she can as soon as she can. It’s compulsive.’ Shocked? Offended? ‘Oh, grow up!’ she advised.”
“A monthlong sigh (the Death Valley that August-to-September has become is the new January!) feels like an almost dogmatic announcement that summer and fall are two different businesses emanating from separate universes.”
“Who Should Decide What High School Kids Are Allowed to Read?” by Rob Kunzig
“So the term ‘age-appropriate’ is widely used as a proxy for the values and beliefs I want to impart to my kids, and how much I want to control them,” she says. “Boards, especially elected school boards that have no experience as educators—they have very little idea of what’s age appropriate.”
“Sam Shepard: ‘America is on its way out as a culture'” by Laura Barton
“The situation, he believes, is irredeemable. ‘We’re on our way out,’ he says of America. ‘Anybody that doesn’t realise that is looking like it’s Christmas or something. We’re on our way out, as a culture. America doesn’t make anything anymore!'”
“The Unspoken Biases in Film School” by Erica Rose
“When I made my thesis film, I hired many female department heads. This was unusual. When conflict on set happened — something that happens a lot on any set — some commented, This is why you don’t see a female-driven crew. Too many emotions. These remarks were made in jest, but even so, it reflects a perspective that’s damaging and dangerous for all parties.”
“Ideas for new shows come out of regular brainstorming sessions. The Talpa Content group gets together every Monday night to eat pizza and drink wine–there’s lots of coffee, too–to talk about what’s happening in the world.”
“Love Or Hate It, ‘Forrest Gump’ Is Worth Celebrating” by Scott Mendelson
“Twenty years later, very few in the would-be film critic/pundit circle will admit to liking, let alone loving, Forrest Gump. The film has been condemned as a whitewash of recent American history, a celebration of obedience over rebellion, and a celebration of the ignorant passive observer of history over the knowing participant.”
“Female Empowerment in Ads: Soft Feminism or Soft Soap?” by Natalie Zmuda and Ann-Christine Diaz
“So what’s changed since Dove seeded the movement with its ‘Campaign for Real Beauty’ 10 years ago? A lot. Anecdotally, there are more women in leadership positions at brands (though agencies still aren’t doing their part, with women representing a dismally low percentage of creative leadership). Social media has given consumers the power to speak out loudly against ads they find sexist. And, culturally — well, let’s just call it the ‘Lean In’ phenomenon.”
“The worst piece of movie clickbait on the Internet” by Nathan Rabin
“Clickbait is seemingly designed to be forgotten while it’s still in the process of being mindlessly consumed. But I have stumbled upon a piece of clickbait so idiotic, so misconceived on every level, and so devoid of merit that I am convinced it’s the worst piece in the entire disreputable, cleavage-heavy history of the form.”
“What Price Hollywood?: The Finale of a Family-Run Movie House” by Ariel Schudson
“So, this means that what QT is doing is relieving the Torgan Family of the New Beverly Cinema, of which they have owned for 36 years. Does this seem right to you? I can’t swallow that. Not even a little bit. There are far more decent ways that this could have gone. Destroying a family business not being first on the list. As I’ve read the comments today, people have talked all about the programming. ‘We’ll see what happens to the New Bev,’ they’ve said, ‘Maybe it’ll be fine! We have to see what the programming is like.’ WAIT. GUYS. Have you been living in a bubble for the last seven years?? Where have you been when QT took the entire month of March 2011 to program his birthday month? Or in 2007 when he programmed 1-2 months up until the release of Grindhouse?”
