This week on End Credits, we want to know what love is, but we have to deal with a lot of politics in order to get there. First, there’s the changing model of the movie theatre business, then there’s the apparent disinterest in protecting copyrights, and we wrap up with the mother of all political stories, the present White House and the reality TV star that runs it. Your treat at the end though it a review of a beautiful new movie that makes you believe that romance and love are still real things.
This Thursday, January 25, at 10 am, Adam A. Donaldson and Candice Lepage will discuss:
1) The Price is Trite. The numbers are in, and even though Hollywood had another $11 billion year, attendance was down and the money made was due to the increase in movie ticket prices. That’s probably not sustainable, but theatre owners and chains are putting the blame where it belongs: on movie studios cranking out Hollywood hogwash like The Mummy. But isn’t the problem bigger than that? What about Netflix? What about too many theatres playing the same kinds of movies? What about the prices those theatres charge for the tickets? And yes, isn’t The Mummy a little bit to blame?
2) Fight For Your (Copy)rights. On January 1, 2019, all copyrights from 1923 will enter the public domain. That means all films, records, books, and other creative works, will all be made available for use to the public at large, which is unusual because for the last 40 years, the holders of these I.P.s have been fighting tooth and nail to extend copyright controls, from 56 years to 95. So what happened between 1998 and 2018? The short answer is “the internet” and the big companies like Google who are working to make the world a little more open sourced. But how long will that last when Mickey Mouse becomes public in six short years?
3) Forrest Trump. The publication of the book Fire and Fury really shook up politics in Washington D.C., but can it shake up TV? The rights to the Michael Wolff book about the Donald Trump administration where sold for seven figures last week and the book is going to be turned into a TV series, but hey, isn’t the Trump presidency, basically, it’s own TV show already? The president himself certain acts like it with daily crises and bouts with an endless list of enemies like some kind of rogues gallery. Honestly, what kind of good is this going to do for politics and entertainment by fictionalizing the unbelievable truth?
REVIEW: Call Me By Your Name (2017). It’s the summer of 1983 in northern Italy, and what else do you have to do but fall in love? Luca Guadagnino’s new film, based on the novel of the same name, is a refreshing departure from sadness, tragedy and withholding like his last two movies – I Am Love and A Bigger Splash – by talking about young love in a frank, heartfelt and romantic way. Timothée Chalamet plays Elio, a 17-year-old kid struggling with his feelings for Oliver (played by Armie Hammer), his father’s grad student, in Guadagnino’s beautiful new take on the classic coming of age story that’s also a refreshing, judgment-free queer romance.
End Credits is on CFRU 93.3 fm and cfru.ca Thursday at 10 am.
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