Priceless Van Gough Destroyed By Climate Protestors, Rolling Stone Demands Internet Censorship, Taylor Swift Song Being Made Into Movie?, The 00's Biggest Band Returns (The Five for 10/14/22)
Hey, welcome to The Five.
A (very brief) product review before beginning.
Since I shave my head, a great razor is really important.
[Note: this is NOT an affiliate link…an actual review].
I recently did all the free (or nearly free) samples from the internet razor companies…here’s what I found.
Defender Razor—absolute worst. Cheap. Dull.
Dollar Shave Club—Pretty good, just not as sharp/smooth as Harry’s.
Harry’s Razors—The best! The odd part is, Harry’s states their razors are not meant to be used to shave your head…and Dollar Shave Club says their razors are for that purpose.
I didn’t test the Gillette Mach 3432 or whatever version they’re on, because those things are like $40 a pack and I don’t have a Scrooge McDuck bank vault of gold.
Now, let’s get into Culture & Commentary.
[one]
This morning in London, anti-oil activists destroyed a priceless Vincent Van Gogh painting.
On a serious note—this is the inevitable conclusion of post-modernism, when nothing has meaning and nothing matters…destroying priceless and irreplicable art just becomes a means to an end.
On a comical note—HEY PINK HAIRED IDIOT, BEING “ANTI-OIL” SHOULD NOT INCLUDE OIL PAINTINGS.
The confusion likely came about as a result of the utter stupidity of the vandals.
[two]
The founder of Rolling Stone magazine, once an innovative publication pushing the boundries of free speech, now wants the government to censor the internet, per his conversation on the Joe Rogan show.
From the Foundation for Economic Education:
“Do you want the government to regulate the internet?” Rogan directly asks Wenner.
“Absolutely,” Wenner responds.
Rogan, who himself has been the target of censorship attacks, doesn’t immediately say he disagrees. Instead, he first asks Wenner another question—and it was a good one.
"You trust the people who got us into the Iraq War on false pretenses to regulate the internet?" Rogan asked Wenner.
Wenner struggles to answer, and after some cross talk, he responds with his own question: “Who else is going to regulate it?”
Rogan, unlike Wenner, offers a clear response.
“If they’re gonna be in power and they’re regulating the internet, they’re gonna regulate the internet in a way that suits their best interest. The same way they do with the banking industry, the same way they do with the environment, the same way they do with energy, the same way they do with everything.”
Wenner is still not convinced. He says the internet must be regulated.
“[And] there’s no way to do that except through the government,” Wenner says. “There’s no way that you can do that except through the government… Human nature’s not gonna change.”
Rogan answers that the government is not going to change either. Wenner disagrees.
“The government is capable of change,” Wenner
I’ve never been very good at hiding my disdain for the hippie movement, both for being against my values (I’m very big on both hard work and personal hygiene), so feel free to chalk this up to my bias.
But this is the full transformation. The hippies of the 60’s turned into the obnoxious Yuppies of the 80’s, and now the same people who participated in those (opposite) subcultures have entered their “get off my lawn” phase.
Except, instead of staying off their lawn, they want the federal government to tell you exactly what you can do with yours.
[three]
A big budget film has flopped so badly, it will likely affect what kinds of movies go to theaters in the future.
In the past, David O. Russel has been a a cinematic kingmaker, with Silver Linings Playbook, American Hustle and The Fighter making stacks of cash.
However, his latest film, Amsterdam, starring Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, Chris Rock and Anna Taylor-Joy, feels like the same vein as his previous box office smashes, but this one tanked.
While tentpoles resuscitated moviegoing this past summer with pics like Top Gun: Maverick, it’s true that more adult-skewing fare is having a much harder time now. Nowhere was this more true than with David O. Russell’s Amsterdam, which rivals believed had a shot at opening to $12 million-$15 million this past weekend based on the absurdist period comedy’s glossy ensemble of Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, John David Washington, Rami Malek, Robert De Niro, Anya Taylor-Joy, Taylor Swift, Michael Shannon (the list doesn’t stop).
But that did not happen: With a $6.5M opening at 3,005 theaters, boosted by Imax and PLF ticket sales that accounted for more than a third of that number, altogether it came out to a paltry $10M worldwide start. Russell was trying to replicate the success of his starry, 10-time Oscar-nominated American Hustle, which minted a $19.1M domestic wide opening over Christmas 2013, a $150M+ stateside gross and $251.1M worldwide off a $40M production cost. Amsterdam, fully financed by New Regency per its deal with Disney/20th Century Studios, was twice as much at a reported $80M, that being the pic’s most piercing nail in its coffin. What should have been an awards-season play with its originality quickly was sandbagged by critics at 34% on Rotten Tomatoes. So much, critics, for celebrating that which is original on the big screen.
This may signal that the non-superhero drama may be a project that’s a much better fit to go straight to streaming.
I can’t confirm this, but the rumor is that Amsterdam ran WAY over budget, and studios are going to be less likely to risk large amounts of money on dramas.
It appears that the biggest line items in the budget went to the all-star cast and on-location shoots. Apparently audiences just don’t care that much about accurate set pieces and an NBA team’s worth of a-list actors in a flick with no real action or special effects.
As much as people complain that theatrical releases are just superheroes and reboots these days…that’s what audiences will show up for, so that’s what studios are going to make.
[four]
Well, the kids are getting dumber.
Average scores on the ACT from the high school graduating class of 2022 dropped to their lowest point in 30 years.
Approximately 1.3 million students in this year’s graduating class took the ACT, a test comparable to the SATs that some students use in their college applications. The national average composite score for the graduating class of 2022 was 19.8 out of a possible 36, down from 20.3 among the graduating class of 2021. It marks the lowest average score since 1991, according to the ACT organization.
The organization also said 32% of ACT-tested graduates met at least three out of the four subject-area benchmarks in English, reading, math and science. But 42% met none of the benchmarks, and 22% met all four. The benchmarks are supposed to represent the “minimum ACT scores required for students to have a higher probability of success in credit-bearing first-year college courses,” according to the ACT.
It’s tempting to say “well, the remote learning caused this,” except for the three years before COVID when scores also declined.
As a nation, we’d better be opening up more skilled worker Visas…cause we’re not going to be growing our own doctors, engineers and programmers at this point.
[five]
As always, let’s head into the weekend with a pop culture roundup:
Tom Cruise is going to space.
And doing a spacewalk.
For a movie.
That is all.
“There’s no way we need another version of a Christmas Car—.”
”Oh, it’s Ryan Reynolds and Will Ferrell.
And it’s a musical?
Never mind.
Watching that one.”
Henry Cavill (Batman v. Superman, The Witcher) says he’s coming back to do another Enlola Holmes to “get it right this time.” The premise of the original film, that Sherlock Holmes’ kid sister (Millie Bobby Brown of Stranger Things fame) solves mysteries of her own had some good moments, but never quite got off the ground.
But the premise is interesting. Hopefully they stick the landing this time.
On Netflix 11/04.
MUSIC/MOVIE NEWS
Blake Lively (Gossip Girl, The Town), says she’s ready to star in a movie version of Taylor Swift’s “Last Great American Dynasty,” about the eccentric Abigail Harkness, who married into the Standard Oil Fortune.
Harkness allegedly dyed her neighbor’s dog green and cleaned her pool with champagne…yup, sounds like a movie.
MUSIC NEWS:
Punk outfit The Wonder Years put out one of my favorite albums this year (so far) put out a pretty solid documentary about their latest album The Hum Goes on Forever, a loose concept album based around their hometown of Philadelphia.
Love them or hate them, Blink 182 are a generational benchmark (for elder/mid millennials anyway), but the original lineup hasn’t been together since 2011 when teh trio broke up over creative differences and vocalist/guitarist/primary songwriter Tom DeLong wanted to devote more time to proving aliens exist (that’s not a joke).
For the most part, the divide between DeLong and bassist/vocalist Mark Hoppus and drummer Travis Barker (also one of the most prolific album producers of the last two decades—and now a Kardashian) seemed permanent.
However, Hoppus got (and beat) cancer, which apparently brought the old friends back together. Hopefully like like each other for real this time, because their tour dates are booked out to 2024.
The only awkward part? Replacement vocalist Matt Skiba, best known for the Chicago emo outfit Alkaline Trio, stated a few weeks ago that he was “unsure” if he was still in the band.
He’s not. I hope he didn’t find out by reading about it on the internet…
Until the next one,
-sth