Mank, Math, Money, Marijuana, Mayer
The Controversy Behind David Fincher's Mank
The Royal Ocean Film Society | Vimeo | 28th November 2020
Who wrote Citizen Kane, the ostensible "greatest movie ever"? The opening titles of the film say Orson Welles and Herman J. Mankiewicz. Pauline Kael famously claimed Herman J. Mankiewicz wrote it by himself, and an egotistical Welles tried to steal credit. Engaging summary of the eighty-year-old controversy that David Fincher revives with his new film Mank (12m 47s)
10 Things Science Knows About Learning Math
Sprouts | YouTube | 30th November 2020
Counterintuitive lessons in mathematical childrearing. "At age five, most kids didn't practice enough math to break hierarchical relationships apart while still remembering the whole...Once the child has to cut the whole into parts, for them, at that moment the whole no longer exists. They have not yet constructed the concept of 'eight' without thinking of it as a sum of its parts" (9m 09s)
How Real Can Movie Money Look?
This Beautiful Fraud | YouTube | 2nd December 2020
Counterfeit laws heavily restrict what kind of fake bills filmmakers can use, because if they look too much like real ones, they could enter circulation (as they did in the case of Rush Hour 2, when crew-members started spending the prop money at nearby casinos). Some filmmakers use camera tricks to get around these restrictions, while others flat-out ignore them (4m 26s)
Is Weed Addiction Real? Arguing With My Inner Stoner
Cue 22 | YouTube | 2nd December 2020
Witty and insightful philosophy of marijuana. "Depending on a substance can feel like a relationship, because part of addiction is our desire to connect...Substances are brain-sluts. They get our synapses all hot and bothered and then they just give it away. At least in the beginning – because if the relationship between user and substance is intense enough, it can become abusive" (24m 28s)
Music Video Of The Week
A John Mayer song, brought to life with evocative film manipulation
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