cynical

Credit: AI-generated image Political anger and cynicism are rising in the United States and in many democracies worldwide, and both are associated with exposure to political attacks on social media, a new University of Michigan study shows. Americans use social media to find information and news about politics, but much of the content they see in…

Weappy Wholesome (!?) is showing off its upcoming movie-making sim, Hollywood Animal, with a deep dive into its gameplay systems. Oh my gosh… The trailer, entitled “How To Make a Quick Buck With a Shameless Sequel,” is framed like it’s just going to show you how to make a sequel. It starts out simply representing the vapid nature of constant, creatively devoid sequels that are the foundation of the movie industry. Then, the seven-minute clip just gets darker and darker. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30MlnFsFLyM The…

“Love” is a big word and an even bigger concept. Its abstractness has provided a rich soil for history’s most enduring art. Its definition is arguable, so some might not even find the movies on this list romantic at all, but, like it or not, it is also comprehensive, so that even the wildest movie that you can think of right now can somehow also be labeled as a love story. Just like love, the range of this list is quite broad, ranging from genuine attempts at providing a more realistic look at true love to grim…

Get our free weekly email for all the latest cinematic news from our film critic Clarisse LoughreyGet our The Life Cinematic email for freeMr Robot creator Sam Esmail’s apocalyptic thriller Leave the World Behind kicks off with a slow zoom-in on Julia Roberts, as she sneers the words, “I f***ing hate people”. America’s sweetheart has sprinted over to the dark side, and it’s a thrill to see what she does with it. An adaptation of Rumaan Alam’s 2020 novel, this is unsubtle but audacious in its speculation on how a…

There are, by my count, at least 14 different versions of Barbie the Album: a vast, brightly coloured array of vinyl and cassette variants and alternative covers, all ready for purchase from your favourite big-box store, streaming service or online retailer. For a certain kind of record collector, I imagine that it will be hard to pick between, say, the Target-exclusive “candy floss” coloured vinyl and the “cotton candy” coloured vinyl, or the standard “hot pink” vinyl and the Urban Outfitters-exclusive “neon pink”…

via Disney As one of the best hype men in the business, Dwayne Johnson is always trying to sell us something, which means the “surprise” announcement of a live-action Moana remake may not have come entirely out of the blue. Anyone who knows a thing or two about the professional wrestler-turned-actor knows that he’s got strong ties to Samoan, Hawaiian, and Polynesian culture as a result of his upbringing and heritage, with his recent social media activity giving an insight into how the extended Johnson clan…

Whenever the CIA lends its expertise to a film or television production, there’s a 99 percent likelihood that the project in question requires intimate knowledge of how the organization works, or there are technical advisors ensuring the filmmakers keep things as realistic as possible. That extra one percent is there for a reason, though, which is where How the Grinch Stole Christmas comes in. Star Jim Carrey came perilously close to quitting the festive blockbuster due to the rigors of getting in and out of costume,…

Gamblers and other types of investor are aware of the overwhelming need to avoid the “sunk cost fallacy”, to reject the irrational belief that even if a long-planned course of action is now clearly unworkable, you just have to keep on because you have sunk so much money and sweat into it. Ruthlessly cutting your losses is how executives demonstrate their virility. It’s what Rupert Murdoch did by closing the News of the World and it’s what Wayne Enterprises did in the DC Comics world by discarding the old merchant branches…