Say hello to the new Netflix.
Same as the old, just with a bit of botox.
THE QUOTE đŹ đŹ
âAll right, ya hayseeds, it's a stick-up. Everybody freeze.
Everybody down on the ground.
Well, which is youn feller.â
hint: a US state is in the title
THINK THOUGHTS đ
Netflix Overhauls Its Home Screen for the First Time in 12 Years - The New York Times
Thatâs a lot of years! What gives? Well, they want people to watch more, of course, but how?
âThe redesign, which features fewer titles but more video and animation, is intended to present a sleeker look and get âpeople to press play, and stay,â the company said.â
Ah, so in essence, focus. Curate more, give options less. Not that the number of titles will go away, itâll just be easier to see those options.
Are they worried about other streamers? Not really, theyâre worried about YouTube (note: this redesign only applies to the TV app).
âNetflix is locked in a battle for streaming TV time supremacy in the United States with YouTube. The Google-owned company has a fairly comfortable lead against Netflix, according to Nielsen, the research firm.â
And more on the curation partâŚ
âSubscribers firing up their Netflix app, she said, have traditionally been divided into two branches: about half who know exactly what they want to watch versus another half who have sort of an idea, or no idea at all. Ms. Kim said, however, that the not-knowing-what-they-want group had increased in recent years.â
Because thereâs just so much âout there,â people need even more hand holding you see. Their head of product compared the curation to TikTok, which is very telling of their direction.
âIn the same way that people might talk about a TikTok as being like, âOh, gosh, it really seems to understand me,â we want our members to be able to feel that way about our service, right â like we get them,â Ms. Kim said.
Netflix has gotten people, at least in the context of recommending content compared to other streamers, but they need to get people even more, because committing to one 30 minutes video feels like a much bigger deal than committing 30 mins to sixty 30-second videos. Ja feel?
Although, itâs not like the other streamers are not not competition still.
âMr. Peters said that, with time, he hopes subscribers start to notice just how much better the new Netflix is. And then, he imagined, when they click over to their streaming competitors from Netflix, âthose other experiences feel relatively static, maybe they feel a little bit old at some point in time, and stuck in the mud,â he said.
âYou know,â he continued, âI wouldnât be sad about that outcome.â
And when can you expect this new Netflix? Should be out by the end of the month for nearly everyone. If you get it early, let me know and send me your thoughts, eh?
Btw, while there are new movies this week, none of them are âsubstantialâ in terms of the attention theyâll command (and money theyâll make). Which bode well for Thunderbolts* aka [spoiler alert], which had a solid opening weekend box office-wise (as well as fan response) and Sinners, which had another extremely strong hold from week two to three (28% for you money watchers). So expect those to still be the draws this weekend. But there are some genre options if youâre in a killer mood.
NEWSY BITS đž
Trump Says He Will Put 100% Tariff on Movies Made Outside U.S. - which caused chaos, but then the orange one walked it back, but theyâre still âexploring options.â Btw, thank Jon Voight for starting this. - New York Times
Where Would Hollywood Find Its Guillotines or Pay Phones Without Them? - a fun, but also sad, profile on a famous prop house, which is danger of shuttering due to shifting production patterns. - New York Times
Catholic Cardinals Reportedly Consulted âConclaveâ Film Ahead of Ongoing Vote for Next Pope - But will they heed its message? - Hollywood Reporter
NOTABLE NEW RELEASE(S) đ & đş
Clown in a Cornfield
Gosh Iâd really love to play that trick on you where I pretend this movie is about something completely different than what it really is, but like, come on. If you met a clown in a cornfield, would you think it was going to be anything but the worst night in the history of bad nights? Prolly not.
Add to that the hero image I chose is a screenshot of the clown âFrendoâ carrying a chainsaw to⌠get some corn to hand out to the kids?!
Yeah, no fooling you here. This is a slasher movie where teens gonna get de-husked faster than aâŚ
Er, wait, but director Elu Craig (Tucker & Dale vs. Evil) says
âThis is a movie that has all these layers of depth to it as well. I think it surprises people because itâs about the decadence and the generational anger in America that is disintegrating our society right now.â
Which is probably very much a thing! But itâs also a movie about teens being slaughtered by someone in a clown costume. So like, salt, take.
Out: Friday
Where: Movie Theaters
Details: 1 hr 36 mins | R | đ : 88%
Fight or Flight
While Fight or Flight is making a (sure to be brief) appearance in theaters, itâs actually the perfect compromise movie for a heterosexual couple thatâs a) roughly in their thirties and b) been together long enough where the phrase âletâs just stay in and watch somethingâ has become far more common than âfuck it, letâs go out tonight.â
Because, to use the same mechanism, a) itâs an action movie in the vein of John Wick where loads of assassins are stuck on a plane together 38,000 feet in the air and b) it stars a fit lookinâ Josh Hartnett.
Which means, the guy will be into it for the action and the gal will agree because it stars Josh Hartnett and well, even if heâs in his 40âs now a) as I said, he looks fit and b) you never forget your first⌠*ahem* âbank deposit.â
Now, am I boiling people down to stereotypes to an extreme measure? You bet your sweet ass I am. Is that precisely how the producers of this movie likely thought about it wrt marketing when they made it? You bet your sweet ass they did1. Sorry, feel like Iâm talking about your butt a lot. My bad.
Anyway, I donât really give a shit if youâre a straight, gay, asexual, woman, man, child, dog or a red-lipped batfish, you should watch this movie for whatever reason you damn well please.
You may even enjoy it, because reviews say the action and Josh Hartnett are both pretty fit in it.
Out: Friday
Where: Movie Theaters
Details: 1 hr 37 mins | R | đ : 82%
EXTRA CREDIT MOVIE(S) đ
Nonnas - Vince Vaughnâs Italian mother dies, and in her honor he opens a restaurant by way of recruiting other ânonnasâ (Brenda Vaccaro, Lorraine Bracco, Talia Shire and Susan Sarandon) to cook their family recipes. Except they donât quite get along. At all. Simple, cute looking âbased on a true storyâ Motherâs Day fodder. Itâs Netflix so no early reviews, as is their way! - Netflix Friday
Summer of 69 - itâs about 69ing. As in âsex stuff.â Of course itâs not only about the flippity sloppity (is that another name for it? cuz it should be), itâs also about makinâ frands, growing up, entering another stage of life. Real high school movie stuff. The reviews say Jillian Bellâs directorial debut is up there competing with the best of them (âthemâ being other coming of age high school movies). - Netflix Friday
Shadow Force - this is, technically, the âbiggestâ new release this weekend (not saying much), but itâs also the blandest looking. Gosh does it look bland. Which is probably why there are no reviews for this âoh shit, the parents are actually spiesâ retread that is almost the exact movie as Back in Action starring Jamie Foxx and Cameron Diaz which came out on Netflix four months ago. - Movie Theaters Friday
THE WEEKLY TRAILER PLAYLIST âŻ
Highest 2 Lowest - Spike Lee and Denzel Washington together, again. Commence cheering.
Together - Alison Brie and Dave Franco become one. Literally.
Honey Donât - Ethan Coen (director / writer / husband) and Tricia Cooke (writer / wife) and part two of their âlesbian B-movie trilogy.â
Echo Valley - Julianne Moore and Sydney Sweeney are mother and daughter in a story where things wrong, very wrong.
The Long Walk- Cooper Hoffman in adaptation of Stephen Kingâs first written (not published) novel.
I donât actually know this, but like, I kinda do.