State of Cinema: Steven Soderbergh

So what's wrong with the movies these days? What exactly IS the state of cinema? Let Steven Soderbergh lay it all out for you in this 40-minute speech he made at the San Francisco International Film Festival. It's a cogent, funny, intelligent piece that's a must-listen for anyone who wants to know what factors and circumstances are influencing the production of movies these days and so forth. And it seems the guy can't get away from movies, even after he's announced his retirement - here's some talk of Magic Mike 2 being on the way.

The Post-Oscars Thing

Between busily adding movies to the site and watching a live web stream of the Oscars yesterday afternoon (and also tweeting), I didn't really get a complete feel for how it all went down, but it seems like the general consensus is that it was another ho-hum year, even though it was reportedly the most watched Oscars in five years. One surprising, perfectly cringey and awkward moment is worth mentioning - it's been called "Kanye moment" of the Oscars: during the Best Documentary Short award - which went to Music By Prudence - director-producer Roger Ross Williams was ambushed on stage by producer Elinor Burkett, who went on to hog the microphone for the rest of the acceptance speech. Watch the video below and then head over to Salon to read an interview with the filmmakers about what happened: