The Writers Strike Is Taking a Stand on AI

The last time the Writers Guild of America went on strike, in 2007, workers pushed back against the nascent streaming industry, advocating for higher residual payments for content released over streaming. Now a new technology, artificial intelligence, stands to drastically change Hollywood again as Guild strikers return to the picket line.

Streaming giants like Hulu, Netflix, and Disney+ …

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The 10 Best Movies of 2023

No year-end best-movie list is definitive, because no year of moviegoing experience can be reduced to bullet points—nor should it be. Particularly now, when we can watch so many new movies without leaving our homes, the experience of watching has changed drastically, and in ways we may never be able to fully reckon with. When you finish watching a movie at home, you may still be thinking abou…

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The Personal Story Behind ‘Finestkind’

Commercial fishing and my career in Hollywood are forever joined. I grew up in the seaport of New Bedford, Mass. It is also the primary location in my current film Finestkind. Oscar Helgeland, my Norwegian-born grandfather, moved there after the Stock Market Crash in 1929 put an abrupt end to his career as the captain of a wealthy Manhattanite’s Hudson River-based yacht. The story of…

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Max’s Bama Rush Doc and ‘The Machine’

In 2021, sorority rush season at the University of Alabama enraptured viewers on TikTok as potential new members (called PNMs for short) offered a look behind the scenes at their attempts to join their top-pick houses. During the phenomenon that came to be known on TikTok as Bama Rush, young female students would upload their OOTD (outfit of the day) videos and tell viewers where they purchased…

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