Matthew Surridge Yep. First days on Shadows were a bit of a slog. And you're right about soap operas having to do a lot of plot recaps. Newspaper TV sections once helped out with day to day blurbs. As Shadows grew wilder and wilder so did the blurbs.

New Matthew Surridge: New book The Line: AI & the Future Of Personhood by James Boyle explores the future of AI. splicetoday.com/digital/the-pe…

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "How other societies think about AI and other future persons will come to affect how America does. I specifically suspect his chapter on non-human animals might’ve benefitted from looking at the experience of other places."

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "... one way to look at science fiction is as a series of thought experiments, if experiments worked through in a particularly dramatic vein."

Via Matthew Surridge: In an interrelated world, how other societies think about AI and other future persons will come to affect how America does. splicetoday.com/digital/the-pe…

At Splice Today I took a look at James Boyle's book The Line: AI & the Future Of Personhood. It's a good, thoughtful book with, I think, some things missing in it. splicetoday.com/digital/the-pe…

New Matthew Surridge: Richard Wright and Pierre Chenal’s imperfect 1951 adaptation of Wright’s novel Native Son. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "There’s a sense of honesty that’s unlike contemporary Hollywood. Characters use slurs in casual ways that even bad-guy racists in mainstream American films wouldn’t."

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "but a lot of the film works, especially its visuals. the lighting and set design is strong, there’s an understated depth of field that makes the film feel bigger than it is, and some set-pieces and camera moves are lovely...."

Via Matthew Surridge: Native Son was also a novel about race in America from a Black perspective with a Black man as the lead character, meaning the mainstream American movie industry in the 1940s couldn’t imagine adapting the book faithfully. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "When seen as a whole its virtues become prominent. This is a good movie, and a fascinating document." 🎥🎤🎧🎬🎞️📽️ Splice Today

New Matthew Surridge: Never Open That Door (1952) is a fascinating if flawed anthology noir from Argentina. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "the conventions of the stories are pitched just far enough beyond the everyday that they’re feverish without being strained."

Russ Smith Matthew Surridge "We’re not told any more than we need to about the backgrounds of the characters. The sets and props and background details of their homes are what we know about them, and that’s enough to make them live."

Via Matthew Surridge: The Criterion Channel began streaming a collection of Argentine 1950s noir movies , and as a result I’ve learned that Argentinians in the 1950s were remarkably good at making film noir. Consider the anthology film Never Open That Door. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…

At Splice Today: my take on the 1951 Argentinian film of Native Son. It's a fascinating movie, and gripping noir. I'll be writing more about the Argentine Noir collection on the Criterion Channel, and this film's a good kickoff to a great set of movies. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…

Via Matthew Surridge: There’s a latent power to the film, like a dream of noir images, with an intensity to the visuals beyond what the plot signifies. The film’s more irrational than most noirs. splicetoday.com/moving-picture…