We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender. | | | | Christopher Nolan's masterful "Dunkirk"
(Warner Bros. Pictures) | | | | | | “We shall defend our island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender.”
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| | rantnrave:// OK, so I'm a WWII fanatic. It started about 5 years ago. I think it was the 10-part documentary WORLD WAR II in HD COLOUR. Then when I was in the hospital I got one of the most thoughtful and useful gifts to satiate my curiosity. NANCY DUBUC, CEO of A+E NETWORKS (which owns THE HISTORY CHANNEL) sent me an IPAD filled with their entire WWII library of docs and shows. I was all in. That led me to FDR, LEND LEASE, CHURCHILL, STALINGRAD, the attack on MERS-EL-KÉBIR and of course the DUNKIRK evacuation and on and on. I went to see DUNKIRK yesterday in IMAX. It's a remarkable film. It's unique. Not the storytelling I expected. There isn't a lot of dialogue. There isn't a ton of deep character development. Rather sketches of archetypes from soldiers to pilots to admirals to average citizens. The cinematography and editing are on another level. Director CHRISTOPHER NOLAN and his collaborators' truly masterful work made me virtually feel the sensory chaos and fear of a day at war. There is no setup. The movie jumps right in. My friend DAVID GREENBAUM explained it: "it's like they just started in the 3rd act of the best war movie." That's a compliment. Planes crashing into the ENGLISH CHANNEL. Ships sinking. Constant bombing and shooting. Soldiers trapped and drowning. The guy standing next to you killed in an instant. Hundreds of thousands of "sitting ducks" waiting to be rescued. It's terrifying. If I had to choose, my favorite parts were the dogfight scenes with TOM HARDY playing a British fighter pilot. The POV from the plane is fantastic and frightening. You realize the lack of flight technology and modern instrumentation. How vulnerable those planes were. And like his outstanding performance mostly in a car and on the phone in LOCKE, Hardy kills it. The sounds of the German dive bombers are throughout the movie. They're chilling. Not since JAWS has a sound freaked me out so much in a film. Certain OSCAR for sound mixing. Shout-out to HARRY STYLES who is quite good. Given all my reading and watching background around WWII, I don't think I've ever seen a war film, even SAVING PRIVATE RYAN, that really conveyed the bravery of the military and public in Britain at the time. It was one of two of HITLER's fatal mistakes. He could have wiped out the both the British and French forces. He held back and thousands of citizens helped save 350,000 lives in a day. Go see it. And see it in IMAX or 70MM. I did 2D. But 3D probably cool. Nolan is a global, creative treasure who goes for it full throttle every time. After you see it, listen to CHURCHILL's speech to PARLIAMENT addressing the evacuation... My pal CHELSEA HANDLER doing one-word answers with the awesome guys from CROOKED MEDIA. I've gotten to know JON LOVETT and JON FAVREAU a little and I personally think that Crooked Media is the most exciting startup around given what's going on in our country. They are entertaining, mobilizing, and educating young potential voters. They're smart, funny, informed, and involved. Great discussions on their podcasts. All the topics personally driving me crazy and making me sad, I understand better when they explain it and I laugh... Happy Birthday to ASHLEY LENT LEVINSON, DAVID NATHANSON, SCOTT DONATON, and DOUGLAS SCOTT. | | | - Jason Hirschhorn, curator |
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| Take a trip to Los Angeles' new internet celebrity summer camp. | | |
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| Erik Brynjolfsson, MIT Sloan School professor, explains how rapid advances in machine learning are presenting new opportunities for businesses. He breaks down how the technology works and what it can and can't do (yet). He also discusses the potential impact of AI on the economy, how workforces will interact with it in the future, and suggests managers start experimenting now. | | |
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| Sinclair Broadcast Group, the country's largest operator of local television stations, is in the process of buying Tribune Media. Sinclair and its affiliates have a history of airing conservative-leaning reporting and commentary, and its executives have donated to Republicans and Republican causes. | | |
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| Bots have changed the sneaker industry forever. | | |
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| Donald Trump’s road to debacle in the greater Middle East. | | |
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| John Nash’s notion of equilibrium is ubiquitous in economic theory, but a new study shows that it is often impossible to reach efficiently. | | |
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| Video was supposed to help hold police accountable. But it hasn’t lived up to much of the hype. | | |
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| Democrats and progressives turned to wider and more reputable sources | | |
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| He and his coterie of idiots, nihilists, and opportunists were the perfect prey for Putin’s spell. | | |
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| Bloomberg published a post this weekend called San Francisco's VC Boom is Over. The article pointed to the seeming collapse in the amount of venture capital raised by San Francisco startups relative to other regions. The slowing of venture investment more broadly across the US serves as a backdrop to San Francisco's particularly strong correction. I was curious about the drivers of these trends, so I ran my own analysis. | | |
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| Despite the crucial role languages play in human civilization, only a handful of scientific studies have looked into their spread and origins. | | |
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| Former Ticketmaster CEO and House Eats 3 judge Nathan Hubbard discusses the booming business of nostalgia-rock concerts, James Dolan's desire to improve acoustics in arenas, the best bets for future Super Bowl performances, Taylor Swift's chance to perform at the 2018 Super Bowl, Dave Matthews Band and the emphasis on touring, and more. | | |
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| Jeff Carlisle talks to those who were there 10 years ago, when David Beckham made his LA Galaxy debut in a friendly against Chelsea. | | |
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| Doug Eck is a research scientist at Google and he’s working on Magenta, a project making music and art through machine learning. If you want to learn more you can check out Magenta.Tensorflow.org. | | |
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| Netflix added 5.2 million subscribers in the last quarter, their biggest increase ever in their slowest period. It's the programming stupid! Now when a new show comes out there are reviews. But this is not like a film, where you can go and digest it in two hours. | | |
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| Pop singer Aaron Carter has spent his adult life plagued by health and money crises, a DUI arrest, and a strained relationship with his family. But how did he get here? | | |
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| The band talks about their album ‘Joshua Tree’ on it’s 30th anniversary. | | |
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| Google, CBS, and other big media companies are finding tons of bogus ad inventory on all the big programmatic ad exchanges. And they are trying to stamp it... | | |
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| A conversation with comedy directors Judd Apatow, Michael Showalter, and Lucia Aniello--three of the top filmmakers in the genre. | | |
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| Michael Green is on the hottest scriptwriting streak in town, with credits on four major films this year (including 'Logan' and 'Blade Runner 2049' -- which is premiering new footage at Comic-Con) and co-creating credit on 'American Gods.' So how come nobody knows who he is? | | |
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| Google VR boss Clay Bavor explains why the two technologies aren’t so different on the latest Too Embarrassed to Ask. | | |
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| Aliens could be hiding on almost any of the Milky Way's roughly 100 billion planets, but so far, we haven't been able to find them ( dubious claims to the contrary notwithstanding). Part of the problem is that astronomers don't know exactly where to look or what to look for. | | |
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| Ten years after the show first aired, costume designer Janie Bryant looks back. | | |
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