- RecDek's Watchlist
- Posts
- Melodramatic Media!
In partnership with
If you’d like to activate your company at Sundance 2026 see below!
We’re getting to that time where things slow down aren’t we. Kinda like towards the end of Dazed and Confused where Benny stand up, rather dazed, a little confused, and tries to move off but has to sit back down again? There’s this collective conscious sigh as we all look forward to the Christmas break from normality. Not that normality is bad or anything. Just that Christmas is good.
Are we enjoying the media spectacle at the moment? Quite a lot isn’t it. The money. The corporations. The ego, one presumes. MORE IS GOOD. Seems to be the motto here. Also the Netflix x WarnerBros deck got leaked during the week, I mean no surprises really, but blooming fascinating stuff if you’re interested in these sort of things, or whether you’re just a tiny bit nosy. And who isn’t just a tiny bit nosy. Go on then.
|
So if you’re in Team Sarandos, you’d have thought some $83 billion would be enough to win over Warners, but you wouldn’t bet against David Ellison (Larry’s son, of Oracle fame, like nearly richest family on earth, major Trump donor/ally) who decided losing out wouldn’t fly so like a poker chip tumbling slow motion through the air, flicked a $108 billion hostile bid in. The prized Christmas present of a new movie studio to digest long into the New Year ain’t gonna come easy, or cheaply.
Let’s see what official oversight in the form of P Trump has to say about this all. Really fun fact, his son in-law Jared Kushner just happens to be advising the Paramount-Ellison team and actually includes a $24 billion from Affinity Partners, the private equity firm run by Kushner, as well as cash from Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar. It’s quite the web to untangle. Like chess init, but if the chess board was loaded with cold hard cash. And political intrigue.
Or maybe if you’re OpenAI, you’re rather pleased with the billion $ investment you’ve just got from Disney into Sora. Wild times. Disney IP creation into the hands of the masses. Is this the moment the industry pulls the carpet from under itself? Or is this a step closer to filmmakers becoming world builders… So to confirm: that’s Disney, the company that's extended copyright terms multiple times to protect Mickey Mouse, will probably now let anyone generate Mickey content for a fee.
And fair play Leo D, speaking his mind in a recent interview, he thinks that no matter what AI produces: “it gets its 15 minutes of fame and it just dissipates into the ether of other internet junk. There’s no anchoring to it. There’s no humanity to it, as brilliant as it is.” Perhaps after all the hype we’ll always come back round to appreciating the work that goes into the real thing, cos that’s what it is to be human, init. I do wonder.
What with all this Succession style media politicking going on and what not, I thought I’d pick something to watch this weekend to remind us all - why can’t we all just get along? Y’know?
The most beautiful heartbreak ever?
Melodrama for the ages. Wong Kar-Wai's 2000 masterpiece turns getting noodles in the rain into the saddest, most glamorous thing you've ever seen.
Hong Kong, 1962. Chow Mo-wan (Tony Leung) and Su Li-zhen (Maggie Cheung) move into the same cramped apartment building. Gradually they realise their respective spouses are having an affair with each other. They develop their own halting romance - or do they? "We will never be like them," Su says bitterly. But are they choosing not to pursue it, or waiting for the other to act? We never see the cheating spouses, just feel their impact through every frame.
Leung looks like a silent movie star with his slicked hair and hangdog face. Cheung wears a succession of figure-hugging cheongsam dresses that should be in a museum. Christopher Doyle's camera lurks in doorways and windows, almost spying on them as they seek solace in a paradoxically lonely, crowded city. The recurring cello refrain of Yumeji's Theme follows them through rainy streets. Nat King Cole croons "Quizas, quizas, quizas" - perhaps, perhaps, perhaps - and it sounds almost mocking.
Sure, some critics dismissed it as just pretty, crazy people! It's one of the most moving, cleverly-told films ever made, using every tool cinema has. The ending at Angkor Wat - Chow whispering his unheard regrets into a stone hollow before sealing them with mud - should be melodramatic but instead it's devastating. A film about love, betrayal, loss, missed opportunities, loneliness, the brutality of time.
Wong Kar-Wai never quite reached these heights again, but honestly, who could?
ADD IT TO YOUR RECDEK WATCHLIST
Luckily RecDek exists to distill the shows you want to watch into a handy portable watchlist that fits on a device that can go in your pocket/bag. Plus you can see what ya mates are loving. Plus fill out your collections. Plus we love the indie stuff. So many more pluses.
Oh, finally, wanna Activate Your Brand at Sundance 2026?
January will mark Sundance’s final at Park City. RecDek House will be in town! If you’re interested to partner with us at the last Park City Sundance, give us a shout by filling in this form:
Partner form X RecDek House X Sundance 2026 X goooooood times
Take care. Now happy weekend Christmassing.
Ed
Easy setup, easy money
Making money from your content shouldn’t be complicated. With Google AdSense, it isn’t.
Automatic ad placement and optimization ensure the highest-paying, most relevant ads appear on your site. And it literally takes just seconds to set up.
That’s why WikiHow, the world’s most popular how-to site, keeps it simple with Google AdSense: “All you do is drop a little code on your website and Google AdSense immediately starts working.”
The TL;DR? You focus on creating. Google AdSense handles the rest.
Start earning the easy way with AdSense.
Meet Dereck
Tell your friends