Over the past week I've seen a couple of projects that struck me as being interesting for reasons beyond their entertainment value.
The first was a movie called Five Flights Up, which stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton as a couple married for four decades trying to figure out where the next stage of their lives should take them. They've spend all those years in a Brooklyn walk-up, but for a variety of reasons are thinking about a move; an elevator would be nice, and the market is hot, which could make them a bunch of money.
But they're also dealing with the fact that they're being marginalized somewhat because of their age, and they resent it, though it is more a simmering resentment than anything histrionic.
I liked Five Flights Up a lot - it has a nice, lived in feel to it, like that old apartment the characters live in. The plot is thin, but Freeman and Keaton, old pros that they are, manage to invest the movie with an enormous amount of charm and passion, which counts for a lot.
The other project is called "Gracie and Frankie," a new TV series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as a couple of women who find themselves thrown together in emotional pain when their law partner husbands, played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, announce that they are gay, have been having an affair for 20 years, and are now getting married - because they can.
"Grace and Frankie" isn't all that good, mostly because it is written in the manner of a B-level TV sitcom - going for cheap jokes when it doesn't have to, which is a shame because the acting talent with which it has to work is all A-level. That's a lot of horsepower to be wasting on not-great jokes, and I have to say that all four stars manage to transcend the material. Maybe that't the definition of a star. But I wished this were more "Transparent" and less "Two and a Half Men."
But here's what interests me about these projects. They're obviously aimed at older audiences, by dint of their casting and subject matter. But "Gracie and Frankie" is a Netflix series, with 13 episodes being released all at once. And Five Flights Up, while in theaters, also is available for streaming at the same time on iTunes.
What this suggests is that the degree to which these technological alternatives to more traditional methods of entertainment consumption are being adopted even by older audiences.
That's an important thing to remember. We talk here about the next generation of consumers, but in a lot of ways, maybe we are the next generation ... and there is less time than we think for businesses to adapt if they want to be relevant.
I had a terrific new beer this week - the King Kitty Red Ale, from, naturally, Oregon's Coalition Brewing Company. Just yummy.
That's it for this week. have a great weekend, and I'll see you Monday.
Slàinte!
The first was a movie called Five Flights Up, which stars Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton as a couple married for four decades trying to figure out where the next stage of their lives should take them. They've spend all those years in a Brooklyn walk-up, but for a variety of reasons are thinking about a move; an elevator would be nice, and the market is hot, which could make them a bunch of money.
But they're also dealing with the fact that they're being marginalized somewhat because of their age, and they resent it, though it is more a simmering resentment than anything histrionic.
I liked Five Flights Up a lot - it has a nice, lived in feel to it, like that old apartment the characters live in. The plot is thin, but Freeman and Keaton, old pros that they are, manage to invest the movie with an enormous amount of charm and passion, which counts for a lot.
The other project is called "Gracie and Frankie," a new TV series starring Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin as a couple of women who find themselves thrown together in emotional pain when their law partner husbands, played by Martin Sheen and Sam Waterston, announce that they are gay, have been having an affair for 20 years, and are now getting married - because they can.
"Grace and Frankie" isn't all that good, mostly because it is written in the manner of a B-level TV sitcom - going for cheap jokes when it doesn't have to, which is a shame because the acting talent with which it has to work is all A-level. That's a lot of horsepower to be wasting on not-great jokes, and I have to say that all four stars manage to transcend the material. Maybe that't the definition of a star. But I wished this were more "Transparent" and less "Two and a Half Men."
But here's what interests me about these projects. They're obviously aimed at older audiences, by dint of their casting and subject matter. But "Gracie and Frankie" is a Netflix series, with 13 episodes being released all at once. And Five Flights Up, while in theaters, also is available for streaming at the same time on iTunes.
What this suggests is that the degree to which these technological alternatives to more traditional methods of entertainment consumption are being adopted even by older audiences.
That's an important thing to remember. We talk here about the next generation of consumers, but in a lot of ways, maybe we are the next generation ... and there is less time than we think for businesses to adapt if they want to be relevant.
I had a terrific new beer this week - the King Kitty Red Ale, from, naturally, Oregon's Coalition Brewing Company. Just yummy.
That's it for this week. have a great weekend, and I'll see you Monday.
Slàinte!
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