Borkowski Media Trends: How Sinners became a Winner, Ye of little faith & MORE
PLUS: Could Lib Dems spark rise in cosy populism?
Before we dive in, check out Mark Borkowski’s thoughts on how the passing of Pope Francis could be an opportunity for us to ponder the role of forgiveness in modern society.
“Whether you admired him or regarded him with suspicion, he embodied something increasingly alien to public life: the notion that transgression can be met not just with judgment, but with the possibility of redemption.”
Read the full post on LinkedIn
How Sinners became a Winner: cracking Hollywood’s IP addiction
The raucous success of The Minecraft Movie might have left some cinephiles scratching their heads. For gamers and parents, Minecraft is a familiar brand; for others, the hysteria trending on socials might've baffled many a humble Trends reader.
In contrast, the arrival of Sinners - a Warner Bros. joint taking a bold creative swing is a breath of fresh air. Where Minecraft leaned heavily on brand recognition, Sinners is original and uncompromising. Directed by Ryan Coogler, Sinners marks his first standalone feature not tethered to a sprawling franchise like Creed or Marvel. Set in the 1930s, grounded in Black culture with an R rating - the kind of factors studios often deem risky business - the film is being hailed as an instant classic and one of the scattered recent releases that undoubtedly justifies its chunky $90 million budget.
It's a welcome change of pace. Major studios continue to sink eye-watering sums into pre-sold IPs and reboots - many of which flop spectacularly. Netflix’s The Electric State, for instance, cost a reported $320 million and runs like a film we've seen countless times before: all-star cast lacking in substance or originality. Disney’s Snow White remake carried a $209 million price tag and was criticised for everything from tone-deaf marketing to uninspired execution.
Yet while Sinners pulled in an impressive $46 million on its opening weekend in North America alone, some outlets like The New York Times and Variety were quick to sound alarm bells, questioning whether it can turn a profit. It’s a telling reaction - is this the industry's muscle memory kicking in from movies without an IP anchor immediately raising questions, or are there actors briefing against Sinners?
Hopefully Hollywood will kick into gear, and we start seeing more films like Sinners. For too long, studios have argued that audiences don't want "new" - but the film is proof that risk can still pay off.
Ye of little faith
This week Kanye West took to Twitter to announce his new song COUSINS, a lyrical nightmare that depicts the rapper having sexual relations with his cousin while they were growing up. In the rapper’s Tweet he states, “My name is Ye and I sucked my cousins d–k till I was 14.” After describing the two growing up finding X-rated magazines around the house.
Ye has not been a stranger to controversy and the majority of what he posts on X is unhinged rage bait designed to grab attention. So, what is going on when he posts the most outrageous tweets? What is (if there even is any…) the strategy behind his madness?
Tweeting about his relationship with his cousin opens the conversation to child abuse and specifically Child-on-Child abuse, a common form of sexual abuse between children. Kanye West has opened serious allegations that might explain his trauma, aggression, over sexualisation and his manic episodes. Could the release of this song be an attempt to explain some of his past behaviour?
If the accusations are not true and Kanye has released this song for attention, then he has gotten our attention. But it will likely end up as another harsh lesson that not all publicity is good publicity.
Kanye West and his obsession with fame, will slowly get old. Will the public continue to be shocked? Sure; but will we stop and ponder it? No. It’s like the boy who cried wolf, there comes a point when Kanye will be ignored and what used to shock us, will just be another one of Kanye’s tweets.
Have the Lib Dems launched the Cosy Populism revolution?
Given they now hold more seats in parliament than during the mid-00s golden era when their front bench posted some of the most capable public servants in the country, the Lib Dems have been a bit quiet since the election.
However this week they sent social media alight with a populist policy that united the most sensitive Tory NIMBY with the most pretentious Corbynista hipster: banning playing phones out loud on public transport.
With the planet on fire, the world at war and the country being devoured by a cost-of-living crisis, the big issues are almost too big for our finest political minds to tackle, let alone for the general public to contemplate.
Perhaps this is why an almost meaningless, very hard to police policy about a very minor issue - but one that most people would agree is quite annoying- was apparently just what the doctor ordered. YouGov says that 62% of the public support the policy to some extent, and the torrent of supportive memes speak for themselves.
Proponents of the policy claim it targets the poorest smartphone users in society but compared with the Tory-Reform (and some would say increasingly Labour) brand of populism it’s refreshingly un-nasty. Maybe, just as the Thursday Murder Club launched the cosy crime frenzy, the Lib Dems have tapped into a new political strategy of cosy populism…