January 8, 2018

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Entertainment January 8, 2018

Today in Movie Culture: The ABC's of 'Black Panther, the Philosophy of 'Wonder Woman' and More

Here are a bunch of little bites to satisfy your hunger for movie culture:

Future Superhero Movie Guide of the Day:

We’re just over a month away from the release of Black Panther, so get ready with Screen Rant’s alphabetical guide to the Marvel movie:

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Past Superhero Movie Guide of the Day:

Wisecrack keeps the discourse going on Wonder Woman with this discussion of the philosophy of the hit superhero movie:

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Poster Parodies of the Day:

Fandango created some poster parodies for Peter Rabbit lampooning Wonder Woman, The Greatest Showman and more:

Peter’s been catching up on movies before #GoldenGlobes weekend. Here are some of his favorite contenders. #PeterRabbitMovie ?? pic.twitter.com/J7c0tuyegg

— Silverspot Cinemas (@SilverspotFilms) January 5, 2018

Video Essay of the Day:

Another movie for families, Paddington 2, is out this week, so here’s an analysis of the original Paddington by Matt Draper:

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Vintage Image of the Day:

Elvis Presley, who was born on this day in 1935, jumps for joy with co-star Jennifer Holden, on the set of Jailhouse Rock in 1957:

Movie Comparison of the Day:

In his latest video, Couch Tomato shows 24 reasons why X-Men: Apocalypse is basically a rip-off of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith:

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Action Sequence Breakdown of the Day:

One of the most iconic action sequences in movie history gets a shot-by-shot analysis from Antonios Papantoniou:

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Supercut of the Day:

Here’s a supercut of tracking shots following characters in movies such as Goodfellas, Boogie Nights and 2001: A Space Odyssey:

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Cosplay of the Day:

Beauty and the Beast villain Gaston is trying to find a new princess to bother and it looks like Anna and Elsa from Frozen might be interested:

The Ultimate Cosplay Dream Team : Me and my biceps ??????
“OH!!! Hey ladies! ??”

– Gaston : @Leon_Chiro
– Widowmaker : @AlysonTabbitha
– Elsa : @TheAnnaFaith
– Anna : @lexiegracelove

PS : They are pure epicness, love and inspiration ??#Gaston#Cosplay#LeonChiro#Disneypic.twitter.com/0kqincWSHF

— Leon Chiro (@Leon_Chiro) December 18, 2017

Classic Movie Clip of the Day:

Today is the 25th anniversary of the release of Leprechaun, which starred a young, pre-fame Jennifer Aniston. Watch a clip featuring the actress and the title character from the classic horror movie below.

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and

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Sports January 8, 2018

Alabama Clinches NCAA Championship 26-23 In Overtime Against Georgia

Alabama’s Tua Tagovailoa holds up the championship trophy after overtime of the NCAA college football playoff championship game against Georgia, on Monday in Atlanta.

David J. Phillip/AP

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David J. Phillip/AP

Updated at 12:15 a.m. ET Tuesday

The Georgia Bulldogs got into the college football title game with an unexpected comeback for an overtime win against the Oklahoma Sooners. On Monday night, they had their championship hopes yanked away the same way.

In the fourth quarter, the Alabama Crimson Tide made up lost ground, bringing the score with Georgia’s Bulldogs to 20-20 with less than four minutes left in the College Football Playoff National Championship game in Atlanta.

Down to what might have been their last down, freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa flung the ball to the endzone on fourth down and found wide receiver Calvin Ridley. Georgia had been leading Alabama 20-7 in the the third quarter.

Alabama got the ball back, but kicker Andy Pappanastos pulled a 36-yard field goal wide, and the game went to overtime.

Georgia went first and managed a field goal of their own, and looked to be in good shape after a 16-yard sack of Tagovailoa on Alabama’s first play. But Tagovailoa found wide receiver DeVonta Smith streaking down the left sideline for a touchdown, and Alabama’s fifth national championship in nine seasons.

The Bulldogs had scored their second touchdown of the game on a 80-yard reception by receiver Mecole Hardman. Rodrigo Blankenship kicked the point-after.

After being held scoreless in the first half, Alabama got on the board with a 6-yard touchdown pass by freshman quarterback Tua Tagovailoa to Henry Riggs III.

Tagovailoa started the second half for Alabama after a lackluster performance by starting quarterback Jalen Hurts.

Late in the second quarter, Georgia scored a touchdown on a one-yard run by Mecole Hardman. That capped off a 69-yard drive.

Blankenship earlier had kicked two field goals of 41 and 27 yards.

Georgia’s freshman quarterback Jake Fromm has paced his team with a mix of medium-length passes which have set up the Bulldogs a potent running attack.

Georgia’s offense dominated the game early with twice as many offensive plays as Alabama which hadn’t managed to sustain a drive throughout the contest.

The game pitted Georgia’s potent running game against Alabama’s stout rushing defense.

Alabama is led by arguably the best college football coach in the game, Nick Saban, while Georgia is led by Kirby Smart, who spent nine years as a Saban assistant coach and was looking to best the master by bringing the Peach State its first title since 1980. No former assistant coach has ever beaten Saban.

President Trump, who once, as a football mogul, tried to break the National Football League’s hold on pro football and failed, was there for the first half.

The Atlanta chapter of the NAACP encouraged people to stage a “snowflake” protest by waving small white towels at any mention of Trump. But apparently that didn’t happen.

Chapter president Richard Rose told USA Today that his group would also protest on social media, but their planned action would be limited.

“Rose said the Atlanta chapter of the NAACP will not officially participate in any physical gathering before or during the game due to weather and security concerns,” reported the national daily.

It was likely that Trump would be on safe ground at a game between competitors of two deep-red states.

But as the New Yorker pointed out:

“While it’s true that Alabama and Georgia went for Trump in the 2016 presidential election, he’s not exactly beloved in either state. Clarke County, Georgia, home to the UGA, went for Hillary Clinton in 2016 by a nearly 40 percent margin. And Alabama recently dealt Trump a double whammy in the special election to fill the seat left vacant by his Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Republicans in the state first rejected Trump-endorsed Luther Strange in the GOP primary and then dealt a loss to Roy Moore in last month’s special election.”

And in case you’re wondering how popular Nick Saban is in Alabama, consider this: more than 400 voters cast their ballot during that recent special election for the 66-year-old coach as a write-in candidate. Not that Saban ever did anything to encourage that support. As Al.com reports, Saban said bluntly, “I don’t get involved in politics.”

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Business January 8, 2018

FACT CHECK: Trump Touts Low Unemployment Rates For African-Americans, Hispanics

President Trump boards Air Force One at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., on Monday, to travel to Nashville, Tenn., to address the American Farm Bureau Federation. In the speech, he repeated a claim about the unemployment rate.

Andrew Harnik/AP

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Andrew Harnik/AP

The job market is strong right now, with a 4.1 percent unemployment rate, and President Trump knows it. On Monday, he twice bragged about the latest jobs report, but he focused in on minorities in particular.

In the morning, he did it on Twitter, citing that black unemployment is “the lowest ever recorded in our country.” And he jabbed: “Dems did nothing for you but get your vote!”

African American unemployment is the lowest ever recorded in our country. The Hispanic unemployment rate dropped a full point in the last year and is close to the lowest in recorded history. Dems did nothing for you but get your vote! #NeverForget@foxandfriends

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 8, 2018

And then at a speech to the American Farm Bureau Federation, he did it again, saying, “African-American unemployment is the lowest it’s ever been in the history of our records.”

This is the third time in as many days that the president has cited black unemployment figures. On Saturday, he also tweeted about the numbers.

Presidents often take credit for a strong economy, and Trump fits that mold, touting jobs and stock market numbers regularly. So we decided to fact-check Trump on this claim: Is he right, and are these numbers his doing?

The claim

Black and Hispanic unemployment are at or near record lows.

The short answer

Trump’s numbers are right, but it’s generally a stretch for presidents to take credit for job creation.

The long answer

Trump is right that African-American unemployment hit a record low in December. The unemployment rate for black Americans is currently 6.8 percent, the lowest level recorded since the government started keeping track in January 1972.

And he’s also right that the Hispanic unemployment rate is down a point over the last year — it was at 4.9 percent in December, down from 5.9 percent in December 2016. That is close to a record low, though it’s also up 0.1 point from November.

But still, fact check: true on Trump’s numbers.

However, that’s not all Trump is doing in this tweet. He is implying that he caused these low African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates.

And a big problem with that claim is that those rates had been falling for long before Trump took office, and their declines don’t appear to have picked up speed. This implies that there’s nothing specific that Trump did to change this rate.

Indeed, both of these rates have been falling relatively steadily since around 2010, early in President Obama’s tenure in the White House.

So have the unemployment rates for all races and ethnic groups tracked by the Labor Department. In general, these unemployment rates tend to move together. So while Trump called out the African-American and Hispanic unemployment rates, they haven’t changed in any remarkable way, relative to other groups’ unemployment rates.

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Separately, the president’s Council of Economic Advisers touted the unemployment rate of other demographic groups on Friday, shortly after the latest jobs report was released.

“The overall unemployment rate, which by October had dropped to 4.1 percent, represented a 17-year low by year’s end,” they wrote. “The benefits of the low rates were felt broadly, resulting in unemployment rates for America’s veterans, African-Americans and Hispanics that reached historic lows in 2017.”

The total unemployment rate is quite low, at 4.1 percent. That’s not a record, but for comparison with that African-American rate, it is near its lowest point since 1972.

So Trump here is trying to make a political point — one that he has made before — seeming to tell minorities that they should support him more than they do. But then, the president has a decidedly uneasy relationship with black Americans, as NPR’s Brakkton Booker wrote on Saturday, and his rhetoric on immigration has also upset some Hispanics.

This leads to the bigger question of how much Trump has to do with any of this job growth, regardless of race or ethnicity.

By the jobs numbers themselves, it doesn’t look like he has changed much here. In fact, the average job creation in Trump’s first year is slightly lower than it has been in prior years. Employers added 171,000 new jobs each month, on average, in 2017. In 2016, that figure was 187,000, and in 2015, it was 226,000.

It is possible that the tax plan that Trump recently signed into law will inspire employers to hire more. Businesses could conceivably plow some of the money they save on their taxes thanks to that plan into job creation. In a late-November Yahoo poll of more than 1,200 business owners, half said the new tax plan would make them more likely to hire.

Then again, a majority of economists polled by the University of Chicago predict that long term, the tax plan won’t lead to higher economic growth.

It’s not that Trump has had zero effect on the economy. Though a strong global economy has been the main reason stocks are climbing ever higher, as NPR’s Jim Zarroli reported in December, the president’s agenda of deregulation and cutting corporate taxes has also likely very played some part in pushing stocks ever higher.

But the case that Trump has therefore significantly boosted job creation through the stock market isn’t particularly strong, says one economist.

“To the extent that that affects business decisions, it may be that the president is having some impact on employment,” said Michael Strain, director of economic studies at the American Enterprise Institute. “But it’s very important not to overstate that.”

There’s also a bigger problem with the idea that Trump has created all these jobs — presidents don’t have much immediate control over the economy, period.

It’s true that they push policies or make hires that can affect economic performance — George W. Bush first appointed former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, who helmed the central bank as it worked to pull the country out of recession; and President Barack Obama signed the 2009 stimulus. It’s also true that at the end of any given president’s tenure, we look at the job market under that president.

But there’s so much about the economy that presidents don’t control — business cycles and other countries’ economic health, for example. The White House also can’t control broader macroeconomic trends, like the U.S. economy’s long-term shift from goods-producing to service-based industries.

Indeed, a 2015 paper from Princeton economists Alan Blinder and Mark Watson found that while the economy has tended to grow faster under Democratic presidents, policy actions don’t appear to account for that difference.

“Democrats would probably like to attribute a large portion of the D-R growth gap to better fiscal (and perhaps monetary) policies, but the data do not support such a claim,” they wrote.

So could a president — with Congress’ help — target communities with particularly high unemployment? Yes, says one expert — particularly in one policy area Trump already has been championing.

“There needs to be a deliberate attempt to retrain and recruit people into the economy through infrastructure programs,” said Andre Perry, a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution.

While the unemployment rate is relatively low — near what economists call “full employment” — it remains true that the black unemployment rate is always much higher than the national rate. He believes that targeted infrastructure policy could reduce that gap, helping disadvantaged Americans get back to work.

“Full employment means nothing to black folk in Baltimore or St. Louis or Pittsburgh,” Perry said. “For far too long, black unemployment has been the sacrificial lamb of full employment, and so again, if there is an infrastructure plan put on the table, it should be targeted at populations in areas that are largely out of work. [And] not only inner-city black America; it’s also rural white men who are being left behind by the economy.”

If that’s true, it seems likely to remain a hypothetical. Democrats and Republicans alike champion the idea of infrastructure, but partisan divides on how to do it remain so wide that passing an infrastructure package this year would most likely be a heavy lift.

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Health January 8, 2018

Hospitals In States That Expanded Medicaid Less Likely To Close

Up to one half of rural residents are covered by Medicaid, says Michelle Mills, CEO of Colorado Rural Health Center. And they’re typically older, poorer and sicker than city dwellers.

John Daley/CPR

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John Daley/CPR

The expansion of Medicaid helps rural hospitals stay afloat in states like Colorado, which added 400,000 people to the health insurance program under the Affordable Care Act.

Hospitals in states that expanded Medicaid were about 6 times less likely to close than hospitals in non-expansion states, according to a study by researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

The study was published Monday in the January edition of the journal Health Affairs.

Colorado was one of 32 states to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. That cut the state’s uninsured rate in half. The biggest group that got coverage was childless adults.

Richard Lindrooth, a professor at the Colorado School of Public Health and lead author of the study, says hospitals saw more people showing up to hospitals with that insurance — so Medicaid payments increased. That helped the hospitals’ bottom line.

“It’s not as though Medicaid is an extremely profitable form of reimbursement, but it is something,” says Lindrooth, a professor the University of Colorado’s School of Public Health. “On the margins, it certainly helps the hospitals’ cash flow.”

Lindrooth says he and his colleagues hypothesized that hospitals in expansion states stood a better chance of remaining financially viable. So they examined national hospital data and local market conditions.

They compared four years before the Affordable Care Act went into effect (2008-2012) with years right after the launch of the ACA (2015-2016). Lindrooth says the results were noteworthy, especially for rural hospitals, which often struggle to stay open.

“Rural hospitals tend to be in more of a financially tenuous position, even prior to the Medicaid expansions,” Lindrooth says. “We found that really about half of the closures that did occur in non-expansion states could have been averted through the expansion.”

With more insured people in expansion states, hospitals made more money and provided less free care. “So overall their margins improved,” he says. Rural hospitals in non-expansion states didn’t have that advantage.

Rural health leaders said the study confirmed what they’ve seen on the ground.

Jason Cleckler, CEO of Delta Memorial Hospital in Delta, Colo., in the rural western part of the state, said the Medicaid expansion helped his hospital’s finances. He compared the numbers in 2011 with 2016, after expansion. The hospital’s Medicaid population grew from 10 percent to 20 percent, and the hospital was left with less uncompensated care. It saved the hospital more than $3 million.

Jason Cleckler, CEO of Delta Memorial Hospital in Delta, Colo., says Medicaid expansion helped the hospital’s bottom line.

John Daley/CPR

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John Daley/CPR

“I think that really speaks to what the researchers found. So Medicaid doubled, our bad debt decreased significantly, and the uninsured rate decreased significantly,” Cleckler says. “It’s pretty remarkable, and I would venture to say that most hospitals, even ones with a lower percentage of Medicaid, have experienced a similar story.”

Cleckler did describe Medicaid coverage as a “mixed bag” for rural providers. Reimbursement rates can be paltry, he says. A hospital that pays $100 for a lab test may only be reimbursed $20. Another problem, he said, is many doctors and providers either won’t accept or limit the number of Medicaid patients due to low reimbursement rates.

An average of 30 percent to 50 percent of rural patients are covered by Medicaid, noted Michelle Mills, CEO of Colorado Rural Health Center, which offers rural health providers education and training. Mills says the population in rural areas is generally “older, sicker and poorer” than in urban communities.

She says the expansion plus a bump in Medicaid reimbursement rates “has helped rural Colorado hospitals from closing.” The jobs generated by those hospitals are key to rural economies, with health care one of the top three rural employers in Colorado.

“The importance of Medicaid expansion in our state cannot be understated,” says Cara Welch, director of communications with the Colorado Hospital Association.

Welch says other factors also provided a boost, including the state’s strong economy and its hospital provider fee. That fee helps reimburse hospitals for uncompensated care from the indigent population and those paying with Medicaid.

Brock Slabach, senior vice president of the National Rural Health Association, says the study correlates with data the group has reviewed. “If state legislatures and Congress want to cure the rural hospital closure problem, expanding Medicaid and not block-granting this important program would be the answer,” he says.

Members of the Republican majority in Congress have suggested changing Medicaid to a block grant. That means that instead of the federal and state governments sharing payment for every enrollee who qualifies, the federal government would provide each state a set amount of money, capping total Medicaid spending. It would let states decide how to spend the money. But health care and hospital advocates worry that the change would likely lead to cuts over time.

This story is part of a reporting partnership with NPR, Colorado Public Radio and Kaiser Health News.

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Entertainment January 8, 2018

'Lady Bird' and 'Three Billboards' Named Best Pictures at the Golden Globes

The two movies named Best Picture at the 75th Golden Globes are Greta Gerwig’s Lady Bird and Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, the former in the musical/comedy category and the latter for drama.

As far as this awards show being watched for Academy Award predictions, it now seems it could be a heated competition between these ttitles, both of which are focused on women characters.

And as it turns out, the actresses playing those characters also won the Golden Globes for Best Actress — Saoirse Ronan for Lady Bird and Frances McDormand for Three Billboards. The Oscar could now be either of theirs for the taking.

Because of the split between drama and musical/comedy at the Golden Globes, it also now looks like the lead actor race is between Gary Oldman for Darkest Hour and James Franco for The Disaster Artist.

The divisive Three Billboards was a big winner in general, some of its awards being real surprises. Sam Rockwell won Best Supporting Actor for his performance over presumed frontrunner Willem Dafoe and McDonagh won Best Screenplay in a category considered fairly wide open.

Other winners weren’t sure things nor surprises, and these people and movies with a new extra step towards Academy favor include Allison Janney, who won Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya, Pixar’s Coco, which won Best Animated Feature, and Guillermo del Toro, who won Best Director for helming The Shape of Water.

Find the full results of the Golden Globe Awards below (winners are in bold).

MOVIES

Best Motion Picture, Drama

Dunkirk
The Post
The Shape of Water
Call Me by Your Name
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy

The Disaster Artist
Get Out
The Greatest Showman
I, Tonya
Lady Bird

Best Director

Guillermo del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Ridley Scott, All the Money in the World
Steven Spielberg, The Post

Best Actor, Motion Picture, Drama

Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Denzel Washington, Roman J. Israel Esq.
Tom Hanks, The Post
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour

Best Actress, Motion Picture, Drama

Jessica Chastain, Molly’s Game
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Meryl Streep, The Post
Michelle Williams, All the Money in the World

Best Actor, Motion Picture, Comedy

Steve Carell, Battle of the Sexes
Ansel Elgort, Baby Driver
James Franco, The Disaster Artist
Hugh Jackman, The Greatest Showman
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out

Best Actress, Motion Picture, Comedy

Judi Dench, Victoria & Abdul
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Emma Stone, Battle of the Sexes
Helen Mirren, The Leisure Seeker

Best Supporting Actor, Motion Picture

Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Armie Hammer, Call Me by Your Name
Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World

Best Supporting Actress, Motion Picture

Mary J. Blige, Mudbound
Hong Chau, Downsizing
Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Best Screenplay

The Shape of Water
Lady Bird
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
The Post
Molly’s game

Best Original Song

“Home,” Ferdinand
“Mighty River,” Mudboumd
“Remember Me,” Coco
“The Star,” The Star
“This Is Me,“ The Greatest Showman

Best Original Score

Carter Burwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Alexander Desplat, The Shape of Water
Johnny Greenwood, Phantom Thread
John Williams, The Post
Hans Zimmer, Dunkirk

Best Animated Feature

Boss Baby
The Breadwinner
Coco
Ferdinand
Loving Vincent

Best Foreign Language Film

A Fantastic Woman
First They Killed My Father
In the Fade
Loveless
The Square

TELEVISION

Best Television Series, Drama

The Handmaid’s Tale
This Is Us
The Crown
Game of Thrones
Stranger Things 2

Best Television Series, Comedy

black-ish
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Master of None
SMILF
Will & Grace

Best Limited Series or Television Movie

Big Little Lies
Feud: Bette and Joan
Fargo
Top of the Lake: China Girl
The Sinner

Best Actress, Limited Series or Television Movie

Nicole Kidman, Big Little Lies
Reese Witherspoon, Big Little Lies
Jessica Lange, Feud: Bette and Joan
Susan Sarandon, Feud: Bette and Joan
Jessica Biel, The Sinner

Best Actor, Limited Series or Television Movie

Robert De Niro, The Wizard of Lies
Kyle MacLachlan, Twin Peaks
Jude Law, The Young Pope
Ewan McGregor, Fargo
Geoffrey Rush, Genius

Best Actress, Television Series, Drama

Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid’s Tale
Claire Foy, The Crown
Katherine Langford, 13 Reasons Why
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Deuce
Caitriona Balfe, Outlander

Best Actor, Television Series, Drama

Freddie Highmore, The Good Doctor
Sterling K. Brown, This Is Us
Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul
Jason Bateman, Ozark
Liev Schreiber, The Deuce

Best Actress, Television Series, Comedy

Pamela Adlon, Better Things
Alison Brie, GLOW
Rachel Brosnahan, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel
Issa Rae, Insecure
Frankie Shaw, SMILF

Best Actor, Television Series, Comedy

Anthony Anderson, Black-ish
Aziz Ansari, Master of None
Kevin Bacon, I Love Dick
William H. Macy, Shameless
Eric McCormack, Will & Grace

Best Supporting Actress, Television Series

Laura Dern, Big Little Lies
Ann Dowd, The Handmaid’s Tale
Chrissy Metz, This Is Us
Michelle Pfeiffer, The Wizard of Lies
Shailene Woodley, Big Little Lies

Best Supporting Actor, Television Series

Christian Slater, Mr. Robot
David Harbour, Stranger Things
Alfred Molina, Feud: Bette and Joan
Alexander Skarsgard, Big Little Lies
David Thewlis, Fargo

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