Let’s spin the Netflix wheel of fortune! Help is here for those who have trouble picking what to watch on Netflix—The streaming service has rolled out a new feature for indecisive viewers who don’t quite know what they want to watch. 

Recently, the media services tycoon is testing a new “Shuffle Play” feature that queues near-random films and shows based on your preference. Like the automatically curated “For You” list of titles, “Shuffle Play” picks content based on your playlists or viewing history. The new feature goes a step further and plays the selection. If you don’t like what you see, you can always skip ahead to the next title.

 

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“Shuffle Play” on the Netflix platform could replicate the randomized experience of traditional TV. The new Shuffle Play button is available on some subscribers’ TVs. Subscribers with early access to Shuffle Play may see this button appears on their “Who’s Watching Netflix?” page. 

Shuffle Play is not Netflix’s first attempt at randomized viewing. The streaming service tested a shuffle mode last year that spat out random episodes of a single series—a neat option for cartoon and sitcom fans. In July 2020, Netflix also tested a sidebar button called “Play Something”, Functionally speaking, “Play Something” is identical to “Shuffle Play”. 

Right now, “Shuffle Play” is available globally to a portion of Netflix users on connected TV devices like Roku and smart TVs. If you want to try the new feature, then cross your fingers and open the Netflix app on your TV or streaming stick. 

Up to this moment, “Shuffle Play” isn’t available on mobile or desktop apps yet, Netflix hasn’t announced a public release schedule for the new feature neither. The company will build a permanent “Shuffle Play” feature using the results of this test.

In 2016, the young Afghan director Shahrbanoo Sadat won a prize at the Directors’ fortnight in Cannes for her quasi-autobiographical debut Wolf and Sheep, about shepherd children in the mountains of central Afghanistan. Now Sadat, who is 29, has directed a sequel, following the life of one of these children: Quodrat, now a teenager and still played by the same non-professional, Quodratollah Qadiri.

He is shown living in Kabul during the Russian occupation in 1981. Both his parents are dead. Movie-mad and obsessed with Bollywood pictures, Quodrat is arrested for selling cinema tickets on the black market, and he is made to live in a Soviet-run orphanage, where the lessons are in Russian. There is bullying and intrigue, but also opportunities for adventure.

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The Orphanage is a terrific child’s-eye movie, bustling with freshness and old-fashioned storytelling gusto. I loved the fantasy Bollywood sequences, but also the purely realist incidents, including an amazing scene where Quodrat and the boys come across a burnt-out Soviet tank in the mountains and loot it for bullets and military gear.

 

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There is also a funny and absorbing interlude when selected children are allowed on a trip to Moscow; they play chess with state-of-the-art USSR computers and even visit Lenin’s tomb: the culture-shock impact is nicely managed. When they return to Kabul, however, things are disturbingly different and there is a rumour that the Soviets are on the way out.

There is such energy and vigour and openness in this movie. If Sadat continues with Quodrat’s life story, there could be something like Truffaut going on here, blended with the poetic gentleness of Kiarostami. Sadat is a film-maker to watch.

Source: The Orphanage review – terrific tale of an Afghan teen in trouble

 

Edna Sims Vin Dibona Tanya Hart Denise Williams Edward James Olmos

*Beverly Hills, CA — The Caucus of Producers, Writers & Directors37th Annual Caucus Awards Dinner at the Skirball Cultural Center was an enchanting night filled with history and storytelling from entertainment industry’s honorees.

James Pickens, Jr. star of ABC’s Grey’s Anatomy, was the M.C. for this wonderful evening.   Producing  the annual dinner was The Caucus Awards committee which included; Events Chair Chuck Fries and Awards Dinner Chair Gary Smith; Caucus Co-Chairs Robert Papazian and Tanya Hart; Vin Di Bona, Honorary Event Vice Chair and Vice Chairs Dennis Doty, James Hirsch, Ron  Friedman and Sharon Arnett, along with Deborah Leoni, Executive Director.

 

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Over the past 18 years The Caucus Foundation has awarded almost $2 million in finishing funds and in-kind services to students at accredited colleges and universities across the country for completion of their thesis projects. The Caucus Foundation also awarded the Television/ New Media Award to USC for Side Effects. The Caucus Foundation is proud to have the support of the Annenberg Foundation, the Angell Foundation, Panavision and Illuminate Hollywood.

 

Halle Berry was “slightly injured” while working on her latest movie, a mixed martial arts feature titled “Bruised.”

Berry is starring in and making her directorial debut with the project, about a mixed martial arts fighter struggling to rebuild her life, PEOPLE reports.

The film’s executive producer, Brian Pitt, told NJ Advance Media that Berry “got slightly injured in the fight.” As a result, Monday’s shoot was delayed to give the Oscar-winning actress time to rest.

“She’s tired. She needed a break,” Pitt said.

 

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“Occasionally what’s going to happen is an actor might get a little injured, and we might adjust scheduling around them a little bit,” he added.

Berry recently shared a pic of her training for the movie, showing off her killer abs.

“There’s no better feeling than setting a goal and smashing it,” she wrote on Instagram.

“One of my goals for #BruisedTheMovie? Ripped Abs – and today? I finally got them, and it feels unbelievable!” she wrote, encouraging her followers to set their own fitness goals. “The work won’t be easy, but that pay off? Worth every damn second.”