Andy Kessler

WSJ: Superheroes Are Rescuing Hollywood

https://www.wsj.com/articles/superheroes-are-rescuing-hollywood-11551045451

I’ve been around the special effects and movie business for decades as an adviser and investor and had a front-row seat to the development of computer-generated imagery. On a tour of the back lot at Paramount Pictures in the early ’90s, my host pointed to a shallow pool and said: “Here’s where Charlton Heston parted the Red Sea in ‘The Ten Commandments.’” I was impressed—but playing my role as an annoying Silicon Valley visitor, I replied “Someday this will all be replaced by CGI.” I was right. CGI has been the best thing to happen to the movie business—and a curse.

Take a look at the top 10 domestic grossing films of 2018: “Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War,” “Incredibles 2,” “Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom,” “Aquaman,” “Deadpool 2,” “The Grinch,” “Mission: Impossible—Fallout,” “Ant-Man and the Wasp” and “Solo: A Star Wars Story.” Not a single one would have even been greenlit without computer graphics. I had to go back to 2014’s “American Sniper” to find a top-10 grosser that wasn’t CGI dependent. Even this year’s dramatic films needed CGI, like re-creating 1985’s Live Aid concert at Wembley Stadium in “Bohemian Rhapsody.”

Except for “Mission: Impossible” they’re all superhero movies and animations. The plots are similar and shallow: Outsmart villains, save the world, fight a giant monster, and resolve somebody’s daddy issues. But they entertain. Movies are supposed to transport you somewhere else for 110 minutes, then drop you back into your mundane existence. You want to see something you’ve never seen before—hence the success of watery “Aquaman” and vapid “Venom.” Audiences want faraway galaxies, explosions and a little humor. And when that gets old, just have the superheroes fight each other.

The rest of Hollywood looks down their noses at comic-book movies, but they should be thankful. “Avengers: Infinity War” grossed more than $2 billion world-wide. In a decade, 20 Marvel superhero movies have grossed a total of more than $17 billion. That pays for a lot of dull arty films, flatulence-joke comedies and oversexed, clichéd rom-coms that nobody goes to. It’s as if Hollywood has forgotten how to make movies people want to go see. Whose idea was it to make the 2017 Matt Damon eco-dud “Downsizing,” or Jennifer Lawrence’s allegorical “Mother!”? I’d like my four hours back.

My wife hates watching movies with me. At the right moment each time, I lean over and say: “Boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back,” or some derivation. And when it inevitably happens, I say, “And there’s the message.”

The so-called dramatic films are just as bad. At the Oscars, the word “best” in best picture has been watered down to be almost meaningless.

WSJ: It's Time To Fire Your Doctor

https://www.wsj.com/articles/its-time-to-fire-your-doctor-11549829009

Barack Obama famously and falsely said, “If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period.” But . . . what if you don’t like your doctor?

Let’s say you, like me, are one of the 20 million Americans who work for themselves—no boss, but also no corporate-tax deduction for health insurance. The smart move is to get a high-deductible insurance plan. Now it suddenly matters what doctors charge: $500 to take your blood pressure and bang your knee with a rubber hammer, $1,200 for a blood test that uses pennies worth of chemicals to tell you your hemoglobin levels are fine. Plus four months to get an appointment, and then the doctor asks you to fax an authorization. What? It’s 2019. It’s time to fire your doctor.

Like roughly half of American adults, I’m borderline: hypertensive, high cholesterol, though only “pre”-diabetic. A streak of misdiagnoses has led me and many others to take doctoring into our own hands. I do an annual blood test for $199 through WellnessFX and get results on a smartphone app. A Bluetooth-connected cuff from Omron Healthcare tracks my blood pressure and even notes atrial fibrillation or irregular heartbeat. A Fitbit scale tracks my weight. Beautyrest Sleeptracker tells me my REM sleep duration. My Apple Watch charts my resting pulse and does a simple electrocardiogram. The more data, the better.

When you do get sick, you still need to see a doctor—they have that prescription pad. But insurance companies tired of overpaying for five-minute doctor visits have begun setting up alternatives. Sutter Health runs walk-in clinics for $129 a visit. Online care is cheaper, so Anthem Blue Cross encourages customers to use LiveHealth, a videoconference platform, for $49. Aetna has a deal with Teladoc, a $4.5 billion public company, for $38 consultations. No pain meds, of course, but almost everything else.

Consumer-driven options have already changed nonvital care. After doing in-home teeth impressions, you can order orthodontic aligners for $80 a month. For acne treatment, you can upload photos of affected areas and receive medicine by mail monthly. Technology is lowering costs and improving care on all fronts.

Technology has moved so fast that several smartphone-based platforms now function like Uber for doctors: