Crossing the Streams

In case anyone was wondering, I did get my refund from Amazon. So for future reference, for anyone wishing to cancel their Prime subscription, the current procedure seems to be to chose the "won't renew" option on the subscriptions page and then, after Amazon renews your membership and charges you anyway, you need to ask for a refund, which you will receive in "three to five days". Funny they can charge you instantly but when it comes to giving you money they were never supposed to take to begin with, well, that takes some processing time. Naturally.

Of course, I still have Japanese Amazon Prime, which is a whole lot cheaper. I said five dollars a month a few days ago but I forgot how weak the yen is now so it's probably more like three dollars. I don't have access to the various channels I did on American Amazon Prime and of course there's a lot of content unavailable in Japan. I also can't rent movies because, although I can pay for the subscription with my American debit card, I'm required to have a Japanese card in order to rent or purchase any streaming content off Amazon Prime Japan. I have no idea why. I'm able to get Japanese Netflix with my American card. Currently I only have Disney+, Criterion, and Japanese Amazon Prime, though. I've been tempted to cancel Disney+ but Doctor Who's starting next week.

I miss Netflix sometimes. I read to-day that David Lynch had two projects in the works for Netflix that've been cancelled by the streamer. So much for Netflix being more open to maverick filmmakers. It's a shame Criterion doesn't have the money to finance Lynch. I wonder what he'll try next. Whatever he does, with so many Twin Peaks cast members dying, and Lynch himself getting no younger, it seems like time is running out. It's really sad. Here's a man, widely acknowledged as one of the greatest filmmakers, if not the greatest filmmaker, alive, and yet he can't find a studio to produce his work. It's not like Twin Peaks: The Return did so poorly in 2017. But maybe people figure its success was due to coming back after a couple decades and any new endeavours wouldn't have that appeal. It seems like Lynch wasn't totally happy with his experience making the show for Showtime. I wonder if that would change if Sony does manage to buy Paramount, as they've put forward a bid to do. Given Sony's rigidity, I can't imagine things would change for the better.

Too bad he doesn't have wineries to sell, like Francis Ford Coppola did. Coppola's wineries became legends in themselves and he was able to sell them in order to attain every auteur filmmaker's dream; total creative control over a big budget movie. I'm so looking forward to Megalopolis. But even for Coppola, this is likely something he'll only be able to do once. This is why, as much as I love movies, I never wanted to pursue a career as a filmmaker. Even the greatest talents in the industry have to go through hell and high water just to get a movie made.