News

Spoiler Alert !!!Proceed with caution—this article contains major Spoilers for American Sweatshop.

Sometimes, you gotta hit rock bottom to realize just how deep the pit is. Will you agree? Well, there’s a reason the internet’s dark side is often referred to as a ‘black hole’—you can’t unsee the abyss, no matter how hard you try. Uta Briesewitz’s American Sweatshop thrusts me headfirst into that very void, where content moderators are the unsung workers trapped in the most soul-sucking job imaginable.

A job so brutal, so psychologically taxing, that the only way out is to either burn out or lose your humanity entirely. It’s about Daisy (Lili Reinhart), who works as an internet moderator, watching video after video of violence, depravity, and chaos. Her daily grind involves approving or deleting horrific content, from suicides to animal cruelty.

American Sweatshop | Credit: Guido Marx

When one particular video breaks her,...

Exclusive: The Riverdale star is attached to star and will produce under her Small Victory’s first look deal at Amazon MGM Studios, Fake Wedding.

The project, based on Ali and Anthony Garland’s short story, is currently being developed with the twosome penning the screenplay. Fake Wedding follows two broke singles who throw a fake wedding to cash in on the registry and the very real problems the make-believe couple encounters. Scott Glassgold’s 12:01 Films assembled the project and is producing. Verve held the auction and sold the project in the low six figures.

Amazon MGM Studios is becoming quite the house of rom-coms. Recently their Reese Witherspoon-Will Ferrell movie You’re Cordially Invited amassed 827M viewing minutes within its first few days of availability on Prime, putting it at No. 6 on Nielsen’s overall Top 10. The pic debuted on the streamer on Jan. 30. Amazon MGM...

In the constantly evolving world of the internet, you’ve probably crossed paths with a video that you likely didn’t want to see. Be it because it was something too graphic or because it was something so disturbing, no human being should ever have to see it. American Sweatshop, which is the directorial debut of veteran television director Uta Briesewitz, takes us head first into the worst job in the world: internet censors. When you first see the title American Sweatshop, it sounds like a documentary, and in some respects, it does feel like one, especially at the beginning. But at its core, Breisewitz's first feature is a tense and unpredictable character study set in a world that you didn't know existed.

Although American Sweatshop is a serious film that covers the seriousness of visual mediums and their effect on our brains and lives, Grae Drake talks to Lili Reinhart and Director Uta Briesewitz about what is actually constructive about their time online, and what brings smiles to their faces. They delve into the making of the film and how real this topic is.

American Sweatshop is a look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy Moriarty, who while dealing with a chaotic personal life, finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the internet.

Even in the relatively regulated world of the contemporary internet, you never know what the person next to you is looking at on their phone: Fascist propaganda? Hardcore pornography? Photos from a church picnic? So it goes that the gray, featureless office building that gives “American Sweatshop” its title looks like it could be anything. The only sign that something is off here is the on-site counselor — and the employees vomiting and crying and having rage-filled tantrums at their desks.

Content moderation is a well-documented phenomenon, first brought to widespread public attention by Adrian Chen’s 2014 “Wired” article “The Laborers Who Keep Dick Pics and Beheadings Out of Your Facebook Feed.” The headline there says it all: Around the world, a silent army of low-wage workers manually review flagged content on social-media sites to determine whether or not it violates the site’s terms of service. In practice, this means...

Austin – The internet, for all the ways it connects us and opens up our worlds, is also an often hellish place. Social media, in particular, are increasingly concentrated places to witness all our capacity for cruelty in an endless scroll. All one needs to do is look at the site formerly known as Twitter to see post after post of everything from AI-generated spam to open hate speech to get a sense of just how horrible these spaces can be.

Continue reading ‘American Sweatshop’ Review: Lili Reinhart Faces The Horror Of Social Media In A Psychological Thriller [SXSW] at The Playlist.

Usually, it’s the films that are loud at the SXSW Film & TV Festival in Austin. This year, however, the parade of personalities in the City of the Violet Crown will be creating plenty of thunder including Blake Lively, Jenna Ortega, Michelle Obama, Disney co-chairman Alan Bergman, Amazon and MGM Studios head Jennifer Salke, Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Conan O’Brien fresh off the Oscar Dolby Theatre stage.

There are an intriguing amount of sit-downs here at SXSW this year after the fest kicks off Friday, rivaling the number of sidebar chats at a San Diego Comic-Con and certainly towering over the few at this past year’s Sundance, where the best chats were off-menu and not contained in any program: Elvis Mitchell’s conversations with Bill Murray and Quentin Tarantino.

In a déjà vu to Comic-Con, O’Brien will be on stage twice: once in a Sunday comedy event with...

The 32nd edition of SXSW running March 7-14 in Austin, Texas, will open with the Apple TV+ series The Studio starring Seth Rogen and brings world premieres of new films from Nicole Kidman, Rosamund Pike, Ben Affleck, and Paul Rudd.

Rogen stars as the frazzled head of fictitious Continental Studios in The Studio, which debuts on the platform on March 26.Rogen co-directed with Evan Goldberg, and co-wrote with Goldberg and others. The cast includes Catherine O’Hara, Ike Barinholtz, and Katheryn Hahn, with cameos from A-listers.

Anticipated feature highlights include Headliners selections Holland from Amazon Studios, a thriller starring Kidman and...

Daniela Melchior is staying booked and busy. The Road House actor has joined the upcoming ensemble of mystery thriller American Sweatshop, which Riverdale alum Lili Reinhart is headlining.

Per Deadline, character details for Melchior's American Sweatshop role remain under wraps at this time. Uta Briesewitz will direct the mystery thriller, which aims to, per the official synopsis, "take a look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy Moriarty (Reinhart), who while dealing with a chaotic personal life, finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the internet. Moriarty, and a motley group of co-workers, toil in a cottage industry of agencies that evaluate harmful and offensive pictures and videos uploaded to social media."

Related Riverdale's Kj Apa Would '100%' Reprise Archie Andrews Role on One Condition

Actor Kj Apa reveals that he would happily return to Riverdale as Archie Andrews but only under one, pretty big condition.

Daniela Melchior is set to join the ensemble of mystery thriller American Sweatshop, starring Lili Reinhart. Producers include Barry Levinson and Tom Fontana. Uta Briesewitz will direct.

In a device driven world, American Sweatshop will take a look at the toll of social media through the eyes of Daisy Moriarty (Reinhart), who while dealing with a chaotic personal life, finds herself sucked into the underbelly of the internet. Moriarty, and a motley group of co-workers, toil in a cottage industry of agencies that evaluate harmful and offensive pictures and videos uploaded to social media. With detached caution and a deranged sense of humor, they examine the millions of posts that get “flagged for review.” But one particularly violent video grabs hold of Daisy, luring her out of this office, away from the safety of her keyboard and into a dangerous world as she obsessively seeks to hold someone accountable.

Melchior...