Talkie Talk #81 - The Shape of Water / Darkest Hour / The Post / Talk of Fame - Metropolis (1927)
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We groupchat some Best Picture nominees we’re just catching up with (The Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, The Post), the debate whether Fritz Lang’s influential Sci-Fi parable Metropolis belongs in the Talk of Fame. Next week, we’ll do our annual town-hall about Who Should Win at the 2018 Oscars.
The Watchlist(1:30) Group Chat: The Shape of Water(1:48), Darkest Hour (9:46), The Post (21:43) Talk of Fame:Metropolis (33:07) No new homework: “Who Should Win” at 2018 Oscars next week
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
Holy Radcliffes! We talk about the Amazonian survival movie Jungle – this came out the same year as another Amazonian survival movie – The Lost City of Z. This inspired us to have a trivia game about Movie Twins – similar ideas that come out within a year of each other. Volcano and Dante’s Peak – Armaggeddon and Sudden Impact. And we also talk Asylum Mockbusters. It’s fun!
Homework Assignment: Brawl in Cell Block 99 (0:57) Main Topic: Going Against Type (18:30) New Homework Assignment:Metropolis (1927) – Talk of Fame Submission (Netflix) (48:22)
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
Talkie Talk #79: Watchlist / Call Me By Your Name / Coco / Cloverfield Paradox / News - 2/14
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We discuss what we’ve been watching and playing in the last week (Watchlists!) – and we discuss the week’s biggest film / TV / video game news (Breezy on the Street!). And somehow, while debating the merits of original Netflix movies, we talk about “Dog the Bounty Hunter.” It’s a crazy world.
The Watchlist(0:49) TJ:Quiz Show (1:04), Pottersville(1:44), Call Me by Your Name(5:54), Playing Hearthstone (15:57) Brent:Coco (17:00) Chris: Playing Celeste(25:03) David:Three Billboards(28:36), The Cloverfield Paradox (29:21) Breezy on the Streets (40:34)
40:52 – Trailer Roundup (Solo, Mission Impossible:Fallout)
43:30 – David Benioff and D.B. Weiss making new Star Wars trilogy
44:39 – Viacom (MTV, Comedy Central, etc.) streaming app to launch
45:06 – RIP John Gavin, Reg. E. Cathey, John Mahoney
45:46 – George R.R. Martin confirms only seven GoT books
46:30 – Timeframe and episode count revealed for Stranger Things 3
47:03 – Best Bet this Weekend: Black Panther, a-doy
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
What is a Cloverfieldmovie? What is the connective tissue running through these Bad Robot produced properties? What makes an idea “Cloverfieldian”? The biggest question of all – does J.J. Abrams and the guiding production forces know anymore? Long story short, I’m not sure it matters. What matters is that Paramount didn’t think much of this, and sold it off to Netflix.
Netflix finally did it. In control of a massive streaming infrastructure, Netflix released 56 movies last year – most of which were released with minimal fanfare. In possession of the Spotify or Tidal of movies, they made waves on Super Bowl Sunday with a multi-million dollar ad, promising that a new Sci-Fi movie with Gugu Mbatha-Raw was coming out. And then they pulled a full Beyonce, and surprise-released the film, and it was immediately available. It’s a seismic chess move – one that created premiere-like excitement and mass-internet conversation with the original movie. No matter what, it’s a win for the format and a win for non-theater-goers.
“Is that a Cloverfield out there?” (image: imdb)
The movie has two strands running artlessly through it. In one, Hamilton (Mbatha-Raw) and her husband Michael are stuck in a gas-shortage line, while the radio gives a backstory of worldwide food and energy crisis. Hamilton decides to volunteer for a mission that puts her in a space station for over a year, and Michael just stays and does Michael stuff, which include being a doctor and rescuing someone from a hospital and then staying safe – that’s it. The Michael stuff on Earth is rough. And it was pasted onto the movie after the fact, and has all the Cloverfield touches on it.
The more interesting part is what happens to Hamilton when she gets to the space station. There’s a clever montage to start where the one-year expectation gets stretched to many, many years. We meet the international crew, and they’re the biggest strength of the movie. The crew is in place to fire up a particle accelerator to find an infinite energy source, to help stave off the threat of a world war for the scarce resources on earth – they do so in space, because there is the potential to end existence. Chekhov’s particle accelerator.
The Gang saves the day… Or do they? (image: imdb)
Hamilton is joined here by the American leader Kiel (Oyelowo), German chief engineer Schmidt (Bruhl), Brazilian doctor Acosta (John Ortiz), Irish interstellar scamp Mundy (O’Dowd), Chinese scientist (or engineer? Or mechanic?) Tam (Ziyi) and instantly suspicious Russian person Volkov (Aksel Hennie). It’s not that clear what everybody does, but they all have an interesting, lived-in dynamic as a team – the viewer is dropped in the middle of their relationships, which is nice. Chris O’Dowd is particularly fun (although he’s clearly in another movie) and everybody is generally very good. Then, Chekhov’s particle accelerator sets off and things get kooky. I won’t reveal all the hi-jinx, but suffice to say that interdimensional travel is involved.
The weirdest part of the kookiness is the nature of the differences they start to notice. Basically, the multiverse is like an omni-powerful Kevin McAllister, and the crew of the Shepherd (yes, the ship is called that) are the Wet Bandits. The multiverse is being pretty obvious that it wants these guys out of its alternate dimension, and unfortunately all the dimensional pranks play the same note over and over. There are some interesting spooks and some flair to the spectacle, but bear in mind that this was a small movie before Paramount retrofitted it with a Cloverfield skin.
This picture won’t change. What am I saying? It’s a picture, of course it won’t change. (image: imdb)
Young director Julius Onah has some fun things in the movie, especially with the production design in the ship, but in the end, you won’t remember this movie – I’ll straight up promise you that. The Cloverfielding of this movie is super clunky (the ending is the most massive scale eye-roll of the decade), but the Chekhov’s Accelerator part is not enough of a movie to stand on its own either. Cloverfielditself was a phenomenon in 2008, and rightly so – the first trailer was so arresting with the Statue of Liberty head bouncing down the street and cutting to no title, but a date. A better retrofit for the franchise was 10 Cloverfield Lane, which is clearly a seperate movie that wears the ending Cloverfield tangent suitably enough (though the best part of the movie clearly is the original part, when it was called Valencia). And here we are ten years later with another one. I have to imagine that timing is no coincidence, since the last anyone heard of this original movie (called The God Particle), it still needed work. It kind of still does. I’ll be more excited for a Cloverfield movie that was Cloverfielded from conception, rather than from opportunity.
In the end, the movie is nothing new or that interesting. If you liked Event Horizon, this is that, but it’s now. If you like your Event Horizon movies now-er than 1997, then you’re in luck, because this movie came out in 2018, which is as now as it gets. The now-est, in fact. And now, it’s got a Slusho reference and a Bad Robot credit.
You think this is from Event Horizon, but it’s not (image: imdb)
Is it Watchlist-Worthy? Not really – only for Cloverfieldian completionists.
Talkie Talk #77: The Watchlist / The Square / War for the Planet of the Apes / News - 2/7
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We discuss what we’ve been watching and playing in the last week (Watchlists!) – and we discuss the week’s biggest film / TV / video game news (Breezy on the Street!).
The Watchlist(1:05) David:Kong: Skull Island (1:15), The Boss Baby(4:27), The Square (5:51) TJ:The Summit (16:00), The Last Men in Aleppo (17:44), War for the Planet of the Apes (19:56), Blade Runner 2049 (25:18), The Breadwinner (29:03), Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405 (32:35), Strong Island (33:56) Brent: Starting Mad Men(41:53), Playing Madden (42:17) Chris:Congratulations on watching over a hundred 2017 movies!Icarus and Abacus (42:41), Loving Vincent (46:44), Victoria & Abdul (52:12), Playing Breath of the Wild (55:09) Breezy on the Streets (56:00)
56:18 – Tom Hanks will be Mr. Rogers in upcoming biopic
56:45 – Guild Update: Annie (Animation) and Directors Guild winners
59:38 – Solo: A Star Wars Story / Mission: Impossible Fallout trailer previews
1:00:55 – Special Super Bowl Halftime HQ trivia ($20,000)
1:01:14 – Red Dead Redemption 2 release date announced
1:03:42 – Best Bet this Weekend: Peter Rabbit, 15:17 to Paris, Fifty Shades Freed (if you’re feeling masochistic)
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
Talkie Talk #75: Watchlist / Molly's Game / Oscar Nom Reactions - 2/1
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We discuss what we’ve been watching and playing in the last week (Watchlists!) – and we discuss the week’s biggest film news – reactions to the 90th Academy Award nominations! Punctuation!
The Watchlist(1:00) Chris:Logan (1:09), Playing Super Mario Odyssey/Breath of the Wild (1:14), HQ (1:29), Top Chef (4:22), The Challenge: Vendettas (6:47) David:Paddington (9:27), A Futile & Stupid Gesture (10:54), Beauty and the Beast (12:53), Strong Island (16:05), Icarus (17:29), Abacus: Small Enough to Jail (20:58), The Magicians (23:56) Brent:Zach Morris is Trash (25:38), Playing Uncharted 3 (26:47) TJ: Playing Framed 2(26:58), Watching The Skeleton Twins (28:09), No Escape (28:41), What Happened to Monday (29:12), Loving Vincent (29:42), Phantom Thread (31:38), Molly’s Game (33:34), [the Vanity Fair Oscar cover 34:33] Breezy on the Streets (39:28)
39:41 – Guild Results: Editing, Art Direction and Visual Effects winners
42:11 – Sundance Film Festival 2018
43:51 – Oscar Nomination Reactions
1:08:53 – Best Bet this Weekend: Winchester
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
Strike up the polka, the band is in town, it’s The Polka King, based on the real life Jan Lewan. We use that film to talk about Biopics, and have fun doing our little quizzes! It’s a blast.
Homework Assignment: The Polka King (1:00) Main Topic: Biopics Quizzes (14:23) New Homework Assignment: Talk of Fame consideration Beetlejuice (Crackle) (38:09)
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
The Watchlist(1:00) TJ:Dunkirk (1:08), The Post (1:36), Battle of the Sexes (4:48), Killing of a Sacred Deer (6:05), Mudbound (10:09), The Travelers (12:42) Brent:A Ghost Story (15:08), The Game (16:36), Donnie Brasco (16:59), Terror in Beverly Hills (18:19), Drunk, Stoned, Brilliant, Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon (22:02) Chris:Planet of Dinosaurs (23:31), Wonder Wheel (24:36), Bright (29:18), Justice League (32:15), I Tonya (39:13), Rough Night (40:51), The Shape of Water (43:28), Playing Breath of the Wild (45:58), Snipperclips (46:22), Top Chef (47:58) David:Mr. Roosevelt (51:37), Blade Runner 2049 (53:19), Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee (53:59), The Assassination of Gianni Versace (57:00) Breezy on the Streets (59:11)
59:26 – Secret Crocodile Dundee movie coming out?
1:01:22 – Paddington 2 – the best movie of all time?
1:02:36 – Scarlett Johansson’s salary on Black Widow
1:04:59 – Nintendo Switch cardboard accessories
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
Talkie Talk #72: 90th Academy Awards Nomination Predictions
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Another VSP – Very Special Podcast. January 23rd – the day the 90th Academy Award Nominations come out. Here at The Media By Us, we’re doing our predictions for every category – somehow, one of us is going to be the most accurate and will have all the kudos. Anyway, it’s fun again to talk about the movies of 2017.
Main Topic: Oscar Nomination Predictions (1:07) Live Action Short (2:30) Documentary Short (4:13) Animated Short (6:38) Foreign Language Film (8:35) Documentary Feature (10:25) Animated Feature (12:52) Visual Effects (15:50) Sound Mixing/Editing (18:26) Original Song (21:13) Original Score (23:53) Production Design (26:18) Makeup & Hairstyling (28:00) Film Editing (31:02) Costume Design (32:11) Cinematography (35:17) Original Screenplay (38:50) Adapted Screenplay (41:30) Supporting Actor (44:08) Supporting Actress (47:24) Lead Actor (49:06) Lead Actress (53:13) Director (55:09) Best Picture (58:16) Homework Assignment: The Polka King (Netflix)
Warning: Some mild language. Some language is picante.
