(sigh) It's time to talk about SOPHIE'S CHOICE.
We promise that our conversation is not as much of a downer as the movie is.
Actually that's unfair. The movie is an incredible dramatic achievement. But boy is it an emotional investment to get through it...
Deep breath. Here we go...
It’s GOODFELLAS. It’s time. It’s gonna be a gush-fest.
What more do you need to know?
Give it a listen otherwise Sally Balls’ brother Fat Andy will be forced to make you listen.
Westerns are back en vogue but unfortunately the new remake of the THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN doesn't look primed to achieve the classic status of its predecessor. On this week's episode we do our best to try and break down what went wrong with this clunky oater and also spend at least 15 minutes counting the ways we adore Netflix.
Because we do. So hard.
We're catching up on everything!
-Matt's feature debut- CASSIDY RED is delivering this week...
-The Telluride, Venice, and Toronto film festivals have anointed movies like ARRIVAL and LA LA LAND and NOCTURNAL ANIMALS and MOONLIGHT as award season heavyweights, so there's a lot to discuss there...
-SULLY and SNOWDEN give us a reason to discuss "recent", ripped-from-the-headline, titular character-monikered "biopics" that curiously both start with the letter "S"...
-Non movie related BS and small talk...
We're so happy to be back. Hope you've missed us as much as we've missed you....
We're gettin' a lot off our chests this week as a spirited discussion veers wildly from James Bond geekery to our belated reactions to Netflix's summer hit STRANGER THINGS. We dance through a rundown of the most high profile films recently announced to unspool at the Toronto International Film Festival, can hardly summon the energy to champion the low-hanging comedic fruit of SAUSAGE PARTY, and finally land on a HELL OR HIGH WATER gush-o-thon (Why bother playing the cards close? We absolutely loved it.) that begins at 00:41:25 and runs until the end of the podcast. We've got a lot to say and we're looking to say it to YOU.
Editor's note: Please excuse the sporadically ugly audio on this episode. We were experiencing a bad Skype connection and the pops and drops come and go. It's a little rough at times but we hope you tough it out because we're extremely proud of this conversation.
After some technical hiccups and unexpected disagreements over a couple of polarizing films during the last few episodes, we're back in lockstep and firmly on the same side of the aisle regarding the last "big" tentpole of the summer of 2016- the already infamous SUICIDE SQUAD. That conversation kicks in at about 00:24:40 but before that, we amuse ourselves with further GHOSTBUSTERS dissection as well as a brief, nostalgic look back at the summer movies of 1996. We're amped, we're opinionated, we're ready for primetime. Listen in and we'll love you for it.
The second best picture winner of the AFI Top 100 Countdown comes to the WLM Podcast this week and it brings with it a whole lot of early 1970s, "New Hollywood" pedigree. We're talkin' drugs, sex, needles, junkies, R&B, garbage fires, porkpie hats, racial epithets, cars chasing subways, Americans chasing Frenchman, and a whole lot of scenes of people sitting in cars, waiting for someone to come out of a nightclub or hotel. It's time for THE FRENCH CONNECTION, dear listeners. And what a glorious time that is.
As the mercury rises and the pages fall off the calendar, the We Like Movies podcast keeps fighting the good fight and trekking (get it?), ever vigilantly, back to the multiplex to screen product and proffer opinion. On this week's episode we talk San Diego Comic Con, break down all of the new trailers, muse about the recent, encouraging onslaught of western genre exercises (who knew? It's coming back!), and even carve out 25 minutes to disagree about the newest installment of the rebooted STAR TREk series. We've been disagreeing more and more these days... This might be the beginning of an exciting trend....
After an extended, mid-summer hiatus we return to you now with one of the most terse, impassioned, argumentative conversations we've ever recorded. The pod starts off with a lot of good-natured catch-up before descending into a full-on rift regarding Paul Feig's GHOSTBUSTERS reboot.
We back, we're heated, we're answering your call for a podcast with teeth.
Oscar's been out of town but Matt was itching to create some content so he rolled up his sleeves and got busy with a mellow and self-indulgent stroll through the career and creative resume of the master of cinematic ambience- Mr. Cliff Martinez.
In honor of his newest masterpiece, the soundtrack for THE NEON DEMON, Matt has cobbled together a countdown of Martinez's finest film forays. It's gonna get synthey up in here. And how.
The AFI countdown lands on the most important film of the last decade of the 20th Century. That alone is worth 35 minutes of impassioned gushing, right? Right.
There have been high peaks and deep artistic valleys over the 9 films in 16 years covered by the X-MEN franchise. The newest entry "APOCALYPSE" sits smack dab at sea level which makes it a fertile topic for dissection and disagreement. Listen in as we break it all the way down to the brassiest of tacks.
We also discuss the none too subtle schadenfreude stance taken by certain tabloid click-baters in the way they report the "news" of successful film franchises and we even find time to reflect on the the most recent draft of the "Fantasy Film League".
We might just be getting the hang of this "coming in around an hour" thing, 175 episodes in.
We're getting back to basics with a thrift, semi-contentious conversation about the two films that opened last weekend but failed to top THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE at the box office: The little-loved sequel NEIGHBORS 2: SORORITY RISING and Shane Black's winking, period, neo-noir THE NICE GUYS.
We manage to wrap it up in under an hour- spoiler alert.
It’s AFI time again and this week we’re chattin’ about Peter Bogdanovich’s beloved coming-of-age downer THE LAST PICTURE SHOW. It took us 5 films to get to a place of quasi-disagreement but there is more sparring than usual in this episode. Things get a little heated? Guess you’ll have to listen in to find out.
The summer of 2016 threatens to peak early as the 13th installment into the Marvel Cinematic Universe comes roaring into multiplexes on a wave of critical acclaim and financial expectation.
Join us for a gush-fest tempered by moments of constructive nit-pickery .
***Spoilers abound!
Next up on our AFI countdown is Spike Lee's seminal work, DO THE RIGHT THING. It's no secret that Oscar and I are big fans of this universally acclaimed film. But we do our best during the conversation to put the film into a historical context as opposed to a social one. It has always been a film to inspire controversy and conversation and we touch on both while also giving due credit to the exceptional ensemble cast, many of whom are doing career-best work here.
"I got it. I'm gone."
One of the most critically acclaimed films of 2016 (thus far) bowed this past weekend to huge box office and whether you agreed with the critics or felt your ticket money was well spent, it's hard to argue that Disney consistently represents an intimidating force in modern entertainment and has few qualms about repurposing its old properties in new packages for fresh audiences.
We have opinions. Oh we HAVE opinions. Listen in for a [mostly] spoiler free discussion about THE JUNGLE BOOK as well as brief chits and or chats about the ROGUE ONE teaser, 10 CLOVERFIELD LANE, EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!!, and HARDCORE HENRY.
So there.
We're back to our old AFI Top 100 Challenge tricks with a lengthy discussion about a science fiction masterpiece as misunderstood as it is influential.
There will be:
-Navel gazing
-Robot alcoholism
-Cyberpunk signifiers
-Industrial fans (not to be confused with fans of industry)
-Frank Lloyd Wright fetishism
It's too bad this podcast won't last. But then again, what does?
It's here. It's not going away. We might as well just talk about it.
Another Oscar ceremony has come and gone. Let's talk about it so that we can stop talking about it.