Grain of Salt: Ranking the 2017 Oscar Nominees

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So for the 3rd year in a row I actually managed to squeeze in a viewing of every single film nominated for an Oscar (yes, Mom, even THE BOSS BABY). That would be 59 films in total and if you average that out over the 12 months since the earliest Oscar nominee hit theaters (Happy Birthday, GET OUT, you just turned 1 this weekend!) it's only about 5 movies a month. Of course, a year ago I didn't know to make sure that I caught FERDINAND, WONDER, and ROMAN J. ISRAEL, ESQ. in theaters. So I've been doing my usual cram-session and managed to hit my 59th movie with only hours to spare.

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232: ANNIHILATION reactions and Our Official Oscar Predictions!

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Our conversation is lengthy this week as we have a great many thoughts about Alex Garland's sophomore feature ANNIHILATION.
But the real meat of the episode is an overthink-a-thon about all 24 Oscar categories culminating with us putting our predictions on the record!

Oh, and just for fun, in honor of the controversial "preferential" ballot that determines the best picture winner, we each organized our own this week to get a sense of how we'd rank the 9 nominees if we were voting members of the Academy. It's a strictly academic exercise but here's what we came up with:

Matt
9. DARKEST HOUR
8. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
7. THE POST
6. GET OUT
5. THE SHAPE OF WATER
4. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME
3. PHANTOM THREAD
2. LADY BIRD
1. DUNKIRK

Oscar
9. DARKEST HOUR
8. THE POST
7. THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
6. GET OUT
5. THE SHAPE OF WATER
4. LADY BIRD
3. DUNKIRK
2. PHANTOM THREAD
1. CALL ME BY YOUR NAME

 

231: BLACK PANTHER's got legs (and claws!)

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You will not be able to stay home, brother
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and
Skip out for beer during commercials
Because the revolution will not be televised
...the revolution will be live

The multiplexes were pulsating over the weekend with an electricity rarely experienced during the flyover months. Not only did BLACK PANTHER arrive bearing the good will and sustenance to feed an underserved audience but it coasted in on unanimous critical acclaim and made box office history in less than 4 days. We're here to talk about it cuz it's what everybody's talkin' about!
Our review kicks in at 00:20:10 and the spoilers come fast and furiously!   

Grain of Salt: One Tuxedo Fits All - The Many Faces of 007

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“The image of Bond as mythological hero may be a likely one when one considers that the decade of the Sixties was seriously lacking in real-life heroes. An increasingly unpopular war in Southeast Asia could not yield the Eisenhowers and MacArthurs who stepped forth from the glory of World War II. Domestically, assassin's bullets robbed the public of the men who seemed destined for even greater prominence as politicians and humanitarians. In an age of such turmoil and uncertainty when flesh-and-blood heroes could be cut down in less than a heartbeat, perhaps there was a psychological need for a hero-even a fictional hero-who was invincible.” -Drew Moniot

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230: Top 10s of 2017 Plus Oscar Nomination Predictions!

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It took us until practically the end of January but we made it just under the wire in time to get our Top 10 of 2017 lists on the record before the Oscar nominations were announced (barely). Join us for a lively discussion with less overlap that usual as we count down the 2017 movies that reminded us why we bother making lists like these in the first place. Then stay tuned as we quickly log our official Oscar predictions in advance of tomorrow's nomination ceremony.
Remember 2017? We'll never let it die!

For Matt's long-winded blurbs on his picks click here!

226: Discussing THE DISASTER ARTIST and THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

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It's awards season! It's happening! There's no turning back! You can't escape it!
With that in mind we dedicated this week's episode to running down the 4 major critic's circle prizes that have been announced over the last 2 weeks as well as taking some quality time to address a couple of those award winners in earnest:
00:21:30 - THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI
00:38:30 - THE DISASTER ARTIST
Vive la différence!

225: Judging JUSTICE LEAGUE and Loving LADY BIRD

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It's our 2nd comic book behemoth review in as many weeks here at We Like Movies and the overwhelming fatigue has certainly crept into our collective unconscious. We struggle valiantly to remain constructive as opposed to outright dismissive about the inevitable JUSTICE LEAGUE fiasco on this week's episode. We fail just as often as we succeed- comic critical mass is a real thing, after all... But, on the upside, we also take the opportunity to gush about Greta Gerwig's delightful LADY BIRD which is almost an effective counteractant for DC doldrums.... almost...
Oh, and MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS too... cuz that's also a movie. Seriously!  

224: The Unconventional Conventionality of THOR: RAGNAROK

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After an early winter hiatus we're back at it and in familiar territory with our bi-yearly shlep into the weird, wacky, wonderful, yet confoundingly customary Marvel Cinematic Universe. It's time for our spoiler-free, shoulder-shrugging reaction to THOR: RAGNAROK, the 17th (!) installment in the venerable, nigh-unstoppable MCU.   

223: A 35 year old genre classic gets sequelized in BLADE RUNNER 2049

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If you thought the original BLADE RUNNER was dark, somber, deliberately-paced, and philosophically-inlined, then boy-howdy you've yet to experience the sequel. BLADE RUNNER 2049, a film nearly 4 decades in the making, has finally arrived on a wave of critical swooning and breathless anticipation... only to be met with a wildly disappointing opening weekend at the box office. Join us as we break down the film's complicated relationship with its predecessor, its ambitious approach to "franchise" filmmaking, and the implications of its current financial predicament.
Casual spoilers kick in at 00:41:45
SERIOUS spoilers kick in at 00:49:01

Bonus! If you're interested in hearing a more in-depth discussion about the 1982 original, check out this episode of our AFI Top 100 Challenge from April of last year: BLADE RUNNER

222: The MOTHER! of all Podcasts and our awards season preview

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This week on your podcast of podcasts we journey down the allegorical rabbit hole with a giddily bible-obsessed (not to be confused with bible-THUMPING) Darren Aronofsky and get conflicted about his latest, unhinged, Studio-produced, "arthouse" oddity MOTHER!

But first we run down the release schedule through the end of 2017 and psyche ourselves up about awards season hopefuls.

Fall-in! 

218: Nolan Redefines Yet Another Genre with the Breathtaking DUNKIRK

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Here we are, 1 episode shy of our podcast bicentennial, and what better way to celebrate the occasion than with a review of one of the most hotly-anticipated films of the summer? Christopher Nolan’s 10th directorial feature, the big, short, artsy war epic DUNKIRK bowed to nearly unanimous raves over the weekend. It appears the best picture starter pistol has officially been discharged.

We embrace Nolan’s newfound taste for brevity with a nice tight episode of our own. But before we get into the Nolan gush-fest we gotta catch up on some Comic-Con trailer premieres, brief TV talk, and an overdue reaction to SPIDERMAN: HOMECOMING.

DUNKIRK business kicks in at 00:24:18   

217: The Problematic Brevity of THE BEGUILED and a contrarian BABY DRIVER opinion

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Here's the juice this week:
-We stew and hand-wring about the unceremonious sacking of Lord and Miller from the Han Solo movie.
-We chat amicable about THE LITTLE HOURS and the miraculous rise of Kate Micucci.
-We get briefly nostalgic regarding the cinematic output of 2017's first 6 months.
-We bemoan the missed opportunities abound in Sofia Coppola's remake of THE BEGUILED.
-We get awfully impassioned while agreeing (though likely not how you'd expect us to) about Edgar Wright's new heist bauble, BABY DRIVER (hard core SPOILERS kick in at 00:52:30).
We're gettin' awfully close to bicentennial time. Don't act like you're not excited <3

214: 2017 Fantasy Film League Draft, the CASSIDY RED premiere, and a controversial WONDER WOMAN stance

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The past week has been quite busy for our fearless podcasters.
Travel, movie premieres, hobnobbing, and meeting-taking has defined the first week of June.
Needless to say there's much to discuss and we decided to do it in this order:
-A run-down of the 2017 Fantasy Film League Draft
-Comparing notes and nostalgicly reflecting on last Friday's world premiere of CASSIDY RED
-A brief and perhaps controversial discussion on the social implications of WONDER WOMAN's cultural impact.
So much to discuss we may need to launch a spinoff podcast!

213: Scandinavians take the Caribbean in DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES

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Heyo!
This week we're talkin' Cannes, we're talkin' ALIEN: COVENENT, we're talkin' KING ARTHUR, we're even talkin' Netflix (natch).
We also shamelessly (albeit briefly) plug the upcoming world premiere of CASSIDY RED (if you're gonna be in LA this Friday, June 2nd, you should come out and join us!).
And, of course we gotta talk PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES because, you know, it's what we do.   

211: Summer 2017 Trailer Roundup and GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY vol. 2 Review

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Summer movie season has arrived f'reals.
Join us as we sound off about the inaugural film of summa 2017: GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY vol. 2.
Not to toot the proverbial horn but this is really good one. It's tight, streamlined, contenty, to-the-point, and we even disagree. Which is pretty novel for this podcast!
Spoilers abound for pretty much the entire GOTGv2 convo so if you haven't seen the movie yet, you'd best bow out at 00:19:45.
Fair warning! 

210: Video Games, STAR WARS Teasers and THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS as Treatise on the State of the Franchise

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We’re back!

After a spring hiatus we return to you, our beloved WLM brethren, with a discussion about one of this podcast’s most enduring and beloved topics: The Freakin’ Fast and The Furious Franchise.

But, seeing as we’ve been off for almost a month we have a lot of catching up to do. So the first half of this podcast features a diverse swath of chit-chat, ranging from the great movie theaters of New York City, brief “We Like Podcasts” and “We Like Video Games” segments, and our inevitable reaction to the recently-premiered teaser for THE LAST JEDI.
THE FATE OF THE FURIOUS talk begins in earnest at 00:43:30 and yes there will absolutely be spoilers.

It’s good to be back. We’ve missed you. You're like family and it's all about family, right?