Grain of Salt: Ranking the 2018 Oscar Nominees
Watched ‘em all. Judged ‘em all. Ranked ‘em all. So there.
Read More270: Our Annual Oscar Postmortem (2019 Edition)
The Oscars came out of the gates with a bang and ended with a whimper. The night’s big winner was vexing but there were some legitimate highlights that we’ll likely be talking about for years to come.
Oscars. We watched ‘em. We’re talkin’ about ‘em. So there.
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269: Retrospectating 1999 - OFFICE SPACE
20 years ago today, a 10 million dollar workplace comedy directed by the 37 year old creator of Beavis and Butthead was released by a major Hollywood studio and audiences ignored it EN MASSE. Today it occupies rarefied air as one of the most beloved cult texts of the 1990s. On the occasion of Office Space‘s 20th anniversary we travel back to 1999 to talk Liquid Television, Cornholio, Generation X, and the enduring legacy of Gary Cole’s matching tie and suspender set. If you don’t listen to this episode expect a strongly-worded memo about TPS reports to land on your desk first thing tomorrow morning.
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268: Retrospectating 1999 - VARSITY BLUES / SHE'S ALL THAT
In honor of the 20th anniversary of one of the all time great movie years, we’re debuting a new feature in which we deep-dive into the most important films of the last year of the 20th century: “Retrospectating 1999!”
Join us for our inaugural episode in which we excavate the “year of the teenager” phenomenon when films like Varsity Blues and She’s All That inadvertently emerged as flagship texts for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it paradigmatic shift.
For a moment in 1999, everyone wanted to be 16. Luckily, your devoted podcast hosts actually were that age at the time. Finally it pays off!
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Media Management: Matt's 2018 Watchlist
I got detailed this year. I decided to keep track of EVERYTHING so I ended up with a particularly robust list, aided in no small part by the fact that I hit my goal of watching 365 films in 365 days. Hooray for goals!
Read More265: Oeuvre - The 6th Age of STEVEN SPIELBERG - 2008 - 2012
This installment is affectionately titled "The Struggle for Artistic Identity” (AKA “Who Am I?”) and spans 2008-2012:
-Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008)
-The Adventures of Tintin (2011)
-War Horse (2011)
-Lincoln (2012)
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Grain of Salt: Our OFFICIAL Oscar Predictions!
With 12 hours to go before the nominations are announced, we figured we better put our official predictions in print! After all, there’s legitimate folding money on the line here. We decided to focus on the 10 categories that we deemed “most important.” No offense meant to the craft and shorts categories. We’ll get deeper into them over the next month as the ceremony approaches. See you bright and early tomorrow morning!
Read More264: Oscar Predictions by Oscar (and Matt)
On a rare episode in which we actually recorded under the same roof (on the same microphone, no less!), we get down to business with Academy Awards talk. We pontificate and prognosticate as we reveal our individual predictions in all of the “major” categories and take the time to curate our “fantasy” scenarios of who we’d personally love to see nominated.
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Grain of Salt: Matt's Top 10 Films of 2018
What defined the cinema of 2018? Can it be encapsulated into a single concept, a defining moment, a phenomenon, a quote, a buzz word? Years from now, what will trigger the Proustian response that brings the last 12 months of movies flooding back into our collective memory like some kind of polyphonic reminiscence? Netflix, Black Panther, Moviepass, Roma, “Shallow,” Thanos, “Numnum Cookie,” Spider-Ham, the Oasis, the Shimmer, Bird Box, “Trip a Little Light Fantastic,” “I just wanna take another look at you,” BlacKkKlansman, “The Gal Who Got Rattled,” Henry Cavill’s mustache, Cynthia Erivo’s sprint, Ted Sarandos’ leer, the Cheddar Goblin..? Maybe it will just be Milly Shapiro’s guttural clicking noise from Hereditary... One thing’s for sure- 10 years from now when we’ve allowed the tumultuous state of the world in 2018 to fade from memory we will still look back fondly at this last year as being one that not only privileged us with an embarrassment of cinematic riches but also one in which movies proudly proclaimed: “Netflix or not, here I come! I am the cinema and regardless of the venue in which you care to meet me, I have something to show you that you’ve never seen before. My wonders never cease. I’ll learn to play by the new rules. But I’m not going anywhere.”
I watched 366 films in 2018 and 99 of those were in theaters. These are the 10 that represent the quality that stood out from the quantity:
262: Oscar & Matt's Top 10s of 2018
Dearest WLM family, it’s time for our favorite podcast of the year and, at the risk of being self-congratulatory, we think it’s one of our best episodes ever! It’s epic without being long-winded. There’s list overlap without complete crossover. There’s disagreement without dissent. There’s even a brief detour into our own personal lists of 2018 missed-movie-shame. It’s a good one.
Happy New Year, everybody. We’ve got big plans for 2019 and couldn’t be more excited to have you with us!
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261: AFI #70 - A CLOCKWORK ORANGE (1971)
“Oh bliss! Bliss and heaven! Oh, it was gorgeousness and gorgeousity made flesh. It was like a bird of rarest-spun heaven metal or like silvery wine flowing in a spaceship, gravity all nonsense now. As I slooshied, I knew such lovely pictures!”
260: Our 8th Anniversary and Last Podcast of 2018 Featuring THE FAVOURITE, SHOPLIFTERS, and ROMA!
On the occasion of the 8th anniversary of We Like Movies as well as our final “contemporary” podcast of 2018, we respectively submit a conversation about three of the most acclaimed films of the year, featuring a preamble with some hot-nom-talk.
It’s awards season, WLM fam. Catch the fever!
The episode breaks down, as follows:
THE FAVOURITE - 00:19:15
SHOPLIFTERS - 00:31:33
ROMA - 00:41:25
259: AFI #71 - SAVING PRIVATE RYAN [1998] (w/ Special Guest - Brian Boarini)
“Keep the sand out of your weapons. Keep those actions clear. I'll see you on the beach.”
258: AFI #72 - THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION (1994)
“I find I'm so excited, I can barely sit still or hold a thought in my head. I think it's the excitement only a free man can feel, a free man at the start of a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain. I hope I can make it across the border. I hope to see my friend and shake his hand. I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams. I hope.”
257: Post-Thanksgiving Catch-up w/ WIDOWS, GREEN BOOK, and CREED II
It’s the holiday season… turkeys are being eaten, top 10 lists are being constructed, awards have begun to be handed out in critics groups, and we’re trying to keep up with it all! Join us as we dive head-first into a catch-up pod that’s brimming over with content like so much Thanksgiving leftovers:
THE OLD MAN AND THE GUN - 00:05:45
FANTASTIC BEASTS: THE CRIMES OF GRINDELWALD - 00:9:47
WIDOWS - 00:15:52
GREEN BOOK - 00:30:35
CREED II - 00:41:05
256: AFI #73 - BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID (1969)
In honor of the passing of screenwriting luminary William Goldman we decided to move this episode up in our schedule to pay tribute to one of the most talented scribes ever to sire a slugline.
And, in case you missed it a couple weeks back, consider checking out our episode dedicated to All the President’s Men- Goldman’s other, legendary Oscar-winning screenplay.
255: AFI #74 - THE SILENCE OF THE LAMBS (1991)
"I do wish we could chat longer, but... I'm having an old friend for dinner."