Episode 6 – The Big Lebowski

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Go fix yourself a White Russian, we’ll wait, because we’re watching The Big Lebowski (1998) with our good friend Jessica. Besides, you wouldn’t want us to drink alone, would you? We talk a LOT about the characters in this film, which makes sense, because it is a Coen brothers film after all. We also marvel over the best performance of John Goodman’s career. And what’s up with those dream sequences? If that’s what acid flashbacks are about, sign me up! Well, minus all nihilists with gigantic scissors…

Clarifications:

So the Jesus Quintana spin-off we mention is apparently called Going Places,  but will not involve the Coen brothers, although they have “given their blessing”. I’m sure John Turturro is talented enough to pull off the acting/writing/directing thing. But The Jesus without Joel and Ethan…? We’ll have to wait and see!

Jessica is referring to Lebowski’s in Glasgow (and Edinburgh!). Their “About” page says that “The Dude may have grown up a bit and settled in the suburbs, but they’re he’s bringing the party wherever he goes.” I call B.S. on that. I think the Dude is right where we left him, hanging out with Walter at some old bowling alley in L.A. Despite that nonsense they wrote, I would still stop in to Lebowski’s for a White Russian, I must admit.

The author of L.A. Confidential and The Black Dahlia is James Ellroy, in case you were wondering.

And Also:

Next episode: They Live (1988)

Episode 5 – Nebraska

Posted on by Charlie

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Grab your truck and air compressor, ’cause in this episode we review the 2013 Alexander Payne film Nebraska with our guest Patrick Hill. We discuss Payne’s portrayal of the Midwest, June Squibb’s “breakout” performance and several characters’ hair. And does Bruce Dern’s character Woody have dementia or is he just deluded? Plus, Patrick is the first guest to recommend an EXPERIENCE rather than a movie or TV show!

Clarifications:

Adam wants to point out that Will Forte was also in “Flight of the Conchords”, so I should have remembered him from that. For shame!

Here’s a link to an article about cars that can go over 200 mph. I don’t think any of the character’s in the film owned an Aston Martin though.

And also:

Next episode: The Big Lebowski (1998)

 

Episode 4 – The Apartment

Posted on by Charlie

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We keep chugging along, episode-wise, by watching “The Apartment”(1960), starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine with our guest Megan Heneke. This movie really makes us wonder whether all 50’s and 60’s office parties were like orgies, between this and Mad Men… We discuss the rampant sexism contained in the film; but how much was an intentional commentary and how much was just a product of the times? And we talk at length about the Fred MacMurray villain that Megan refers to as “worse villain than Bane”. Plus, we identify a couple of minor characters that deserve their own movies.

A new trailer for The Dark Tower came out this week, and Kara’s super excited. I’m just confused. But Idris Elba and Matthew McConaughey? Here’s what I say to that:

Speaking of money, around 18:50 or so, Megan says she couldn’t find how much Lemmon and MacLaine made for this film. As it turns out, both were paid the same amount, $175,000. So there was definitely some equity in that regard (thanks to Adam for digging that up).

Episode 3 – The Searchers

Posted on by Charlie

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Charlie and Jessica discuss the incredibly influential 1956 film The Searchers with our incredibly combative executive producer Adam Gobeski. Is the main character, Ethan, a psychopath? Is his best “friend” Martin just a 13 year old girl? Is every person named Charlie a complete chunk head?? How will you ever know unless you listen?!

Adam is a bit salty at the beginning of the program… and stays that way throughout! Then again, the Gobeski/Wallace dynamic has always been similar to the Ethan/Martin dynamic from The Searchers (Adam does always get a little ornery when Charlie calls him “uncle”).

There’s a little aside about obsolete storage format in which we discuss the Jaz drive, so here’s a link the the wikipedia entry in case you were as confused as I was.

Oh, and Adam has a Dr. Who blog, An Hour of Who A Day. It’s pretty entertaining and I suggest you check it out! I can see why a similar blog with Star Trek as the subject could get overwhelming quickly…

Episode 2 – Dead Poets Society

Posted on by Charlie

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This time, we strong-arm Ally (and Adam) into watching the 1989 drama Dead Poets Society. We get confused about which redhead is which, and Charlie can’t keep the characters names in his head for more than 5 seconds. Plus, we look fondly back at memories of teachers from our past, and which movies they made us watch when they were presumably hung-over.

We recorded two episodes at once, which might explain why my voice is gone by the end of the episode. Adam also makes an appearance, though he trolls us a little with random Ethan Hawke photos and fake movie recommendations. Guy’s in one episode and he thinks he can screw with the format! Well, he’s right!

In case you’ve never seen the final scene of the film, here is a clip that is very similar. Well, except for the end. The attention to detail up to that point is startling though.

Episode 1 – WarGames

Posted on by Charlie

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Episode 1 is finally here, and unlike Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace, you have no expectations and thus are unlikely to be disappointed! We forced our friends Adam and Ally to discuss the 1983 sci-fi comedy/drama/all-around-fun-movie WarGames. We discuss whether Lightman’s parents should have had their own movie, sequels that don’t exist (oh wait, they do!) and hair tousling.

Adam mentions the “Paranoid Chant” by the Minutemen. Was it inspired by WarGames? Three minutes of Googling wasn’t able to verify that so I guess we’ll never know! Catchy song though.