It's Matt's Birthday, which means he has free rein to talk about any subject he wants this week. Topics include the biggest pricks in cinema history, male role models in movies, and planning a birthday film festival.
00:00:00 - 00:16:55 - Intro & News
00:16:56 - 00:56:25 - Matt & Ed discuss a bunch of stuff
00:56:26 - 01:05:50 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Thirty years ago, the world was first introduced to Frances "Baby" Houseman and Johnny Castle. In the years since, Dirty Dancing has spawned legions of fans, a successful musical adaptation, a misbegotten prequel and a TV remake best left forgotten, which is good going for a low-budget movie starring two relative unknowns with a plot that hinges on an abortion. Matt and Ed are joined by returning guest Michaela Livingstone-Banks to talk about Dirty Dancing as a phenomenon, their favourite moments from the movie, and what, if anything, Johnny has to do with the JFK assassination.
00:00:00 - 00:03:52 - Intro
00:03:53 - 00:24:32 - News
00:24:33 - 01:16:42 - Matt, Ed & Michaela talk about Dirty Dancing
01:16:43 - 01:22:17 - SRS Recommends & Outro
The third film in the Thor strand of the MCU hit US theatres this past weekend and was met with a tidal wave of positive reviews and huge financial success. Perhaps more excitingly, at least from Matt and Ed's point of view, Thor: Ragnarok is the latest film from New Zealand writer/actor/director Taika Waititi. They discuss the ways in which Waititi retained his personality and sense of humour despite a vastly increased budget and higher scrutiny, whether Ragnarok represents a change in direction for Marvel, and how weirdly funny Jeff Goldblum is in the movie. They also talk about the latest batch of sexual assault scandals coming out of Hollywood, Amazon's mad idea to remake Lord of the Rings as a TV show, and how hard it is to explain Bonfire Night to non-British people.
Here is the article about Taika Waititi insisting on hiring Aboriginal people to work on Ragnarok.
Here is the Every Frame a Painting video about the MCU's bland musical palette.
00:00:00 - 00:03:02 - Intro
00:03:02 - 00:29:42 - News
00:29:43 - 01:27:19 - Matt & Ed discuss Thor: Ragnarok and the state of Marvel movies in general
01:27:20 - 01:37:08 - SRS Recommends & Outro
It's Halloween, and Matt and Ed are joined by returning guest Kayleigh Donaldson to discuss a suitably spooky subject: Stephen King, the prolific and influential horror writer who, between It, Gerald's Game and 1922 (less so The Dark Tower) is having something of a moment. They also discuss the Phantom Thread trailer, pick over the complete implosion of Suburbicon, and they pitch Terrence Malick on a potential film for his purported return to more conventional filmmaking.
00:00:00 - 00:22:22 - Intro and News
00:22:23 - 01:11:52 - Matt, Ed and Kayleigh discuss Stephen King's work
01:11:53 - 01:13:26 - Outro
Inspired by their shared re-evaluation of Blade Runner a few weeks ago, Matt and Ed talk about movies they misjudged, either because they dismissed them only to later discover that they were masterpieces, or fully endorsed before shamefacedly backtracking at a later date. They also discuss Netflix's decision to spend $8 billion of making original movies and $1 on marketing them, getting old, and James Toback. Ed also finds time to rail against Apple's truly appalling update to their podcasting app.
00:00:00 - 00:10:00 - Intro
00:10:01 - 00:33:54 - News
00:33:55 - 01:30:04 - Matt & Ed talk about movies that they were wrong about
01:30:05 - 01:38:29 - SRS Recommends & Outro
One of the most talked about pop culture events of this summer was the unlikely resurrection of Twin Peaks, David Lynch and Mark Frost's landmark work which brought a new level of visual, thematic and philosophical sophistication to American television before flaming out in glorious fashion with one of the most harrowing series finales of all time.
Befitting a series which left its hero (Agent Dale Cooper, played by Kyle Maclachlan) trapped in a strange netherworld for a quarter of a century, Twin Peak returned feeling both familiar and not. The cast (at least, those who had not passed away in the intervening years) were back, but the tone was darker, more abrasive, and the story flew in the face of all conventions of the medium. Once the show had finished airing there had been time to take in a fuller view of Lynch and Frost's work, Ed sat down with writer and producer Emily Benita, who is currently the producer of the great history podcast Past Tense, to talk about The Return in a wide-ranging discussion that involved good, evil, grace, nostalgia, misogyny, stagnation...basically everything, and they didn't even scratch the surface.
Before all that, Matt and Ed talk about the week's news, including the latest fallout from the Harvey Weinstein scandal, Sylvester Stallone taking over as director of Creed 2, and James Corden being spectacularly terrible. But, like, more so than usual.
00:00:00 - 00:01:27 - Intro
00:01:28 - 00:30:17 - Matt and Ed discuss the news
00:30:18 - 02:22:45 - Ed and Emily discuss Twin Peaks: The Return
02:22:46 - 02:24:21 - Outro
The long-gestating sequel to Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic Blade Runner hit theatres this week to glowing reviews and disappointing box office. As two recently converted Blade Runner skeptics, Matt and Ed talk about Denis Villeneuve's Blade Runner 2049, an ambitious movie which, like its predecessor, raises a lot of questions: Was Deckard a replicant? How much does it owe to the work of Andrei Tarkovsky? And is Jared Leto "perfectly tolerable" in this movie?
They also discuss the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the spectacularly dumb Rick and Morty/Szechuan sauce farrago, and whether Jessica Williams joining the cast of the Fantastic Beasts... sequel could possibly balance out the Eddie Redmayne-shaped void at the heart of that franchise.
00:00:00 - 00:01:47 - Intro
00:01:48 - 00:35:11 - News
00:35:12 - 01:26:41 - Matt & Ed talk about Blade Runner 2049 (Spoilers abound!)
01:26:42 - 01:33:44 - SRS Recommends & Outro
After a gap of twelve years, Star Trek is back on television! Sort of.
The latest iteration of Gene Roddenberry's sci-fi classic, Star Trek: Discovery, debuted on CBS All Access and Netflix (depending on your location) last week, so Ed (a Star Trek fan) and Matt (a Star Trek skeptic) watched the first two episodes and debated their merits, and ask what does a new Star Trek have to say about 2017? Also, is there too much exposition? Why are there so many Dutch Angles? And how is Discovery like The Lost Boys? Some of these questions are answered on this week's show.
00:00:00 - 00:01:18 - Intro
00:01:19 - 00:26:52 - News
00:26:53 - 01:07:50 - Matt & Ed talk about Star Trek: Discovery
01:07:51 - 01:13:57 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Pump up the world! Matt's returned from travelling around the real world and is ready to put the film world on notice.
After talking about all the amazing places he visited over nine months of travel, Matt and Ed discuss some of the big stories of the year that they weren't able to cover in his absence, including Moonlight winning Best Picture, the fragility of Star Wars directors, and the horrendous summer box office. Then they talk about a very current scandal rocking the film critic and cinephile communities: the sexual assault allegations against AICN's Harry Knowles, and the broader crisis of a film culture which is a male-dominated space that's at best unwelcoming to women.
00:00:00 - 00:01:29 - Intro
00:01:30 - 00:54:41 - Matt & Ed catch up and discuss the big stories of the year so far
00:54:42 - 01:11:02 - Discussion of the Alamo Drafthouse/Fantastic Fest/Harry Knowles scandal
01:11:03 - 01:18:32 - SRS Recommends & Outro
To mark the end of the summer blockbuster season and the rapidly approaching glut of prestigious autumn releases, Ed is joined by returning guest and friend of the show John Hunter to discuss the movies that they're looking forward to over the next four months. They also run down the best movies of the summer, try to figure out which awards season movies are secretly Cloverfield sequels, and mourn the death of Tobe Hooper.
00:00:00 - 00:06:31 - Intro & News
00:06:32 - 00:36:56 - Summer Movie Wrap-Up
00:36:57 - 02:09:57 - Ed & John preview the next four months of movies
02:09:58 - 02:17:38 - SRS Recommends & Outro
On this week's show, Ed is joined by returning guest, and producer of the upcoming London Podcast Festival, Zoë Jeyes to talk about The Leftovers, HBO's wildly ambitious post-apocalyptic drama which recently aired its third and final season (so lots of SPOILERS ahead). In addition to tracking the way in which the show evolved from season to season, debating the meaning of the finale, and marveling at Justin Theroux's a̶b̶s̶ acting talent, they talk about London Podcast Festival Presents: Wrestling, a day devoted to podcasts celebrating the wonderful world of kayfabe.
Apologies in advance for some of the audio issues in this episode. We tried to reduce them as much as possible.
00:00:00 - 00:04:23 - Intro/Ed & Zoë talk about the London Podcast Festival
00:04:24 - 00:57:50 - Ed & Zoë discuss The Leftovers
00:57:51 - 01:02:49 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Film critic (and newly minted podcaster) Nathanael Smith returns to the show to talk about the recently completed Polygon web series Car Boys, an immensely funny show about crashing computer generated cars which wound up being intensely surreal and moving. They also talk about Nathanael's new podcast The VOD Pod, a show which provides a guiding light for those looking for something good to watch on streaming services, and look back on the first six months of 2017 and try to figure out if cinema is dead or not. Ed also finally gets to rant about Kong: Skull Island.
- Tony Zhou's video essay about Satoshi Kon, which Nathanael references towards the end of the episode, can be watched on his YouTube channel here.
00:00:00 - 00:06:10 - Intro/Ed and Nathanael talk about The VOD Pod
00:06:11 - 00:19:25 - Ed & Nathanael share their highlights from the first six months of 2017
00:19:26 - 00:45:18 - Ed & Nathanael talk about Car Boys
00:45:19 - 00:54:29 - SRS Recommends/Outro
In this minisode, Ed breaks down Twin Peaks for newcomers (or old fans who may have forgotten the salient details) ahead of the long-awaited revival of the show. He lays out the plot (not to mention the subplots), the reasons why the show's original run fell apart, and why people are so excited about the return of a show which ended ignominously more than 25 years ago. Ed also pays tribute to Car Boys, the recently completed YouTube series from Polygon.
00:00:00 - 00:02:30 - Intro
00:02:31 - 00:32:51 - Ed talks about Twin Peaks
00:32:52 - 00:38:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro
In an episode years in the making, Ed sits down with historian and friend Jack Rhoden to discuss the work of Kevin Costner. In addition to talking about specific films from the actor/director's back catalogue, they examine his status as a movie star, the almost mythic way in which he is used by some filmmakers to evoke a sense of Americana, and the peaks and valleys of a career that has had plenty of both. They also manage to compare Costner to both Lyndon Baines Johnson and indie-rock stalwarts Spoon, which is a pretty decent spectrum.
00:00:00 - 00:06:10 - Intro
00:06:11 - 01:03:21 - Ed & Jack discuss the career of Kevin Costner
01:03:22 - 01:09:23 - SRS Recommends & Outro
The much-anticipated (by a fervert and vocal sub-section of comedy nerds) return of Mystery Science Theater 3000, the comedy series which raised mocking bad movies to an artform in the '80s and '90s, finally came to pass this weekend as Netflix aired 14 new episodes of the show. Despite new faces, new voices and new writers, the show remains pleasingly familiar and relentlessly funny. In this very short minisode, Ed offers a primer on the series for newcomers and discusses why it's a good continuation of the series for old fans, and the ways in which it makes for a better revival of a long-dormant series than The X-Files did.
This past Friday saw the release of Five Came Back, a three-part documentary series adapted from Mark Harris' great book "Five Came Back: A Story of Hollywood and the Second World War", which recounts the story of five legendary Hollywood directors - Frank Capra, John Ford, John Huston, George Stevens, William Wyler - who left their careers behind and spent World War II making documentaries and propaganda for the U.S. military, in the process creating a series of films which shaped how audiences understood the war, and marked a significant development in the history of documentary filmmaking. The experience also took its toll on the filmmakers, leaving them scarred and having a profound impact on their work and lives.
Ed is joined by fellow podcaster and writer Noel Thingvall (@NoelCT) to discuss the series, the works of the directors profiled, and Five Came Back's place within the Netflix catalogue.
00:00:00 - 00:02:52 - Intro
00:02:53 - 00:56:27 - Ed & Noel discuss Five Came Back
00:56:28 - 01:01:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Jordan Peele's Get Out has been an early highlight of 2017: a suspenseful, funny, unsettling thriller that explores social anxieties surrounding race in America in a way which manages to be both subtle and undeniably pointed. It's a remarkable debut, drawing on everything from Rosemary's Baby to Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, and its continued success in the US is a testament to Peele's ability to pinpoint and deliver a swift shock to America's nervous system. Ed is joined for a SPOILER-filled discussion of the movie, as well as the broader discourse surrounding it, by fellow critic and Key & Peele fan Nathanael Smith (@NathanaelSmith on Twitter).
They also get distracted and spend a portion of the episode talking about how great Gugu Mbatha-Raw is, because why wouldn't they? She's amazing.
00:00:00 - 00:04:19 - Intro
00:04:20 - 00:58:49 - Ed & Nathanael discuss Get Out (spoilers start in earnest at 21:00)
00:58:50 - 01:05:03 - SRS Recommends & Outro
In this episode - which, despite being inspired by a film called The Irishman and being recorded over St. Patrick's Day weekend, is categorically not a St. Patrick's Day episode - Ed is joined by critic and podcaster Kayleigh Donaldson (@Ceilidhann on Twitter) to discuss Netflix's recent acquisition of Martin Scorsese's long-gestating gangster epic, as well as how the growth of upstart studios and distributors like Netflix, Amazon, A24, Blumhouse and Annapurna Pictures are shaking up the status quo in Hollywood. There's also some talk about whether or not Jeff Bezos is trying to kill God.
Kayleigh's piece on The Irishman, "How Netflix Stole Martin Scorsese's Dream Project From Hollywood" can be found on Screen Rant.
00:00:00 - 00:01:30 - Intro
00:01:31 - 01:10:44 - Ed and Kayleigh discuss The Irishman, Netflix and Amazon's original film slate, the death of the mid-budget movie, Blumhouse. A whole bunch of stuff, really.
01:10:45 - 01:16:50 - SRS Recommends & Outro
Somehow, it's been twenty years since Buffy the Vampire Slayer debuted on the WB, a humble start for a show which would go on to build a huge cult following and fundamentally alter fantasy and sci-fi storytelling on television. To help unpack this momentus occasion, Ed is joined by Zoë Jeyes and Ellie Graham to talk about the highs ("Hush", "The Zeppo", "Once More with Feeling") and lows (that weird sex episode) of the series, its continuing metaphorical richness, and the vagaries of BBC scheduling.
00:00:00 - 00:02:23 - Intro
00:02:24 - 00:59:21 - Ed, Ellie & Zoë discuss Buffy the Vampire Slayer
00:59:22 - 01:04:31 - SRS Recommends & Outro
In this minisode (which in no way lives up to the term because it's just as long as every other episode but shush) Ed counts down the ten best films to ever win Best Picture from the Academy Awards. It's almost relentlessly positive, unless his picks enrage you. Listen to find out if they do!
NB: This episode was recorded before the Oscars ceremony, so, er, don't be surprised that I didn't manage to predict the weirdest damn thing to ever happen at the Oscars.
