FS #115 (WBEZ Edition): Lady In The Water / Clerks 2 / Ed Burns / Male Bonding Movies
On this Chicago Public Radio edition of Filmspotting: Narfs, Scrunts and Inter-Species Erotica ... oh my.
While folks in Hollywood held their collective breath waiting to see if M. Night Shyamalan would be punished with bad box office returns for his recent spate of insolence (he was), Kevin Smith's "Clerks II" was released to much less fanfare. Smith's previous effort, "Jersey Girl," was largely dismissed by critics and ignored by the public, so it would have been fair to assume that "Clerks II" was merely a crass, uninspired attempt to win back Smith purists. Which is pretty much exactly how Adam and Sam approached the film. And boy were they wrong. A note of warning: the movie is exceedingly vulgar -- just in case you were thinking of bringing the kids.
Thanks to early chatter declaring Shyamalan a monster of arrogance and his new film an abomination, Adam and Sam went into "Lady in the Water" with significantly diminished expectations -- so diminished that one of them even emerged from the theater ready to assign the film a relatively generous "not bad." If Shyamalan's films have become increasingly (and annoyingly) preachy, "Lady" is, at the very least, a pretty harmless sermon: something about realizing how special you are. Or something. With exceptional lead performances by Paul Giamatti and Bryce Dallas Howard, and a slew of overqualified actors in smaller parts (Jeffrey Wright, Bill Irwin, Mary Beth Hurt, Bob Balaban), Shyamalan's mythic hokum (and it really is a bunch of hooey) goes down fairly smoothly.
Plus: an interview with writer/director/actor Ed Burns about his new film The Groomsmen, Massacre Theatre and our Top 5 Male Bonding Movies.
Music by Scott H. Biram from the album "Graveyard Shift" courtesy of Bloodshot Records.
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Filmspotting #115
:24-14:15 - Review: "Lady In The Water"
Music: Scott H. Biram, "Lost Case of Being Found"
14:59-29:16 - Review: "Clerks II"
Music: Scott H. Biram, "Blood, Sweat and Murder"
30:27-34:21 - Massacre Theatre, Poll Questions
34:22-41:54 - Interview: Ed Burns
Music: Scott H. Biram, "Have No Fun"
42:51-45:08 - Top 5 Review: 'Chick' Flicks
45:09-58:03 - Top 5: Male Bonding Movies
58:04-59:44 - Next Show/Close/Outtake
Have a comment or Top 5 list you'd like to share? Send an e-mail or short mp3 clip to feedback@filmspotting.net. Or give us a call at 206-203-CINE and leave a voice message.
3 Comments:
i enjoy the podcast, but i'm beginning to lose interest in yet another forum for heterosexual white men to make money on their opinions of other heterosexual white men.
i thought we had the "chick flick" mess behind us, but this week the fact that women rate one condescending top five list while men rate every single other came rushing back, when you used a chick flick list to, ahem, "balance" a male bonding list, just one of many aspects of heterosexual male behaviour you explore at length. (what, no "brokeback mountain" on either male bonding list?)
interesting that on wbez you called the chick flick list "equal time" then rushed through it as quickly as you could get the words out so you could focus on heterosexual white men again. you do seem to know you're doing something wrong here, as you insisted that you were being "ironic" in dismissing half the human race with one very confused list of movies with women in them.
would you do a top five "nigga" flicks and include everything from menace II society to jungle fever to friday to soul food to white chicks? or perhaps you would then finally realize that you should just include more movies that aren't about heterosexual white men and their various proclivities in all your lists.
i'm sorry to be the strident diversity nut, but i hope that as your entertaining show grows, your understanding of these issues will too.
Crazy thing... we're 30 year old hetero white males. If our reviews/top 5 lists carry that slant, nobody should be surprised.
We devoted an entire top 5 segment to our 'chick' flicks list -- and the only thing ironic was the title. If you listen to that show, we devoted just as much time and energy to that list as we did the male bonding top 5.
I've been thinking a lot lately about how I'd love to do a Top 5 African-American Movies list or a Top 5 Homosexual Movies list. The problem is, I fear too many people like you would write in suggesting either a) It was offensive to even attempt such lists being, of course, hetero white males or b) The effort was nice, but since we don't actually know anything about these experiences, our lists suck. Frankly, I don't see how we can win.
I spent four years at an extremely liberal, diverse college -- and LOVED every minute of it. The (condescending?) suggestion that I need further diversity training... well, I am sorry if I bristle at it a little... But we do appreciate the feedback.
You've got to be kidding me.
Damn you Sam, damn you Adam for liking things that you can relate to. It is resonable that you would gain the most enjoyment from characters and situations that you could possibly see yourselves in. As you've said many times, film watching is subjective. You bring the whole of your experience to everything you sit down to.
I stand firm behind you, against those that would stir the hatepot with their giant, wooden posting spoon. Your show demonstrates that you are not only sensitive to, but revel in differences of all kinds.
I.E. - You two are still friends, even after the SinCity thing.
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