FS #288: The White Ribbon / The Book of Eli / 2009 Top 5 Blowout
Also on the show: Music by Animal Collective and Massacre Theatre -- presented by Pixar Talk. This week's winner will get the Pixar DVD of their choice.
Filmspotting #288
:13-11:14 - Review: "The White Ribbon"
11:15-21:24 - Review: "The Book of Eli"
Music: Animal Collective, "Doggy"
22:11-26:52 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: S. Aparicio)
26:53-33:13 - Voicemail, Polls, Notes
33:14-43:09 - Listener Feedback
Music: Animal Collective, "Also Frightened"
43:57-52:37 - New DVDs / Donations
52:38-1:13:19 - 2009 Top 5 Blowout
1:13:20-1:16:09 - Close / Next Show / Outtake
NOTES
- If your version of this podcast doesn't have the same audio quality as normal, that's because we were adjusting some settings. Hopefully everything is back to normal, but earlier downloaded versions of this show may sound a little less crisp.
- Filmspotting's Top 25 Films of 2009
- Learn more about "William Kunstler: Disturbing the Universe", which is playing now at the Gene Siskel Film Center.
- Get a chance to win "The Boys are Back" on DVD.
- Sundance/Filmspotting Meetup details.
- Jeff Goldsmith's Creative Screenwriting Podcast can be accessed through iTunes here.
- Follow more notes and corrections at http://twitter.com/filmspotting.
Labels: Michael Haneke, The Book of Eli, The White Ribbon
posted by Candace @ 2:05 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Bright Star deserves way more credit than that.
Adam you need to see Four Lions its Chris Morris's directorial debut he also wrote it. Hes one of the most brilliant comic minds of the last 20 years. Have you ever wondered where Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart got their schtick's from him. Heres some youtube profile on him.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLbSZatEoYE
For the "Cameo So Damn Weird It Pulled Me Out of the Movie" award, I vote for Matt Damon in CHE. He's the missionary in the jungle. He's in it for about 30 seconds. Soderbergh claimed to want to "make a movie that didn't look like a movie"...one step towards realizing that irrational goal would be...NOT PUTTING MATT DAMON IN A CAMEO. Also, CHE may have come out most place last year, but my art house didn't show it until January '09.
When is Denzel Washington going to do a role that actually surprises us?
My three favorite filmspotting reviews of 2009:
(1) 'Avatar' (for being two of the surprising few reviewers who are of the opinion that special effects do not compensate for a truly bad script).
(2) 'Brothers' (for being objective in their assessment, unlike most of the other critics dismissed it as "melodramatic" while universally praising the ridiculously over-the-top 'Precious' only weeks earlier).
(3) 'Antichrist' (for encouraging me to go out of my way to see an excellent and challenging film I probably would have missed otherwise).
Saw "Big Fan" last night and I mostly agree with Matty and Adam. A couple things bothered me about it though. Patton Oswalt's character was pretty well defined, especially considering it was a dark comedy not a melodrama, but his friend was not defined at all.
Also, I like Michael Rappaport, he was one of my favorite things about True Romance, but he really didn't do a lot in this movie, in my opinion. The call ins to the radio station he could do in his sleep, and his big scene was good but I didn't buy it/him so much.
Finally, I see the Matty and Adam Avatar hate continues. Since I generally agree with a lot of the discussion on the show, it certainly wouldn't cause me to stop listening but the snarkiness has more in common with Perez Hilton than Roger Ebert.
Where were we particularly snarky? I thought we were having fun but respectful and didn't draw it out any longer than it needed to be. We got a very funny (and very snarky) voicemail. Without that I doubt Avatar would have come up again. Believe me, I'd love to move on.
Every Avatar reference, and there were plenty, was full of snark. I don't know if one mention stood out from the rest.
You guys have drawn a line in the sand that the visuals were good and everything else was bad, which is fine but for the fact that the carping has continued well into its run, and boy does Avatar have legs.
I also recall you guys begrugingly acknowledged it won a Golden Globe or two. Ah well, I had hoped maybe your guys' pleasant experience with the Book of Eli might have allowed you to put Avatar behind you. (That was me being snarky).
While I'm here, your praise for Moon has set my expectations pretty high (it's on its way from Netflix as we speak), Christian Bale was indeed terrible in Terminator and Public Enemies, but I blame him less for the latter because I think Michael Mann is partly responsible. Keep up the good work and hopefully Avatar will kind of fade away for you both. I'm sure as critics you and Matty have seen plenty of movies before Avatar that you didn't care for but were either critical or commercial hits.
But it isn't well into it's run for us, Jonathan... this show was only our second after reviewing it. Should we have not played that funny, pithy voicemail just because someone might think we were piling on? Or not shared our poll results from the previous week because they mentioned Avatar? (If we had instead gotten a voicemail that funny defending Avatar, I would have been happy to play it.)
I can assure you we are not going out of our way to rip on this movie, and certainly not more than any other. There's no benefit in it, nor do I take any particular pleasure in snark. I think it's fair to say that has never been a hallmark of our show.
You should probably lower your Moon expectations. I foresee trouble.
Of course there's pleasure in snark. It's been a pleasure to hear it, although I do like Avatar. But I think you have good points.
Hey, I finally got to see Moon. Outstanding! Thanks for your recommendation.
I let a friend borrow it, too, and he absolutely loved it. It became his favorite movie of 2009.
I saw Moon last weekend and loved it. Sam Rockwell was great. I can't recall so many fantastic sci fi films in one year: District 9, Avatar and Moon, three instant classics.
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