Filmspotting #116: My Man Godfrey / Down in the Valley / Early Movie Memories

After praising mainly the performances of William Powell and Myrna Loy in "The Thin Man," Adam and Sam approached the second film in their Screwball Comedies Marathon -- Gregory La Cava's "My Man Godfrey" (1936) -- with the confidence that things would only get better. And that hope was realized -- for one of them. "Not enough screwball in this comedy," says one, tapping his inner Joel Siegel. "I didn't stop laughing," says the other. One even goes so far as to dismiss star Carole Lombard, in perhaps her defining role, as merely "okay."

Also, a review of David Jacobson's "Down in the Valley" with Ed Norton and Evan Rachel Wood. Released earlier this year, but currently out of theatres and not yet on DVD, Adam and Sam couldn't help trading barbs on this film, which one calls the "second best film of the year." The other is, well, less charitable.

Plus ... put on your jammies, we're going to the drive-in: the first 'Unofficial' Filmspotting Top 5 ... Early Movie Memories.

Music by Dan Bern courtesy of Messenger Records.

This week's Peerflix DVD Giveaway winner is Glenn Selser from Rockville, Maryland. Congrats, Glenn. Look for the "Road House" Deluxe Edition in the mail soon!

Filmspotting is brought to you by Peerflix. Trade DVDs online at peerflix.com/filmspotting.



Filmspotting #116
:24-11:44 - Screwball Comedies #2: "My Man Godfrey"
Music: Dan Bern, "Black Tornado"
13:08-30:15 - Peerflix Giveaway, Listener Feedback (Pirates, Scanner)
Music: Dan Bern, "Baby Bye Bye"
31:25-44:22 - Review: "Down in the Valley"
44:23-48:04 - Listener Feedback (Mindbenders)
Music: Dan Bern, "Albuquerque Lullaby"
49:23-1:04:44 - 'Unofficial' Top 5: Early Movie Memories
1:04:45-1:07:03 - Next Week/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.

Podcast Award Voting Has Begun

Our sincere thanks to everyone who -- for the second year in a row -- helped make us a finalist for a Podcast Award in the category of Movies/Films! Voting starts TODAY and runs through August 11.

Last year I don't think we ever mentioned the Podcast Awards on our site or during the show, so it was really an honor just to be nominated. This year, well, we wouldn't mind winning. You don't necessarily have to vote in the other categories to submit your ballot and you can vote once a day. Vote Now!

Two Shows This Week

Check back later today for Filmspotting #116 with reviews of "My Man Godfrey" and "Down in the Valley," plus our first 'Unofficial Top 5' ... Early Movie Memories. In case you weren't aware, we list the next 2-3 shows under Upcoming Podcasts in the right rail.

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.

Filmspotting is brought to you by Peerflix. Trade DVDs online at peerflix.com/filmspotting.



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.

Filmspotting #114: A Scanner Darkly / The Thin Man / Top 5 Mindbenders

The works of novelist Philip K. Dick have been turned into big budget action spectacles like "Blade Runner," "Total Recall," and "Minority Report." So it is perhaps a little surprising that Richard Linklater's adaptation of Dick's 1977 "A Scanner Darkly" is very much what you'd expect from a Linklater film: characters... talking... a lot. Except in "Scanner," the conversation isn't idle, philosophical musings about relationships or how to spend the summer before your senior year of high school; instead it's a conversation fueled by drug-induced paranoia and the not unfounded fear that the drug the characters are taking is slowly killing them. One of your hosts enjoyed spending time with Linklater's wacked-out characters and didn't mind the movie's meandering pace; the other was less patient with the film's frequent digressions and was left wondering what it all added up to.

Plus: Listener Feedback, Massacre Theatre, a review of 1934's "The Thin Man" -- the first film in our six-week Screwball Comedies Marathon -- and our Top 5 Mindbenders.

Music by Calexico courtesy of Touch & Go Records.

Filmspotting is brought to you by Peerflix. Trade DVDs online at peerflix.com/filmspotting.



Filmspotting #114
:37-16:36 - Review: "A Scanner Darkly"
16:37-17:13 - Audio Feedback
Music: Calexico, "Cruel"
18:17-22:14 - New DVDs, Peerflix Winner/Notes
22:15-27:19 - Donations, Poll Questions, Dope Sheet Winner
27:20-33:39 - Listener Feedback (Movies You Should've Hated)
Music: Calexico, "Ballad of Cable Hogue"
34:49-37:47 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: Dan Heaton)
37:48-48:48 - Screwball Comedies #1: "The Thin Man"
Music: Calexico, "Spokes"
49:52-52:19 - San Fran Recap
52:20-1:10:06 - Top 5 Mindbenders
1:10:07-1:12:11 - Next Week/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.

Coming Soon

Look for Filmspotting #114 around 10:30 this morning. Thanks for your patience!

Filmspotting #113: Pirates of the Caribbean 2 / Top 5 Movies We Should've Hated

It's the summer of 2003. You ask 100 random people the likelihood that "Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse Of The Black Pearl" will be the biggest hit of the summer and will spawn a sequel that will be received with more enthusiasm than the first Superman movie in 20 years. 99 out of those 100 people refuse to answer the question, furious that you wasted their time with a question so patently absurd. Three years later, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" has arrived.

Coming off an emotionally charged split over Bryan Singer's "Superman Returns" last week (and still stinging from a heated debate over "The Lake House"), Adam and Sam make peace over "Pirates." Both agree that Johnny Depp and company have, with this new film, done what the first "Pirates" movie could not: remind them of the creaky, cartoonish, long-past-its-expiration-date ride at Disney World that inspired the movie in the first place. A long, loud, and utterly confounding spectacle, "Pirates 2" seems to exist for the sole purpose of justifying a second sequel ... conveniently filmed right along side the first.

Also on the show: an early review of writer/director/actor Ed Burns' new film "The Groomsmen," which opens Friday in New York and L.A. 10+ years after "The Brothers McMullen," Burns returns to the friendly confines of suburban Long Island to tell the story of five 30-something guys reunited for a wedding. Featuring Jay Mohr, John Leguizamo, Matthew Lillard and Donal Logue as the groomsmen to Burns' groom-to-be, the film takes a comic look at what it means to be a man and the consequences of postponing adulthood.

Plus: Listener Feedback, Massacre Theatre, "Our Best Fiends" -- the Best of the Herzog-Kinski Awards -- and the Top 5 Movies We Should Have Hated.

Music by Alejandro Escovedo courtesy of Bloodshot Records.

Filmspotting is brought to you by Peerflix. Trade DVDs online at peerflix.com/filmspotting.



Filmspotting #113
:19-16:25 - Review: "Pirates Of The Carribean 2"
Music: Alejandro Escovedo, "Rhapsody"
17:20-19:24 - New DVDs, Donations
19:25-24:03 - Poll Questions, Animation Marathon, Dope Sheet Winner
24:04-26:13 - Screball Comedies Marathon setup
26:14-33:30 - Listener Feedback ("Why The World Doesn't Need Superman... Returns")
Music: Alejandro Escovedo, "I Was Drunk"
34:35-38:53 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: David Hann)
38:54-50:06 - Early Review: "The Groomsmen"
Music: Alejandro Escovedo, "Castanets"
50:39-59:34 - "Our Best Fiends" - Herzog Marathon Awards
59:35-1:03:19 - Listener Feedback (Movie Scores)
1:03:20-1:16:32 - Top 5 Movies We Should Have Hated
1:16:33-1:18:20 - 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.

Programming, Meetup Notes

Filmspotting #113 with reviews of "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" and "The Groomsmen," plus our Top 5 Movies We Should Have Hated, will be posted Wednesday around 10 am.

Next week's show -- Filmspotting #114 -- will be available Friday instead of the usual Wednesday. I'll be in San Francisco this weekend and then in Montreal and won't be able to record again until next Thursday.

Speaking of San Francisco... if you emailed expressing interest in meeting up, you should have received an email with more details. If you did not get the email, or if you live in the area and are interested in getting together, please email me at: feedback@filmspotting.net

Filmspotting #112: Superman Returns / Top 5 Movie Scores

When director Bryan Singer left the X-Men franchise to make "Superman Returns," movie fans had two big questions: "What's going to happen to the X-Men?" and "Is Singer the right man to resurrect the Man of Steel?" We got an answer to the first question earlier this summer with Brett Ratner's uninspired but mostly entertaining "X-Men 3: The Last Stand." As for the second question ... Singer has probably been called a lot of names in his life, but has he ever been called "Brett Ratner"? One of your jaded, unsentimental Filmspotting hosts dares to blaspheme at the altar of Singer, while the other humbly kneels before him. That's right, Adam and Sam disagree! Again!

Also on the show: Listener Feedback, Massacre Theatre, the final film in our Herzog-Kinski Marathon -- "My Best Fiend" -- and our Top 5 Movie Scores. Thanks to Chicago Public Radio general manager and cinema score expert Torey Malatia for contributing to this week's top 5.

Correction: Chris from the Studio Upstairs correctly wrote 'Roy Cohn' in his James Woods-Character Actors email ... Adam, in his haste, said 'Ray Cohn'.

Music by Anne McCue courtesy of Messenger Records.

Filmspotting is brought to you by Peerflix. Trade DVDs online at peerflix.com/filmspotting.



Filmspotting #112
:19-18:20 - Review: "Superman Returns"
18:21-18:43 - Audio Feedback
Music: Anne McCue, "Crazy Beautiful Child"
19:51-22:07 - Peerflix Winner/Aristocrats story
22:08-25:12 - "Superman Returns" cont.
25:13-28:37 - Donations, Poll Questions, Dope Sheet Winner
28:38-37:12 - Listener Feedback (Lake House, Inconvenient Truth)
Music: Anne McCue, "Stupid"
38:15-40:54 - Massacre Theatre (Winner: Gerta Bardhoshi)
40:55-52:44 - Herzog #6: "My Best Fiend"
52:45-55:55 - Listener Feedback (Character Actors)
Music: Anne McCue, "Ballad of an Outlaw Woman"
56:41-1:10:43 - Top 5: Movie Scores
1:10:44-1:12:54 - Next Show/Close

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.