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Def a love-hate relationship with Harry Potter. Didn't care at all for the first book, turned around and loved the richness as it build in the second and third, only to be disappointed and apathetic by the end. One of the key disappointments was the whole SPEW thing. Here is a character (a strong female protagonist) clearly aiming to do something heroic and fight a true injustice against an impoverished indentured class, only to have it be so dismissed on every level by the characters and the author herself. I understand that implicitly an American is going to read into these class-ish issues differently than a British person, but it's Just. So. Glaring. If being anti-establishment in this manner is going to make me a Slytherin, then damn straight I'm going to wear those color with pride. In related news, for a different writing project, I set out looking at strange conspiracy theories. Apparently there is a real conspiracy theory out there that JK Rowling doesn't exist. That would explain a lot, though.

This cool looking movie is streaming free on Mubi today! FYI https://mubi.com/films/ema-2019

I will say I don’t think the HP books are as flawlessly executed as Jason thinks they are (maybe we gotta get DanRad back on the show) but they are very good and something I recommend as comfort reading. JKR reminds me so much of Hermione when she is mad. She goes scary places. Anyway, I look forward to future articles about George RR Martin’s “petty” revenges on the show runners.

Next week!

I tried rewatching this one for the podcast, but it was still hard to do in one setting. I had to space it out over three days. Thanks, D.W. Jeez. Just to share my experience in case anyone wants to try it out -- to make silent movies more watchable, I usually do two things. One-- I change the frame rate to slightly slower than 100%, like .9 or .8. Often, this smooths the action to a more natural degree. Not all silent movies are the same or transferred the same to modern video, but very often the frame rate for early movies is "off" from the regular video rate we are used to. It takes some playing sometimes to find the right fit, but it's so much more pleasant to watch. Second, I always have the habit of playing my own soundtrack over silent movies. My rationale being-- they often used then-contemporary music to accompany the visuals, so why can't I do the same? It *always* engages me much more into the movie; somehow I'm able to pay attention better. Sometimes I deliberately create a playlist of a variety/range of music instrumentals, electronica, etc. This time, I just set a random Danny Elfman soundtrack mix in the background. It was eerie how much of it actually matched without me ever having to adjust it. I especially liked the Mars Attacks layered onto the celebration in Babylon, right after the theme from Spider-Man was over the seige by Cyrus. Sometimes is was a bit too surreal/melodramatic, like Beetlejuice's theme over the racecar versus train moment. The last few minutes of the film was set to Sally's theme from Nightmare Before Christmas, which was suspenceful and poignant when needed at the saved hanging, and mournful and sad over the scenes of war. And the song ended right as "The End" played. Synchronistic!

Oh, Cool World. Oy. I hate Bakshi and rotoscoping (at least, 90s and earlier roto) so hard to say if I'll put myself through that again. One comment about the Harry Potter audio books: Jim Dale is fine but Stephen Fry reads the UK editions. And for those like me who enjoy HP well enough but wish it was more, shall we say, gay: I highly recommend the two Simon Snow books by Rainbow Rowell, Carry On and Wayward Son. It's essentially HP fanfic, but well written and compelling and fun. They are actually spinoffs of one of her other books, Fangirl, which is also good but honestly I like the Snow books the most of all her stuff so far.

Mods, please feel free to edit if I messed anything up, I was just so excited (I Kermit flailed) because we're finally getting Cool World! ::DJ airhorns:: You can also watch Cool World through Tubi. A part of me still feels like the initial Sonic trailer was a scam and intentionally bad to drum up outrage/press/general interest and the final product always existed.

I voted no, but I'm on the fence. I see it a lot like the argument over Gone With the Wind, in which terrible messaging is wrapped up in a very well-made movie. Now, the messaging in Intolerance isn't as offensive as in Gone With the Wind or Birth of a Nation, but I think the politics are murky, and it's all tied together with such pretension. So many of the title cards just made me cringe, like an author who claims he's in the middle of writing the Great American Novel. There's labor there to make it capital-I Important, and that left a bad taste in my mouth. But I also get how absurdly groundbreaking this film is from an artistic standpoint, so I get why people would want it on the list. My perception was that its inclusion on the 2007 list was just to check a box to make sure D.W. Griffith had a film on there after the inclusion of Birth of a Nation possibly drew criticism in 1998. But I think Amy did a good job in the podcast making the argument that the mistake was missing Intolerance in 1998 in the first place. But while I see the merits, I really did not care about anything in the film except the modern story and Mountain Girl.

The dangers of flour, how to tell your next door neighbor to stop being polite, and more on this week’s mini-sode! Paul offers advice as he opens up the Paul Help Line, goes through Corrections and Omissions for Bloodshot, and shares a deleted scene from the Bloodshot episode about Harry Potter. Plus, find out which movie will be covered next week! Subscribe to Unspooled with Paul Scheer and Amy Nicholson here: http://www.earwolf.com/show/unspooled/ Check out The Jane Club over at www.janeclub.com Check out new HDTGM merch over at https://www.teepubli…wdidthisgetmade Where to Find Jason, June & Paul: @PaulScheer on Instagram & Twitter @Junediane on IG and @MsJuneDiane on Twitter

I agree. It’s fantastic world building, but the stories themselves are pretty clunky—particularly the later books, which I feel really needed some editorial oversight. Like, I get she was making people a ton of money at that point and it’s hard to say “no,” but there are plot lines that are introduced and dropped with no resolution or impact on the overall plot. For example, Hermione’s S.P.E.W stuff is a nice idea, but really slows the momentum of the books down—especially when you consider it never really pays off. The last page of the last book ends with Harry demanding a sandwich from Kreacher for Christ’s sake! Lesson clearly not learned! (Although I’m sure she has a BS excuse like, “Just because you defeat one evil doesn’t mean prejudices don’t still exist,” or some such. And even if that actually was her intention, it comes off sloppy.)

Ah nice, thanks for pointing this out - I'm slow to learn the names of young/emerging directors but I've seen and enjoyed a lot of his work. To your later point about films or shows getting remixed back into chronological order: I think I still have a copy of the TV series Lost that some maniac put into strict chronological order. I would also dearly love to see the Topher Grace remix of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, though I guess that is more about compressing the films into a shorter, saner single film. I think someone has done that with The Hobbit films as well. Steven Soderbergh used to post some fun film experiments at his blog too... sorry, it's Friday and I'm high and rambling Have a great weekend everyone

Fucking. Cool. World. I absolutely loved that movie as a kid (probably not the greatest movie for a kid to watch but Can't wait to rewatch it now

Ha, wow. I had never heard of this but I can't say I am surprised, she seems like a challenging person to deal with.

In response to the first caller, I think it’s best to maintain a certain level of continuity even though you’re at home. Lunches shouldn’t be that difficult if you were already preparing lunches for school. You can just make a lunch the night before, put it in a lunchbox, and give it to them for lunch. You don’t have to straight up cook every meal just because you’re home Also, we try to take our kids for a walk or bike ride twice a day—practicing safe, social distancing, of course. Nothing super long, but long enough that they can run and get some of their energy out. This way they are less inclined to be crawling all over you while you are trying to work. Also, there are a ton of really cool educational apps out there for kids that can keep them pretty well occupied without being total brain rot. The Google Arts & Culture also app provides virtual tours that my kids love. Nothing is perfect of course, but these things have worked pretty well for us.

Please don’t question the mystery fish, just picture shrimp on a pillow of grits, close your eyes, lick your lips

I’ve got junk in my trunk and by junk I mean fat and by trunk I actually do mean trunk.

I watched the version on the Internet Archive; it was the 2 h 57 m one, with no music or anything. I loved it. I want to watch it again, taking my time, and focusing on the details of the narrative. But anyway, it's so huge and awesome and such a spectacle, I don't see how this could be left off the list. It was 1916! As I said in my Letterboxd, Arrival of a Train - that famous 50-second film of a train arriving in a station that baffled audiences - came out in 1896. That's what Griffith was competing against here. Imagine a world where everyone's making TikTok videos and then basically someone drops like 2001 on them. I know the story of what triggered Griffith to make this. But I don't feel much of that in the stories and final product. It's not all "everyone should tolerate racism!" in any way. So for me, that's really easy to get past in a way I wouldn't for Birth. If anything here, the "love and intolerance battle" message is laughingly simplistic. But then, if you're going to tell a story interweaving four epics in a way nobody had ever experienced before, a simple message probably is necessary. So yea, I'm with Amy here - I love this film. And I find its accomplishment and existence beyond comprehension for what I know about film from back then. I am a little in awe of it.

I haven't listened to the episode yet, but I hear you. The $20 price tag on this movie has been something I've been discussing since the mini. I even tried texting Paul on that app thing about maybe postponing the episode until it was at least available to rent (literally this coming Tuesday!!!). I didn't get an answer. Of course, schedules being what they are, who knows? I think they were trying to do something special by doing "newer" movies with a big guest like Adam Scott, but I also feel like picking a movie that can only be bought at this time wasn't a fantastic idea. And if they joke about buying it twice in an economy where millions of people are out of work, then, yeah, that feels pretty tone deaf. Hell, in my neighborhood, three houses went up for sale just this week! This is the reality we are living in right now. People are struggling. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, twenty, or even forty dollars, isn't all that much. We all get that. And it's not like they are asking people to *buy* the movies. It feels super out of touch, though. And at any other time I probably wouldn't really care. It's their show and they can do what they want. I even think it would be different if it were a *big* legacy type movie for them like a Fast and Furious movie. But for fucking Bloodshot? Really? I guess good on them that they spent $40 on a shitty Vin Diesel movie and it be nbd, just know that the rest of the country is pretty stressed the fuck out regarding finances right now.

I don't want to start a war or anything but was anyone else a little put off by the whole conversation about June and Paul buying the movie twice because they don't share accounts. Not sure if it was a bit or not so maybe I am reading to much into it but right now a lot of people are struggling really hard to make ends meet and it just doesn't seem all that funny to hear that two married people living under the same roof(and stuck there because of Shelter-in-place) apparently bought a movie twice because "reasons". I get that people like to be independent and many couples don't combine their finances even when they get married but there is a difference between independence and being wasteful. I know its only $40 dollars, I know its just silly and I know its not really our business but it just came off as a bit tone deaf right now. Also for Paul and June, look at setting up an Apple family sharing. Two adults can have their own accounts but share purchases between each other(I think you can even choose what to share and not share), once your kids get older you can create child accounts as well for their devices.

One more thing that's been bugging me, or at least one thing that I was really disappointed in, and that's the tropes with the POC being so token. Once again, the only black actor has to fill multiple checklists -- the sidekick, the techie, the hapless funnyman. He is *literally* sidelined into his own room for pretty much any scene he is in-- was he even scheduled with other actors for more than one day? Come on, 2020, we're supposed to be better at this by now.

Yeah Diesel's ego has become really something over the years since Fast 5 brought him back to movies that turn a serious profit, with Fast 8 and XXX 3 being just big long love fests for himself. I can't remember where I read the review but it was for this movie and it basically boiled down to the reviewer being amazed at Diesel's career now being one of two things, franchise films that succeed in spite of him being involved or solo vehicles that nine times out of ten flop because studios forget that people aren't lining up to see the F&F films for the acting chops of Vin Diesel but rather the whole group of characters who work and the awesome action set pieces, and unfortunately even Diesel doesn't realize it. I go back to the Fast 5 episode of the podcast and remember the clip of him talking about fighting the Rock on screen the first time and him saying people wanted it because it was "great for cinema," as if that fight was what was needed to take the art form to the next level. Then his recent interview with The National, Diesel said he talked to Steven Spielberg recently who told him it would "be a crime against cinema" if he never directed a film again, which even other new sites who picked up the story were openly expressing their suspicion of this actually happening. As for this movie, I have zero interest in watching it as I was never a huge fan of the comic and the movie honestly looked terrible, but hearing the discussion about the ending I looked up how it ended and was bummed it didn't end in a Repo Man-type twist. I mean when you're whole marketing campaign gives away the films twist within 30 seconds, why not have a bigger twist in the wings ready to blow viewers' minds? Just imagine how great it would have been if Diesel takes out Guy Pierce and walks away with KT and the hacker, only for it to pause and cut Pierce's control room where the whole movie was a simulation to see what possible errors could arise if they went through with bringing Diesel back and treating him how they do to get their end result, the whole movie ending with Pierce just saying something like "okay try simulation attempt 42," to really bring home how long they've been screwing with his consciousness. It could still lead to a sequel or crossover with other Valiant characters while also giving an unexpected end to what is a very cookie cutter film otherwise.

I said to my wife and son (both big F&F fans, I am not) that I was sure he would punch a rock like character, bigger, strong than himself. And who is he first seen beating up, why a concrete pillar (i.e. Rock). He's got a real big chip on his shoulder.

Oh, good. I was afraid we were doing the Shelley Long comedy.