AlmostAGhost

I learned about this story from my intellectual property law circle on twitter. Some girl put Jason Momoa on Samoas to sell them and all the Moms went crazy for them. It's not a particularly complicated legal question (it's illegal), but it's fun and we trademark lawyers like stuff like this haha

Isn't that what the forums are for tho?

Dave did this accent (different character) on Questions For Lennon last week too, and it kills me

Can we call Adam Scott every episode?

I've been meaning to watch True Stories for years. I'm a gigantic fan and have the soundtrack but never really got around to watching it. Excited!

That number includes everything from big studio movies to smaller indie features and documentaries, many of which played only brief theatrical runs since under Academy rules, a feature-length motion picture qualifies if it has a running time of more than 40 minutes, is exhibited theatrically on 35mm or 70mm film or in a qualifying digital format and opens in a commercial motion picture theater in Los Angeles County by Dec. 31 and completes a minimum run of seven consecutive days. here's a list of the 347 movies that were qualified this year https://www.oscars.org/sites/oscars/files/91st_reminder_list.pdf

Oh we get a lot of Oscar-caliber movies opening here in LA for like one weekend at one theatre, just so they can get nominated. I don't think they demand anything substantial in these qualifying releases. They often then roll out wider over like January, February, even March.

Nope! The only one mentioned so far that I have seen was Game Night

i'm def gonna write those suggestions down thanks! now excuse me while i go watch Dragon Blade instead of anything cool or good

It wasn't that it wasn't enjoyable, it was just a lot of films I wasn't prepared to hear about. I prefer listening to them talk when I can watch the film first and then it feels like I'm involved. It's not always necessary for dumb crap on How Did This Get Made, but for Unspooled-style talks, I would prefer to watch in advance. For a list that long, it just wasn't possible. Also again, the conceit of Unspooled is talking about 1 movie at a time; bumping it up to 20 feels excessive. But I get that these are total side eps, so I'm not complaining, but it's just I'm more attracted to singular or more focused discussions. That said: I was going to ask the same. Give me some good recs so I can go check them out. I can keep up with blockbusters and whatnot, but I do feel like I'm missing out on the smaller quality films a lot. Even today's metacritic list was fairly mainstream stuff. What's outside that in the world of cinema that is worth it?

Sure, but it is still AFI. That's the whole conceit of Unspooled, to talk about what AFI recognizes as great, whether that's a full ballot or just some sort of weird yearly consensus by 2 AFI interns. Frankly, I thought Amy & Paul focusing on twenty 2018 movies was too much, so would've preferred a more focused list for them to peruse.

Hm wow I didn't know that. This should have been the list the podcast focused on then, imo. If they're not recognizing Annihilation or Sorry To Bother You now, I doubt they will later. Their listed criteria If anyone's wondering, here's their list Black Panther BlacKKKlansman Eighth Grade The Favourite First Reformed Green Book If Beale Street Could Talk Mary Poppins Returns A Quiet Place A Star Is Born

Kudos to Jed for knowing who Stacy Richter is

Oh Andy Richter for sure. Even back in the '90s I always looked forward to the moments in the show when Conan and Andy just chat. Also clearly 'Conan O'Brien Needs A Friend' is just a subtweet at Andy. But I also do kind of hope the show expands if it continues to not just be comedians - Conan's always been a good interviewer with musicians since he's such a big fan, for instance.

I watched I Know Who Killed Me this weekend for this and I could not have had less reaction to it. It wasn't unwatchable, but neither was it interesting in any way. Like Grudlian, I think it made no sense, but at the same time, it didn't have all that much to at least try to untangle or figure out. It was just a movie that exists for no reason: not a horror, not a murder mystery, not supernatural, not anything at all. It is an existential conundrum. How did this get made, indeed.

How do we convince Mr. Wolf to make this one a series?

Oh ya, that's what I meant too, just worded it shorthandedly. They are the two movies from 2018 (blockbuster-wise) that I will also hold on to (and Infinity War, but it being part 1 means its not finished in my mind)... so I agree with Paul & Amy on that, even if I seem to disagree with Amy over superhero films. I was thinking about this too. The year distinction is weird, especially for this podcast which is generally talking about all-time or much more broadly. Maybe later on we can get some episodes about current directors or genres in the way they broke into "2018 blockbusters". It would be fascinating to have their view on that.

For those not on Twitter THE ROCK ANSWERED PAUL AND JASON

I agree the underground train scene was weird looking and a strange choice, but I still found the message behind that sunset cliff scene to be poignant, i.e., choosing to die a free man instead of in chains. That's a strong message that goes back in black history, like slaves committing suicide on the slavery ships for example. Perhaps that scene could have been developed better or given more space after the big fights, but I think there's a lot in Killmonger and his death which makes Black Panther stand out as a film.

updating with next week's 'suggestions' 2/14 - 2018 Rewind - Critic’s picks [Sorry To Bother You, Annihilation, The Favourite] 2/21 - 2018 Rewind - Listener’s picks 2/25 - BONUS Oscar recap episode 2/28 - The Graduate 3/7 - Saving Private Ryan 3/14 - A Night At The Opera

I found this episode pretty interesting. I agree with Taylor fully about superhero movies... but then the end result of the episode, even with Amy being anti-superhero, was that Black Panther and Spider-verse were the two best things and I agree with that. I do think of them as their own genre, and those two are definitely among my faves of the genre. I do think they were nitpicking Black Panther, like arguing it misses one emotional beat at some point. That's the end-all of a movie? I don't mind not liking it fully, but that seems oddly specific reasoning. What I like about Unspooled is while they may have a lot of specific facts to share, they aren't nitpicking the quality of the films to death. They look at them broadly, as to how they fit in our lens of NOW, of culture, of 'what is great'. So to do the opposite with Black Panther, I thought was strange and less what I look to critics to do, to be honest. Is it because it's new? Because it's superheros?

Oh to close out the Westerns from last month... I watched 9 of them. I was attracted to the descriptions and plots of spaghetti westerns, but in the end found I much preferred more traditional ones. I think they had a sense of history that I liked. Stagecoach was easily my favorite, but also dug Red River. I did find it sometimes I just wasn't in the mood for a western, but sometimes they were pretty satisfying. Here was my list of what I saw: https://letterboxd.com/almostaghost/list/january-2019-theme-month-cowboys-westerns/

No overbearing rules or commitments here, just an opportunity for us to dive into a genre/theme/idea over the course of the month. We don't have to watch the same films, or any set amount. This isn't in place of HDTGM, Unspooled, HDTGM Classics, or Musical Mondays. Just if, in your spare movie-watching time, you're stumped or looking for something to choose -- pick a film within our monthly theme. If you find anything worth noting or sharing with the rest of us, post it here in this thread. Knowing this forum, we like the stuff that's really good or either really bad, haha. Let's explore!

I love Killer Of Sheep, and plan to rewatch it soon. Told @grudlian. about it a few months back. I watched in a class in the '90s and it always has stuck with me, and I'm excited to revisit it.