FisterRoboto

It's kind of like what I imagine herpes feels like.

To be fair, I was an asshole before I was left.

I honestly got a little worried, and stupid Cameron didn't help. I was like, "Great. The one time I'm being sincere and saying I'm glad someone else enjoys something, she's going to think I'm just being an asshole."

I actually saw this at a midnight screening during Fantastic Fest. It's....not good. The only fun part about it is that Willem Dafoe is trying to out-Cage Cage for most of the movie. Everything else is completely awful/boring. As far as trailers I really love right now, Manchester by the Sea looks really good (and is already the frontrunner in a lot of awards categories based on festival buzz): It baffles me that Michelle Williams is not a bigger star. She's fucking amazing in everything. And I'm also really looking forward to A Monster Calls (but I apparently can't post more than one goddamn video at a time) It also played Fantastic Fest, but I usually avoid the bigger films that I know I can see later because the whole point of that fest is to see weird shit you can't see anywhere else (like, say, a Ugandan action movie made for $200) Anyway, those aren't huge blockbuster films, but I'm honestly a bit burned out on the MCU (haven't even bothered with Doctor Strange because I find Benedict Cumberbatch to be a whole lot of "meh"). But I'm super pumped for Rogue One (already have tickets for the first two nights)!

Kiss-ass.

I really wasn't trying to be sassy. I was actually happy to come here and read that she enjoyed Emily on the ep because I really felt like she was someone that would click for taylorannne

Oh, another thing the gang touched on! The reason animal testing was such a big trope in 90s and early 00s movies was because this was when the animal rights movement was really starting to become mainstream. It was largely a fringe movement until academics, lawyers, and veterinarians started getting involved in the late 80s. Animal testing was one of the first big things they targeted, and so it really blew up in the social consciousness. So it's not just a bad movie trope like in Monkey Shines or this one. It was really widespread and was even the impetus behind quite a few much more well-received films like 12 Monkeys, Jurassic Park (not exactly animal testing, but still animal experimentation)and 28 Days Later.

Emily's laugh was a bit much at first. I don't know if she was nervous or what, but she laughed at literally everything anyone said for the first 20 minutes or so, and I couldn't focus on what people were saying. Fortunately, it died down a lot as they went on. The only problem I really had with it was that I think she forgot she had a microphone up to her mouth (and likely couldn't hear it coming from a monitor or anything) when she started laughing. If you look at, say, PFT - who has a very fucking loud laugh - he almost always turns away from the microphone when he lets out a big laugh, and I think that's why I find his laughs endearing but Emily's a bit overwhelming. Or maybe I'm just salty because one of the first things she said when she walked out was that A New Hope is boring. I still thought she was good. I didn't love her, but she wasn't intolerable or anything. I do remember thinking about 45 minutes in that tayloranne was probably in love with her. (That's not a slam or anything; she just seems more like a tayloranne comedian than a Fister Roboto comedian). I absolutely LOVED Neil Casey, though. He's so subdued and dry. He didn't say much, but I feel like everything he said was pure gold (especially when he started everyone down the track of remaking the movie from the wife's perspective). Anyway, I only have a few things to add so far: 1. Am I the only one that thought Jeff Fahey looked a lot like Taylor Negron in parts of the movie? Especially when he becomes digital, I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn't Negron. 2. I'm deeply disappointed that they called ASAC Schrader's assistant guy "Bald Ike Barinholtz" and not "Bobo Paul" 3. The neighbor kid is the same kid from Last Action Hero, and they should do that before they ever do The Cell because The Cell is awesome.

We get it, Cameron! You're married, and the rest of us are going to die alone!

That's what I was alluding to, but I was trying to avoid the spoiler side of it. Totally agree, and what you said about Farrell is what I meant by "wasting him." My best friend was out of town on business and had to miss the season five finale of Game of Thrones. He was super careful to avoid the internet on his way back home. He had a connecting flight from Dallas back to Austin, and he hopped on the WiFi there to check his work email. And the fucking WiFi splash page at Love Field had the mega-huge spoiler from that episode. It's such bullshit.

I saw it Thursday, too, and I agree! It's delightful. I'm not a big Eddie Redmayne fan, but he's very good as Newt Scamander. My biggest complaint is that I kind of feel like Colin Farrell is wasted in this movie, and I wish he had had a completely different role.

Does that make me the Jason of our group?

I just revisited that movie for another podcast. That part and when the band starts playing "Nearer, My God, to Thee" still hit me harder than pretty much anything else in that movie.

Yeah, her name is Jenette Goldstein, and she's crazy talented. She was also the "Irish Mommy" in Titanic (the scene of her telling her children a bedtime story as she puts them to bed for the last time is probably one of the best in the film). She was on an episode of I Was There Too, and I absolutely love her to pieces.

COME DOWN! I'M GOING! I was so excited to hear that! Usually, we only get Earwolf stuff during SXSW, and I refuse to go anywhere during that.

I mean...we're all gonna say this every time we see the Thriller video from now on, right?

TOTALLY AGREE! June is exactly what I needed after this awful week. Her suggestion that the "only other explanation" was that the bat and Cage switched souls was the hardest I have laughed in days. She is the absolute best.

All right, guys. I'm going to jump right into this with a bit of history of the vampire narrative. Vampire folklore started in eastern Europe. It started entering western Europe - especially England, France, and Germany - in the 18th century. Another funny thing was happening at around the same thing: the church was beginning to have far less control and impact on people's daily lives (there's a lot more historical nuance here, but this oversimplification is enough to get my point across). During the height of Catholicism in Europe, one of the most frequently-used didactic tools was the narrative of saints' lives, also known as hagiography (pronounced "hay-gee-ography" or "hag-ee-ography"). These narratives were used to show the public how the ideal person would live. Male saints led battles, fought dragons, and protected the weak. Female saints stayed virginal. That's it. Hagiographical accounts of women all follow the same formula: evil man wants to sleep with woman; woman resists; man tortures woman; woman dies while maintaining her purity. It was used to convince women that their purity was the most important thing in the world and the sole source of their value. Cut to the decline of Catholicism and - by extension - hagiography throughout much of Europe. Much of this ideal had been internalized by the populations of western Europe and found its way into the vampire narrative. For example, in Bram Stoker's Dracula, the flirtatious Lucy Westenra gives in to Dracula, which leads to her eternal punishment as a sort of vampire banshee. Meanwhile, the chaste, pure Mina Harker resists. Her violation is against her will, so her purity is maintained, and (spoiler alert for a book written over 200 years ago) she is saved and ultimately redeemed when Dracula is killed. The physical penetration of the bite is always a metaphor for sex in the vampire narrative. The best, most widely accessible modern example that comes to mind at the moment is Twilight and its awful message of Bella's purity. Edward only bites Bella after they are married. She remains pure and thus one of the "good" vampires. Meanwhile, the bad vampires are all incredibly more sexualized and - we are to assume - promiscuous. So, this film as an allegory for the AIDS crisis is not all that crazy, and I wish they had had more discussion about this on the episode. The vampire story is a cautionary tale, so it's natural that it would fit well into the AIDS crisis. There's a lot of wacky shit in this movie, and ultimately, whether or not Cage was really bitten or turned into a vampire is irrelevant. Whether he was bitten by the bat, bitten by Jessica Biel/Jennifer Beals, or just went crazy, the film still follows the vampire narrative tradition. He's a promiscuous person whose ultimate demise comes from his "impure" lifestyle.

I'm very cautiously excited about this. I loved Trainspotting in high school. But it's also one of those movies that's so anchored in its time and place (even though the film is set in the 80s, it's a very 90s movie visually, structurally, and thematically). It's really hard for me to imagine a Trainspotting set today. But I do have a lot of faith in Danny Boyle, and I got more than a little excited when Begbie (and Kelly MacDonald) came on screen in the trailer. The trailer was obviously made to be a throwback to the original, but I hope they get away from the self-referential shtick they're using in the trailer and really try to make it its own film. Everything I've read/heard from Welsh and Boyle say that they're not trying to lean too heavily on the first film, so again, I'm cautiously optimistic. (although by its release, it could turn into full-crazed "HOLY FUCK WHY ISN'T THIS OUT YET!" excitement)

Really? I thought SS looked like a hot mess from the first trailer. They portrayed Harley like that kid in high school that "hears voices" and does other shit just to show how totally weird they are. Jai Courtney was the only part of the trailer I found amusing, and that is something no one has ever said about Jai Courtney.

Wonder Woman is the one DC movie I've actually been looking forward to. She was the best part of BvS, and come on...it's Gisele from Fasts 5 and 6 AND they got Patty Jenkins to direct, so I'm hoping it's going to be a lot less Snyder-y. I'm also glad that they're actually letting a DC movie (other than Suicide Squad) have some color to it. Not everything needs to be washed out until it's completely sepia.

That movie was perfectly what it wanted to be.

IT'S THE ONLY WAY I KNOW, TAYLOR ANNE! (Also, I don't know who Ruby Rose is, but it looks like she's gonna be in John Wick 2 also)

Because you hope to see me there?

Totally. But I'm still gonna be there opening night.