Threshold

This is my least favourite kind of versus episode. Where the movies up against each other have almost nothing in common and occupy totally different spaces of the Canon. Totally insane. Although I am still holding a grudge for that Whiplash V Juno episode which was also a total farce. Anyway, Shaun of the Dead. Edgar Wright is basically a god in my book- so hopefully this isn't the last time a film gets nominated. I probably would've voted for Zodiac or Magnolia in a different more appropriate versus btw.

I thought this was a terrific film showing the shallow petty lives MRA/chauvinists lead. The final scenes with Jack Nicholson putting a slideshow of all the girls he has gone out with- with increasing vile and hatred is instantly iconic. Modern rom-com/dramas have whipped the dead "Actually men are shitty" horse too much, but tracing it's origins back to here is really terrific. Instant yes. Shame I didn't vote on it at the time.

Diametrically opposed films IMO. One treats the woman with respect, giving her wit, charisma and character. The other places nonsensical flaws that only a male writer could come up with. Philadelphia Story frustrates me in other ways as well. The gross male characters are treated with respect, with the film potentially agreeing with them (Cary Grant & the father). The schlocky, syrupy soapy ending that makes almost no sense, with a sudden marriage to the man with the biggest star power at the time. What a bunch of soapy nonsense; and there were glimmers of hope early on too. Total shame; but yeah His Girl Friday trumps Philadelphia by a longway.

What's the purpose of satire that is so well disguised that it's viewed as genuine? I'm reminded of Malcolm Gladwell's excellent podcast on satire in which he lambasts Tina Fey's Sarah Palin and The Colbert Report. The people they're making fun of are unaware of the reasons they're being made fun of, and they continue their way unscathed. The fact you can enjoy Starship Troopers as an ironic piece of propaganda just as much as a straight Sci-Fi film shows that it has failed. I was hoping for the penny to drop in the film- but nope- it stays firmly tongue in cheek and never breaks. Which is nifty and kind of interesting, but its so subtle that I'm not sure the more politically susceptible would be wise enough to not be fooled. I keep thinking- if Trump or any of his fanclub watched this film, I'm not sure they'd be laughing beyond any of the gory kills. So the satire is pointless. The definition of preaching to the choir. Can't vote it in, sorry.

Devin's new film blog if anyone's interested. Seeing the reaction to his blog from film twitter is interesting. I'm reminded of the backlash towards Three Billboards in which people feel this isn't the appropriate time to watch the redemption of a shitty guy whose shittiness is still a particularly emotive world issue (institutional racism in three billboards, #metoo from Devin).

Wow, I felt so confused listening to the episode- Amy and Roxanne were making fun of hypothetical versions of the same film- and all the hypothetical 'bad' versions of this film were ones I would've much preferred to have seen. They laugh off criticisms of the plot making little to no sense, and the sound design and score which alternates between only TWO songs and two levels of volume (loud, and incoherently loud). Sure the mood is interesting, and there is a sense of dread- but there also a lot of confusion and honestly, a lot of boredom. You can confuse the viewer only so much before they give up on you/ In the last 20 minutes of the film there's suddenly talk of witches. Witches!? What?! Literally any hint of that beforehand would've been nice. Instead there's a lot of bland dialogue and infuriating lack of interesting characters or situations. There's a finale which is basically a final boss fight with the head witch, which would've been cliched and boring in any other film, but for me it was a relief- there's at least something is happening onscreen, not just bloodred mood shots over and over. Least favourite Nu-Canon film so far. I feel insane that I'm only one of two people who voted this down.

Revolting movie-Terrific episode Finally found the first guest Post-Devin who'd be great to co-host the show. Amy too often focuses on idiosyncrasies within films or too broadly around the cultural context of the film. Alison was delving deep into the potential meanings of the films and not being dismissive of any take around the film. Great podcast

As a purely cathartic experience 9 to 5 might be more conventionally watchable, seeing a sexist chauvinist boss villain get his dues, but it seems the film shows the boss getting beaten more often than not- so it kind of doesn't really equal out- I think we spend more time running around with the wrong cadaver than we do establishing why he's such a bureaucratic misogynist. As a whacky hijinx movie it's more confusing than anything- although I did enjoy the details as to how the 3 have made a more effective and safe office. The Best little Whorehouse in Texas is actually quite a fun little musical- with a really terrific score and it plays the prostitution angle so casually that it's pretty progressive in it's own way. But both films are not even close to Canon. Since you introduced 'Neither' in the Whiplash episode which i'm still fuming over, I'm gonna vote neither. No Broadcast News, but we've got two Working Girls. Great.

I was a bit disappointed by Get Out, but I need to vote tactically to prevent Mother! from getting in. Get Out it is then.

This is the Christmas Cracker of Christmas films, i.e. that it's been created specifically to create an intense reaction from the audience either way. (Christmas Crackers jokes/puns are intentionally pathetic to unite family members with mixed versions of humour). There is some genuinely insane thematic stuff in here, compounded by the fact it's all played nonchalantly; but it's all so fascinating and worth deconstructing that I really do think it's kind of on purpose- I kind of want to vote yes for it.

I'm still superficially going with Fascism- i.e. the deification of a single leader and all their pronouncements; sure, the actual policies of Stalin and Russia were communist, but I was distracted by the implementation of it. I guess that's where horseshoe theory comes in, a far left and far right system being kind of identical. So I don't really mind getting the definition wrong- is that terrible of me? Am I part of the problem, proclaiming governments as fascism when they're technically not? I guess we'll find out with how I react to the US in the coming years.

Great great sketches in Holy Grail, but its filmmaking limits really are on show- particularly with the extremely frustrating ending. But Life of Brian definitely trumps Holy Grail even though the sketches are on roughly the same level. Just such a terrific cultural artefact in regards to comedy and its connection to religion. As a young Catholic, I watched it enjoying it immensely without recognising anything really controversial in the film; but I guess that's the point. The reaction is so out of proportion to what the actual content contains. Life of Brian by a mile.

Counter-Culture that is so scatter-shot and ridiculous that nothing really lands. Any potential message gets muddled by the very next scene. It doesn't help that there's some really really off-beat humour that I don't think has any meaning beyond "The 60's huh?" The president stuff was some of the worst laughing 'punch-down' humour that I thought even by the 60's we'd be beyond. Ah well, I'm glad I watched it, but it's fully bonkers. No thanks.

Not joking- genuinely confused if you think the Death of Stalin isn't portraying fascism. I'm interested to hear what you think it's called. Also I'm frankly horrified to see Mother! on a few people's lists. One of the worst films I've seen in a long time- and one of the few films I can legitimately call pretentious without feeling pretentious myself.

What would you call it?

Some additions I haven't really seen above: Baby Driver - Best musical this year. Detroit - Got a mixed response, but I thought it was a terrific political film steaming with righteous anger. Loving Vincent- Just beautiful. A visual lullaby. Death of Stalin- A tense thriller about a successful coup that somehow manages to find the humour in fascism.

Studied Lost in Translation for high school; one of those films that becomes better the more you talk about it. It tackles so many modern issues in an interconnected society with so many cultures meshing in interesting ways. Marie Antoinette is harder to get inside of- I thought it was doing interesting commentary on the way ditzy superficial people dip back and forth from feeling empty to feeling completely whole in doing their stupid activities, but it seems the films is more or less on her side; which in the age of Millionaires and Billionaires destroying the planet, is something I am totally not in the mood for, regardless how oblivious they are. Lost in Translation definitely.

Fuckn insane film. SO SO good. Only complaint up front- the music choices/music editing is jarring, but only in a 60's/70's way. The procedural last act is great, but then becomes elevated into masterpiece territory once the whole thing becomes a gut punch in those last 3 minutes. I love any movie/documentary that deals with a real issue or problem, and doesn't resolve itself by the end- it becomes an anti-ending in a way- The Big Short, basically any climate change documentary, because the potential catharsis you could give the audience distills the message, because its viewed as complete, or like the problem's been solved or something. This is pure filmmaking as well, every character is visually distinct enough to differentiate, and on rewatch (particularly the first third) the film really delivers. Absolute yes

Much like the urinal installed in an art museum, The Room is a thought-provoking film only if you allow it to be. As mentioned earlier, it's best viewed through Youtube clips; the film is incoherent and boring. It provides a dream-like quality as characters float in and out of scenes interacting with other characters like an alien playing with action figures of humans. Someone mentioned Trump earlier, and I'd agree in that assessment in that Tommy Wisseau is a millionaire that somehow fails upwards. The films is worth seeing if only to see him however, as his line delivery and presence is honestly mesmerising. I'm going a hard no, but I'm not angry if it gets in, because it's easy to get seduced by the external narrative around the Room.

It's scattershot and bonkers, but there's some balmy greatness in there; mixed in with the classic Coen Brothers lovingly mocking hicks, which is played for the cheapest of laughs in this film, but the dialogue is occasionally at their best. Soft yes. Also, just listened to the episode- one of the worst ones I've heard. They should've got someone who was vaguely interested in discussing the movie. Poor Amy seemed to be dragged from sidetrack to sidetrack

Vertigo Strangers on a Train Psycho So many great thrillers with intensely repressed sexual themes. With the current Weinstein-train, there's an interesting thought experiment, considering how abusive Hitchcock was to his women that I'm sure it would affect our view of his (pretty terrific regardless) films.

So all in all, it's a chore that wavers between disgust, mortified and boredom. I'm glad someone brought up emotion earlier, and that Adam found it to be a deeply emotional film. But I almost cry at a dog dying in film; so are most people. The idea that we need to somehow 'wake up' horror fans to be more aware of what they're seeing is an interesting idea, but as Adam said it's played 100% straight, so I'm not sure people would have the same meta-awareness of what they are experiencing since the face-value experiences are so intense and overwhelming. I feel it's a complete mis-fire in its premise, but *of course* this film was able to be almost too good at its execution. Still a very hard no from me. But I did love hearing Adam's arguments for this film. Very thoughtful and empathetic; I was fearing seeing Marytrs as a Canon episode that the guest would be gleefully talking about how fucked up it is, but you approached it with such empathy.

I thought we went through this debacle with Cannibal Holocaust; but this film is 100x more messed than that. A resounding no. Gratuitous is probably the best way to describe it. It keeps flipping back from deeply disturbing to kind of boring in its intense gore/horror/psychological horror- so the worst kind of horror. I watched this about 4 years back, and haven't got any desire to revisit it, despite my love for the Canon.

Catching up with old episodes. Haven't listened to the episode yet, but City of God is such a boy's movie. All about charismo and bluster, yes, while being quite thoughtful with the real effects of these, but I feel I've seen many versions of this film. Though, the highly kinetic filmmaking and watchability is pretty terrific, alongside the setting. Black Orpheus, with its glamorisation of the slums and almost constant drum rhythms has a really interesting angle to Brazil. Unfortunately, as a potential gendered contrast to City of God, the 1950's comes pretty hard RE gender dynamics. A shrill ex, a pure angelic love interest and the sassy best friend (Cousin). It creates a real cool atmosphere with the literal non-stop partying, and cool locations, but sadly it's a bit dated in themes, even with its origins in Greek Myth. I'm glad I saw these two, and won't be disappointed with either getting in, but... I'll give it to City of God.

jesus-this fucking film.