Philly Cheesesteak

Damn. Is there no way to retrieve the data, did anyone else save the downloads?

... Well. Looks like we're getting a new co-host after all.

I, uh... wrote a thing about Faraci and the Canon. Just needed to express my personal feelings about all this, and I thought I could share them with you guys. I apologize for the length.

That's not even taking into consideration the careers of anyone who's worked on Birth.Movies.Death, or Devin's own career. Even if he's innocent, the accusation has already had a tangible effect; leaving a solid taint on his reputation. By proxy, the whole site will suffer for it.

... Who else could fill Devin's shoes? And would Amy herself even want to replace him to keep the show going?

Probably the best take on this whole thing so far.

I hear both Devin and the site are offline while this whole thing is investigated.

I gotta say... man, this whole thing has bummed me out. I love The Canon. Amy and Devin have great synergy, they have a great dynamic- a Canon without Devin doesn't click with me. But I'd understand why there wouldn't be one after today. It's understandable and massively depressing, on so many levels.

She also owns a chocolate factory. Not even kidding.

This has been a common complaint in the forums: "So far, the vast majority of Canon films have pooled from the reserves of geek, high concept genre or gen-x pop culture staples." If I can recall, recently someone posted in the forums a breakdown of the Canon's films by decade, with the 1980's and 90's taking top billing over every other decade, and most of the films in either era are films the majority of listeners are already intimately familiar with. They're pop culture touchstones. What if we strayed from that, for the moment? We've complained about the lack of "stuffier" and artsier films on the show, and the minimal representation for foreign cinema in the ranks, so why don't we take this opportunity to cite films that should deserve Canon treatment? Let's all pitch in, make our voices heard... all within the guidelines Devin and Amy have established. These have to be films we can all access without, you know, illegally streaming it. And my personal choices? Hero Raise the Red Lantern A Kurosawa would be lovely. How about a Seven Samurai or a Ran? Derek Jarman's Blue Russian Ark Quadrophenia Holy Motors City of God The Conformist Bicycle Thieves Fritz Lang's M (possibly in a versus episode against Metropolis) The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, Her Lover This is Not a Film (we need more documentaries!) Anything by Herzog. Anything. Boyhood F For Fake Julie Taymor's Titus All off the top of my head, how about you guys?

Personally... I'd like to avoid Pennies from Heaven or Re-Animator. They're indulgence picks and it's their show, they had the right to argue on their behalf and introduce a little personal feeling into the mix. Especially the former. We need more ambitious screw ups with heart and soul, I swear, to serve as humbling reminders of any and all artistic pursuits. Although, gun to my head, if I had to choose... Hm. Again, whatever personal feelings some might have... I kind of want movies like Boyz in the Hood, Working Girl and Chi-Raq in the Canon. We need more diverse voices in our cinema, and like I said with Pennies I'll take the flawed but ambitious and earnest over the fine and dandy and lacking in real soul or perspective.

You know... I feel compelled to root for the underdog here. I'm with Devin and Amy on this: The Bad Seed might not necessarily be the greatest movie of its kind, but I'll be damned if it isn't a perfect avatar of the pre-self aware, irony-free camp. It's a camp we're sorely missing nowadays, and we need more of its kind. The ending is jarring, sure, but it's the kind of jarring that could only have come from the strange and weirdly one-track mindsets of 50's filmmaking. Besides, you have to give Patty McCormack so many props. It's difficult enough for child actors to affect a cool and creepy performance like this, and she pulls it off so well she sort of set the bar for creepy children in fiction in general. Well, at least before the twins from The Shining or Damien from The Omen came along- but it still counts for something.

I support this. The movie has a history, a reputation, as the "Citizen Kane of Horror Films." I believe it.

Implying a movie famous for its witty comebacks and pithy sayings somehow lacks either. "Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn." For the common person today, literally the one thing the movie is known for.

That might be "sliiiightly" disingenuous. Devin and Amy would certainly protest the notion the Canon is less about qualifying films as "worthy" and more about having an "interesting hour-long podcast." It's a midge condescending there, Susan, regardless of your own taste in cinema.

It's more the prototype versus the codifier, really.

Devin's gone on record of saying he does not, by any means, consider it a Canon-worthy movie. But maybe enough voices might compel him and Amy to make an episode out of it, who knows?

Definitely another point in Casablanca's favour. Even the side characters are more charming.

Devin tends to attract less-than-savory characters.

I think Casablanca would win in a landslide. Its stellar performances, themes of self-sacrifice and resistance in the face of tyranny and oppression and general mood and atmosphere still gel so much better with today's audiences... Than an epic romance that paints the antebellum South in a tragic, noble, heroic light. And, of course, the whole "mammy" character... Malcolm X had once remarked that, as a child, he had found the character so distasteful and offensive he would hide underneath the blankets every time she was onscreen. Still, on the other hand, the colours and sets and genuine accomplishments of the movie do need to be acknowledged.

Here's a pitch, how about the HBO made-for-TV movie Angels in America? Or The Day After, arguably the single most horrifying and impactful TV movie of the 80's? Both of these offer a glimpse into our recent past, with messages we should still take to heart even today. Now, if they're being TV films disqualify either from canonical candidacy...

There was that one dude who made a "zing" out of calling Devin a fat blowhard. So, aside from that one guy...

Incidentally, one thing WoK lacks that was a staple of TOS's identity? The sex. Star Trek was, once upon a time, a sexy series. That's sort of been lacking for awhile, at least until Abrams... Well, he didn't really bring it back, he actually made it worse to the point I prefer the stodginess over what he did, but still.

I think it's more charitable to say she has certain expectations of sci-fi, and she's loved plenty of them in the past.

I made this same suggestion awhile back, albeit as a suggestion for a vs episode against Metropolis.