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Scottcarberry

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About Scottcarberry

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    Wolfpup

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  • Location
    Baltimore, MD
  • Favorite Earwolf Podcast
    Being diabolical, whilst still being adorable.

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  1. Scottcarberry

    The Apartment

    The Apartment is one of those films that I kinda dragged my feet into seeing and by the time I was a 1/3 of the way through, I was struck by just how engaged I was. It certainly is filled with infuriating characters and every time those stupid men, Fred MacMurray, Ray Walston, etc, weā€™re on screen, I just wanted to punch them out. Of course, this is the point. Iā€™ve always liked Jack Lemmon but I adore this performance. Shirley MacClaine, straight up mesmerized me. I couldnā€™t see enough of her!!! I hung on her every word. Holy shit! I just realized that I was Jack Lemmonā€™s character, too! Itā€™s remarkable that a film from 1960, that deals with sexual and class politics so bluntly shares a decade in which those politics will finally be faced by a generation that refutes and attempts to dismantle them. Good on Billy Wilder! And before Iā€™m done, I wanna shout out the cinematography. I really felt these spaces. Thank you, Paul and Amy for creating a place for us film nerds to open our eyes wider and become the cinephiles that we all hope to be.
  2. Scottcarberry

    The Wild Bunch

    Oh, by the way, I take back what I said before, this movie DOES belong on the Afi top 100!
  3. Scottcarberry

    The Wild Bunch

    Thanks @ol' eddy wrecks I was wondering how to do that? Iā€™ll poke around and try to figure it out.
  4. Scottcarberry

    The Wild Bunch

    This was my first time watching The Wild Bunch from start to finish and before I get into it, for as good as it is, Iā€™m not sure itā€™s Top 100 worthy. But it is indeed a strong film with some solid and interesting performances. Robert Ryan is wonderful in this! Definitely a performance in which heā€™s able to show a few different layers of the character. Thornton isnā€™t just an automaton hell bent on fulfilling a mission. Heā€™s driven by things that arenā€™t necessarily explicit. Itā€™s also impossible to not notice Peckinpahā€™s almost too heavy handed use of children. A google search quickly reveals that a few smarty pants film historians have noted that children seem to be very close to pretty much every act of violence. Of course their childhood innocence stands juxtaposed to sinful adults, but from the very opening scene in which a group of children are gleefully, torturing a scorpion by dropping it into a writhing sea of ants, eventually, setting the scorpion and ants on fire, to the terribly young soldiers that are assigned to Thornton as they pursue Pike and his men. And letā€™s face it, The Wild Bunch themselves are the scorpions, being attacked by ants, only to be to burned down in a way. So before I type more clunky paragraphs on my phone, TWB is incredibly influential and probably does have a Simpsons moment but I love that The Three Amigos, stole some themes and even more fun is the Sam Peckinpah sketch on Monty Python. I also donā€™t want to forget the incredible work of the DP, Lucien Ballard. So good!
  5. Scottcarberry

    The Best Years Of Our Lives

    This film is far better than I thought it might be. I did not expect the wonderfully nuanced performances from everyone and, of course, Harold Russell. I also did not expect the script to lead us into the areas of PTSD, and the plight of Vets returning home from war as they deal with joblessness, familial conflict, the looming red scare, potential nuclear annihilation and interestingly, the very notion that our government wasnā€™t forced into WW2. Itā€™s downright subversive! But for a movie that was helmed and staffed by so many of our Service Members returning from war, there seems to be an incongruity that is really obvious to me and Iā€™m hoping that there might be someone that knows more about what Iā€™m about to mention. Fred, is a Captain. An officer. Officers, overwhelmingly are college educated. Fred is a soda jerk that somehow is offered a commission to be a bombardier in the Army Air Corps!?! Now, Al is obviously a college educated banker. He is the kind of person that WOULD be offered a commission. Think, Tom Hanks, in Saving Private Ryan. Heā€™s a college educated school teacher, ergo, heā€™s offered a commission. But in this film, heā€™s an enlisted man!? Doesnā€™t make sense. Itā€™s completely reversed from how it normally is. I come at this with some experience as I served in the Marine Corps back in the 80ā€™s. This all speaks to the supposed veracity that Paul spoke of.
  6. Scottcarberry

    Forrest Gump

    Just a quick hit here because everyone is doing a nice job of analyzing Forrest Gump. First: the feather is a metaphor for Forrest and Forrest is a metaphor for all of us. The brightest, most well-intentioned and purpose-driven of us, often move through life with a sort of detachment that insulates us from the unyielding barrage of History that surrounds us and impacts our lives. ALSO...LBJ would totally, ā€œlike to seeā€ Forrestā€™s ass scar. LBJ, famously showed reporters and photographers his gall bladder surgery scar. Google it!
  7. Scottcarberry

    The Grapes of Wrath

    During the, ā€œIā€™ll be there.ā€ speech, it struck me that it seems to have directly influenced the dialogue of at least two movies. First, I was reminded of Obi Wanā€™s telling Vader that if he cut him down, heā€™d be more powerful...that kind of omnipresence that Tom Joad is referring to. Secondly, this speech is mimicked by Steve Martin and Martin Short in The Three Amigos. I had never seen Grapes of Wrath before BUT Iā€™ve seen The Three Amigos a lot. I couldnā€™t stop chuckling when I heard Fonda do it. For that reason alone...it stays on the list. Now what do we kick off the list to get The Exorcist, on!?
  8. Scottcarberry

    Episode 217 - Jaws 3-D

    First, the admission. I too, was fascinated by soap opera kissing as a young boy AND practiced on my mom. So Paul, you are not alone!! Well maybe 4 or 5 times until my mom put the brakes on it. Now the omission! Paul, what research were you going to share with us before Jason and Juneā€™s ridiculing made you give up? Iā€™m dying to know!
  9. Scottcarberry

    Chinatown

    I'm so glad that Paul brought up Jerry Goldsmith's score. I saw Chinatown for the first time as a boy in the 70's. Honestly, I think I may have been 10 years old. Anyway, other than my general lack of understanding of what was happening in the film, what truly stuck out for me was the music. It wasn't until I was older and had seen the film again, that the score not only stood out, but really helped tell the story. It's fascinating that a complete score had been composed and Polanski refused it. Friedkin did the same thing with The Exorcist. Maybe that was a real 70's thing to do?
  10. Scottcarberry

    Episode 161 - Grey Gardens (w/ Alissa Wilkinson)

    Iā€™m a strong yes on Grey Gardens. I had read about this film for years but never watched it until 2003. It was always on the Staff Picks shelf of Video Americain on St. Paul street here in Baltimore and for some reason the dvd cover always kinda made me think it wouldnā€™t hook me. I was wrong! I get how stylistically, you could find fault with how the Maysles executed this documentary and if it was made today it would probably be very different. I mean, nowadays, it seems all docs have animated scenes in them. The Edies are fascinating and itā€™s impossible to turn away from the screen. It resonates with so many people and has been so influential that itā€™s inspired the HBO bio pic, which is great, by the way, Amy, a musical and a Documentary Now spoof! A Documentary with that kind of reach is reason enough for inclusion in the Canon.
  11. Scottcarberry

    Episode 157 - Grease vs. Hairspray (w/ Adam Egypt Mortimer)

    While I will always applaud Grease for being a fun movie designed to make you feel good, it is a no for the Canon. As a 12 year old in 1978, Grease just felt like a sitcom or variety show. It was so smart to cast Travolta and Olivia Newton John, to ensure maximum star appeal. I think this might be why it falls flat for me. That and the anachronistic music written for it. In 1978 it lacked sticking power with me and watching it now, it feels uneven and clumsy, In the current issue of Smithsonian Magazine, Holly Millea wrote a piece about the 40th anniversary of Grease and she noted that Pauline Kael referred to Grease as a ā€œKlutzburgerā€. I get it. Hairspray is an emphatic YES!! At the risk of allowing the Personal Fallacy of criticism run rampant in my adoration of Hairspray, I canā€™t cloak the fact that I am a Baltimoron. Iā€™m even an extra in CryBaby. With that out of the way, I will argue that Hairspray is written, shot and edited better than Grease. It is considerably funnier AND still manages to have a social conscience as it uses the civil rights movement as a tool to create growth and change in itsā€™ characters. We all know that racism is abhorrent and destructive. It is also stupid, silly and ridiculous! Waters proves this when Penny Pingletonā€™s Mom, Prudence is perfectly portrayed by JoAnn Havrilla is searching for Penny in West Baltimore and is relieved to find a police car only to discover the the officer in it is Black. That reaction shot, photographed from the officersā€™ PIV is Priceless!! Iā€™ve seen Hairspray in a crowded theater and in living rooms and that shot always creates howls of laughter! Hysterical Racism is Hysterical! I respect Mr. Mortimerā€™s thoughts and opinions and he is a great foil, but he seemed to argue that Hairspray is inauthentic. In that he is incorrect. He mentioned garishly decorated houses that defied reality. I bought my house here in Baltimore in 2012 and when my wife and I were looking at houses, we were happily astonished that so many Baltimore houses with long time owners were packed with tchotchkes, shag carpeting on the walls and seizure-inducing wall paper. Also, my Momā€™s generation did grow up onThe Buddy Deane show. When she was a girl she asked my grandmother if she could take dancing lessons. My Nanny shut this down, noting my Mothersā€™ chubbiness. Years later, my Mom finally took dance lessons and won some in - studio competitions. Take that, Nanny! My Aunt Colleen, also a member of this generation had a best friend named Pat Pilkerton. Not quite Penny Pingleton, but you get my drift. Finally, when Tracy, Link, Seaweed & Penny go to Motormouth Maybelleā€™s record store, they take the North Avenue bus. Tracy notes that sheā€™s ā€œnever been in this part of town before ā€œ North and Pennsylvania Avenues have served as a Nexus of Black Culture and African -American history in Baltimore for decades. One need only review the footage of the unrest following the death Freddie Gray to see that the nightly standoffā€™s between the citizens and Baltimore Police Department are occurring at North and Pennsylvania Avenues. It speaks to the distance between White and Black communities then and now. John Waters packed Hairspray with authenticity and is indeed the most complete work of this Auteur. Now if only I can come on the show and argue for Desperate Living, which is actually the funniest Waters film and is most definitely, Camp,
  12. The Exorcist is my favorite film of all time and it has been for nearly 40 years. So before I begin to explain my vote please know that I am an emphatic YES for inclusion in the Canon. The Exorcist is not simply a horror film. It is an expertly executed film that defies categorization. It is a film that challenges our core notion of how whole we are. Father Merrin says the Devilsā€™ attack is psychological and that ā€œhe would like to trick us.ā€ In that statement, the film reminds us of how fragile we are and how easily we can fall; forget that Love and Hope exist and become victims of our own self-doubt and despair. We all can lose our faith and deem ourselves, as Father Karras does, ā€œunfitā€. Jason Millerā€™s performance as Fr. Karras has always been the standard that I judge all film acting performances against. During my all-too-infrequent acting gigs, I try to channel his subtlety and the weight he gives to each word. All actors should study his performance in The Exorcist. Itā€™s a master class! From an editing standpoint itā€™s perfectly paced and one of the things that I love telling younger folks, is that all of the special effects are practical effects. The level of craftsmanship is off the charts in this film! It is layered. Itā€™s nuanced. Itā€™s vulgar. Itā€™s troubling. At its core, The Exorcist much like Twin Peaks, advocates, strongly, for the unadulterated expression of pure love, but to be successful, it makes you deal with a whole bunch of other stuff. And for these reasons and so many others, it belongs in the Canon. PS. I promised myself I wouldnā€™t write this, but The Exorcist is the Gone With the Wind and the Citizen Kane of Horror films.
  13. Scottcarberry

    Episode 130 - The Room (w/ Paul Scheer)

    I love that Paul submitted this for consideration to be included in our beloved, esteemed, Canon. Probably my favorite thing about ā€œbadā€ movies is that no matter how poorly executed they are, there are at least a few people working on it that are fully committed to the project. In ā€˜The Roomā€™ no one is dragging their feet. There truly is an earnestness within. Now if only there was Jim Varney as Earnest in it, this might be a Canon shoe-in!
  14. Scottcarberry

    Episode 121 - The Matrix (w/ Cameron Esposito)

    This is a solid Yes from me. In 1999 I was 33 years old and living in NYC. The Matrix quickly became the movie to see and it was hard to get a ticket even though most of the theaters that were showing it had it on multiple screens. I had never seen that before and I haven't since. People were so excited see it because it was such a feast for the eyes! Everyone had seen martial arts movies, but not like this! Everyone had seen action movies before, but not like this! I managed to see it twice in the theater and on that second viewing it began to dawn on me that Matrix was more than all the shiny stuff. It was a skillfully constructed house full of every hero allegory, philosophical teaching and onanistic thought under the sun. A woman was seated next to me in the sold out theater and during the spoon bending scene, after hearing the child lama say something like, 'It's not about trying to make the spoon bend, it's whether or not the spoon exists in the first place'. That woman next to me said, "Child, ya'll making me think too hard for a Saturday night!". I've always thought that was kind of fabulous. One evening as I was walking to the subway after work, I noticed a group of people all straining to look at something in a store window and when got up the scene I saw that they were watching The Matrix. I guess the store got its hands on a bootleg copy of it and it was showing on a multitude of tv's like it was the moon landing or something. The film has got legs.
  15. Scottcarberry

    Episode 105 - Eraserhead vs. Blue Velvet (w/ Michael Nordine)

    John Waters and Lynch both have two early films that are game-changing and for some folks, unwatchable; Pink Flamingos and Eraserhead. They also have mid-career films that are excellent and have been seen by an audience that didn't or wouldn't enjoy their earlier works. Namely, Hairspray and Blue Velvet. Blue Velvet goes in the Canon even though I love Eraserhead, too.
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