HoldenMartinson

That is a weird business model, but Howl.fm has been worth it. So, as strange as it is that The Canon only exists in this one way, it's still worth it--the WTF archive and compilation of Superego episodes have been especially neat.

Yes!!!! Oh my gosh. Whoever comes back, I don't even care, because I trust Amy to keep this show amazing!!!!

Skeleton Tree has ended up as my favorite album of the year, but I don't know when I'll get to Once More with Feeling. I'm excited for it, though.

Eh. Good discussion is good discussion. I love what Devin brought to the table, and his blustery energy is a lot of fun, but that doesn't mean the show only has to exist with that aesthetic. It'd be kind of cool if Amy brought in a pantheon of hosts, and rotated them episode to episode. Any form of the show will do.

This was the best film podcast. No show taught me more about film literacy and grammar, while being thoroughly entertaining and insightful in any myriad of ways. Devin and Amy have a rapport like no one else. Good chemistry is too hard to find. Anyway, I love The Canon. If it's gone, that's a really rough pill, but whatever. If it's possible, then it'd mean the world to make it happen.

One of my five favorite films of all time. Would be over the moon for a Days of Heaven episode, should the show come back.

Thanks so much, Amy. And thanks to both you and Devin for making it possible for such a community to exist. It wouldn't work with a program that wasn't as insightful and engaging as The Canon. Whatever happens next, we're all here.

Since we're doing this... I pretty much only use my Letterboxd for list keeping. Anyway, if it'd be easier, we can always make a discussion thread for these. https://letterboxd.com/himartinson/

Yeah. As someone who has been here from the beginning, this is big. I love The Canon, and am disheartened that this has to happen, but not a whole lot else that can be done. For what it's worth, this was fun while it lasted, and nothing's going to take away the incredible insights Devin continually brought to the discussion. Should The Canon take on a new chapter, I'll be listening as enthusiastically as ever. If not, talk about a hell of a run. Thinking a little ahead--maybe we could have our own unofficial forum Canon? We give people a day to make arguments, and then wait to make a poll later? That way, people won't just vote impulsively as much. Keeps the show alive in some iteration. Could be a fun distraction.

All things considered, things have gone down about as smoothly as they could. Well enough, at least, that Devin could conceivably continue doing the show. I imagine that this isn't much of a priority, but I don't know. The responses from everyone involved seem civil and understanding, which is all anyone can ask.

This is rough. It's devastating because I know how important the show is to me, and I know how important Devin's perspective has been in shaping the perspective of a young person who wants to understand film. If what happened is true to the degree that Devin is unable to continue, I'll still listen to the show, assuming Amy and another continue. Would it be the same? No. And the circumstances under which personnel was changed would loom over the show forever. So, I don't know. It's really difficult to consider.

Yeah. This is super irritating, but you know what? I'm gonna dig my heels in and defend the shit out of The Thing, E.T., and Alien. I know it's important--maybe the most important of all four films--but Blade Runner is gonna be my vote going in. This is the worst versus of all the versus episodes.

I couldn't really emotionally engage with the film. But the sheer excitement I have for the filmmaking here is enough--that, and the timeliness of it all. Seriously though. The way Kazan populates the frame with so much activity. Rhodes is just being churned out of one machine-like structure after another. This also keeps the viewer from being distracted or bored. Also, the general blocking within scenes is pretty great. The pacing is top notch. Everyone is putting in such mind-blowing work. Lastly, am I the only one who found Walter Matthau to be weirdly sexy in his role? He's just so calm and authoritative. It's really hypnotic stuff--though, maybe I'm revealing too much. Anyway, this is a great film. Absolute slam dunk.

I had to look hard to see if a picture of Todd Solondz smiling existed. Golly. Anyway, it has been a while since I've indulged in Welcome to the Dollhouse. I remember really liking this one, though.

I think it'd be interesting to kick one of the The Godfather films out. We have the first two parts. Which is the Godfather-iest of the Godfather saga.

You could do a versus about awful things involving kids with this and Dear Zachary. Mostly, I'm a sadist who will look for any excuse to make anyone watch Dear Zachary. That said, I love Capturing the Friedmans, and would happily take a solo episode for it.

Cannibal Holocaust is, in my opinion, a much better, more impactful exploitation film. Also, it does have the advent of found footage going for it.

Hot Fuzz is far and away the best, if you ask me--which is saying a lot, considering that they're all impeccably-made films.

The only thing I'd warn against by canning Cannibal Holocaust is that we're gonna have to keep watching horrible, depraved movies until we get something representative of cannibal exploitation films. This is about as well-made as they get. Just something to keep in mind.

I'm not gonna pretend I don't love a lot of the films we've put in of this nature, but we have so many boy movies in the canon that The Bad Seed is as good as, or better than. I know someone's going to try to argue the egalitarian side of things, and that a movie shouldn't be put into the canon based off of other movies in the canon, except it's been established that this is a representative canon. We don't have a film like The Bad Seed in the canon. Is it the very best? Maybe not, but it's close. And, above all, it's good enough for canonization. We have lots of schlocky horror movies for boys in the canon. Couldn't we have at least one for girls, at least for the time being?

I don't know if Amy and Devin want to poll this in any particular way, but if only to get a feel for where this is going to head. As our perceptions and listenership changes, so do our definitions of the canon. Approaching 100 episodes of this series, which picture least adheres to acceptable levels of canonocity? What films just need to be ejected from the canon?

This was a pretty easy yes. I buy the arguments, and I, like Devin, happened to catch it a long time ago on television and maybe wouldn't have gotten to it for a while. That said, I'm glad I had a chance to revisit it. This is a terrific film, and is totally canon-worthy.

Yeah, I'm down for it. This would be the only Tarantino release that is canon-worthy that might not make it in--assuming we don't do some cruel versus between Django Unchained and Inglourious Basterds.

That's the striking thing: Most of the people here who have identified as Trekkies seem to have voted the film down. It's not horrible if the film doesn't get into the canon, but that's really weird that the most presumably ardent supporters have been going the other direction.

Given films in the vein of Re-Animator, I can't imagine this getting far. I haven't seen it, and I'm sure it's fine, but if we did this one, it'd have to be in another hundred episodes or so.