Best Of 2018: Blockbusters

[Cameron H. 23786]

I thought I’d go ahead and creat this  

Paul & Amy travel to the distant era of 2018, with a look back at last year’s 20 biggest movies! They cover everything from Bohemian Rhapsody to Aquaman, A Quiet Place to Black Panther, with an eye on which films deserve to be placed on a future AFI list. Plus: Listeners resolve a musical mystery from One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest.

Next week we continue our miniseries looking back at the films of 2018, with an episode focusing on critically acclaimed films. You can find a list of the top 20 films we’ll be discussing here: https://www.metacritic.com/feature/film-critics-list-the-top-10-movies-of-2018 [metacritic.com]

Read Amy’s expose on Tom Cruise’s couch moment here: http://www.laweekly.com/news/how-youtube-and-internet-journalism-destroyed-tom-cruise-our-last-real-movie-star-4656549 [laweekly.com]

Follow us on Twitter @Unspooled, get more info at unspooledpod.com, and don’t forget to rate, review & subscribe to us on Apple Podcasts. Photo by Kim Troxall.

This episode is brought to you by Caavo (www.caavo.com) and Black Tux (www.blacktux.com code: UNSPOOLED).

[ol' eddy wrecks 212]

Here's a list of top grossing movies for the year.  It would probably be cumbersome to list all 20 as poll options of, would you vote for this movie on your AFI top 100 poll?

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/yearly/chart/?p=.htm&yr=2018

 

Slightly different than Amy's since Grindenwald (sp?) passed Halloween for the top 20 spot by about $1,000.

I suspect I won't have much to add to the specific movies on this one as, currently, the only movies in the top 100 I've seen are

67. Hereditary

83. Annihilation

93. The Favourite

[JJ95 21]

I have seen the Oprah stuff and Cruise CLEARLY jumps onto the couch. How Amy can deny this is baffling to me. And he did tell dangerous nonsense on the Daily Show. And that a year earlier the show would have been blackmailed into not airing the truth is neither a defense nor a good thing. I lover her but all in all I feel Amy has lost a little of her distance there in defending her favorite movie star... ;-)

[grudlian. 4725]

2 minutes ago, JJ95 said:

I have seen the Oprah stuff and Cruise CLEARLY jumps onto the couch. How Amy can deny this is baffling to me. And he did tell dangerous nonsense on the Daily Show. And that a year earlier the show would have been blackmailed into not airing the truth is neither a defense nor a good thing. I lover her but all in all I feel Amy has lost a little of her distance there in defending her favorite movie star...

I haven't watched Tom Cruise on the couch since it happened but even then I didn't get the big deal. I don't care if he jumped on the couch. The guy was in love (unles the argument is his marriage was a sham contract with scientology to cover up his latent homosexuality or whatever conspiracy people have about Tom Cruise now) and so many of us want to be swept up in big, romantic gestures. Well, what's the problem with this then?

[JJ95 21]

You are right. The couch jumping was never the problem. His thoughts on depression and suicide and the promotion of scientology - which is a horrible organization .- was what made many people fall out of love with him.

[grudlian. 4725]

30 minutes ago, JJ95 said:

You are right. The couch jumping was never the problem. His thoughts on depression and suicide and the promotion of scientology - which is a horrible organization .- was what made many people fall out of love with him.

Yeah. If there wasn't already a lot of negative sentiment toward him, I don't think it would have been such a big deal. Weird but kind of shrugged off.

[Moonmont 0]

I really like how Paul framed important films as the ones "we remember a year later," if only for a self-serving reason. A few weeks ago, I joked to my friends that I thought the Oscars should only happen every four years like the Olympics, and that no film that came out within the last year should be eligible until the next Oscars. Since I said that in jest, I've begun to feel that there's actual validity to that idea. In addition to potentially breaking up the obnoxious end-of-year "Oscar season" system, this would force people to really reflect on the films that they actually still remember from a few years ago, rather than the ones they viewed during a time that is set aside for "the best films."

It's still too early to tell based on my own criteria, but I suspect that Into the Spider-Verse may end up being the film I look back on most fondly when remembering the films of 2018.

[ol' eddy wrecks 212]

My recollection (always fallible) is there was also a Scientologist video he was in that someone leaked nearly at the same time. The ideas he espoused and his delivery in that was the real source of, "Tom Cruise," is crazy.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

I usually see eye to eye on everything with Amy, but I have to say we're going to always disagree about superhero movies.

Personally, it kinda chaps my ass when people say things like it's depressing or embarrassing for these films to dominate the box office, and the conversations about movies. Like Paul mentioned, there have always been trends in cinema and this is just the wave that we're currently riding, but just because someone doesn't personally like those films, that should not then make it depressing or embarrassing for the rest of the world to like those films. Marvel films are good. They are objectively good movies. Are all of them good? No, absolutely not (literally Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the worst things I've ever had to sit through), but there are 5 I can name off the top of my head that are great movies regardless of what genre they are in. I've been seeing this so much lately that it just kind of sparks rage in me that people can be so elitist (not saying Amy is but there are hints) that they completely write off anything in a certain genre just because they themselves don't like that genre.

I loved Black Panther. It wasn't my favorite of the year, but it definitely was higher than every movie listed in today's episode. It was a good fucking movie and if this hadn't been about a comic book character but rather just a dude from African royalty fighting with his Americanized cousin who is justifiably angry about the oppression of black people, then it wouldn't even be a question about the seriousness of this movie. I think the same thing about Winter Soldier, and I was so happy that Paul thought the same that it's a beautiful 70s style political thriller that changed the way these Marvel movies are made. Suddenly it didn't have to just be a copy and paste story, but now we can revolve around a certain topic and change the genre to fit that. The same way Thor: Ragnarok revitalized the story of Thor, because Taika Waititi took this story and made one of his comedies in this world.

I do believe that Amy is right in that Dark Knight should probably be the one to represent the comic book movies, because that is still one of my favorite movies of all time, but if we're going to talk about the importance of these films then I don't think it's fair to have this conversation with so many qualifiers like this is just a depressing time. It's not for a lot of us. A lot of us are delighted to see the things we grew up on being properly placed on screen.

Also to the point that she wishes that these weren't the ways that feminism and black & asian representation were taken seriously, we have to really look at the world we're living in currently. People talk about feminism and black lives matter all the time and they never get taken seriously, they never ever get looked at in a way where these conversations go anywhere. But the fact that Black Panther and Infinity War and Star Wars and Spider-Man are the top grossing movies in the world, then putting these things out in that fashion normalizes it in a way we could never possibly hope for. There are already a plethora of movies that I'm sure Amy has watched that beautifully touch on feminism, and black lives, and LGBTQA people, but they aren't getting shown to middle America. Black Panther is. Crazy Rich Asians is. Wonder Woman is. Until we have a government that takes all of this seriously, and until we can get smaller independent features shown to the whitest of the white parts of this country, the only way to show that hey guess what a woman doesn't need a man and black people are people too is by these blockbusters.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm pretty sure Amy knows all of this anyway, but I don't like having to consistently be told that my taste in movies is lesser than just because of what genre it is. I love me a superhero flick, and I love me a gritty independent drama. I find them both to be equal in my mind.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

2 hours ago, JJ95 said:

I have seen the Oprah stuff and Cruise CLEARLY jumps onto the couch. How Amy can deny this is baffling to me. And he did tell dangerous nonsense on the Daily Show. And that a year earlier the show would have been blackmailed into not airing the truth is neither a defense nor a good thing. I lover her but all in all I feel Amy has lost a little of her distance there in defending her favorite movie star...

That's not what Amy said. She said he jumped up to stand on the couch ONCE, then sat back down. But the popular memory is of him bouncing up and down on the couch, which is not what happened.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

30 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

I usually see eye to eye on everything with Amy, but I have to say we're going to always disagree about superhero movies.

Personally, it kinda chaps my ass when people say things like it's depressing or embarrassing for these films to dominate the box office, and the conversations about movies. Like Paul mentioned, there have always been trends in cinema and this is just the wave that we're currently riding, but just because someone doesn't personally like those films, that should not then make it depressing or embarrassing for the rest of the world to like those films. Marvel films are good. They are objectively good movies. Are all of them good? No, absolutely not (literally Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the worst things I've ever had to sit through), but there are 5 I can name off the top of my head that are great movies regardless of what genre they are in. I've been seeing this so much lately that it just kind of sparks rage in me that people can be so elitist (not saying Amy is but there are hints) that they completely write off anything in a certain genre just because they themselves don't like that genre.

I loved Black Panther. It wasn't my favorite of the year, but it definitely was higher than every movie listed in today's episode. It was a good fucking movie and if this hadn't been about a comic book character but rather just a dude from African royalty fighting with his Americanized cousin who is justifiably angry about the oppression of black people, then it wouldn't even be a question about the seriousness of this movie. I think the same thing about Winter Soldier, and I was so happy that Paul thought the same that it's a beautiful 70s style political thriller that changed the way these Marvel movies are made. Suddenly it didn't have to just be a copy and paste story, but now we can revolve around a certain topic and change the genre to fit that. The same way Thor: Ragnarok revitalized the story of Thor, because Taika Waititi took this story and made one of his comedies in this world.

I do believe that Amy is right in that Dark Knight should probably be the one to represent the comic book movies, because that is still one of my favorite movies of all time, but if we're going to talk about the importance of these films then I don't think it's fair to have this conversation with so many qualifiers like this is just a depressing time. It's not for a lot of us. A lot of us are delighted to see the things we grew up on being properly placed on screen.

Also to the point that she wishes that these weren't the ways that feminism and black & asian representation were taken seriously, we have to really look at the world we're living in currently. People talk about feminism and black lives matter all the time and they never get taken seriously, they never ever get looked at in a way where these conversations go anywhere. But the fact that Black Panther and Infinity War and Star Wars and Spider-Man are the top grossing movies in the world, then putting these things out in that fashion normalizes it in a way we could never possibly hope for. There are already a plethora of movies that I'm sure Amy has watched that beautifully touch on feminism, and black lives, and LGBTQA people, but they aren't getting shown to middle America. Black Panther is. Crazy Rich Asians is. Wonder Woman is. Until we have a government that takes all of this seriously, and until we can get smaller independent features shown to the whitest of the white parts of this country, the only way to show that hey guess what a woman doesn't need a man and black people are people too is by these blockbusters.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm pretty sure Amy knows all of this anyway, but I don't like having to consistently be told that my taste in movies is lesser than just because of what genre it is. I love me a superhero flick, and I love me a gritty independent drama. I find them both to be equal in my mind.

I'll just give a thumbs-up to the sentiment expressed here. I find the scoffing at superhero movies more tiresome than the current glut of superhero movies. There are always popular genres that dominate the marketplace! These are not that different from Westerns or slasher movies or disaster movies or whatever.

The thing I will grant is that the current trend towards remakes and sequels is a bit disturbing. The Marvel franchise at least allows for some originality in its individual entries, but the overall remake/sequel trend is unusual. I would have been interested to hear them talk about how this might also be influenced by the atomization of content delivery: with so much new and original content coming out on Prestige TV, streaming services, etc., the big studio movies have to work harder to be the "safe" option that will get you to actually haul your ass to a theater.  But at the same time, there is still a lot of original content on those other services, if you want to look for it.

[Cameron H. 23786]

2 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

II know I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm pretty sure Amy knows all of this anyway, but I don't like having to consistently be told that my taste in movies is lesser than just because of what genre it is. I love me a superhero flick, and I love me a gritty independent drama. I find them both to be equal in my mind.

I 100% agree! I haven’t listened to the episode, but that type of attitude always feels like intellectual/artistic profiling and it can’t help but come off as snobbery of the highest order. “Oh, you like those punchy-punch, superheroes in tights movies? Well, then I already know everything about you and you must be this type of person and like these types of things. I mean, obviously, you’re too much of a Neanderthal to recognize real ‘Art’ when you see it. Poor deluded you...”

I like superhero movies, and I like other movies too. I read comics, but I also read books of classic literature, religion, poetry, and art. I’m not an outlier - especially not with this crowd.

The one thing I can say about superhero movies is that they are -currently- probably the one thing in this world that people on both sides of the aisle can agree on. If this is the one bit of common ground we have left, shouldn’t we nurture that rather than create further division by dismissing it as being a lesser art form, and implicitly, only for “lesser” people? As Taylor said above, superhero movies are a perfect vehicle for people to ingest on a purely entertainment/spectacle level while opening up the doors to heavier and more divisive subjects (e.g race, sexism, civil rights) I mean, if Black Panther convinces just one child of a racist that maybe racism isn’t the right way, then isn’t that worth it? Doesn’t that make it important?

 

[taylor anne photo 11311]

15 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

I 100% agree! I haven’t listened to the episode, but that type of attitude always feels like intellectual/artistic profiling and it can’t help but come off as snobbery of the highest order. “Oh, you like those punchy-punch, superheroes in tights movies? Well, then I already know everything about you and you must be this type of person and like these types of things. I mean, obviously, you’re too much of a Neanderthal to recognize real ‘Art’ when you see it. Poor deluded you...”

I like superhero movies, and I like other movies too. I read comics, but I also read books of classic literature, religion, poetry, and art. I’m not an outlier - especially not with this crowd. The one thing I can say about superhero movies is that they are -currently- probably the one thing in this world that people on both sides of the aisle can agree on. If this is the one bit of common ground we have left, shouldn’t we nurture that rather than create further division by dismissing it is being a lesser art form, and implicitly, only for “lesser” people? As Taylor said above, superhero movies are a perfect vehicle for people to ingest on a purely entertaining/spectacle level while opening up the doors to heavier and more divisive subjects (e.g race, sexism, civil rights) I mean, is Black Panther convinces just one child of a racist that maybe racism isn’t the right way, then isn’t that worth it? Doesn’t that make it important?

1000% yes.

And I know Amy in her heart does not give a shit about what kind of movies people like and don't like, because she's not an asshole. But when we're discussing what is considered the best of film in America and then the notion that superhero movies shouldn't be considered because the person talking doesn't like them - that just feels dismissive. I don't really care for westerns but I would never argue that all westerns should be out of consideration for the Best Of lists.

This really is a great episode and I really enjoyed hearing them talk together about last year's movies, and at one point they do talk about the right decisions that studios are making to hire auteur directors, but they have this conversation when talking about Lord & Miller directing Into the Spider-Verse and then completely chalk off Ryan Coogler as being lazy with the ending of Black Panther, which is a WILD opinion. Marvel is on the forefront for hiring specific people to make their specific movies. It doesn't always pay off and it may come off as not being that way, but even though I despise James Gunn, we wouldn't have Gaurdians without his vision. We wouldn't have Infinity War without the Russos giving us Winter Soldier, and we would have Ragnarok without Taika. These are veeerrrryyyyy specific films made by verrrrryyyy specific people, and it shows!

Also I still stand by my statement that Winter Soldier is actually the first deserving Marvel movie to be nominated for an Oscar. Dark Knight should've also been recognized more than just Heath's stellar performance.

[Cameron H. 23786]

20 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

But when we're discussing what is considering the best of film in America and then the notion that superhero movies shouldn't be considered because the person talking doesn't like them - that just feels dismissive.

Exactly! When people say things like, “Isn’t it sad that people like such-and-such so much” what it seems like they are really saying is, “I wish people liked the things I liked more. It sure would be better.” Which feels, I don’t know, kind of narcissistic or something. 

We don’t have to tear a thing down in order to raise something else up. We don’t all have to like the same things. We can even passionately disagree. But what we shouldn’t  be is dismissive because that closes the dialogue forever.

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

29 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

The one thing I can say about superhero movies is that they are -currently- probably the one thing in this world that people on both sides of the aisle can agree on. If this is the one bit of common ground we have left, shouldn’t we nurture that rather than create further division by dismissing it as being a lesser art form, and implicitly, only for “lesser” people? As Taylor said above, superhero movies are a perfect vehicle for people to ingest on a purely entertainment/spectacle level while opening up the doors to heavier and more divisive subjects (e.g race, sexism, civil rights) I mean, if Black Panther convinces just one child of a racist that maybe racism isn’t the right way, then isn’t that worth it? Doesn’t that make it important?

I think about this on another level: what does it mean that superheroes are the dominant pop genre? What did it mean when it was westerns?

My sense is that the public is looking for a "hero," and more specifically, a team of heroes. The splintering and polarization of our current government and political system has resulted in audiences wishing to escape into a world where there are just good people who will take care of problems. It also seems to me that westerns dominated when we had a stronger centralized government and a more conformist culture in public life, reflecting a desire to see movies emphasizing individualism and freedom.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

Exactly! When people say things like, “Isn’t it sad that people like such-and-such so much” what it seems like they are really saying is, “I wish people liked the things I liked more. It sure would be better.” Which feels, I don’t know, kind of narcissistic or something. 

We don’t have to tear a thing down in order to raise something else up. We don’t all have to like the same things. We can even passionately disagree. But what we shouldn’t  be is dismissive because that closes the dialogue forever.

Totally, and it honestly brought me back to how much shit I've seen being thrown at Amy for her love of Clueless, which is also a SPECTACULAR film! What I think the AFI list can be better at is showing a diversity in film in all areas. We need more black directors & subjects, we need female representation, we need queer representation, and we need a diversity in genre. Paul mentioned that there are so many westerns, so many mafia, and so many Vietman movies that I'm really thinking we don't have to all consider the same kinds of movies are the best for the next 100 years.

I wanna live in a world where my love of Beauty and the Beast, Clueless, The Dark Knight, All About Eve, and Another Earth can all live in harmony.

[Cameron H. 23786]

5 minutes ago, taylorannephoto said:

...and Another Earth can all live in harmony.

I read this as After Earth, and I was like daaaaaaamn.

[taylor anne photo 11311]

2 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I read this as After Earth, and I was like daaaaaaamn.

YOU KNOW ME BETTER THAN THAT SIR

(but legit Another Earth is a fantastic movie that got zero recognition and it features a guy playing a saw which is also the sound from Cuckoo's Nest and so I've been thinking about how much I love it)

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I found this episode pretty interesting.  I agree with Taylor fully about superhero movies... but then the end result of the episode, even with Amy being anti-superhero, was that Black Panther and Spider-verse were the two best things and I agree with that.  I do think of them as their own genre, and those two are definitely among my faves of the genre.

I do think they were nitpicking Black Panther, like arguing it misses one emotional beat at some point.  That's the end-all of a movie?  I don't mind not liking it fully, but that seems oddly specific reasoning.  What I like about Unspooled is while they may have a lot of specific facts to share, they aren't nitpicking the quality of the films to death.  They look at them broadly, as to how they fit in our lens of NOW, of culture, of 'what is great'.  So to do the opposite with Black Panther, I thought was strange and less what I look to critics to do, to be honest. Is it because it's new?  Because it's superheros?

 

 

[acsenray 0]

The extended discussion on whether a superhero movie needs to be on the all-time list was interesting. Yes, it’s a major genre and you would expect to see one on for cultural purposes. 

I’ve seen the bulk of the superhero movies going back to the 1978 Superman so I think I’m qualified to say that the problem is that no superhero movie made so far is good enough. None of them will be for the ages. 

 

Watchmen shoild have been that hood—it had the sophisticated theme and complex story to make it timeless—but it failed to work as a movie. 

The MCU movies are just varying levels of competetent and entertaining, but ultimately they’re all just hack movies. None of them can stand on its own, like the original “Star Wars.”

[sycasey 2.0 2301]

6 minutes ago, acsenray said:

None of them can stand on its own, like the original “Star Wars.”

I disagree. I think most of the "intro" movies to a given character can stand on their own. They're not all great, but they are stand-alone stories.

(That's the secret to why the MCU got so popular. They hooked audiences with good individual stories first, so now you're willing to buy tickets for the team-ups.)

[grudlian. 4725]

2 hours ago, taylorannephoto said:

I usually see eye to eye on everything with Amy, but I have to say we're going to always disagree about superhero movies.

Personally, it kinda chaps my ass when people say things like it's depressing or embarrassing for these films to dominate the box office, and the conversations about movies. Like Paul mentioned, there have always been trends in cinema and this is just the wave that we're currently riding, but just because someone doesn't personally like those films, that should not then make it depressing or embarrassing for the rest of the world to like those films. Marvel films are good. They are objectively good movies. Are all of them good? No, absolutely not (literally Avengers: Age of Ultron is one of the worst things I've ever had to sit through), but there are 5 I can name off the top of my head that are great movies regardless of what genre they are in. I've been seeing this so much lately that it just kind of sparks rage in me that people can be so elitist (not saying Amy is but there are hints) that they completely write off anything in a certain genre just because they themselves don't like that genre.

I loved Black Panther. It wasn't my favorite of the year, but it definitely was higher than every movie listed in today's episode. It was a good fucking movie and if this hadn't been about a comic book character but rather just a dude from African royalty fighting with his Americanized cousin who is justifiably angry about the oppression of black people, then it wouldn't even be a question about the seriousness of this movie. I think the same thing about Winter Soldier, and I was so happy that Paul thought the same that it's a beautiful 70s style political thriller that changed the way these Marvel movies are made. Suddenly it didn't have to just be a copy and paste story, but now we can revolve around a certain topic and change the genre to fit that. The same way Thor: Ragnarok revitalized the story of Thor, because Taika Waititi took this story and made one of his comedies in this world.

I do believe that Amy is right in that Dark Knight should probably be the one to represent the comic book movies, because that is still one of my favorite movies of all time, but if we're going to talk about the importance of these films then I don't think it's fair to have this conversation with so many qualifiers like this is just a depressing time. It's not for a lot of us. A lot of us are delighted to see the things we grew up on being properly placed on screen.

Also to the point that she wishes that these weren't the ways that feminism and black & asian representation were taken seriously, we have to really look at the world we're living in currently. People talk about feminism and black lives matter all the time and they never get taken seriously, they never ever get looked at in a way where these conversations go anywhere. But the fact that Black Panther and Infinity War and Star Wars and Spider-Man are the top grossing movies in the world, then putting these things out in that fashion normalizes it in a way we could never possibly hope for. There are already a plethora of movies that I'm sure Amy has watched that beautifully touch on feminism, and black lives, and LGBTQA people, but they aren't getting shown to middle America. Black Panther is. Crazy Rich Asians is. Wonder Woman is. Until we have a government that takes all of this seriously, and until we can get smaller independent features shown to the whitest of the white parts of this country, the only way to show that hey guess what a woman doesn't need a man and black people are people too is by these blockbusters.

I know I'm preaching to the choir, and I'm pretty sure Amy knows all of this anyway, but I don't like having to consistently be told that my taste in movies is lesser than just because of what genre it is. I love me a superhero flick, and I love me a gritty independent drama. I find them both to be equal in my mind.

I agree with both you and Amy.

I think Amy takes it too far that she wishes the genre was dead or that all the heroes died. But I agree that the fight scenes are really kind of weak in a lot of these movies. And that bothers me because every one of the movies is always leading to a huge fight and usually not that exciting to me (with some exceptions like the one angle fight in Civil War for example). You can't drop the ball on the climax of the movie. Hearing Ryan Coogler talk about the depth of the details in Black Panther is great. And I feel all those details. I fucking loved all the human elements of Black Panther and openly wept in the theater about how Killmonger and Tchalla really just want the same thing but they have different ways of how they best think to achieve it. Then it's just a really mediocre fight.

To me, that's a problem. It's not a beef against superheroes. I'd sooner put Into The Spider-verse into the film canon than any MCU movie because it has no real flaws. But every single one of them has something that keeps me from thinking it's great instead of good. The biggest hurdle, for me, is that they all feel remarkably similar (except for Thor Ragnarok which is definitely doing it's own thing) despite occasionally touching on different genres. Winter Soldier wants to be a 70s political thriller but I don't feel the claustrophobic paranoia of 3 Days Of The Condor; it just feels like Captain America to me. Ant Man wants to be a heist movie but it's not nearly as fun or thrilling as Ocean's 11. It doesn't mean the MCU sucks and fuck superheroes. It just means they don't reach the heights they aiming for with me. That's fine and I'm not judging anyone for loving them. I simply like them.

You're definitely right that people aren't going to see movies about actual issues. We have to sort of trick them into seeing Wonder Woman or Black Panther because they aren't going to see Support The Girls or Blindspotting. I don't know if Marvel necessarily said "We're going to make Black Panther to force white people into a theatre to see their first movie with a majority not-white cast" but that's definitely a byproduct of them making Black Panther. If that's what it takes, then I guess that's what we have to do.

[DanEngler 5249]

35 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

I do think they were nitpicking Black Panther, like arguing it misses one emotional beat at some point.  That's the end-all of a movie?  I don't mind not liking it fully, but that seems oddly specific reasoning.  What I like about Unspooled is while they may have a lot of specific facts to share, they aren't nitpicking the quality of the films to death. 

I don't know if I consider it nitpicking because I agree with Amy & Paul: the majority of Black Panther is electrifying, which is why the final act feels so underwhelming in comparison. In fact, when I revisited what I remembered to be a deeply emotional cliff/sunset/death scene, I realized I was actually thinking about the end of War for The Planet of The Apes. I pray that Black Panther 2 really sticks the landing so counting it among the 100 best films of all time is a no-brainer.

[Cameron H. 23786]

10 minutes ago, DanEngler said:

I agree with Amy & Paul: the majority of Black Panther is electrifying, which is why the final act feels so underwhelming in comparison.

Kind of like their criticism of Psycho  

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

I agree the underground train scene was weird looking and a strange choice, but I still found the message behind that sunset cliff scene to be poignant, i.e., choosing to die a free man instead of in chains.  That's a strong message that goes back in black history, like slaves committing suicide on the slavery ships for example.  Perhaps that scene could have been developed better or given more space after the big fights, but I think there's a lot in Killmonger and his death which makes Black Panther stand out as a film.