Episode 14. The 2016 Oscars Nominees (a.k.a. GripeFest 2016)
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TotallyPretentiousEpisode014The2016Oscars/TotallyPretentiousEpisode014–The2016Oscars.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSGripeFest 2016 is here! In our 14th episode, Shaun is joined by Rachael Acks to discuss the 2016 Academy Awards. Which movies don’t belong? Which movies are sorely missed? What the heck is wrong with the Oscars this year? Listen to find out what we thing about everything from gender and race issues in the Academy to which movies we think should be kicked to the curb. Enjoy!
Mad Max: Beyond Patriarchy — On Fury Road’s (2015) Visual Rhetoric and Apocalyptic Social Rebirth
If you haven’t seen Mad Max: Fury Road (2015; dir. George Miller) yet, I highly recommend it. Unexpectedly, it turned out to be a film I didn’t know I wanted. There are a lot of things worth discussing here, but in particular, I want to explore two elements of the film that I think make it a significant work of cinema. Visual Rhetoric and Mad Max (in Brief) In my review of The City of Lost Children (1995), I argued that Mad Max : Fury Road is primarily interested in storytelling as visual versus a story funneled to us through narrative proper. The point I want to make about the visual qualities of Mad Max — an idea that also applies to The City of Lost Children, albeit mobilized for different purposes — is that there is so little in this film that is told to us as a narrative (i.e., in exposition, dialogue, or in literal narration) that it compels us to focus not on the narrative (the plot), but on the conveyance of meaning within its visual landscape, both in the straight symbolic sense and in the characters-doing-things sense.
Episode 3. It Follows (2014): Teenage Body Horror, Modern Decay, and It
http://media.blubrry.com/skiffyandfanty/dts.podtrac.com/redirect.mp3/archive.org/download/TotallyPretentiousEpisode003ItFollows/TotallyPretentiousEpisode003–ItFollows.mp3Podcast: Play in new window | DownloadSubscribe: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Android | iHeartRadio | Podchaser | Podcast Index | Email | TuneIn | Deezer | RSSTeenage Body Horror, Modern Decay, and It! Our third episode is a special one! We jump outside of our normal programming schedule to host an impromptu discussion of David Robert Mitchell’s acclaimed new horror film, It Follows. Special guest Rachael Acks joins us as we explore the film’s underlying sexual mythologies, its treatment of capital, and its remarkable ability to produce dread. Enjoy!
Review: Blended (2014; dir. Frank Coraci)
Blended (2014; dir. Frank Coraci) can be summed up in a single sentence: an exhausting two hours of jokes about androgynous daughters, lesbians, and Africa. There are few films I can legitimately say should be consigned to the fires where “art” goes to be mercifully removed from human consciousness. Blended, unfortunately, is one of those films. Contrived and painfully anathema to comedy, Blended may be one of the worst films of 2014; it may even be the worst Adam Sandler film to be presented to the public. Starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore, Blended follows two single parents, Jim (Sandler) and Lauren (Barrymore), who meet on a blind date and realize they pretty much hate one another. But as fate would have it, they can’t seem to avoid meeting, especially when both Jim and Lauren decide to take their kids on an African safari, not realizing that they’re each going on the same trip. As a result, they become engrossed in one another’s lives, sparking, as to be expected, a romance and giving meaning to the title.
Review: Taken 2 and Islamaphobia (2012; dir. Olivier Megaton)
After the enormous success of Taken (2009; dir. Pierre Morel), which raked in $226.8 million worldwide on a $25 million budget, it was inevitable that we would get a repeat performance. And a repeat Luc Besson and his cavalcade of writers gave us. Taken 2 attempts at a continuous narrative, but it is ultimately a game of thematic repetition which the film hopes you won’t notice. On the surface, this is fine, since the series identifies its theme anyway, but one must wonder how a world in which someone like Bryan Mills (Liam Neeson) exists can continue to operate. After all, Bryan is an uncompromising murderer who cares little for international law. Indeed, he cares little about anyone outside of his personal circle, as becomes clear to us in his oft-quoted speech: I don’t know who you are. I don’t know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don’t have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills, skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that’ll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don’t, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.
