A weekly talk show hosted by film critic Christopher Crespo
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In episode 159, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn review Anomalisa.
Billy D reviews POD.
The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is The Guest.
The Crespodisco features two Carter Burwell songs, one from Anomalisa and one from The Man Who Wasn’t There.
Dr. Drew gives his two cents on the animated short film World of Tomorrow.Continue Reading …
In some ways, “Anomalisa” is a startling movie, with surprises and ideas that pop up along the way that can easily catch a person off guard, especially if they don’t know what they are getting themselves into at the outset. If all you know is that this movie is an animated film from the guy who wrote “Being John Malkovich” and “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and also wrote and directed “Synecdoche, New York,” that’s enough, just see this thing as soon as you can, and then read about it afterwards. Let this story just unfold in front of you, because it does so in a very compelling way, and reading about it ahead of time would kind of spoil things.
“Anomalisa” takes place mostly during the course of a one-night stay at a hotel in Cincinnati, as Michael Stone (David Thewlis) is in town to speak at a conference centered on customer service. But from the opening scene on the incoming plane throughout the rest of the movie, people try to be nice and make small talk with Michael along the way but he’s very stand offish and just not having it, which makes every one of his social interactions awkward. He even fakes enthusiasm when talking to his annoying son on the telephone, obviously exasperated with the little demon child he has wrought upon the Earth.
The words subtlety and nuance do not come to mind when thinking of the movies of Michael Bay; on the contrary, he has a style so bombastically singular that it has become known as Bayhem, and the application of this style of filmmaking to certain topics seems, on the surface, ridiculous. A “Michael Bay war movie” is one of these instances, and it does not help that he already bungled a World War II movie, so when it was announced that he was making the 2012 Benghazi attack film “13 Hours,” it seemed like a bad call from the start.
And lo and behold it was a bad call, because “13 Hours” is the kind of movie that your racist uncle, who never served a day of military service in his life, will insist everyone else see because it tells “the truth” about what happened, a one-sided telling of a very intense night, a confirmation of a political bias that Michael Bay never intended, and that dumb uncle of yours will ignore the seven congressional investigations and thirty-two hearings and instead will hold this up as what really happened in that land which he couldn’t find on a map (here it is, next to Egypt).
And if you think that’s an exaggeration, check out these responses from some audience members at the premiere held at a football stadium with 30,000 attendees. Because America.Continue Reading …
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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by returning guest stand up comedian Pedro Lima (www.twitter.com/RicanGorilla), and the three of them take a look at the list of movies scheduled to be released in 2016, and they decide which ones sound dope, which sound terrible, and which ones they are looking forward to the most.
“Snowpiercer” is a 2013 science fiction movie adapted from a graphic novel about a frozen world in which the entirety of Earth’s remaining human population lives on a single perpetual motion bullet train traversing the planet. It is a ridiculous and over the top set up, which means it makes for great sci-fi.
Captain America teams up with Patient Zero from “Alien” to lead a rebellion; the poor people who barely made it on to the train to begin with are all corralled into the back, with the train cars set aside for water production and imprisonment separate the poor in the back from the wealthy in the front cars, who are living a totally different lifestyle and existence, despite them all being on the same train, living so incredibly close to each other.
An obvious allegory for classism and inequal wealth distribution, this movie just has to set up the obvious reference and then go ahead with all the action scenes and science fiction-y stuf, without ever having to overtly preach about the differences between the Haves and the Have Nots (an age old problem with there ever was one).
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In episode 158, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn are joined by first time guest, stand up comedian and podcaster extraordinaire Ross McCoy (www.twitter.com/ElRoss).
Chris and Drew review 13 Hours aka Bayghazi, and Ross gives his review of Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Billy D reviews Mojave.
The Netflix Instant Pick of the Week is Snowpiercer.
The Crespodisco features random selections from the soundtracks for The Revenant and The Hateful Eight.
Dr. Drew’s 2 Cents are about using the cinematic doldrums of January to read more books, namely books and graphic novels that have been made into movies.Continue Reading …
2015 was an interesting year for movies, running the gamut from luscious period pieces, romantic dramas and comedies to over the top science fiction, post apocalyptic action and westerns involving Kurt Russell (which SHOULD be its own genre). It was a good year for raunchy comedies with sweet, emotional centers thanks to “Trainwreck,” “The Night Before” and “Grandma.” There’s been a few solid documentaries like “The Wolfpack” and “Red Army” and “Best of Enemies,” and a handful of really well made “real life” movies like “Bridge of Spies” and “Joy.”
These movies are almost good enough to make it into my top ten of 2015, and even then, we are kind of splitting hairs because all of these movies are great and I would recommend people check out every single one of them, and if they’ve seen these already, then watch them again. Drama, comedy, budgets big and small, based on real life and science fiction, these movies run the gamut and they are all worth your time.
It is now that time in which we look back at the previous year in movies and we make arbitrary judgement calls as to which movies were “the best” and which were “the worst.” And with over 600 movies released in North America last year, combined with the fact that movies are art and as such their quality is mostly subjective, determining the “best” and “worst” is a nearly pointless task. And yet here we are, because “best of” lists get clicks and because, despite the pointlessness, such exercises could indeed lead to interesting discussions about different movies.
So if you don’t like this list, just make your own, because we ARE talking about art, after all, and this is merely a listing of my own personal favorite movies of the year, the ones that I kept coming back to, the ones that make an impression on me, the ones I feel like bringing up now. And as for the exact order of this list, don’t agonize over it, because not only is this subjective, but truthfully a good portion of this ordering is arbitrary. I know which is my favorite of the year, and I know the ones that come right before that, but if you asked me to rank these same movies next week, you would likely get a very different order.
So to summarize – relax.
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In this BONUS episode, Chris Crespo and Drewster Cogburn recap the year in movies for 2015. They discuss the movies they liked the least, the movies that disappointed them the most, and of course their favorite movies of the year. NYC senior correspondent Billy D also chimes in with his recap of the year.
So which movies are the best of 2015? Which are the worst? Do you agree? Do Chris and Drew care whether or not you agree?
All this and just a little more in this special bonus episode.
Enjoy the show!