It’s the Lost Episode! Sean and I went back and re-recorded this episode. Fortunately I store hardcopies of the film synopses, and Sean takes a ton of notes, and I do my usual blundering in between, and I’m pretty positive that we covered literally everything that we covered the first time around, with the exception of something I actually added that wasn’t there previously (it’s something I said at the end of the first segment).
This time, we’re looking at a pair of musicals set in the city of Dublin, Ireland. Our first film is 1991’s The Commitments, directed by Alan Parker. It’s the story of a group that aspires to become a soul band in the 1960s Stax/Atlantic tradition. That said, I don’t think it’s 100% clear that the film is set any earlier than the 1980s. No matter, though: it’s a fun movie, especially if you’re fond of that F-bomb. (Heh.)
From there we move forward to 2007, and a film called Once, written and directed by John Carney. It’s the story of a couple of musicians who find each other. And they discover that they’re yearning for something more than what they have in their lives. Whether or not that’s each other is something that’s explored during the film. You’ll find yourself rooting for them as a couple. Never mind that there are some perfectly good reasons not to do that.
While both films have the commonality of being set in Dublin, there’s another thing about them that many fans have suggested. We discuss it briefly in the second half of the show, and while it’s plausible, there’s really nothing anywhere to back it up. But it’s a truly fun coincidence, assuming it is one.
COMING ATTRACTIONS:
In our next episode, we look at two musical films that are period pieces. Specifically, they take place shortly before a seismic shift in the music scene. First, from 2007 is the criminally-underrated Honeydripper, written and directed by John Sayles, and from there we move on to 2014’s Inside Llewyn Davis, written and directed by the Coen Brothers.