Author: ccradio
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Reel 92: Critical Response
If you’re going to be a film director—if you’re going to work anywhere in the entertainment industry, really—It’s important to have a thick skin, because critics are absolutely everywhere. Some directors will insist that the critics are wrong; that they’re out of touch with audience tastes. Other directors will own their failures. For example, Roland…
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Reel 91: Humphrey Bogart Joins the Resistance
Sean and I have wanted to cover CASABLANCA for a long time, but the tough part was finding a good film to pair it with. Finally Sean hit on the idea of pairing Humphrey Bogart with…himself! In today’s episode we look at two films in which Bogart plays the very reluctant hero despite the fact…
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Reel 90: At the Ballet
One of the tough things about films that are focused on a specific, rather niche topic is that the creators have to find a way to turn the audience into feeling as though they’re experts in the field without being such an information dump that they lose track of the story itself. In some cases…
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Reel 89: Backstage Adaptations
Hey there! Long time no see! That’s actually my (Claude) fault. I’d completed post-production on this episode of the show and somehow failed to post it to our host. Fortunately I corrected that a couple of nights ago, so it should already be in your podcast feed. But if you’re catching up here, you have…
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Short Subject: Sean Looks Back at the Sundance Film Festival
As you no doubt know, actor/director/producer Robert Redford died last week at the age of 89. Now, lots and lots of people took the time to look back at his film career, so Sean and Claude took a different tack and reviewed a different aspect of Redford’s legacy: the Sundance Film Festival. Redford wasn’t one…
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Reel 88: Backstage Drama II
Where have we been? Fair question. Not to get into too many details, but we decided to take a short break and then we each had our own little medical misadventures. Nevertheless, we’re back on our respective feet and ready to go! In another day or two we’ll be providing you with our tribute to…
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Reel 87: Semi-Autobiographical Movies
Some directors like to look to their own lives, or to their hometowns, for material for their films. And few are more prolific at it than Martin Scorsese (New York) and Barry Levinson (Baltimore). Come to think of it, we could have stayed in Baltimore and covered Levinson and John Waters. Missed opportunity, dangit. At…
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Reel 86: The Magnificent Andersons
And this, children, is what happens when you don’t hit the “Publish” button. Enormous apologies and thanks for your patience. I’ll make up for it by publishing another episode tonight, since that was the plan anyway. While I’m at it, I also apologize for the cover art. I couldn’t come up with anything good. This…
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Reel 85: Denzel Still on the Case
This is the second of two episodes in which we look at films in which Denzel Washington is a lawman of some kind. We start with the 1995 neo-noir Devil in a Blue Dress, directed by Carl Franklin and co-starring the likes of Don Cheadle and Jennifer Beals. It’s a period piece, set in post-WW2…
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Reel 84: Denzel On the Case, Part 1
This is the first of two episodes we’ll be doing, featuring Denzel Washington as a law enforcement officer of some kind. We open up with The Mighty Quinn, a 1989 film that Washington made right on the heels of his stint in the television show St. Elsewhere. (Don’t mistake it for his film debut, though.)…