Author: ccradio

Reel 11: Apocalypse Later

In this episode we’ve chosen a couple of near-future films in which humanity seems doomed for one reason or another. First up in our Double Feature is 1995’s 12 Monkeys, directed by Terry Gilliam, involving a plague, time travel, mental illness and, of course, World War One. 

After the Intermission we’re looking at Children of Men, co-written and directed by Alfonso Cuarón and released in 2006. Was there a plague? We don’t know. Will this situation resolve? Again, we don’t know. But for all the unknowns in this film, we get some powerful, powerful moments and we guarantee you’ll want to watch this one several times. 

COMING ATTRACTIONS: We’re going to lighten the mood a little bit with a couple of older films: Stage Door (1937), featuring Katharine Hepburn in the role that led to so many people doing the same Katharine Hepburn impression, and All About Eve (1950), featuring Bette Davis in the role that led to so many people doing the same Bette Davis impression. 

Reel 10: SorkinFest Part V–The UNcredited Rewrites

We wrap up Sorkinfest with a look at two films for which Aaron Sorkin did NOT receive any writing credit. Bulworth, and Enemy of the State, both from 1998.

Listen in as we discuss the two films on their own merits and try to figure out which parts Sorkin left his fingerprints on. 

COMING ATTRACTIONS: Next time around we’re prematurely celebrating the end of the pandemic as we look at a pair of films which are set in a kind of post-apocalyptic situation: 12 Monkeys (1995) and Children of Men (2006). 

If you’d like to support the show (we really WOULD like to send a few bucks Rebecca’s way), then click here and then on the “Support” link.

Reel 8: SorkinFest Part III–Mostly-True Stories

That’s a little bit of a misnomer, but not by much.

This episode–the third in our series of five episodes dedicated to Aaron Sorkin’s work–looks at two films he worked on that told stories about specific individuals: Steve Jobs (2015), Directed by Danny Boyle, and Sorkin’s film directing debut, 2017’s Molly’s Game.

Now, with Steve Jobs, Sorkin took some of the storylines provided by Walter Isaacson’s biography, and placed them into specific contexts, with the upshot being that many of the real-life counterparts found themselves saying “…yeah, that’s not quite how it went,” but you can blame that on Isaacson, not Sorkin. Molly’s Game, on the other hand, is based on the story as told by Molly Bloom in her book, so if there are inaccuracies, then it’s either Bloom herself as the unreliable narrator, or Sorkin taking a little artistic license, or maybe it’s a little of Column A and a little of Column B.

Either way, what we have here is a pair of films that both work well with Sorkin’s dialogue and aren’t especially heavy-handed with some of the allusions they make.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: In the next episode we step back a little bit and look at two films for which Sorkin has a credit for doing re-writes. Tune in for our look at Malice and Moneyball.

Corrections and Housekeeping

Hello, Friend:

Still with us? I hope so. We’ve been having some ridiculous technical issues that have us rethinking our podcasting host, but those seem to be straightened out for the time being and we’ll be back on track with a new episode tomorrow evening. I hope we’re still cool.

In the meantime, Sean offers up a little contrition for you. See, he’s good enough at this that he can correct me in real time, but he has to go back and fix HIMSELF later on. He writes:

This is your other co-host, Sean. I discovered a couple of errors I’d like to correct, as well as apologize for. Both of them are from our podcast on the first two Godfather movies.

The first is, when I talked about the films Gordon Willis shot in the 70’s, I mentioned All the President’s Men, but incorrectly said it won Best Picture, when it was only nominated for it (it lost to Rocky).

Secondly, when talking about how directors of the late 60’s/early 70’s sometimes quarreled with cinematographers of the studio system about how to light particular scenes, I mentioned Bonnie & Clyde, but misidentified the cinematographer; it was actually Burnett Guffey, not Robert Surtees (Surtees served as the cinematographer on the other major “new Hollywood” movie of that year, The Graduate, and unlike Guffey, was happy to comply with the director’s wish to try out new things, including using less light).

I apologize for both errors; I should have known better.

We were going to have Sean severely beaten, but he’s already taken to wearing a haircoat and self-flagellating, so there’s not much else we can throw on the pile.

See you tomorrow!

Reel 6: SorkinFest, Part 1!

It’s time for SorkinFest! For the next few weeks, we’re going to talk about the work of Aaron Sorkin, and in our usual fashion we’re going to do it in a way that the films are paired up by common threads.

This week we’re looking at the films that were directed by Rob Reiner. First up is the 1992 film A Few Good Men, starring Tom Cruise, Demi Moore, Kevin Pollak and Jack Nicholson. This one was adapted from Sorkin’s own play script, but he’s managed to make changes that make the story just as much of a mystery as a courtroom drama.

Next is The American President from 1995, starring Michael Douglas, Annette Bening and a bunch of people you’ll see again when Aaron Sorkin takes a few elements of this film and turns them into his television series The West Wing. However, while The West Wing is a political show with a lot of comedy bits in it, The American President is a cross between a romantic comedy and a screwball comedy, with a political overlay on it.

Next Episode: Charlie Wilson’s War and The Social Network.

Reel 5: The Film Was Better

When a book is adapted for movies, the usual thing you’ll hear from people who have consumed both versions is that “the book was better.” In this week’s episode, Sean (who has read the books) and Claude (who hasn’t) explore the reasons behind why this isn’t always the case.

The first film on our virtual projector is 1994’s Nobody’s Fool, starring Paul Newman, Melanie Griffith, Bruce Willis and a host of amazing character actors. Newman is doing his “lovable rogue” thing but he’s toned it way down, and it truly works. Robert Benton directed this film, based on the novel by Richard Russo.

Atom Egoyan is the director behind our second film, The Sweet Hereafter. Ian Holm, Bruce Greenwood and Sarah Polley headline this film in which a lot of small moments manage to come together in a way that will allow you to bring them back on your own, without much help from us.

Next episode, we begin SorkinFest with four episodes looking at the works of Aaron Sorkin. We start with Sorkin’s pairups with films directed by Rob Reiner, The American President and A Few Good Men.

Reel 4: One-Song Musicals

In this episode we take a look at a pair of films that center themselves around a single piece of music.

First we have 1992’s The Mambo Kings, directed by Arne Glimcher. It’s a bittersweet film that gives us a look at a pair of Cuban immigrants who briefly achieve success as musicians in the 1950s, due to a song that one of them has written about a lost love. There’s a story to that lost love, however, that he doesn’t discover until several years later. And while both Armand Assante and Antonio Banderas do a fine job, we have to give extra points to the women in this film: Maruschka Detmers, Cathy Moriarty and, in a much smaller role as the lost love and subject of the song, Talisa Soto.

Then we have Tom Hanks’ directorial debut from 1996, That Thing You Do! This film also traces the brief rise and fall of a musical act based on a single song, only this one takes place in the early 1960s, in the shadow of the original Beatlemania. And while Sean and Claude share some of the Beatles allusions with you during the show, there are plenty more for you to find on your own as you watch this film. This is a fun little comedy that you can enjoy right up to the last minute…but maybe stop the playback before that last minute happens. Just trust us on this one; we’ll all be a lot happier.

Reel 3: Gordon Willis and The Godfathers

Different eras of film can often be traced to specific “generations” of directors who came up together and had similar mindsets, and while that’s true, sometimes they can be attached to technological advances, some of them not initially part of the industry. For example, with the rise of teen culture and a general boom in consumerism, the drive-in movie exploded in popularity, which meant that studios had to create film prints that were very bright so they could project a long distance and still be seen on a huge screen.

This, in turn, led to advances in film stock and gave directors and cinematographers the ability to create more subtle lighting schemes. And one of the pioneers of using light and color was Gordon Willis. His cinematography shaped the look of films such as All the President’s Men, Annie Hall (and several other Woody Allen films), and Pennies From Heaven. But he’s probably best known for his work on the three films in the Godfather series he did with Francis Ford Coppola.

In this episode we look at the first two films (mostly) from a cinematography standpoint, and talk about how Willis’s use of light and color shaped the look of the films but also heralded a change to the way movies were going to look for the foreseeable future.

Welcome to the Show!

It’s the first episode of Words and Movies! In the inaugural show, Sean Gallagher and Claude Call introduce themselves to you and talk about what makes them so smart (hint: one of us is SMART, the other is S-M-R-T), plus what sort of stuff we’ll be talking about, the overall approach we’ll be taking to the films we discuss, and a preview of our first three episodes.