Author: ccradio

Reel 64: Same Title, Different Movie (redux)

Yowza, my friend. Welcome to the land of weird issues with this episode.

Just to peel back the curtain a little bit, Sean and I record an episode, then later on I do some editing, I put in the music and Alex’s bits, then I package everything and run it through some software called Auphonic to make sure everything’s evened out and compressed a little for your consumption, plus I make up the artwork and write these bits.  And usually the editing is the easy part. This time around, however, it was the hard part. There were some odd glitches on his side that I didn’t hear during recording, so I had to make some peculiar repairs to the sound, and that meant using some of the backup audio that we record. Then on the run through Auphonic, I bumped into the software inserting huge silent gaps  in the show, which needed to be cut out again as seamlessly as possible.

On top of all that, Sean and I do have day jobs, ya know. Neither of us make a dime on the show; it’s a labor of love, baby.

Okay, enough whining, because this episode deals with a couple of great films that really should be getting more attention, and coincidentally they both have the same title despite being about very different subjects.

The title for this episode’s films is Loving, and the first version is from 1970, directed by Irvin Kershner. It stars George Segal and Eva Marie Saint as a couple whose relationship is unwinding just at the point where Segal’s character is just starting to get his career back on track. It’s a serious story with a comic overlay on it, and while some of it may be a little dated, it’s a compelling story regardless.

In part 2, the “Loving” in the film is in the form of Mildred and Richard Loving, a real-life couple who decided to take their relationship and make a Federal case out of it. Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton play the lead roles in this 2016 film directed by Jeff Nichols. It’s worth noting that most of the events of this film took place during our lifetimes—okay, MY life; Sean was born the year after the Loving decision was handed down by the Supreme Court. The bottom line is, attitudes about such things were quite different not very long ago.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

In our next two episodes, we take a look at remakes which managed to surpass the original version. We start with The Man Who Knew Too Much, a 1956 film starring James Stewart. From there we jump to 1988’s Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, a film that I’m still not 100% clear the studio knew how to market.

Reel 63: Same Title, Different Movie

A long while back (Episodes 14—17), we looked at English remakes of non-English films. Those were the same story but different titles. Then in Episode 23, it was four different versions of the same story, with the same title. Now, we give you a pair of films with the same title, but that’s the only thing they have in common: the story lines and subject matter are vastly different from one another.

In this episode we’re screening two films titled No Way Out. In the first half, it’s the 1950 version starring Sidney Poitier in his feature film debut, along with Richard Widmark, Linda Darnell and Stephen McNally. Poitier is a doctor who runs into race issues and a medical complication during his first night in a new assignment. The issue snowballs until there’s a full race riot going  on. Poitier’s character comes up with an interesting tactic to prove he did the right thing that first night, but it nearly backfires on him.

From there we jump to 1987. This No Way Out stars Kevin Costner, Gene Hackman and Sean Young in a story of Cold War intrigue. We practically guarantee that you’ll be caught off-guard by the way everything resolves.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Next time around, we’ll continue this gimmick with another pair of films that have the same title and nothing else in common. The films’ title is Loving. One is from 1970 and the other is from 2016.

Reel 62: Subversive Adaptations

Over the course of this show, Sean and I have covered all kinds of adaptations. Some were based on books, some on record albums, and some on Broadway Musicals (HA! Kidding about that last one; Sean would rather be dragged through broken glass and then dipped in rubbing alcohol).

But the one thing they had in common was some sense of fealty to the original source material. Well, that ends with this episode, hence the title “Subversive Adaptations.”

We start with Kiss Me Deadly, the 1954 film directed by Robert Aldrich. Aldrich takes a direct poke at the right-wing mentality of Mickey Spillane’s original novel. He carries us on a trip following Mike Hammer, who’s about as ignorant as we are regarding what’s going on.

From there we move on to 1997 and Starship Troopers, directed by Paul Verhoeven. Robert A. Heinlein’s novel was written on the cusp of his transition out of the “juvenile” science fiction he’d been doing. While the book depicts a relatively militaristic society, the story line spends most of its time in the central character’s military training and his move up the command chain, and not so much on the details of the war. (Also, a character who dies late in the film doesn’t make it past Page One of the book.) Verhoeven—a Holocaust survivor—gives us an eerily prescient view of what it looks like when fascistic politics takes precedence over common sense.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

In our next two episodes, we take a slightly different turn. Rather than featuring films that have a common thread thematically, we’ll be looking at two films whose only commonality is the title. To that end, next time we’ll be screening two different films both titled No Way Out, from 1950 and from 1987.

Reel 61: We May Be Done With the Past…

…but it sure isn’t done with us.

Your patience is appreciated with this episode; I spent last weekend at the Southern Studio and had some trouble with my remote access to the files here at home. My brothers and I spent the entire weekend together without any wives or kids; we’d NEVER done that before and had a bunch of fun reconnecting. Next time I swear there’ll be more drinking.

Anyway: In this week’s episode we take on a pair of films involving people who are dealing with an event in the distant past.

We start our romp through history with Lone Star (1996), written and directed by John Sayles. We’ve talked about Sayles’ work before (in Episode 39, wherein we discuss The Return of the Secaucus Seven) and it’s good to see that Sayles can still tell a straightforward story. But this time he deftly handles the transitions between present and past.

From there it’s on to 2003’s Mystic River, directed by Clint Eastwood. In this film, three boys are involved in a tragic event in the past. In the present-day, they’re still haunted by the events of their childhood when a new tragedy strikes.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Join us as we take on a couple of subversive adaptations. First up is Kiss Me Deadly, from 1955. Then we jump to 1997 or, if you prefer, the far future, with Starship Troopers. Were they good? Bad? Weird? Or did you just not get the message they were sending? Stay tuned!

Reel 59: TANSTAAFL

For the record: Sean kinda hates this title, but there was nothing we workshopped that was any better, so.

For the uninitiated, “TANSTAAFL” is an acronym meaning “There Ain’t No Such Thing As A Free Lunch.” It derives from Robert Heinlein’s novel The Moon is a Harsh Mistress. It’s one of my favorites of his, although there are a couple of things in it that don’t make a ton of sense. But if you’re along for the ride, you don’t really mind so much. Also, if you’ve read the book, check out the audiobook. The reader puts a neat spin on it that gave me a whole new perspective.

Where was I? Oh, yeah. Reel 59.

In this episode we look at a couple of unconventional families who are caught up in the dark side of capitalism. We start with 2018’s Shoplifters, written and directed by Hirokazu Koreeda. It’s a Japanese film about a family that succeeds, largely through various forms of deception. And it works—until it doesn’t. There are some moments of high drama, others with comedy, and a couple of really  sweet scenes involving these folks just spending time together and exploring their relationships with one another.

In Part Two we jump to Korea and 2019’s Parasite, directed and co-written by Bong Joon Ho. It’s a comedy throughout until, again, everything goes wrong and the tone changes. But, like Shoplifters (and, for that matter, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress), you’re already so enthralled by the story that you’re going to want to ride it out. Parasite is so good that it won four Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Original Screenplay and Best International Feature Film. And my personal opinion is that these awards will stand up to scrutiny in later years (looking at you, Rocky, Crash and Forrest Gump).

On the ‘Gram

Hi, folks:

Since we’re looking to move away from a certain other social media platform because Elon Killed the Blue Bird, we’ve finally created an Instagram feed. You can find us at:

https://www.instagram.com/wordsandmoviespod

because we’re clever that way.

Reel 60: Hail Oceania

Yes, yes, we know. We skipped #59. There’s an explanation at the beginning of this episode, and Mea Culpa. #59 will be the next one we drop. And THAT, rather than this, will finish our tour Around the World in Twenty  Films. (So, never mind what Sean says about it being the last stop.)

The thing that strikes me as interesting, retrospective to our conversation, is that in both of this episode’s films, we’re dealing with the sins of the past. And not the long past, but as part of living memory.

First up, we’re reviewing 1994’s Once Were Warriors, directed by Lee Tamahori. It’s a look at the Hekes, a lower-class New Zealand family, and how they deal with some of their personal struggles. You kind of feel for some of them, then you feel for others, then you’re not sure what to think, and if this sounds confusing, it is, but in a good way. Ultimately, you will not be dissatisfied by the ending.

From there we jump to Western Australia, to check out Rabbit-Proof Fence, directed by Philip Noyce. It’s based on a true story about three young girls and a very, very long walk they take across the continent. This one doesn’t so much confront Australia’s past as it pushes the viewer into confronting it, especially when you realize that these events – as outmoded as they sound – took place during the lifetimes of people who are still alive today.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:
As noted above, our next episode will be the one that was supposed to happen here. We’ll be reviewing Parasite and Shoplifters, though not in that order.

Reel 58: This Woman’s Work

So many times, it seems, films where women are the central characters seem to treat those women as rather monolithic

That may not be quite the right word; let me amend that to say that they’re often treated the same way. Too many of them fail the Bechdel Test*, and that’s a pity.

In our continued journey Around the World in Twenty Films, the women in this film fail as well, but there’s a different dynamic involved so it’s not as glaringly obvious.

We start with 1960’s When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, a Japanese film directed by Mikio Naruse. It’s a look at the Geisha life that follows one of the veterans of the craft and her struggle to achieve a specific dream.

From there it’s a jump to Spain and 1988, for Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, directed by Pedro Almodóvar. It’s a rather dark story played as a comedy, and you’ll have a bunch of fun following all the odd coincidences that allow this story to unfold the way it does.

COMING ATTRACTIONS: 

Our journey takes us back to Asia, with 2018’s Shoplifters, a Japanese film that manages to re-define family ties in a way you won’t necessarily argue with. And then it’s off to Korea and 2019’s Parasite, a film that won four Oscar awards—three of them in the big categories.

*for those not in the know, the Bechdel Test is defined as: a way of evaluating whether or not a film or other work of fiction portrays women in a way that is sexist or characterized by gender stereotyping. To pass the Bechdel test a work must feature at least two women, these women must talk to each other, and their conversation must concern something other than a man. It gets its name from the US cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who formulated the criteria in 1985 in a comic strip “The Rule “, part of the series Dykes To Watch Out For (1983–2008).

A Brief Intermission

Hi there, folks:

We know that you’ve been absolutely clamoring for the next episode (shhh, just let us have this), and we’re eager to get it to you. But we learned a couple of days ago that our opening/closing credits are outdated (more even than we thought when we first found out), and so we’re arranging for them to be re-recorded.

Let me pull back the curtain a little bit: The intro and outro for the show were recorded exactly once, and we just use it over and over again. Sean and I record the show, then during the post-production phase, it gets tacked on, along with the other piece we use when we break between show halves. We record episodes a couple of months ahead of release, so for a little while my opening and closing dialog may sound a little awkward because I’ll be patching in new audio as well. It’s a little bit of a process that we’re all going through in our own ways.

At any rate, thanks for your patience.

 

Reel 57: Wedding Blues

To quote from a certain Very Impressive Clergyman, “Mawage is wot bwings us togeder today.”

Weddings are kind of weird. You get a lot of friends and family together, and it’s a multi-day thing leading up to a relatively small amount of time for the ceremony and subsequent reception. (It reminds me of the Super Bowl in that respect.) And as we learn during this stop in our Twenty Films Around the World series, there’s a certain commonality to them. It doesn’t matter what the specific ritual is regarding the wedding itself. Lots of people come. Some are related, some aren’t. People get stressed. Tempers flare. Emotions run high and truths are revealed. And often, the wedding/reception leads to a couple of people becoming couples themselves.

And we see all of these things and more in today’s episode. First on the projector is 2001’s Monsoon Wedding, a comedy directed by Mira Nair. It’s a little bit Hollywood, a little bit Bollywood, and does a wonderful job of bringing multiple cultures together in one place. And there are a couple of subplots which start in one place but end in a very different one.

From there we jump to another Indian neighborhood, but only briefly, as the story for After the Wedding makes a jump to Denmark. Suzanne Bier’s 2006 film takes its main character to Copenhagen for what’s ostensibly a business deal, but it turns out that there’s a lot more than meets the eye. And, as I said earlier, truths are revealed.

COMING ATTRACTIONS:

Our journey Around the World in Twenty Films continues with visits to Japan and Spain. First up is When a Woman Ascends the Stairs, from 1960. Then it’s 1988’s Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, a slightly misleading translation of the original title. Go watch them! Then come back here!