I find the recent films of Kathryn Bigelow equally difficult to criticize and to praise. Points of comparison are lacking because no one makes films the way The Hurt Locker, Zero Dark Thirty, and now Detroit are made. Looking back further, it’s tempting to say Bigelow once helmed very of-their-time action movies, Point Break and Blue […]
Category Archives: Written Reviews
Saving Privates Not Named Ryan
With the film world abuzz about “Dunkirk” this week, we paired the new war epic from Christopher Nolan with two other military rescue films: “Behind Enemy Lines” and “Black Hawk Down.” After Noah shares the story of his transcendental evening with Phish, we dig into “Dunkirk” and argue over whether Nolan’s manipulation of time is […]
Coen Kidnappings
On this week’s episode, Noah and Chance review the Coen Brothers’ three kidnapping films, 1987’s Raising Arizona, 1996’s Fargo and 2016’s Hail, Caesar! Circumstances Have Changed, Jerry: Kidnapping With the Coen Brothers As a handsomely ratty Nicolas Cage dreams his exiting Raising Arizona monologue, his character, H.I. McDunnough, has a cautiously blissful vision of the future. On the sleeve, it’s full […]
One Last Attempt At Family (Or “The Hangover Pod”)
Noah and Chance were reunited over the holidays when they spent a few very head-achy days in a dim and borrowed living room. Back together in their Nebraska college town, they rang in 2016 watching three movies (all covered in the 2015 “Trailer Pod,” by the way) about trying to reconcile with family before it’s […]
Christ The Lewd
Contemporary Christmas film has a real thing for the coal-getting kids. In our holiday episode, we take on three movies flipping the bird to seasonal propriety through partying, perfectionism and general Grinching. And yet, these films only exist and resolve themselves because of an eventual appreciation for tradition and familial embrace. We watched “The Night […]
The Lonely Planet
Humanity’s laws and best interests be damned, let’s go to space and see what happens when one person (but maybe robot) is stranded on a planet (but maybe moon). Noah and Chance watched the biggest movie in the world, The Martian, and parlayed that into a discussion of 2009’s Moon and 2008’s Wall-E. Episode highlights include: a surprise visitor, Noah accusing […]