A new, casual, and free-flowing conversation among friends about movies every week. From new and old movies to indie and mainstream blockbusters, we're just talkin' film.
These conversations go into detail about the films, so be warned! There ARE SPOILERS.
Now that we've got our copies of The LEGO Movie on blu-ray, we figured it was a good time to re-watch it and then look back at some of our favorite kids' films of the past few years. We don't so much go into detail about the plots, but we do a lot of reminiscing of our favorite jokes. Within the episode, we also discuss our criteria for judging kids films as adults watching them and whether or not they "make 'em like they used to."
And as always:
SPOILERS!
So watch out. We ruin a lot of jokes...
Time Breakdown:
00:00 - 18:28 - Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs (and the sequel)
Zach Braff has strangely been a bit absent after winning the hearts of hipsters with his breakout hit Garden State, then going on to star in NBC's "Scrubs." Apart from a handful of minor roles since his peak in the mid aughts during "Scrubs," he seems to have disappeared. After a successful crowd-sourcing campaign though, he's back both starring and directing in his new film Wish I Was Here.
The film is fairly typical of Braff fare. Playing a somewhat decent but also kind of unlikable 30-something at the moment of a life crisis, he must realize his role in all of this, come to terms with everything, and push forward in a responsible and adult fashion. If this sounds familiar, it's because that kind of is the basic plot of Garden State, The Last Kiss, and Scrubs - only this time, he's a little older and has more responsibilities. Now, Braff's character Aiden is married with two children and a fledgling acting career. Unlike previous pictures where Braff plays a character more or less self-sabotaging, here, Aiden is both that and sabotaging of others. His wife Sarah (Kate Hudson, who does a great job) is essentially stuck trying to pay the bills and keep everything together while her husband fails in his career in other responsibilities.
Everything comes to a head when Aiden finds out that his father is dying from terminal cancer. The Blooms are a family rich with strife. Aiden and his brother Noah grew up in their father's shadow and both appear to have failed in his eyes. Their father was apparently so critical that Noah simply refuses to visit or even help Aiden when he finds out about the illness. Noah, like Aiden, is fairly self-involved as well, doing what makes him happy regardless. The only real difference is that his life of underachieving is one that harms no one. There is no one else dependent on him, so he can afford to live his life however he wishes.
Aiden rallies to keep everything together. Though he can't afford to keep his kids in school and he's powerless as his wife deals with inappropriate behavior from a co-worker, he keeps showing up to visit his prudish and mean father and argues with Noah to get him to visit. He's also trying to be a better father while struggling to come to terms with the fact that his acting career isn't much of a career. All of this, of course, set around an indie soundtrack reliant on The Shins.
Here's the thing: if you liked Garden State and "Scrubs", then odds are you will like Wish I Was Here. Emotionally driven, Braff relies quite a bit on the same tricks heavily utilized in "Scrubs." This includes the typical Braff narration (though mainly it bookends the film) and the heavy-handed speeches. Then of course, there's the deep reliance on music. At one point, there is a non-stop sequence in which three totally different songs transition from one to the other to enhance the emotion, as if the scenes themselves couldn't do the talking. Braff actually does have a pretty good ear and matches songs up to scenes in a way that usually does enhance the feeling, but that sequence midway through the film almost feels like a joke where he isn't quite sure how he wants you to feel and for how long. There's almost no breathing room.
The subject matter is intense though, and he mostly does a good job navigating it. The scenes with Aiden and his family visiting his dying father are among the most poignant and tough to watch things (in the right ways). Aiden and Sarah's kids are being sweet and goofy, but he can't help but be mean, even on his death bed. Eventually, Sarah gives him a speech that turns him around. This is followed shortly by a speech that turns Noah around. There are a lot of speeches that turn people around.
There's a strange fantasy element scattered throughout the film too. Every once in a while, starting from the very beginning, they cut to shots of Aiden in a space suit running away from a shadowy figure in a cloak. Perhaps this is his fatherly responsibilities? The film opens up with such a scene with Aiden narrating that he and his brother used to pretend to be spacemen who would save the day. These scenes though are too scattered and too brief to really fit in with the rest of the film. It's also a bit jarring when it happens. While one can certainly appreciate Braff's desire to make a film without heavy studio oversight, perhaps it might have helped to have someone to say, "This doesn't really work."
A well acted film with a number of things that don't quite work, it's still a solid film. My guess is that the people who have already turned on Braff will hate it while the people who jumped on board later will love it. It's certainly not a bad film and it deals with an inherently emotional and interesting subject matter, but it doesn't always handle it well and sometimes winds up overly self-absorbed.
But then, that's always been Braff's MO to an extent. It's one of the reasons why he's actually quite compelling. He doesn't play the purely charming, heroic, likable guy. In practically everything he's in, he plays a somewhat unlikable, self-absorbed guy. And who of us these days isn't that?
While we take time to watch the movies for our upcoming podcast episode, we've taken a moment to figure out just what exactly would have made M. Night Shamalyan's film The Happening even better. Here, we basically just cut it the way we always envision it when we watch it (not that we actually watch it more than, well, never). Also? What happened to Mark Wahlberg in that film, huh?
Anyway, we've got another episode coming up next week. Stay tuned.
Bong Joon-ho might not be a household name in the US, but he's easily one of the best directors in the business. His movies have always managed to tackle some of the distinctly South Korean issues of his homeland, while also bringing up rather universal ones as well. This week with the release of his latest post-apocalyptic sci-fi dystopian film (which struggled to find release thanks to Harvey Weinstein), we look at a few of his other films that are among our favorites - the noir-like film Mother, and the monster film that is basically Jaws meets Little Miss Sunshine, The Host.
And as always:
SPOILERS! (As an additional note, we think that the spoilers are particularly significant in regards to MOTHER. So you should make it a point to skip it before you see the film.)
Time Breakdown:
00:00 - 47:15 - Snowpiercer 47:16 - 58:38 - The Host 58:39 - End - Mother
Hosts: Dave & Dan
Discretion: We may swear a few times. The "f bomb" may get dropped at some point.
As a build up to next week's episode discussing three of Bong Joon-ho's films (The Host, Mother, and Snowpiercer), we've recut the trailer for the new film Snowpiercer as a commercial that it reminded us of (Coors Light). It's kind of strange how well the trailer works just replacing the music from the trailer with "Love Train."
Anyway, this week's episode is postpone as our schedules got crazy for the Fourth, but have a laugh and we'll give you more detail on the film next week.
The World Cup is in full swing, so this week we decided to take a look at perhaps the strangest collection of soccer films we could find. First we talk about the clash-of-cultures movie Bend It Like Beckham (2002) and then move on to one of the weirdest movies you could see in the Hong Kong comedy Shaolin Soccer (2001). We also discuss a little bit of The Big Green (1995) and some soccer things in general at the end. We apologize for devolving into the realm of sports. It just kinda happened.
And as always:
SPOILERS!
Time Breakdown:
00:00 - 24:06 - Bend It Like Beckham
24:07 - 39:20 - Shaolin Soccer
39:21 - 49:43 - The Big Green
49:44 - End - Soccer in general
Hosts: Dave & Dan
UPDATE: The archived episode can be found at the link below:
