Podcast: Top Tens of Summer 2015
Saturday, September 5, 2015 at 9:00AM 
For this week's edition of the podcast, Katey, Joe, Nathaniel and Nick reunite to share their top tens of summer movie season. We allowed ourselves full movies, single moments, general themes. It's a free form top ten roundelay.
Topics include but are not limited to...
Mad Max: Fury Road, I'll See You In My Dreams, Jurassic World, The Avengers: Age of Ultron, Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation, Far From the Madding Crowd, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., Diary of a Teenage Girl, Amy, Trainwreck, A Little Chaos, Ricki and the Flash, Joss Whedon, Amy Poehler, Elizabeth Banks, Jada Pinkett Smith, Andie MacDowell, footwear, camera-shaking music, counterprogramming and more...
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversation in the comments. Share your top ten anything from the summer movie season!
Reader Comments (11)
Provide a non-iTunes link please.
oopsie. there it is. added.
Ricki (Streep) was still the best performance of the summer for me. Nice to see her pushing herself learning the guitar and being less upper society. I kow the film got mixed reviews but she really slays it here.
Just rechecked your July predictions and was stunned how little confidence you have, Mad Max: Fury Road, will be a player at the Oscars... I think Miller (directing) and Theron (lead actress) are safe bets for the nom, right now, Picture and Supporting Actor (Hoult) are really possible, specially after the FRIPESCI award, that underlined that there's an universal consensus, it's the best film of the first part of the year. Question remains, more if itll be pushed for Awards season consideration, or they'll think that maximum they canget, it's an "Aliens" scenario, not getting further than a Lead Actress nom for Theron. Given it feels such a fresh reinvention of the franchise, I can see it being a contender for the win, even. It wouldn't be the fist sequel/eboot of a franchise to win (Silence of the Lambs, anyone?).
This and the previous podcast make me really bummed that I missed I'll See You in My Dreams before it skipped town. I'll definitely catch up with it on DVD.
As far as podcast themes go, the ones where you guys just talk about things that you're excited about are so rewarding. The various observations on Amy the movie, Amy Poehler, Janet Patterson's costumes and the plane scene in Spy, in particular, had me nodding my head.
Glad you guys had a great summer. Now brace yourselves for the fall.
Nick is the only one who saw Straight Outta Compton? The Film Experience is so white. Nathaniel to correct your color deficiency and your Jada Pinkett problem I recommend 1994's A Low Down Dirty Shame.
@Mike: Thanks for letting us know which formats you find most rewarding as a listener. It's really helpful feedback, and encouraging during early-hours recording sessions. You always take the time, and I appreciate it....
@3rtful: ...which isn't meant to suggest we're above criticism or don't profit from that. I personally don't share that view of TFE, especially given the full roster of contributors, and the participants in other podcasts, plus its regular and longstanding efforts at diverse coverage. Clearly the four of us are not exemplary of this, though! So I'm just disagreeing, not challenging your right to another opinion. (FWIW, I do think Nathaniel made clear that his concerns about JPS in MMXXL had more to do with some repetitions from prior performances and some ill-advised structuring of the script, plus other stuff related to the framing of this character and her world he says in this podcast. I don't agree with all that, either, but he was pretty detailed. Maybe he's not susceptible to Jada's specific vibe. Anyway, I personally don't see evidence of a general "color deficiency" here.)
@Nick
Impossible to know when I'm being playful. You however do seek out nonwhite content to consume rather regularly and were completely exempt from my tongue and cheek criticism. And you actually found things to applaud about Straight Outta Compton. I hope Jason Mitchell makes your Best Supporting Actor shortlist. Also, have you seen A Low Down Dirty Shame?
Interesting twist: Billy Crudup was in both Broadway productions of Arcadia
But the Andie MacDowell sequence also had the low point of "Magic Mike XXL": the indefensible Amber Heard character sullenly eats from the middle of an entire cake, like a damn monster.
The way Fury Road's success is described is interesting. Financially it's done ok, while the pop culture impact seems far wider reaching.