Podcast: Anomalisa & Great Films to Stream Right Now
Saturday, January 9, 2016 at 10:49PM Previously on Pt 1: The Hateful Eight and Comedy Performances of 2015
Pt 2 is here now. Joe, Katey and Nick --soldiering on awesomely without Nathaniel at this week's recording session -- are talking Anomalisa, and streaming recommendations to complete your film year. I hope you enjoy their conversation as much as I did!
36 minutes
00:01 Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson's Anomalisa has attracted obsessed fans. Do Katey, Joe and Nick number among them? Find out.
14:40 Reader Question: Great performances in not so great films? When actors do all the work themselves.
20:10 Catching up with 2015 films we missed. Streaming recommendations!
34:30 Goodbyes & Plugs & Happy New Year
Films discussed include but are not limited to: Phoenix, The Man From UNCLE, Blackhat, and Goodnight Mommy
Further Reading:
Joe's Decider column on future cult classics
Nick's new giant Actress project
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes.
Reader Comments (11)
When are you posting your final predictions?? They've become a religious necessity for me every year!
Just saw Trumbo. I enjoyed it and it REEKS Hollywood and the Academy Awards. I hate some of it (the John Wayne wannabe was really bad), but over all I thought the acting was excellent. Cranston didn't seem over the top to me, like some have said. And Mirren was actually very good in the limited scenes she had (in particular, the one with LB).
Do you think it has an outside shot for a shocking best picture nomination? That SAG ensemble nod might have been indicating something. It's uneven script aside, could it pull into the Adapted Screenplay race considering it's penned ABOUT an infamous screenwriter?
I think the term "white-guy-problem" should be eradicated from film criticism altogether (same with the term "rich-people-problem"), because these terms don't really talk about how the film is telling the story it wants to tell, but rather they attack the movie for telling the story in the first place, as if it were somehow not a valid story to tell. I get that it's a reaction to there being so many of them, but I think it's a shame when people use that term to dismiss a movie, because maybe they're missing out on something special just because the film's lead character is a rich white man.
Anyway, thank you for these podcasts guys. It's a shame Nathaniel couldn't join you this time around, but you're all a blast to listen to (I'll be looking for Phoenix, it sounds interesting)...
I don't think neither The Hateful Eight nor Anomalisa were meant to be plot-driven and to nitpick those movies from that angle and try to rewrite both of them is a pointless exercise. The way I see it, they're more atmospheric, conceptual endeavors and one either gets immersed in their worlds and accepts its rules from the start or they will not resonate. I love how divisive Jennifer Jason Leigh's work is and has always been. I feel fortunate to connect with her and to experience her movies through her performances. Has there ever been such contrasting characters in a given year from the same actor in 2 different movies?
I missed a dissonant voice in these podcasts, because there was so much agreement on everything. After a while, I started hearing Tom Noonan voice there..
A big No to JJL it's her voice and I enjoyed Cranston very much,Mirren played Mirren doin' a Hedda impersonator,it's v old Hollywood.
Thank you guys! Always a delight to hear any mix of the four of you (and the occasional guests)
"...ever been such contrasting characters in a given year from the same actor in 2 different movies?"
2015
Domhnall Gleeson: Star Wars The Force Awakens, Ex Machina
Peter Sarsgaard: Black Mass, Pawn Sacrfice
Alicia Vikander: The Danish Girl, The Man from UNCLE
Meryl Streep: Rikki and the Flash, Suffragette
Jessica Chastain:: Crimson Peak, The Martian
Ben Whishaw: Spectre, Suffragette
Count me in as another person who has taken a look at Trumbo and found it not that bad. I can see that the script is a bit uneven, but Cranston is pretty good at imitating the way Dalton Trumbo talked. Mirren wasn't memorable but not bad.
It is my opinion that "Trumbo" is a lot like "Argo" in terms of appeal.
As for the podcast - I enjoyed the discussion on "The Hateful Eight"
I spent the last half hour of "The Revenat" wondering how many "MALE Revenge Fantasies" I had watched and pondering why they are SO popular. I refuse to go see "The Hateful Eight" because I seem to have reached my personal limit of that particular genre. It seems as if some critics and our podcasters spent the last hour of "The Hateful Eight" wondering the same thing as I did.
However, clearly box office figures tell us that there is a very faithful audience for this type of film.
Hey I saw "Everest", in fact outside of the US it's a very popular film. Jason Clark was the best of the men, Emily Watson and Keira Knightley did well with underwritten roles as well.
Thanks for these podcasts, and please get well soon Nathaniel. Not too sound too greedy but I would love to hear the gang get together and discuss the Globes afterwards. (health permitting). cheers.
Just saw the misery porn they call The Revenant too and hope it's in the next podcast as was hinted.
My 2 cents on a couple of the films discussed:
Phoenix - I actually consider myself a quasi-fan of Petzold's films, but I don't get the hoopla over this one. I feel like I've seen films so similar in so many ways (technical and otherwise), especially out of Europe. Maybe that's why the German Oscars didn't embrace it as much as one might expect given its surprisingly high overseas profile...I think this film has basically been done before in many ways. Still, very good acting and a good film.
Goodnight Mommy - I think of this as the reverse of the H8ful 8: showed so much potential in the first 3/4s of the film as a thoughtful, building character-driven horror, but ruined by overkill in its final act.
I agree with Bruno above. I LOVED Barbara, but Phoenix lacked a certain punch to me. Yes, even the ending. Perhaps the premise was just so fantastical that I found it hard to have real emotions toward the characters.
All I can say is YAY to The Man from U.N.C.L.E. One of my favorite viewings of the year in terms of pure fun and eye candy. Elizabeth D was fantastic. To quote Streep, "My God, somebody give her a movie!"
Thinking of going to TIFF this year, but it sounds exhausting. And for you guys, it also sounds like you need to rewatch stuff in order to process and report.