More Than One Lesson

In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss Tom McCarthy’s Spotlight and John Patrick Shanley’s Doubt.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:45- Intro, MTOL Survey, update on Josh
00:08:15- Oscar talk, Tom McCarthy episode
00:13:00- Spotlight
01:10:45- Doubt
01:41:33- Episode wrap-up

In this episode, Tyler and Robert discuss Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs and Franklin J. Schaffner’s Patton.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:44- Intro, The Hateful Eight, MTOL Survey, Tyler’s Movie Collection
00:09:30- Steve Jobs
01:12:00- Patton
02:01:50- Episode wrap-up

Tyler and Josh discuss William Friedkin’s The French Connection, winner of Best Picture for 1971.

As has become a yearly custom, I like to ring in the New Year by looking back on the films released a decade earlier. I don’t do this solely to make myself “feel old”, but rather to allow a moment of reflection. How has Hollywood changed in the last ten years? Which artists have come to prominence and respectability? Which ones have fallen away?

And, of course, an even more personal question. How has my own life changed since I first saw these movies? Has my outlook on film evolved in the last ten years? Has it devolved?

That’s why I enjoy doing this yearly post; it forces me to look back and reflect.

That said, the following movies are now ten years old:

CASINO ROYALE
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE III
CARS
SUPERMAN RETURNS
THE DA VINCI CODE
THANK YOU FOR SMOKING
V FOR VENDETTA
LITTLE CHILDREN
INSIDE MAN
UNITED 93
THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA
LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE
THE DESCENT
TALLADEGA NIGHTS
IDIOCRACY
THE QUEEN
THE DEPARTED
FLAGS OF OUR FATHERS
MARIE ANTOINETTE
THE PRESTIGE
BABEL
BORAT
STRANGER THAN FICTION
THE FOUNTAIN
APOCALYPTO
BLOOD DIAMOND
DREAMGIRLS
THE PURSUIT OF HAPPYNESS
LETTERS FROM IWO JIMA
ROCKY BALBOA
NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM
CHILDREN OF MEN
NOTES ON A SCANDAL
PAN’S LABYRINTH
THE PROPOSITION

In this minisode, Tyler and Josh discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, winner of Best Picture of 1972.

While viewing Tarantino’s eagerly awaited 8^th feature film, The Hateful Eight, two conflicting opinions were passionately arguing within my brain. The first was telling me, “This film is absolutely beautiful; a real cinematic treat!” Indeed, as one might expect from Tarantino, The Hateful Eight is a gorgeously crisp film. Shot on celluloid, and set within a blizzard-ridden Wyoming, the film presents the typical mountain range landscapes associated with classics of the Western genre, yet the film is able to subvert these geographical tropes somewhat by flattening and smoothing out the frame of the film with deep glistening snow. To effect, this flattening of the landscape highlights the individual features of the characters within the film, allowing them as personalities to stand out from the scope of their environment. As a cinematic technique, this creates wonderfully dramatic images of faces, figures, costumes and human expressions. The film is able to maintain this grand scope of beauty throughout, making great use of its grainy-yet-classic filmic style.

[…]

In this episode, Tyler and Reed discuss Michael Dougherty’s Krampus and Clive Donner’s A Christmas Carol.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:44- Intro, Reed’s website
00:05:40- Krampus
00:53:17- A Christmas Carol (1984)
01:32:08- Episode wrap-up

I took a poll recently among my friends to discover what was their favorite adaptation of Charles Dickens’s immortal classic short novel A Christmas Carol. The polling group was no more than twenty people, but the votes yielded a nearly unanimous result. The landslide winner was Brian Henson’s The Muppet Christmas Carol.

[…]

Film franchises are far from rare, but what is rare is for a film franchise to still have something relevant and noteworthy to say once it crosses the second or third installment. What is even rarer about Creed is that it is part of a franchise which is original to film, is not set within a typically franchised genre, and manages to somehow retell the first story in a fresh way while also elevating the stories which followed at the same time.

[…]

In this episode, Robert shares his ten favorite movies of all time.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:45- Intro, Top Ten lists
00:16:00- Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan
00:36:30- The Naked Spur
00:45:25- Only Angels Have Wings
00:50:32- King Kong (1933)
01:04:00- Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb
01:11:17- The 400 Blows
01:23:20- Bottle Rocket
01:44:15- Annie Hall
01:55:50- Playtime
02:06:25- E.T. 
02:27:30- Episode wrap-up