More Than One Lesson

I’ve just seen a movie called Compliance. I discovered it while browsing the new release DVD shelves on my way to get bread and milk and, thinking it had an intriguing premise, I added it to my Netflix queue. Then, I heard an interview with Pat Healy (who acts in the film) speaking of the movie and its controversial nature. My intrigue escalated and I streamed the film later that night.

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In this minisode, Tyler and Josh kick off their “Top Ten” series with a discussion of Tyler’s tenth favorite movie of all time, Buster Keaton’s The General.

ALL THE PRESIDENT’S MEN (1976)
Directed by: Alan J. Pakula
Written by: William Goldman
Starring: Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, Jack Warden

There are a handful of movies out there that, when I see them on television, regardless of how far into the film it is, I will sit and watch it until the end. Now, this could mean that I’ll just be catching the last twenty minutes, or it could mean that I’ll be up until three in the morning, because they just started the movie fifteen minutes ago. Doesn’t matter. There are some films out there that are just so engaging that I can’t help it. I have to watch.

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Every few years, I take a step back, examine my taste in film and television, and realize how much it’s evolved. As a child, my favorite films and stories incorporated aspects of adventure, fantasy, and science fiction. As a teenager, my fascination with the juvenile humor found in raunchy comedies was a point in my life I now find quite embarrassing. I never get rid of the movies I collect, so I can take a look at my DVD collection (featuring some movies I never intend to watch again) and can see the changes.

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Some things in life go together wonderfully: mashed potatoes and gravy, pizza and soda, peas and carrots, etc. On the other hand, there are those things which are mutually exclusive – where you cannot have one as well as the other. No matter how hard you try to balance the two of them, they are going to continue to divide your loyalties until one of them obtains your entire devotion.

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I experienced something this year after reading the Oscar nominees that I haven’t experienced since I don’t remember when: concurrence.  For as long as I’ve been (perhaps foolishly) watching the Oscars, I can’t remember a year in which my response was so even-keeled, so contemplative and – dare I say  it? – so agreeable with what the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences had arbitrarily decreed as the highest quality cinema to have been released in 2012.

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh discuss James Gunn’s Super and Martin Scorsese’s Taxi Driver.

EPISODE BREAKDOWN
00:00:45- Intro, newsletter, The Podcast Awards, The Unemployed Mind, For The Title
00:07:55- Super
00:52:05- Taxi Driver
01:15:35- Episode wrap-up, Struck by Lightning, Sermon Recommendation- The One Resolution You Need to Make

Every January 1st, I think of all the movies that are now 10 years old.  Doing so used to make me feel old and out of touch, but these days I’ve found it to be an interesting examination of changing culture and tastes.  It’s fascinating to see which movies remain in the collective mind and which have faded.  It was particularly interesting to think about it this year, as 2003 marked the beginning of a new blockbuster Pirates of the Caribbean franchise while capping off the successful Lord of the Rings film series… only to have it resurrect ten years later in the form of The Hobbit.

It has also been interesting to see how my personal tastes have changed.  Some of these movies were my favorites at the time, but have faded, while others I found to not be particularly interesting, but now love.  Perhaps this is the case with you, too.

So, as of now, the following movies are now ten years old:

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Christmas is my absolute favorite time of the year.  I’m the guy who has the radio in his car set to the station that plays Christmas carols 24/7, the guy who enjoys stringing up half-burnt out multicolor bulbs in 20 degree weather, the guy who devotes more care to dressing up the presents he bought than he does to dressing himself.  Yes, if Christmas were a drink, I’d proceed to get blackout drunk as soon as Santa closed out the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on November 24^th and wallow in holiday delirium tremens all day December 26^th.

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In this episode, Tyler and Josh are joined by writer Reed Lackey to discuss his involvement with the grindhouse movie The Victim.