Talking About Stuff, with Mike and Christiana

I start off with a promo for Dismay

Mike and I get into the podcast

Screwing around before recording

Weird roommates

Parental Hour on Skype

The never ending Skype chat

Playing the promo for The Poddog Show

We decide not to do a whole Survivor show

Been a while since the last new episode

Dan getting voted out wasn't very exciting, but at least the Exile Island continues to affect the game in interesting ways.

Strategy regarding Terry's immunity idol. Would telling everyone really hurt him?

We rehash (again) our reasons for liking Survivor

Reality TV isn't actually "reality" but that's not why you watch it. It's like a sociological experiment.

I'm unhappy about going three weeks without a new episode, and I fail utterly to count to three in determining when the next new episode will be. Mike sets me straight.

I'm not paying CBS's bills, so I get screwed.

The GMC Yukon displays "thriftiness!"

"But how does he get home?"

Extreeeme!

Mike liked the clip show. I didn't as much.

We liked Bobby, but he has no one to blame but himself for getting voted off.

Courtney is growing on Mike.

The "sentimentalist" view of nature.

I rant about the concept of "Equilibrium"

The very thing that we liked about Bobby is what got him booted.

Shane and his stupid cigarettes.

Promo for Nina Kimberly the Merciless

We talk Sopranos

The second episode was very frustrating, particularly the dream sequence.

They couldn't KILL Tony. He makes that show. The show could survive the loss of any character but him.

When will he wake up?

We can maybe see a potential storyline building, but it feels like they're dragging it out.

Cross-Talk to the point of ridiculousness

Sopranos has always felt like it should be better than it is. But criticism aside, it's still better than a lot of what's on TV.

Mike gets a text message.

I finish up the show by playing "Uttered Madness" by paYne! (also on the Podsafe Music Network!)

It's been a while...

Final percentages in our Oscar Marathon. Mike reached 74% and I reached 75.8%.

We each had one film that we really wish we'd gotten to see... For me: Memoirs of a Geisha, for Mike Good Night, and Good Luck.

We discuss Capote

We both admired the film-making and writing, but the gestalt didn't move us that much emotionally.

Mike found Truman Capote (the character) to be the unpleasant lead in an unpleasant story. I found him to be slightly more sympathetic, though I understand Mike's reaction.

Clarifying "sympathetic". It's not that I approve of what he does so much as I felt like I understood it.

"Maybe YOU'RE unpleasant."

Takes the traditional "redemption" character arc and reverses it. Character actually ends up worse than he started.

Is my reaction based on writerly sympathy? I felt I could understand his conflicting drives.

Was Truman's compassion for the killer misplaced? Mike and I read the killer's character differently. Mike saw an unrepentant sociopath, and I saw an emotionally numb, damaged individual.

Truman saw similarities between himself and the killer. Was he right?

I think it was not so much that he saw current similarities as much as "There, but for the grace of God go I" sort of thing.

Different reads on the killer.

The film is rich enough to support multiple interpretations.

A nice segue to a film that we felt was dumbed down and contrived.

We REALLY didn't like Crash.

Did we really need this movie to tell us that racism is complicated?

None of the characters ever feel like real people. They are nothing but plot devices or ciphers designed from the get-go to embody some specific aspect of racism and nothing else.

The movie feels as though it was intended to make you shout: "My God, the irony! The contradictions! Why, this changes everything!"

It's the shotgun approach to storytelling and feels very manipulative.

Even if it isn't true, it FELT as though it was written by committee.

The flaw of the film is really only on the script level. Every other aspect of the film is done relatively well.

Magnolia is an example of another film that features many different characters in intersecting stories, with many coincidences, but that film had a surrealism to it. The fact that strange things happen like that is one of the THEMES of the film. Crash felt as though it was supposed to take place in the "real world" and as a result, didn't work for us and we were not able to suspend our disbelief.

We really felt as though we had already learned the film's lesson, and as a result didn't need to have it lectured at me for two hours.

SPOILER WARNING!!!




END SPOILERS

A movie has to EARN suspension of disbelief. This film did not.


Discussing Munich

I begin by damning with faint praise. I felt that the film didn't really change my mind about anything. THAT SAID, I only criticize the film at all on the basis of judging it for BEST PICTURE. On any other scale, it's an excellent film.

A lot to like about the film.

The subtle but unambiguous final shot.

For all the criticisms of the film that it's too "anti-Israel", it doesn't soft-pedal its opposition to Black September either.

To use a dandilion analogy, you cannot rid your lawn of dandilions by simply pulling each one as you see them.


The Best Animated Feature

Corpse Bride is very good, very funny, but Wallace and Gromit is so sweet, so charming. There's nothing not to like.

We both liked Corpse Bride even more than Nightmare Before Christmas.

Liking the "idea" of Nightmare Before Christmas more than the actual film.

Why the Survivor show is late... progress made on Nina Kimberly the Merciless

Very sad, Bob-dawg is gone. Can't really blame anyone but him, but at least he went out being true to himself.

He wasn't voted out for the reasons we suspected would be a problem

The "Alliance of 4" is fracturing, but was not yet broken. "Bonding together out of weakness."

Aras -- probably right in terms of strategy, but also kind of a jerk. So blunt that he's kind of unpleasant. Also, short of Shane, one of the most irritable people on the show, which is way off of what we expected.

Can understand Bruce's annoyance in regards to Courtney's yoga, but it seems like he never really communicated to the rest of the tribe exactly what the zen garden was supposed to be.

Communication is definitely a problem in that tribe.

Bruce and Bobby have not been doing a good job integrating themselves into the tribe.

Cirie has earned our respect. Doing everything right in all three aspects of the game: Social, camp-life, and physical. She's exceeding expectations.

Bobby was THE reason they won the first challenge.

Cassaya doesn't seem to really think things through. Even when they all vote the same way, they don't all vote that way for the same reasons.

It's a lot of fun to watch people insult Courtney.

Bobby and Bruce in Casa del Charmin, maybe not the best judgement, but funny as hell.

Courtney said that their spots weren't taken / there was room for them, but we don't think she was sincere, or at least, they would have resented it if asked to move.

Clearly, strength in challenges is not Cassaya's priority.

What I was hoping, that the four would split their vote, resulting in 2 for Bruce, 2 for Bobby and 3 for Courtney

The votes didn't come out the way we thought: Aras and Bobby voted for Bruce, Courtney, Danielle, and Cirie voted for Bobby, Bruce voted for Courtney, and Shane voted for Aras.

Like Dan last week, Shane swears on his kid a little too freely

Sad to see Bobby go, but happy to be liking Cirie more.

Both Shane and Courtney are entertaining in how annoying they are.

Courtney seems custom-made to conflict with as many different personalities as possible.

Does ANYBODY like her?

How much credit does Danielle deserve for switching the vote to Bobby?

The Bobby vote was personal, rather than strategic.

Laughing at Cirie standing in filthy stagnant water, worrying that she was going to get sick from eating sashimi.

Why do tribes keep building shelters on low ground? This is not rocket science!

Poor Nick and Austin. Probably it was simply eating too much when they had been deprived, but dang, that sucks.

Terry, doing fine at Exile Island.

In defense of Bruce's time on the Island. Even Terry didn't get fire until he was there without having to look for the idol.

Terry's going to be a hell of a hard guy to beat. No one on the show is in a better spot than him right now.

Didn't see much from La Mina this time around. Nothing really from Dan or Sally.

Bobby's "apology" didn't do much to win over his tribemates. Was he simply not trying very hard to fake an insincere apology, or was he deliberately attempting to tick them off?

Okay, yeah, drinking the wine was a mistake, but it wasn't a good reason to vote him out.

Grrr! I REALLY don't like Courtney. She makes me want to slap her.

Really hard to make predictions this time, because the reasons for voting are all over the place.

"The dysfunctional functional tribe."

Merge or tribal switch-up next time?

I really hope that Courtney gets what's coming to her on the game.

Mike lets me rant.

More in-depth discussion of some Oscar nominees.

Mike and his BLEEP-ing cell phone.

Brokeback Mountain - All jokes aside, Brokeback Mountain is a REALLY powerful film. It can really change how you feel about some things, even if you are already on its side going in.

"Hey this movie is directed pretty well... Duh! It's Ang Lee!"

Calling it simply a "Gay Cowboy" movie does the film a disservice, marginalizes it. It's an attempt to draw a little border around it so you can leave it where it is and ignore it.

Even more emotionally engaging than we expected, even though we went in with high expectations. Really conveys the emotional pain these characters feel.

Also shows how harmful discrimination can be, not just to the person who is actively discriminated against, but also to everyone around them.

A little surprised that it was set so recently, (1960s-80s)

The one sex scene in the film is unsettling, uncomfortable. It's almost violent.

The differences and the similarities between the two lead characters.

If the scene had been between a man and a woman, our response would be different.

Mike is reminded of a scene in Unfaithful.

In BBM, the sex scene doesn't even contain nudity, but it's the one scene that is explicit, and that is a very deliberate choice.

The scene that could win Heath Ledger the Oscar: Waiting for Jack after receiving the first postcard.

Loved Heath Ledger in A Knight's Tale, but this is a spectacular performance in a very different movie.

His speech patterns are unusual, but feel genuine.

The film contains tragedy upon tragedy, but they never feel contrived.

The scene where Enis visit's Jack's parents was amazing.

I saw Brokeback Mountain and Final Destination 3 as a double feature.

Final Destination 3 is a pretty good movie, for what it's trying to do. Somewhere between the first and the second in quality. The direction is not quite as coherent as the second film, but the real reason to go to the Final Destination films is the deaths, and on that level, it delivers. Plays a little bit fast and loose with the "rules", but then, the rules were never all that precisely defined to begin with.

Mike's double-feature was Transamerica and Walk the Line.

Walk the Line

Can't help comparisons to Ray. We agree that it's better than Ray, but I couldn't escape the feeling that I'd seen this story before. I know it's true, but it's almost the cliche biopic plot by now.

Mike didn't know as much as he thought he did about Johnny Cash going in, so in many ways it was a sort of revelation.

I thought Ray was good, but the dream sequence at the end was AWFUL! Ridiculously bad.

Mike went into the film very uninterested, but it turned him around.

Mike now says he "hated" Ray, though I point out that, at the time, he wasn't that extreme. But we agree that it was somewhat overrated.

Mike felt like he learned a lot about Johnny Cash in the film.

An awesome scene early on, where his first record producer says "I don't believe you."

Cash used his songs to convey an emotion even if the lyrics were never literally true.

Mike respects Johnny Cash a lot more now than before.

Johnny Cash's daughters have complained that the film's treatment of his first wife was unfair, though that will almost always happen with any biopic.

Surprise to discover that Johnny Cash's version of Hurt is actually a cover of a Nine-Inch-Nails song, not the other way around.

Movie's use of music was very effective. More so than in Ray. It's about someone for whom music was really the true passion of their life.

Robert Patrick was very good as the father, and especially near the end, as much as you want to hate him for some of the things he has said, he's actually right.

Some of the foreshadowing early on was a little forced.

Joaquin Phoenix was excellent. He "conveys" Johnny Cash more than "mimicks" him.

Now outdated (But still accurate) news.

Rumor that Gary Oldman would not return as Sirius Black has been debunked.

David Thewlis will be back as Lupin also.

Contains Adult Language! An entertaining interview with George Clooney. -- He doesn't Michael Moore this $#!T.

My take on Michael Moore -- Though I am sometimes sympathetic with his intentions, I don't like his tactics.

He's not so uptight about his politics that he feels he needs to defend anyone who shares them, regardless of his politics.

Mike's Razzies Update - Deuce Bigalo: European Gigolo and Alone in the Dark are so bad, that they actually leave you a worse person having watched them.