Do you know how much of A Real Pain it is to keep the years straight with us straddling three different global release windows? We do! 

We got Caught by the Tides and are a little late with this one but nevertheless, join our Conclave for the fifth (!) time as we huddle around the Ghostlight to talk about the films of the last year! We cover award-winning films (Anora, The Brutalist, No Other Land), notable blockbusters (Dune: Part Two, Wicked), blitz through some honorable Challengers to our top picks, and then Look Back on our personal top fives. 

You know podcast favorite Luca Guadagnino is going to feature in Wilson’s favorite films… but how Queer will it be?? 

If you’re A Different Man, you’ll have different faves, so enter our Red Rooms and tell us your favorite 2024 films on our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Links:

Ben’s 2024 List

Eli’s 2024 List

Wilson’s 2024 List

Timestamps:

(00:00:00) Intro

(00:03:21) 2024 in general

(00:17:06) Obligatory mentions

(00:17:28) Anora (dir. Sean Baker)

(00:22:55) Conclave (dir. Edward Berger)

(00:25:14) The Brutalist (dir. Brady Corbet)

(00:33:53) Nickel Boys (dir. Ramell Ross)

(00:36:53) Hit Man (dir. Richard Linklater)

(00:39:45) All We Imagine as Light (dir. Payal Kapadia)

(00:43:02) Flow (dir. Gints Zilbalodis) 

(00:46:14) Emilia Perez (dir. Jacques Audiard)

(00:50:29) Sing Sing (dir. Greg Kwedar)

(00:52:01) The Substance (dir. Coralie Fargeat)

(00:55:26) Wicked (dir. Jon M. Chu)

(00:59:09) Deep Cut Coverage of 2024

(00:59:20) All Shall Be Well (dir. Ray Yeung)

(01:00:19) The People's Joker (dir. Vera Drew)

(01:02:37) Happyend (dir. Neo Sora)

(01:05:13) Deep Cut Upkeeps of 2024

(01:08:55) Honorable mentions

(01:08:57) Megalopolis (dir. Francis Ford Coppola)

(01:12:43) Trap (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)

(01:14:13) An Unfinished Film (dir. Lou Ye)

(01:14:26) The Monk and the Gun (dir. Pawo Choyning Dorji)

(01:16:02) Hard Truths (dir. Mike Leigh)

(01:17:41) Not Friends (dir. Atta Hemwadee)

(01:19:08) Fly Me to the Moon (dir. Sasha Chuk)

(01:20:38) Black Box Diaries (dir. Shiori Ito)

(01:24:06) A Traveler's Needs / By the Stream (dir. Hong Sang-soo)

(01:25:56) Look Back (dir. Kiyotaka Oshiyama)

(01:27:34) The Room Next Door (dir. Pedro Almodovar)

(01:30:10) Didi (dir. Sean Wang)

(01:31:22) Last Summer (dir. Catherine Breillat)

(01:32:33) Hundreds of Beavers (dir. Mike Cheslik)

(01:33:43) The Diarrhea Brothers Save the Day (dir. Joel Haver)

(01:35:09) Rap World (dir. Conner O'Malley)

(01:37:11) Janet Planet (dir. Annie Baker)

(01:38:43) Ben’s #5

(01:41:06) SKIP ELI'S BIT!!

(01:42:19) Wilson's #5

(01:46:33) Eli's #5

(01:50:14) Ben's #4

(01:52:54) Wilson's #4

(02:00:50) Eli's #4

(02:01:47) Ben's #3

(02:03:16) Wilson's #3

(02:08:22) Eli's #3

(02:12:30) Ben and Wilson's #2

(02:23:46) Eli's #2

(02:27:19) Ben's #1

(02:31:50) Wilson's #1

(02:38:39) Eli and ???'s #1

(02:43:34) Upcoming from Deep Cut

(02:46:32) Outro

We’ve finally done it: all seven Edward Yang films discussed on Deep Cut. The only podcast to give Edward Yang the time and space he deserves as one of the all time greatest directors (and Wilson’s favorite director)!

We end our coverage on Yang with what is considered to be his magnum opus, 1991’s A Brighter Summer Day, an intimate epic of teenage angst, romance, and rebellion that also captures Taiwan in a specific era of political and social turbulence with incredible detail. Together, we discuss ABSD’s unique visual palette compared to Yang’s other non-period work, and go in depth into its thematic concerns regarding Taiwan on a scale both personal and national. Wilson highlights the virtuosic blocking in large crowd scenes, Eli makes a case for proper education as the salve for social ills, and Ben asks, can a film be “too perfect”?

Are you lonesome? Join our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Links:

• BFI: Edward Yang interview by Tony Rayns
• Criterion: Interview with screenwriter Hung Hung
• Criterion: Chang Chen on ABSD

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(17:57) Synopsis and background

(25:16) Directorial style

(32:09) Subjectivity and Chang Chen’s performance

(39:14) Misogyny and control

(47:07) Ming’s characterization

(52:48) Historical context

(55:35) Tribalism and nihilism

(59:53) “Novelistic”

(01:04:57) Si’r as spectator

(01:07:39) What is the movie about?

(01:13:26) Education

(01:18:54) Individual vs societal responsibility

(01:23:09) Gang violence

(01:30:41) Blocking

(01:34:56) The film studio

(01:42:39) The Little Park Boys

(01:48:07) Favorite moments

(01:52:14) “Perfect” films

(01:55:11) Scale

(01:58:10) Yang series wrap-up

We’re thrilled to be joined by Natalie Ng, a huge Edward Yang fan and friend of the podcast, to dive into Yang’s feature debut, That Day, On The Beach! Natalie, who works at the Asian Film Archive, tells us about AFA’s recent Edward Yang retrospective (complete with a physical exhibition) and shares her deep love for Yang’s work.

Together, we explore the film’s place in Yang’s filmography, its inventive narrative structure, and how it set the stage for his later masterpieces. Natalie highlights the agency of female characters in the film, while Ben argues that De-wei should have been hotter. Wilson leads us in discussing Christopher Doyle’s first feature work as a cinematographer and the stylistic choices of the film, and we very importantly discuss Sylvia Chang’s iconic perm, and whether girlbossing is an ideal ending for Yang’s female characters.

Links:

• Natalie’s Letterboxd review on That Day, On The Beach
• Follow Natalie on X (@schatzepages), Letterboxd (@wednesdaydreams), and read her writing on filmedinether.com.

That Day, On Our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(11:17) General Reactions

(25:18) Natalie’s personal reaction to the film

(29:47) Melodrama and female agency

(34:35) Edward Yang’s “Women without men” + Digression into other Yang films

(41:49) Ending of That Day

(45:47) Qing-qing and Jia-sen’s roles in the story

(50:52) Jia-li’s love interests

(54:40) Tone and filmic style

(01:02:55) Other films That Day relates to

(01:07:15) Babies

(01:10:32) The Perm and costumes

(01:15:04) Yang’s early fascination with women’s stories

(01:21:36) Wrap-up

We prepare for Edward Yang’s game of Mahjong and all we’re looking for is a fourth player (you!). The last of his works to get restored, and possibly his most cynical film, we find much to discuss with A Confucian Confusion’s evil twin in Yang’s filmography. Ben explores Yang’s depiction of sexual relationships, Eli expounds on Yang’s fascination with intergenerational misunderstandings, Wilson compares its heightened depiction of violence, and finally we answer the question… why’s it called Mahjong?

Join our gang at FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps:

(00:00) Intro

(02:29) General Reactions

(08:35) Plot Summary; why’s it called mahjong?

(12:10) Transactional relationships, East and West

(16:07) Sex work

(24:00) Narrative and thematic construction

(31:30) Intergenerational misunderstanding

(36:48) Violence

(41:55) Romance and ending

(54:45) Outro

Girl, so Confucian. We sit down to unpack Edward Yang’s dark horse masterpiece, 1994’s A Confucian Confusion. Eli talks about his first time watching this zany comedy and how it reminded him of a lot of college friend groups. Wilson explains why he thinks this is Yang’s true deep cut film, and doubles down on the film’s belief on ‘emotional work’. Ben discusses how Yang injects A Confucian Confusion with an easy relatability and argues that this is a great starting point to Yang’s filmography. Is this a comedy of errors, a biting critique of modern society, or both? Join us as we unravel the layers of Yang’s underappreciated classic.

Feel your way into our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(04:43) General reactions

(11:57) Plot summary and context

(15:51) Character discussion

(30:30) Themes discussion: capitalism and emotion

(43:00) Behind the scenes documentary with Hou

(48:33) More character discussion

(55:00) Ending of the film

(58:50) Yang’s career

The classic genres… horror, rom-com, monster film, bunny-comedy? In our preparation for the recently released Vengeance Most Fowl, join us as we cover Nick Park’s 2005 Wallace & Gromit feature, The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, co-directed with Steve Box. Eli recounts the experience he had watching this in theaters as a kid. Wilson talks about why stop motion animation scares him. And Ben leads us into an interesting conversation about genre, and how comedy operates in this film and in our lives 

Paul Santilli: Culture, Evil and Horror

Bunny hop over to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(06:49) Plot summary

(08:58) General reactions

(13:17) Types of humour

(20:55) Genre

(28:30) Payoffs

(35:30) Stop-motion and humanity

(41:42) Margin of safety

(45:35) Comedy and horror

(47:57) Childhood movies and tragedy

(51:27) Outro

Tune in for a very special episode as Wilson chats with The People’s Joker director, writer, star and editor Vera Drew about her feature film debut! Vera Drew talks about getting into filmmaking, the incredibly collaborative process behind making The People’s Joker, as well as the tough road it took for the film to reach the public.  

The People’s Joker is streaming exclusively on Mubi. 

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(03:29) Interview

(30:44) Outro

Our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com is for the people!

Fancy a little cheese? We jump into the whimsical world of Wallace and Gromit created by Nick Park, and cover three early short films: A Grand Day Out, The Wrong Trousers, and A Close Shave. Eli talks about his childhood love for the series and gives the boys a lesson in stop motion animation. Ben goes existential and talks about how stop-motion brings inanimate objects to life, and we accompany Wilson as he discovers these characters for the very first time. 

Links:

Blast off to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Timestamps

(00:00) Intro

(02:15) Nick Park Introduction

(14:25) General Reactions

(19:45) Shorts Power Ranking

(20:30) A Grand Day Out

(33:25) The Wrong Trousers

(51:46) A Close Shave

The summer of 2024 saw Ben, Wilson, and Eli all together in the same place for the first time in six years! To mark the momentous reunion, we recorded a very special video episode. It's time to go all the way back to the start by revisiting the work of the podcast's first director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, with 2008's Still Walking. 

Listen to the first 15 minutes of our very FIRST video podcast discussing Hirokazu Kore-eda's Still Walking here, or WATCH it in its entirety on our Patreon. Available to all subscribers for FREE! Learn about our history together, hear our musings on the complications of family, and watch as Wilson gets six pounds of blueberries.

Walk on over to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com

Qualley. Viswanathan. Coen. Cooke. In our second Co-Bros Upkeep, we floor it and review Ethan Coen's new road adventure-comedy, Drive Away Dolls. Find out what we think: does it stack up to Joel's solo outing, The Tragedy of Macbeth? Is Margaret Qualley's accent work tolerable? And is that a banana in your suitcase, or are you just happy to see us? 

Driveaway to our FREE patreon, discord server, and our socials @ www.deepcutpod.com 

Links mentioned: