Filmspotting

Matt Johnson’s new biopic Tony sidesteps the infamous Walk Hard trap by narrowing its scope to a single summer that would end up shaping the rest of Anthony Bourdain’s life, but not necessarily defining it. Whether that approach is ultimately satisfying to fans of the late celebrity chef and author is up for debate this week, as we’re once again joined by Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi to discuss how Tony plays into and against our expectations of a Bourdain narrative. Then we bring Ratatouille back in for Connections, to compare how these two films introduce us to kitchen culture through the eyes of a newbie. Then for Your Next Picture Show, we recommend two more recent films to fill out a Matt Johnson triple feature.

Please share your thoughts about Ratatouille, Tony, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

Next Pairing: David Robert Mitchell’s The End of Oak Street and Steven Spielberg’s The War of the Worlds

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.

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Screenwriter and producer David Kajganich (Suspiria, Bones and All) joins Michael Phillips to test a provocative rule of adaptation from filmmaker Whit Stillman: "You owe everything to the movie and nothing to the original [source]."

But what about the opposite approach? As the Coen brothers once joked about adapting Cormac McCarthy's No Country for Old Men: "One of us types into the computer while the other holds the spine of the book flat." Between those two extremes lies the art of adaptation.

Drawing on more than two decades of adapting novels, memoirs, plays, and films, Kajganich explores when fidelity serves a movie, when it becomes a trap, and why great adaptations sometimes have to break the bones of the original work. As you'd expect, Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey enters the conversation, along with Howards End, The Shining, The Zone of Interest, and Where the Wild Things Are.

Is the best adaptation the one that faithfully recreates its source? Or the one that expresses something new? Join the conversation: email [email protected]

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Adam and Josh share their favorite discoveries, performances, and scenes from the recently completed Dissident Cinema Marathon, which included Chaplin’s The Great Dictator, Kurosawa's No Regrets for Our Youth, and Rossellini’s Rome, Open City.

Links:
-The Circle Ending Revealed | BFI
⁠old.bfi.org.uk/sightandsound/review/1960⁠

-Filmspotting Marathons
https://www.filmspotting.net/marathons

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SUBURBAKNIGHT: Act One

Walter Knope is having a bad week.

His antique store is bankrupt. The bank has locked him out. His house is now filled with everything he couldn't sell. His teenage daughter thinks he's embarrassing, his marriage has seen better days, and Walter is beginning to suspect middle age may just be a long series of humiliations ending in death.

Then Richard Sarandon moves in across the street.

Richard is rich, handsome, charming and spectacularly confident. The neighborhood women can't stop looking at him. The husbands barely notice. Walter notices everything.

Especially the two body bags carried out of Richard's house in the middle of the night.

Then Walter sees Richard do something no human being should be able to do.

Written by Nick Bannister, SUBURBAKNIGHT is a wicked suburban horror-comedy about marriage, jealousy, masculinity and the nightmare of discovering that the impossibly perfect man next door may actually be a monster.

Walter calls the police. They find nothing. Richard smiles. Walter looks insane.

Then comes the neighborhood party. Pool. Booze. Barbecue. Husbands watching football. Wives watching Richard.

With help from Andy, his beer-bellied neighbor and resident horror-movie expert, Walter finally puts a name to what moved in across the street.

An incubus.

A demon that seduces women and feeds on their life force.

Now Richard knows Walter is onto him. Walter knows Richard wants Samantha. And the fight Walter thought was about his pride, his marriage and his rapidly collapsing life is about to become something much worse.

Luckily, Walter's house is currently filled with swords, crossbows, armor and medieval weapons nobody wanted to buy.

Maybe the antique business wasn't such a bad idea after all.

Starring Darin Toonder, Jim O'Heir, Jade Tailor, Jack Daniel, Rob Fitzgerald, Logan Laurel, Emily Brolin, Ashley Platz, and Zeke Alton.

Produced by Table Read Podcast and Manifest Media Productions, LLC.

Executive Produced by Jack Levy, Shaan Sharma, and Mark Knell.

Find The Show: Table Read Podcast

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Jane Schoenbrun’s uncategorizable third feature, Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma, marks the director as among the most assured and provocative filmmakers of their generation. Adam and Josh agree that it’s the film of the year so far. Plus, other notable third features this decade, listeners pick their favorite Spider-Man movie, and Adam reviews The Brink of War.

This episode is presented by⁠ Regal Unlimited⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code FILMSPOT26 to take 15% off.

(Timecodes will not be precise with ads.)

Intro (00:00:00-00:02:38)

Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma (00:02:39-00:45:20)

Filmspotting Family (00:45:21-00:51:21)

The Brink of War (00:51:22-01:01:11)

Polls (01:01:12-01:11:25)

Credits / Releases (01:11:26-01:15:26)

Feedback:

-Email us at [email protected]⁠⁠

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Anthony Bourdain, whose early experience working in a restaurant kitchen is chronicled in the new biopic Tony, once singled out Ratatouille as Hollywood’s best depiction of working in a restaurant kitchen, which is all the invitation we need to revisit Brad Bird’s 2007 Pixar classic. So this week, with the help of Vulture critic Roxana Hadadi, we consider how Ratatouille trusts its viewers to accept an audacious premise, and rewards them in emotional payoff; parse the nuances and contradictions of its “anyone can cook” mantra; and lament that its lone female character of consequence falls victim to Trinity Syndrome. And yes, of course this group of critics has some thoughts on Anton Ego and the film’s take on criticism. Then in Feedback, we discuss a short excerpt from a much longer, in-depth analysis we received in response to our O Brother Where Art Thou? episode.

Please share your thoughts about Ratatouille, Tony, or anything else in the world of film, by sending an email or voice memo to [email protected], or leaving a short voicemail at (773) 234-9730.

This episode is presented by⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Regal Unlimited⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, the all-you-can-watch movie subscription pass that pays for itself in just two visits. Use code NEXTPIC26 for 15% off.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In 2015, Adam and Josh welcomed poster designer Sam's Myth on the show to talk shop and share their Top 5 Movie Posters.

Unlock the full archive, Filmspotting Discord, ad‑free + bonus episodes, and more when you ⁠join the Filmspotting Family⁠. Promo code: summer for 20% off through Aug. 31.

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When the author of “Marvel’s Spider-Man: From Amazing to Spectacular” is the co-host of your show, you don’t avoid talking about the new Spidey movie Brand New Day just because it’s not streaming. So Matt and Jordan use the release of the movie to theorize about its massive box office, and to share some related steaming recommendations. Plus, listener requests for an unsentimental Italian film and a film that offers the same unique pleasures as Leos Carax’s uncategorizable 2012 film Holy Motors. And Producer Sam tests Matt and Jordan’s knowledge of Spider-Man villains with a game called “A Vile Menagerie.”      

Matt’s Spider-Man Bona Fides + Brand New Day (00:00:00–00:25:27)

Rec Seg! Brand New Day-inspired recommendations (00:25:28–00:38:45)

Listener Requests: Italian Films, Movies like Holy Motors (00:38:46–00:50:16)

Game: A Vile Menagerie (00:50:17–01:08:45)

New to Streaming / Credits (01:08:46–01:15:33)

Outtake: Jordan In Hawaii with the cast of Battleship (01:15:34–01:24:24)

Show Notes

Now Streaming on Bazooga - A Filmspotting: SVU Archive⁠ https://letterboxd.com/samvanhallgren/list/now-streaming-on-bazooga-a-filmspotting-svu/⁠

“Marvel’s Spider-Man: from Amazing to Spectacular”

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Marvels-Spider-Man-From-Amazing-to-Spectacular/Matt-Singer/9781683837442

Pre-Order Matt's book "Funny Business: The Old-School Wedding Crashers and Knocked-Up Virgins Who Changed Comedy Forever" (Coming October 6th):⁠ https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/790241/funny-business-by-matt-singer/⁠

Feedback: Email us at [email protected]

Follow Matt on Blue Sky: @mattsinger.bsky.social

Follow Jordan on Blue Sky: @jhoffman.bsky.social

Follow the Show:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvu⁠

Follow the Show:⁠ https://www.instagram.com/superpulse/⁠⁠ https://www.facebook.com/FilmspottingSvu⁠

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What can your body tell you about a movie? According to legendary Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn, everything.

This week's Movie Racket explores Cohn's infamous rule for separating hits from flops. Joining Michael Phillips is Slate film critic Dana Stevens (Camera Man), who helps unpack what that deceptively simple dictum reveals about audiences, critics, attention spans, and streaming culture. Along the way, they cover The Odyssey, Jeanne Dielman, Citizen Kane, and whether laughter, tears, gasps, or simple restlessness can ever be trusted as measures of a film's success.

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For the final film in the Dissident Cinema Marathon, Adam and Josh discuss Jafar Panahi’s formally ingenious 2000 film THE CIRCLE, an unflinching chronicle of Iran’s oppressive treatment of women.

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