Motion Picture Pals

Y, Yorgos? Y?

It’s a Greek tragedy! It’s magical realism! It’s horror!The Killing of a Sacred Deer is our second entry from Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos (see Episode 8: The Favourite) and, once again, proves to be a controversial one. In fact, Rebekah didn’t even finish this one, which is either a testament to her inability to deal with suspense or a masterful use of discomfort in filmmaking, depending on who you ask.

We all liked this movie to varying degrees and for different reasons. Overall, we were into the performances and cinematography but felt the writing left something to be desired. If you like horror, stan Yorgos, or just plain want to be uncomfortable for two hours, this may be the movie for you. Just read up on it first so you know what you’re getting into.

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

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Spoilers for The Village are present in this episode, as well as M. Night Shaymalan classics The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. Don’t get mad.

To say The Village is a complex film to discuss would be an understatement. A relic of 2004, when the Iraq War was in full swing and everyone was looking forward to the next big M. Night Shyamalan movie, The Village was marketed incorrectly as a horror movie, and expectations were high following previous Shyamalan hits The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and Signs. The film failed to live up to popular expectations, and kicked off a career low period for the director that would last about ten years, including the infamous The Last Airbender.

But a warm reception to Shyamalan’s more recent films The Visit, Split, and Glass have helped him get back into the public’s good graces, and prompted retrospective studies of films like The Village. For Vox, Emily VanDerWerff writes “M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village is an underrated masterpiece,” and that became the hypothesis for us to test going into this episode. Would a 16 year old film resonate with us today, do we feel it deserves a second chance, and is it actually an allegory for the Iraq War?

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

Like a witch inviting young children to their hut, we invite you, dear listener, to join us for a spooky Halloween/Election Day bonus episode on Robert Eggers’ 2015 feature debut, The Witch: A New England Folktale. Set in the early 1600s, a family of Puritans is forced to leave their community and live in the wilds of the untamed forest where a tragedy and subsequent horrors foster deceit and suspicion within the family.

“The VVitch,” as it’s famously stylized, explores the dissonance between civilization and nature, religion and freedom. We explored the idea of predestination as a theme and were left wondering what the best-case scenario might have looked like, what happened to the twins (paste?) and if Thomasin (Anya Taylor-Joy) was *actually* liberated as she joined the coven flying naked in the trees. God bless Black Phillip.

We are joined on this episode by friend of the show Caleb Warwick.

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

Sentient AI is a mainstay of science fiction, and movies have always been fascinated by the question of what a computer would do if it were truly capable of making its own decisions. Would it enslave us all, a la the Machines from The Matrix? Would it initiate nuclear war like Skynet? Perhaps it would ruthlessly complete its mission at any cost like HAL9000.

2013’s Her instead suggests that hyperintelligent AIs would eschew all that in favor of beyond-matter polyamory.

This week we discuss Spike Jonze’s Her (2013), exploring topics like building density and public transit in Los Angeles, whether jealousy makes a relationship real, and the least realistic aspect of the film’s near-future setting: an almost total lack of advertisements.

We all enjoyed the film’s meditative dialogue and trope-defying visuals, even if we weren’t totally on board with certain worldbuilding aspects.

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

Boggis and Bunce and Bean,

One fat, one short, one lean.

These horrible crooks, so different in looks.

Were nonetheless equally mean.

In a valley somewhere in the anglophone world, a community of animals exists parallel to humans. These wild animals attend science class, publish newspapers, and pay mortgages.

In this episode of Motion Picture Pals, we discuss Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009). Based on the novel by Roald Dahl, Director Wes Anderson brings his iconic auteur vision to stop-motion animation. The story follows Mr. Fox (voiced by George Clooney) as he disrupts the delicate domestic life of his animal friends by stealing from Boggis, Bunce, and Bean — the meanest farmers the world has ever seen.

We enjoyed the light silliness of the film and the visual gags. This is undoubtedly a children’s film but it remains delightful.

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

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In Bad City, a skateboarding vampire roams the streets preying on anyone and everyone - until she meets a very handsome boy who is seemingly too handsome to kill. Director Ana Lily Amirpour pays tribute to her multinational background with a cultural mashup combining churning Iranian oil drills with sprawling American suburbs, all bathed in high contrast monochrome evoking Nosferatu. The result is a dreamy mood piece on loneliness, attraction, and the surprisingly positive virtues of being a Himbo.

Travis’s soundtrack playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2zwhb1lyMmdlW7yMNALrb6

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

To survive in the wastes of a post-apocalyptic Australian desert you need to be mad, borderline feral — or at least have a kitted out War Rig, a cab full of guns, and your hopes set on the idyllic “green place” from your childhood memories.

Mad Max Fury Road (2015) is the fourth installment of George Miller’s action film franchise, Mad Max, starring Tom Hardy as Max and Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa in an unlikely partnership and epic car chase across the desert.

In this episode of Motion Picture Pals, we talk about what makes this film one of the best action movies (ever): the rich and detailed visual storytelling, the gripping weight of stunts and practical effects, and the feminist themes that spawned internet controversy.

Our favorite moments include:

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

As usual, complete spoilers for the film in this discussion.

Imagine frontier life in the early days of the Oregon Territory, not a cow in sight and thus not a drop of milk to put in your bread. Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow centers on an unlikely duo aiming to solve this issue: Cookie, an aspiring baker sick of cooking for ungrateful fur trappers, and King-Lu, an entrepreneur from China who maybe(?) killed someone and is on the run from Russians. Together they devise a heist, plotting to steal milk from the only cow in town and building an empire of irresistible oily cakes.

A slow burn of a film that’s light on plot and heavy on feelings, First Cow is at its best when the dynamic between Cookie and King-Lu is front and center. The ambiguous nature of their relationship and the tension present between them prods the audience to speculate whether they’re just really good friends, or wanting something more. But what’s not ambiguous is Reichardt’s ideals about masculinity - perhaps we could all do with a bit more cottagecore.

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other- https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/

An interesting spin on the Zombie Apocalypse, Jeff Barnaby’s Blood Quantum confronts an oft-neglected yet central question within the genre: would you ethnically cleanse a refugee camp if you got your dick bitten off?

Blood Quantum flips the racial animus of the zombie apocalypse on its head: white people become zombies and First Nations people based on the Mi'kmaq are immune. The film doesn’t stray too far into the Noble Savage stereotype, likely due to its predominantly indigenous cast and crew, and instead provides a grounded look into the realities of life on a reservation and their reverberations into the apocalypse.

The movie isn’t without its issues, especially when it comes to tone, but we mostly enjoyed it. Blood Quantum’s high points are excellent, and most of those are centered around characters mowing down hordes of zombies.

At a tight 90 minutes, Blood Quantum is worth a watch for fans of the genre or if you just want to check out a First Nations-led film project (available on Shudder).

Motion Picture Pals is co-hosted by Cam Call, Rebekah Markillie, Joel Aleman, and producer Travis Lien.

Subscribe on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Overcast | Other - https://anchor.fm/s/bc3f6e4/podcast/rss

Follow us on Twitter: @MotionPicPals

Join the discussion: Discord - http://bit.ly/motionpicturepals

Read and subscribe to updates: https://motionpicturepals.substack.com/