Issues of class, ambition, nihilism and family permeate our discussion of the Netflix movie Hunger (2023). We found it entertaining but cliché and lacking depth. We also discuss Thai food, Thai filmmaking, and high food culture. The movie had, to us (especially Jim), some unfortunate comparisons to a movie we hated, and covered in a past show: Whiplash. At least Hunger gives us a character with some redeeming qualities. Hopefully this movie generates some future interest in greenlighting future movies from Thai directors, a trend we welcome.

Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout

Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast

We return to the 1980s, sort of, with the 1998 hit comedy The Wedding Singer, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. We talk wedding gigs, 80s culture, singer moods, Drew and Adam’s chemistry, inappropriate humor, Cece’s recent trip to Australia, and Jim’s past loathing of Adam Sandler.

Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout

Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast

Part 2 of a Movies About / Now It’s Dark crossover edition for the 95th Academy Awards. Tim Paugh and I discuss all 10 of the Best Picture nominations, chose our who will/should win for the major categories, and close with Tim’s Top 10 movies of the year list.

Tim’s podcast Now It’s Dark is available on Apple, Spotify, Substack , and other platforms.

Now It’s Dark YouTube channel: @nowitsdarkmovie 

Patreon: patreon.com/nowitsdark

Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout

Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast

With CeCe on holiday in Australia, Tim Paugh and I decided to do a crossover podcast for the 95th Academy Awards. Tim is a filmmaker and host of the excellent movie podcast Now It’s Dark, a pod that was an inspiration to us when we got ours off the ground. In this Part 1 of 2, we take stock of where the Academy is at in 2023. We discuss the oscars-so-white and metoo social media campaigns and how they are influencing popular filmmaking—in narrative content, popular culture, and the news media landscape. We ask what kind of politics cinema is doing and talk about Hollywood insider campaigning—in particular, the Andrea Riseborough controversy.

Tim’s podcast Now It’s Dark is available on Apple, Spotify, Substack , and other platforms.

Now It’s Dark YouTube channel: @nowitsdarkmovie 

Tim's Patreon: patreon.com/nowitsdark

Highlight clips of Movies About episodes, plus other content, is available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout

Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast

As we approach the Oscars, we return to Movies About Music to discuss the Todd Field film Tár. Cate Blanchett gives a stunning performance as the titular character, a powerful symphony conductor who gets canceled for sexual impropriety (we never learn what exactly). We discuss the electric scene of her shaming a gender-fluid student in class for dismissing Bach. We ask the question “What if she were a man?” and make connections to Harvey Weinstein, issues of power, and what it means to have influence over others. We discuss the job of conductor and how it drives and interprets the music. We make call-backs to our previous episodes on Whiplash and Mr. Holland’s Opus and talk briefly about our recent trip to Thailand.

We visit Spain in our second Movie About Places—specifically, the titular locale of our film Vicky Christina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen. It was a second viewing for both of us and we felt even more love for it than our first. We take a deep dive into the women in the film. Jim sees the three as channeling, in a Hermann Hesse style, three different personas or identities, while Cece discusses the different ways the women express a Beauvoirian sense of self in relation to the men around them. We finish with an update on our bordercollie Cera, whom Cece sees in Penelope Cruz’s María Elena.

Jim had never seen this movie. He was too busy trying to be cool. So we decided to uncork this masterpiece of millennials for our first Movie About Christmas. We discuss the movie, the celebrity and the actor Macaulay Culkin, and somehow veer into an odd discussion about Donald Trump. We also debate what makes a proper Christmas movie. We may do another pod for Home Alone 2, or maybe we’ll save that for next year, we’ll see. Enjoy, happy holidays, and Merry Christmas!

Movies About Places: Seoul. After a long break, we’re back with Season 2 of our podcast, which is now named “Movies About.” Our first episode is in the category of Places. Our place is Seoul and our movie is Parasite. We picked this not only because it tells us a lot about contemporary Seoul, but because of recent events in the city: The tragic Halloween deaths in the Itaewon neighborhood, the raging capitalism and rush for profit that drives the city, and how hard it is to have a border collie in Seoul. In Bong Joon-Ho’s film, money is a disease that effects everyone in horrific ways. It’s a genius film that says a lot about the city we live in.

September 18 marks the 30-year anniversary of Singles, a movie that dramatized the grunge and dating scene in early ‘90s Seattle. It’s a movie about an era more than music, and our discussion reflects this. We talk Seattle and grunge, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. But this episode is more generally a celebration of and nostalgic look back at what was a great time to be young and alive. Much of our talk is about the overlap of eras—the ‘80s into the ‘90s and the ‘90s into the 2000s (with a side chat about the documentary Woodstock ’99). We remember the fashion, the magazines, the books, the attitudes, the technology (or lack of it). We close with a hint toward some upcoming changes in our podcast.

For our 21st episode, we discuss Honeysuckle Rose, which… there’s no other way to say it… Cece absolutely hated. But as we talked through it, an interesting discussion emerged—about what it means to enter another world, a world that through cinema felt very real. It’s a terrible script with a shady protagonist, but it also gave us a view into Texas country music in the late ‘70s. (Later we realized this was a remake of a 1936 film, Intermezzo.) We try to reconcile all of this with the greatness that is Willie Nelson and praise this as a musical peak in his career. We also spend a lot of time, perhaps too much, discussing the adorable border collie we’re fostering.

Dog rescue links and fostering (mentioned during the show):

Care Korea: https://instagram.com/care_korea_official?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

The Dove Project: https://www.dove-project.org/