Movies About

A theme of death and loss looms over our 10th episode as we discuss A Star Is Born—the 1976 version starring Barbara Streisand and Kris Kristofferson and directed by Frank Pierson. It’s another trip back into the 70s, when sex, drugs and rock and roll were actual things. CeCe talks about Joan Didion’s writings on grief before learning about Kristofferson the songwriter. We marvel at Streisand’s perfect voice, discuss the problems of the film as well as its heart, and ponder how this film represents the offscreen entity that was “Barbara Streisand.” We close with a brief discussion of James’ new book of political philosophy titled Living in an Age of Survival (Glass Spider Publishing).

We discuss two very different movies in our ninth episode. The main film under discussion is Tick… Tick… BOOM (2021) by Lin-Manuel Miranda, a Netflix biopic about Jonathan Larson of Rent fame. Jim is deeply critical of the music and filmmaking style; CeCe expresses her dislike of the film, while sharing a love/hate relationship with the Rent-heads out there. We discuss the general topic of musicals, the time and place in which Larson was working, how the AIDS epidemic was tragically affecting artists at the time, and the deux ex machina genius composer cliché. We lead off with a brief discussion of Krzysztof Kieślowski’s The Double Life of Veronique (1991), currently on MUBI. It’s a movie Jim thought was about music, but we realized while watching that it’s not. Still, it allows us to have a lively discussion about the male gaze, feminist cinema, singing and dubbing, the composer Zbigniew Preisner, and the metaphysics of spirit in philosophical filmmaking.

Our New Years’ episode is a discussion of Steve Kloves’ movie The Fabulous Baker Boys from 1989. Our talk centers around the dynamic between Jack and Frank as the artist versus the gigging musician, and how this movie compares with Whiplash. This leads into discussions about different aspects of music performance: the corporate gigging life, the jazz aesthetic, and how the pandemic has negatively affected the psyche of the music performer. We also briefly discuss the Sex and the City reboot And Just Like That…

We call an audible for our seventh episode and discuss the closest thing to a Christmas movie-about-music we could think of: Paramount/Michael Curtiz’s holiday classic ‘White Christmas.’ We marvel at the stellar singing of Crosby and Clooney, the inimitable dancing prowess of Vera-Ellen, and the still-fresh comedy of Danny Kaye. In this wide-ranging episode, we also riff on a variety of topics: our own musical lives lately, collective jingle-writing, and CeCe’s longing for a proper male crooner in today’s music milieu. We also talk briefly about the Peter Jackson Beatles documentary ‘Get Back,’ and share our recently recorded cover of the Christmas gem ‘Fairytale of New York’. The song can be accessed at: https://youtu.be/tN77z2UWM-U

In our sixth episode, we express our total hatred of the very popular and widely acclaimed movie Whiplash, directed by Damien Chazelle. We wonder what is the point of a film with horrible people who seem to have no love for jazz or music. As we tear this film apart, cliché by cliché, we also dip into cringy side topics like verbal abuse, incels, and Jordan Peterson fans. If you love this movie, we’re sorry, but we don’t understand you. If you hated this movie, enjoy.

In our fifth episode, we discuss Hustle and Flow, directed by Craig Brewer. As Jim displays his total ignorance, CeCe is there to take him to school on what was going on in 2005’s world of rap and hip-hop. In addition to discussions about Terrence Howard the actor and how we should feel about his character DJ, we also discuss Jim’s man-crushes, the toxicity surrounding rap culture, women within the cultural milieu, high and low art, and the question of quality in rap music. And yes, CeCe sings the line.

journey, a familiar theme in movies from this era, the student/teacher dynamic in the arts, music education, and the value of education in our techno-capitalist era. Finally, the hosts, who are neither parents nor young people, give unsolicited advice about parenting and being young.

In this episode we watch and discuss Cameron Crowe's film Almost Famous. We talk about rock music of the 1970s, the magic that is Penny Lane (and Kate Hudson) and why she defies the manic pixie dream girl trope. We also take a strange detour into the awfulness that is Coldplay, wonder at the Wilson sisters, and dig into what it means to truly love your favorite band. We end the show with a tease of what is coming for Episode 4.