Reel Deep Dive

Reel Deep Dive makes its first foray into the world of short films by doing a study of the first three Wallace & Gromit outings. 1989's A Grand Day Out began life as a student film by animator Nick Park and, after a laborious six year creative process, became an unexpected smash hit. Its two follow-ups, 1993's The Wrong Trousers and 1995's A Close Shave, solidified the starring duo's status as British pop culture icons while winning awards, generating lucrative spinoff characters, and driving cheese sales.

Winchester, alternatively known as Winchester: The House That Ghosts Built, is a 2018 horror film that had been in some form of development since 2009. It's an anachronistic take on the infamous Winchester Mystery House, a building erected by the wealthy rifle heiress Sarah Winchester. This woman was convinced that she was being haunted by the vindictive ghosts of those killed by the Winchester repeating rifle, so the house was under perpetual renovation during her lifetime and it bears many architectural curiosities that were supposed to trap, confuse, and misdirect vengeful spirits.

Closely adapted from the classic manga series, Lone Wolf And Cub: Sword of Vengeance is the first of a film series that ran for six installments between 1972 and 1974. It stars Tomisaburo Wakayama as Ogami Itto, a disgraced former executioner to the shogun. He is forced to travel the Japanese countryside with his young son in a heavily-armed baby carriage. Together, the two take on dirty jobs in the hopes of one day exacting vengeance against the wicked clan who framed Itto for the crimes that caused his fall from grace.

Godzilla Vs. Kong is a deliberately silly movie that accidentally got swept up in a number of larger forces. It's the first major studio film to make a big splash in American theaters during the pandemic, meaning that cultural historians of later generations may examine it as a signpost of how society reacted to the specter of Covid-19. Did audiences show up to Godzilla Vs. Kong for its promises of escapism? Did they buy tickets because this was simply the first massive studio release to come out after much of the population decided that it was officially safe to see movies in theaters? Or, is there something else afoot?

In order to boost their engagement, many film podcasts will schedule episodes relevant to the current discourse in the cinema landscape. Reel Deep Dive is hesitant to chase after trending topics, but Ryan just happened to record a discussion about this direct-to-DVD Mortal Kombat animated film. So, he's scheduling it a week before a new Mortal Kombat film is debuting in theaters and HBO Max. Maybe we'll get a few extra clicks out of it...

Blood Quantum is a Canadian zombie film written, produced, directed, and starring First Nations people. It centers on an Indigenous Reservation that becomes a refuge during an archetypical zombie apocalypse. In this film's universe, indigenous people are immune to infection from zombie bites. This puts them in a precarious position when white refugees arrive at their compound and beg for sanctuary. The metaphors in the subtext of this plot are about as obvious as zombies wandering around a shopping mall, but Blood Quantum is very much an exploitation film whose focus lies upon gore and mayhem.

Reel Deep Dive continues its breakdown of the Fast & The Furious franchise with its second installment, often argued as the worst installment in the series. Vin Diesel declined to participate, meaning that Paul Walker's street racing foil is now played by Tyreese Gibson. They've been conscripted to infiltrate a Floridian drug cartel and take down its kingpin by being really, really good at stunt driving. Hijinks, high speed chases, and half-assed ad-libbed dialogue ensues.

The plot of Loving Vincent takes place a year after the death of its titular character and centers upon a young man obsessively seeking the truth behind the artist's suspicious suicide. That being said, the core appeal of the film lies not in its story but rather in its storytelling. Loving Vincent was famously animated through hundreds of oil paintings that were painstakingly retouched by hand before each frame was shot. This process is a laborious, unprecedented approach whose result is an utter wonder to behold.

Reel Deep Dive hasn't really covered an old fashioned "dad movie" yet, so Rachel suggested that we talk about director David Lean's first foray into epic cinematic storytelling. Set during World War II, Bridge On The River Kwai concerns a group of British POWs tasked with building a strategically-valuable bridge on a path between Rangoon and Siam. Lieutenant Colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness) is initially uncooperative with his Japanese captors, but ultimately grows obsessed with completing the project, often to the detriment of his men. This conflict comes to a head when a team of commandos attempt to destroy the bridge at the film's climax.  

We're wrapping up our coverage of WandaVision with this episode. Ryan is joined by Sarah and Nicole to discuss Wanda processing her trauma, reckoning with inflicting her grief upon the citizens of Westview, coping with the loss of her family, confronting the story's main antagonists, and (since this is an MCU product) providing some teasers about what's coming next.