Shot/Reverse Shot

The whole gang is together to see out 2019, including discussion of the biggest films of the year, some news stories that stood out to them, and the Shot/Reverse Shot Top Ten Films of 2019. Happy New Year to everyone who has listened this year, and we'll see you in the next one.

Matt and Ed see out the Skywalker saga with a discussion about J.J. Abrams' The Rise of Skywalker, and whether or not it should have stayed down. There's loads of spoilers throughout and a lot of talk about Cats at the beginning, so you have been warned.

00:00:00 - 00:14:52 - Intro & News

00:14:53 - 01:55:32 - Matt & Ed discuss The Rise of Skywalker

01:55:33 - 01:59:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro

It was Matt's birthday a few weeks ago, and as is tradition, he chose the topic for this week's episode. To that end, and since Matt will be leaving the show at the end of the year, he and Ed discuss how the film and television landscape has changed over the eight years they've been doing the show together, the state of film criticism and the dreaded Discourse, and some of their favourite moments from the podcast.

Inspired by Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse, Emily and Ed discuss movies with small casts, and which genres and sub-genres are particularly suited to using a handful of actors. There's also a bunch of talk about Disney+, the benefits of releasing TV episodes weekly instead of all at once, and Sonic.

00:00:00 - 00:27:50 - Intro & News

00:27:51 - 01:06:38 - Ed & Emily discuss movies with small casts

01:06:39 - 01:11:45 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Matt and Ed break down some of the news that happened over the past few weeks, including Benioff & Weiss leaving/getting fired from Star Wars and the escalating streaming wars, then Ed is joined by Emily to discuss instances where an actor being cast in a movie adds extra resonance and power to the performance thanks to the audience's prior knowledge of the star.

00:00:00 - 00:42:09 - Intro & News

00:42:10 - 01:25:24 - Ed & Emily discuss movies that are about their stars

01:25:25 - 01:31:22 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by the release of Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club Encore, Matt and Ed discuss minor works by great filmmakers, including recent entries to the sub-genre like Ang Lee's Gemini Man and Steven Soderbergh's The Laundromat.

00:00:00 - 00:28:16 - Intro & News

00:28:17 - 01:10:14 - Matt & Ed discuss minor works by great filmmakers

01:10:15 - 01:16:19 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by Ghosteen, the new album by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Emily and Ed discuss the artists they love who changed drastically over the course of their careers, as well as artists who tried to change but wound up falling back on old habits. They also talk about Martin Scorsese, the trailer for Dolittle, and the death of Robert Forster.

Here is Harry Brewis's talk from XOXO about his Donkey Kong 64 charity livestream, and here is Scout Tafoya's video essay on grief and Russian Doll (CW: discussion of suicide) as mentioned by Emily in Recommendations.

00:00:00 - 00:28:46 - Intro & News

00:28:47 - 00:56:24 - Emily & Ed discuss artists who changed over the course of their career

00:56:25 - 01:01:25 - SRS Recommends & Outro

With awards season creeping around the corner, it's time for Matt and Ed to engage in the annual tradition of looking at the movies coming out in the final months of the year that they're really excited about. There's also a lot of talk about Tetris for some reason.

00:00:00 - 00:16:42 - Intro & News

00:16:43 - 01:18:28 - Matt & Ed Preview the Autumn and Winter movie season

01:18:29 - 01:23:40 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Matt and Ed are in the same bloody room this week, talking about Ed's time at the London Podcast Festival, Hustlers, and the ways in which Goodfellas is invoked in discussions about fairly disparate films based on real-life events.

Jon Bois' The Bob Emergency, which Ed mentions in recommendations, can be found on YouTube:

Part 1

Part 2

Ten years ago, Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer was released to generally positive reviews from most people (and acute irritation from Ed). To celebrate(?) this milestone, Ed and Emily discuss the disconnect between the central performances and the movie around them, its queasy and unsuccessful attempt to make sexist jokes without being sexist, and whether it qualifies as an "elevated" romcom.

Here is Weighing the Value of Director's Cuts: Scanline, as recommended by Ed towards the end of the episode.