Shot/Reverse Shot

There's no full episode this week, so Ed runs through some news stories from the week - including the success of Guy Ritchie's Aladdin, The Lonely Island pulling a Lemonade, and Sony deciding to just start making their own damn video game movies - in this minisode.

Here is Lindsay Ellis' video essay on the original Aladdin and Robin Williams' role in animation history, as mention at the end of the episode.

In a break from the usual format, Matt is joined by not one, but three special guests to discuss the final, divisive season of HBO's wildly popular TV show Game of Thrones. Suffice to say, there's spoilers, so don't listen unless you're all caught up.

Continuing their run of music-themed episodes, this week finds Emily and Ed discussing iconic songs from movies and TV shows which transcend their origins and percolate out into broader culture, musical tropes that they personally respond to, and filmmakers who re-use music from other films and make it their own. They also talk about the news coming out of Cannes, R-Batz, and Disney consolidating even more control over culture.

Correction: At one point Ed incorrectly says that Kill Bill prominently uses a piece of Bernard Hermann's score from Sisters, when it is in fact part of his score to Twisted Nerve.

00:00:00 - 00:20:27 - Intro & News

00:20:28 - 00:43:24 - Emily & Ed discuss Iconic Music and Musical Tropes

00:43:25 - 00:49:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Inspired by Beyoncé's Homecoming - and continuing the music theme started with their episode on Visual Albums - this week finds Emily and Ed talking about concert movies, specifically the ones that go beyond recording a band or artist performing live to really using the language of cinema to transport and immerse the audience. They also discuss the absolute mess that is the Sonic the Hedgehog movie, their excitement about seeing Renée Zellweger play Judy Garland, and the death of Peggy Lipton.

00:00:00 - 00:19:44 - Intro & News

00:19:45 - 00:48:42 - Emily & Ed discuss Concert Movies

00:48:43 - 00:53:17 - SRS Recommends & Outro

In this special, spoiler-filled episode, Matt and Ed discuss Avengers: Endgame. It's a wide-ranging discussion that features key plot details from the start, so probably don't listen to it if you haven't already seen the film, and in addition to cataloging the good and bad in the movie, it also encompasses the impact of the MCU, Disney's increasing dominance of film and television, and the many ways in which the comics industry has screwed over writers and artists.

Inspired by the recent release of Childish Gambino's Guava Island, as well as the success and acclaim in recent years of Beyoncé's Lemonade and Janelle Monáe's Dirty Computer, Emily and Ed discuss the visual album as a form of expression. They also ponder the goodness of Sigourney Weaver and Keanu Reeves, and the potential horrors of a live-action Rugrats movies.

00:00:00 - 00:24:57 - Intro & News

00:24:58 - 00:50:38 - Emily & Ed discuss visual albums

00:50:39 - 00:55:51 - SRS Recommends & Outro

The gang were unable to record together this week, so please enjoy Ed's recent appearance on the Big Questions podcast from Oxford Sparks at the University of Oxford. Host Emily Elias spoke to Ed about the science in films like King Kong, Pi, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Office Space and Superman III, and they listened to scientists assess just how feasible those "what if" scenarios might be. There's also a brief Recommendations segment at the end for good measure.

MATT GOT A DOG!

Also, Disney revealed a bunch of details about their forthcoming streaming service which, in addition to a few other stories from this past week, paints an interesting/terrifying picture of the streaming landscape, one which could be fundamentally reshaped by Disney and its franchise menagerie. Matt and Ed discuss the potential Disney+ has to challenge Netflix, the debut of the Criterion Channel, and how streaming services relate to a Supreme Court Case from 1948. Also, dogs.

00:00:00 - 00:02:35 - Intro

00:02:36 - 00:47:25 - Matt & Ed discuss the present and future of streaming

00:47:26 - 00:52:10 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Double Jeopardy, The General's Daughter, Payback. These are just some of the timeless classics that were released in 1999, alongside utterly forgotten duds like Fight Club, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Blair Witch Project, The Matrix, The Sixth Sense, All About My Mother and Eyes Wide Shut. Matt, Emily and Ed assemble to discuss some of their favourite films from a vintage movie year, tease out some of the themes shared by a broad and disparate array of great films, and look at how Hollywood has changed over the past 20 years. Ed also enters some sort of fugue state at one point when the subject of the upcoming Cats movie comes up.

00:00:00 - 00:36:44 - Intro & News

00:36:45 - 01:30:51 - Matt, Emily & Ed discuss the films of 1999

01:30:52 - 01:36:34 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Jordan Peele's Us is still tearing it up at the box office and inspiring spirited debate online, so Matt and Ed decided to talk in-depth about the film's story, its themes, and its malleable allegory. Needless to say, there are spoilers. They also discuss Apple's latest move in the streaming wars, try to pitch long-forgotten game shows that deserve to be revived on the service, and pay tribute to Scott Walker and Agnès Varda.

00:00:00 - 00:30:43 - Intro & News

00:30:44 - 01:12:05 - Matt & Ed discuss Us (SPOILERS, I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH - Ed)

01:12:06 - 01:22:00 - SRS Recommends & Outro

Here is the opening scene to Letterkenny, as mentioned by Ed during Recommends.