Talking Tropes Podcast

Gather round the Algonquin Round Table, for an intellectual conversation about the lives of New Yorker columnists in the 1920s. Tucci has a brief cameo in this biopic starring Jennifer Jason Leigh as Dorothy Parker and Tucci's good friend Campbell Scott as her love interest Robert Benchley. And in Tucci news, we take a look at a recent profile of Tucci's wife, Felicity Blunt.

Tweet at us @talkingtropes if you want to be a guest Stan on a future podcast

Watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/etfM74jeIfY

This week, we share our weirdest, most out-there takes on Space Jam, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and their obvious predecessor Who Framed Roger Rabbit. Is it worth looking at these artifacts as more than just marketing tools for Warner Bros' most durable IP? Did A New Legacy change the genre of Space Jam completely? Just how have animation/live-action hybrids changed in the digital age?

Tweet at us @TalkingTropes if you have any questions or arguments about any of these weird takes

Watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/jprEw5od7mM

Tucci serves up some LOOKS in a John Grisham thriller as Khamel, a "middle eastern" assassin-for-hire. No he doesn't kill any pelicans. Is this the film where Tucci hit the mainstream? Find out on another Stanning Stanley Tucci!

Tweet at us if you'd like to be a guest STAN on a future podcast @talkingtropes

Watch the video podcast here https://youtu.be/7D903JQpO7I

Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma are novels so deeply rooted in the values and ideas of Regency England (c. 1811 – 1820) that it seems impossible to adapt them to our modern "Sensibilities" (pun intended).

Yet, Hollywood has produced several Austen adaptations set in the turn of the 21st century. Today with special guest and Austen fan Liz DeKok, we look at three of these, Clueless (1995), Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), and the somewhat obscure Prada to Nada (2011). Do these values translate? And how have Austen's novels contributed to the tropes and cliches of the Romantic Comedy?

Special thanks to our editor Logan

Tweet at us @talkingtropes if you have a Jane Austen adaptation hot take.

Follow our guest Liz @lizdekok for more Austen takes and memes

Watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/QVBgs3sJgqE

The Tooch plays Muerte, a buffoonish and stereotypical latino criminal who wants revenge on CIA agent Jeff Blue and his wife Jane for humiliating him in an attempted mugging. Tucci said of the role at the time that this was the most physically demanding film he had ever worked on, and the only one so far to make him take off his pants on screen. You won't believe our Tucci fun fact this week!

Special thanks to our editor Logan McBride

Tweet at us @talkingTropes if you would like to be a guest stan on a future podcast.

Watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/U11F7xG_zOg

There's nothing about Luca that we dislike! Let's look at this simple yet powerful story of young love and being yourself...in the context of a censorship regime focused on producing inoffensive films with global appeal while at the same time appealing to progressive, queer-friendly audiences.

Watch the video podcast here: https://youtu.be/sF1hu3s-a9A

Tweet at us @talkingtropes if you have a different take on Luca or if you have a suggestion of what we should recap next

Special thanks to our editor Logan Mcbride

In a special 4th of July episode, we compare two notable examples of Aliens invading America in the immediate aftermath of the cold war. How do these stories compare to the cold war-era films they draw from?

Tweet at us @TalkingTropes to share your favorite alien invasion story

We continue to watch every Stanley Tucci IMDb credit. This week, Tucci plays a mobster in a neo-noir character drama starring Joe Pesci. Is this the hidden gem of the 90s mob movies you NEED to see? Also, we read a review of Tucci's food tourism show by a true Tucci stan from The Guardian, Stuart Heritage (@stuheritage)

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jun/21/stanley-tucci-the-flirty-hero-of-foodie-tv-you-need-in-your-life

Watch the Video Podcast here: https://youtu.be/KCNuLXgCyUU

Tweet at us @talkingtropes if you want to be a guest stan on a future episode.

Special thanks to our editor, Logan McBride.

Cast reunions became a ubiquitous cultural form during the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the shutdown of in-person production, actors had even more free time and fewer resources than during writers’ strikes. Zoom became a popular way to organize charity events and look back fondly on the network era of television. HBO Max released two elaborately produced and highly publicized cast reunion specials to promote their newly acquired NBCUniversal properties, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air (1990-1996), and Friends (1994-2004) which were meant to establish Warner Media and AT&T as legitimate stewards for the legacy of these classic sitcoms.

We discuss the ways these reunions function from a corporate strategy perspective and what they represent as works of art constructing nostalgic narratives around the production of 90s sitcoms. What are the tropes common to the two reunions? Are they fake or real?

Tweet at us if you have a different take on these reunions @talkingTropes

Special thanks to our editor Logan Mcbride

If you want to watch the video podcast, click here https://youtu.be/148Xm2Gnpdk

Tucci the dognapper? It's a timely follow-up to our Cruella review, where we talk about how much we love Stanley Tucci in Beethoven, starring a St. Bernard and Charles Grodin as they butt heads to see who is the alpha of the Newton household!

The audio quality might be a bit lower because we had to use the backup recording. Oops!

Watch the video podcast here https://youtu.be/-KTs6dzkiXk

Tweet at us if you want to be a guest Stan on a future podcast @talkingtropes

Special thanks to our editor Logan McBride