The ADR Podcast

The first of in a series of weekly episodes where I talk about a current movie with a guest! Jeff Ruberg joins me to talk about James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy. Topics include speculation about the Marvel Cinematic Universe, heavy-handed friendship, and the morning routines of super villains. I also manage to tie in a few thoughts about The Room. 

The first half of the show is spoiler free, with plenty of warning before spoilers start about a half hour in. 

Jeff Ruberg is @jeffinitelyjeff on Twitter 

His Digimon show, Podigious!

As I edit the first episode of ADR Weekly, here's a quick recommendation for a beautiful, artsy project from 1982. Koyaanisqatsi is a rich visual poem about mankind's place in the world. Come for the novelty, stay for the revelations. 

Trailer

The poster child for French New Wave cinema really shouldn't be Breathless by Jean-Luc Goddard, but it's still a fascinating cultural artifact. Hot topics include the production of the movie (that's actually more interesting than the movie itself), French bastardization of American culture, and my fear of pronouncing French names. 

I promise this is the most film-student-y I'll be on this show. 

Richard Linklater's 2001 film Tape was filmed on a consumer level camcorder, even though he had the budget and clout to make it with much more sophisticated and enjoyable means. Why would he decide to film Tape on tape?

Kicking off a series of episodes on lo-fi movies is a movie unlike anything else I've ever seen. Harmony Korine's 1997 film Gummo is bizarre, horrifying, funny, and oddly moving. Hot topics include the idea of a single filmmaker's strange vision, scripted versus improvised scenes, and the reasons filmmakers would choose to go this route and make such an unrefined film.

Here is the Bunny Boy scene in question. Turns out the movie actually has been taken down from YouTube. 

I give a more in-depth analysis of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead, as opposed to the existential diatribe that last week's episode was. 

Listen to Part 1 if you haven't yet!

How long can I talk about a movie without actually talking about the movie? In the spirit of Tom Stoppard's 1990 film Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, I ramble on for ten minutes about the nature of plays, what it means to experience something live, and a few things about the meaning of life. Meta, right?

Tomorrow's episode is going to focus much more on the details of the movie like a normal episode. 

Listen to Part 2 here!

The next stage-to-screen adaptation this week is 2012's Les Miserables, which has an interesting philosophy towards its theatrical roots. It constrains a massive operatic production into a series of muttered songs and extreme close-ups.

The film version of Look Down (Work Song) on YouTube

Today, Glengarry Glen Ross kicks off a week full of movies based on plays. The 1992 movie takes an incredible cast and a legendary screenplay and manages to put it onscreen in a way that can never be done again.

Links:

5by5 At The Movies with Merlin Mann and Dan Benjamin

Alec Baldwin's monologue (YouTube)

It's a long one today! I talk about the best and worst examples of found footage horror movies. Topics include studio hype machines, luck versus dedication, and whether or not people really buy into these movies.