This week, Gavia and Morgan dive into the second installment of Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Two Towers. They discuss the film's departures from the novel, the difficulties of adapting the source text, Howard Shore's score, Andy Serkis' mesmerizing performance as Gollum, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan dig into Ben Wheatley's woefully misguided remake of Rebecca, the 1940 classic by Alfred Hitchcock. They compare the new movie, starring Armie Hammer and Lily James, to the original as well as Daphne du Maurier's beloved novel; bemoan its misunderstanding of the source material; critique its mystifyingly incompetent script; and (alas) much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan report back from the London and New York Film Festivals, where they (remotely) watched a host of exciting new films, including installments from Steve McQueen's Small Axe anthology, starring Letitia Wright and John Boyega among many others; Chloé Zhao's buzzy new film Nomadland, starring Frances McDormand; German auteur Christian Petzold's new film Undine; Mads Mikkelsen vehicle Another Round; Frederick Wiseman's new documentary City Hall; and many more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss Emilio Estevez's 2019 drama The Public, which stars Estevez as a sympathetic librarian, Michael K. Williams as a homeless man who instigates an overnight occupation of the library on one of the coldest nights of the year, Alec Baldwin as a police negotiator, and many more. Topics include the film's muddled politics, its frustrating employment of the white savior trope, and more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss Jane Campion's 2009 masterpiece Bright Star, a biopic of the Romantic poet John Keats. Topics include brilliant performances from Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish, and Paul Schneider; Campion's feminist approach to the biopic genre; Keats' biography; and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the 2003 film adaptation of Louis Sachar's beloved children's classic Holes, starring Shia LaBeouf, Sigourney Weaver, Tim Blake Nelson, and many others. They discuss the novel's cultural impact, Shia LaBeouf's storied life and career, the film's political dimensions, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia dive into the first installment of Peter Jackson's epic Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Fellowship of the Ring. They discuss Tolkien's how background and intellectual interests informed his novels, the translation of those novels onto the screen, exceptional performances from actors in this movie including Ian McKellen and Viggo Mortensen, and how Tolkien and Jackson's treatment of race and gender land in 2020.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss Charlie Kaufman's trippy new film I'm Thinking of Ending Things, starring Jessie Buckley as a young woman considering breaking up with her boyfriend, played by Jesse Plemons. Topics include Kaufman's history of experimental, self-referential screenplays; excellent performances by Buckley and Plemons; and the film's core ideas about heterosexual relationships and its muddled ending.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the pyrotechnic 1988 live action-animation hybrid Who Framed Roger Rabbit, directed by Robert Zemeckis. They praise the film's technical accomplishments and its use of cartoon and noir tropes, discuss its place in the Disney canon and its effect on the Disney Renaissance of the 1990s, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss the 1990 film Quigley Down Under, starring Tom Selleck as a sharpshooter who travels to Australia in the 1860s for work. Topics include the film's troubling depiction of Aboriginal people, white savior narratives, Tom Selleck's career and on-screen charisma, Alan Rickman's performance as the film's villain, and more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss the most critically acclaimed show of 2020, Michaela Coel's I May Destroy You. Coel co-directs, writes, and stars in this rumination on trauma and consent. Topics include the show's masterful command of tone, its digressive storytelling technique and radical approach to telling a story about rape, racism in the British film and television industry, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss the critically acclaimed film 37 Seconds, directed by Hikari and starring Mei Kayama as Yuma, a young woman and manga artist with cerebral palsy. Topics include the film's treatment of disability and Hikari's troublesome statements on this topic, Kayama's strong performance, other depictions of physical disability on film, and more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan debate the merits of Roland Emmerich’s 1994 hit Stargate, starring James Spader and Kurt Russell. They discuss the film’s throwback entertainments, its questionable colonial politics, and the many TV properties and fandoms its spawned in the decades since.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss Elem Klimov's 1985 masterpiece of Soviet cinema Come and See, which follows a young boy (Alexei Kravchenko) through the horrors of Nazi-occupied Belarus in the Second World War. Topics include this film's treatment of war crimes, Hollywood's often romantic depiction of Nazis, the film's masterful cinematography and sound editing, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan watch the 1970s disaster movie classic The Towering Inferno, starring an impressive cast including Paul Newman, Steve McQueen, and Faye Dunaway. They discuss the film's striking action sequences, its wild Seventies aesthetic, its starry cast, and more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia discuss the 1986 film 'night, Mother, adapted from the Pulitzer Prize-winning play of the same name. Sissy Spacek stars as a suicidal woman living with her mother, played by Anne Bancroft. Topics include the film's treatment of suicide and mental health, the difficulty of translating stage plays to film, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Morgan and Gavia dive into Peter Weir's 1985 classic neo-noir Witness, starring Lukas Haas as a young Amish boy who witnesses a murder, Kelly McGillis as his mother, and Harrison Ford as a detective trying to solve the crime. They discuss the film's journey from script to screen, its depiction of the police, Ford and McGillis' electric chemistry, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan discuss The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook's beloved lesbian thriller starring Kim Min-hee and Kim Tae-ri, based on Sarah Waters' novel Fingersmith. They discuss the film's relationship to its source material, its smart balance of tones, its depiction of sex, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan debate the strengths and weaknesses of Spike Lee's new film Da 5 Bloods, available on Netflix now, which chronicles the journey of a group of Black Vietnam veterans returning to Vietnam to search for a fallen comrade. Topics discussed include the film's impressive performances by Delroy Lindo and others, its engagement with contemporary politics, its relationship to other American Vietnam War films and narratives, and much more.
Read MoreThis week, Gavia and Morgan watch sci-fi classic Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, starring the original cast of Star Trek as well as Ricardo Montalbán as superhuman villain Khan. They place the film in the larger context of the franchise's TV and film history, praise its streamlined screenplay, and much more.
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