In which Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins struggle together to restore their faith in cinema and are perhaps successful. Films and people discussed include Superhero Movie, Inland Empire, Sapphire and Steel, the ABC Democratic Debate, Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws 4, Full Metal Jacket, Blueray, the Shining, Laura Dern, David Lynch, the Queens Film Theatre, DVD Beaver, Shine a Light, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Stop Making Sense, Fanny and Alexander, Deception, and Dante Spinotti.

The Film Talk - Part 18 - Faith in Cinema Restored!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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In which Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins apologize profusely for producing a depressing show; along the way discussing the life of Charlton Heston, Soylent Green, the 10 Commandments, NCIS, 10,000 B.C., Almost an Angel, Ace in the Hole, Some Like it Hot, Stanley R. Greenberg and his daughter, Roland Emmerich and Omar Sharif.

The Film Talk - Part 17 - 10,000 B.C. Needed Heston, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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hello dear listener

i have a confession and a cry for help, all rolled into one.

i have spoken with my colleague mr loe about this, and he has expressed his empathy.  but i feel i must share this story with you, dear listener, in the hope that you might be able to assuage my fears.

yesterday i took advantage of a couple of hours away from my labours and bought a ticket at one of the local nashville multiplexes, for a film that looked to any reasonable viewer that it might pass the time, if not enjoyably, at least with a few moments of entertainment.  failing that, some light dancing on a white screen has always served as a counter to the monotony of a tuesday afternoon.

after 45 minutes of the film had passed, i found myself gasping for a reason to stay.  this film, which i do not wish to name, for it has already had enough publicity, was so derivative, so formulaic, so utterly without interest or merit that i had become bored enough, as mr loe once said to me, that i wanted to eat my own hair.

i attempted to steel myself for the possibility that something would eventually happen to pique - or resurrect - my interest.  such as laurence fishburne turning in the kind of performance he used to. but then i realised something.

i was embarrassed.

even though i was alone in the cinema, and nobody else knew i was there, i was actually beginning to feel ashamed that i had spent six bucks fifty on this movie.

my inner monologue told me that i had enough self-respect left to choose life.

and so i left the cinema, and didn’t look back, lest i see the destruction facing the rest of the audience, and turn to a pillar of salt.

in the hope of purifying my spirit, i decided to step into the next screen and see what was playing there.

then i visited the next screen.

and the next.

‘tyler perry’s meet the browns’

‘drillbit taylor’

‘vantage point’

‘10 000 bc’ (on which more in the next thefilmtalk episode)

and, sweet merciful lord

’superhero movie’

after my embarrassment had dissipated, i was faced with a terrible question, one that my colleague mr loe has been asking himself for far longer than i:

do notable exceptions ultimately do nothing so much as prove the rule:

that cinema is dead?

In which Gareth Higgins and Jett Loe discuss Richard Widmark, Hannah Montana, the Black Hole, Little Miss Sunshine, Medium Cool, Pick up on South Street, Hanky Panky, Topaz, the Prisoner, Columbo and, oh yes, Michael Clayton.

The Film Talk - Part 16 - Michael Clayton, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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