Episode 192 – CHRONICLE / In Brief: THE DESCENDANTS / TINTIN / THE ARTIST
It’s a bite-sized, easy to digest, shorter, briefer and perhaps even more exciting version of TFT this week. Please do enjoy our reviews of CHRONICLE, THE DESCENDANTS, THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN and THE ARTIST. Running time: 27 minutes and 40 seconds – 26.6mb Listen and Subscribe for Free with iTunes / Become a TFT Member Follow [...]
Episode 191 – The Films of 2011 with Monte Hellman, Claudia Puig, Glenn Kenny, Carrie Rickey and Armond White
Hard to believe but true – our Films of 2011 Episode is now online! We’re honored to have guests Monte Hellman, Claudia Puig, Glenn Kenny, Carrie Rickey and Armond White on the show, all of whom, I’m sure you’ll agree, bring their own particularly special something to the party. Running time: 1 Hour 17 minutes and [...]
Sex/Religion/Unity/Healing/Discernment/Liberation: Three Colors on Blu-ray
Eight years ago this week, I walked into a bar in Galway, was directed to an empty chair, ordered a Guinness, and met one of the finest men, and most faithful friends I’ve ever known. Colin and I were at a wonderful little film festival devoted to the works of Krysztof Kieslowski; a film festival [...]
EPISODE 190 – THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO / SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS / MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4 – GHOST PROTOCOL
Gareth and myself take an in-depth look at three blockbusters, one of which is great, the other good and the third just rubbish. Yep, it’s reviews of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, SHERLOCK HOLMES: A GAME OF SHADOWS and MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 4: GHOST PROTOCOL. Running time: 46 minutes and 24 seconds – 44.6mb Listen [...]
Episode 189 – HUGO / THE MUPPETS / A DANGEROUS METHOD / THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Preview
You know what? I think this ep is actually better than our Fifth Anniversary Episode. It has singing, sound effects, Fox Business News, Freud, Jung, 3D and a slight mention of Slavoj Zizek. What more could you want? Also reviews of HUGO, THE MUPPETS and A DANGEROUS METHOD. Running time: 1 Hour 03 minutes and 48 [...]
Episode 188 – Our Fifth Year Anniversary / ANONYMOUS / IN TIME
Here it is our Fifth Year Anniversary Special! Includes such items as banter, witticisms, back-talk and reviews of ANONYMOUS and IN TIME. As well as our favorite filmic picks from the past 187 shows, thoughts on Steve Jobs, the end of the film camera and the Most TFT Film of All Time.
Episode 187 – DRIVE / THE IDES OF MARCH / The COYOTE REQUIEM Kickstarter Project
Thoughts on the beautiful and disturbing tone poem that is DRIVE and an exhortation to participate in the exciting new film COYOTE REQUIEM. Oh, and Gareth saw THE IDES OF MARCH apparently.
Episode 186 – REAL STEEL / COYOTE REQUIEM: Jason Lehel, John Gordon and Nicole Herold / MONEYBALL
It’s the Occupy Wall Street Show as we review films that pit the little guy against the boss: REAL STEEL and MONEYBALL. Also we talk with director Jason Lehel, producer John Gordon and star Nicole Herold about their beautiful new film COYOTE REQUIEM as part of its exciting Kickstarter Campaign.
Episode 185 – CONTAGION / THE GUARD / TIFF 2011
Cough, cough. Eck. Cough, it’s CONTAGION folks and Gareth’s Film of the Year THE GUARD. All that plus Jett’s thoughts on the films of TIFF 2011 including THE BROOKLYN BROTHERS BEAT THE BEST, THE HUNTER and THE WOMAN IN THE FIFTH and a brief mention of the new Criterion Jean Vigo Collection.
3 WOMEN / WARRIOR
In Which Olive Oyl and Carrie go Head to Head for the Sake of the Female Id, while an English lad and an Australian bloke re-enact the tortured soul of American masculinity, while Nick Nolte tries not to crumble, and Robert Altman smiles down from the heaven he didn’t believe in.
WARRIOR: Bodies in Motion
For a film about mixed martial arts, it would have been cool of Gavin O’Connor’s WARRIOR to demonstrate some mixed martial arts. But maybe I’m projecting my own priorities onto a film more interested in showing us, ad nauseam, how this great whatsit is provoking the audience.
Episode 184 – ATTACK THE BLOCK
Want to understand the recent Riots in England Dear Listener? Than you must must must start with Joe Cornish’s brilliant sci-fi kitchen-sink action dramedy ATTACK THE BLOCK.
APOLLO 18: The Truth is Out There
Gonzalo López-Gallego’s APOLLO 18 isn’t just a fun potboiler but an unlabeled conspiracy tape hiding in the wrong VHS sleeve, a straight-faced, paranoid political thriller spawned by the unholy union of THE TEXAS CHAIN SAW MASSACRE and Wikileaks.
COLOMBIANA Can’t Stop
As CONAN THE BARBARIAN represents the nadir of chaos cinema with its unfocused camerawork evoking nothing but a lazy director, Olivier Megaton’s COLOMBIANA represents its potential, finding purpose in the rapid cutting and manic energy that defines the End of Cinema.
THE HELP: Based on the Novel The Help by Uncle Remus
To call THE HELP caricature insults Aunt Jemima, but it’s difficult to define precisely how this grotesque sideshow operates without associating it with camp, melodrama, slapstick, Southern Gothic, and other broadly emotional modes
Episode 183 – RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES / WORLD ON A WIRE / THE KILLING
It’s almost too much action for one show Dear Listener: Gareth and I disagree more than a little bit on RISE OF THE PLAENT OF THE APES, cannot disagree for reasons that are obvious about Fassbinder’s WORLD ON A WIRE and explore a novel take on Stanley Kubrick’s THE KILLING.
Summer Festivals
Los Angeles is not known for its film festivals. There are no Golden Bears, Silver Lions or Palme D’ors awarded to obscure auteurs whose careers rise and fall on a handful of impossible-to-get-into screenings presided over by the cinematic elite. There are no A-List celebrities conducting full press Q&As.
Episode 182 – From the Member Archives: IRON MAN 2 / TALES FROM THE SCRIPT
It’s that hot and parched month of August Dear Listeners – and so we release a Treasure From the Archives, (let us not refer to it as a repeat), our thoughts on the action comic IRON MAN 2 and the horror of trying to make a living as a scriptwriter documentary TALES FROM THE SCRIPT.
RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES: You say you want a revolution
I’ve never felt cognitive dissonance like reading my Twitter feed this week—but maybe that was all the cold medicine—seeing nonstop (and counterintuitive) raves for Rupert Wyatt’s blockbuster RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES
Contributor Crosstalk 2: Back in the Habit (April-June 2011)
BRANDON NOWALK: Hello, and welcome to Contributor Crosstalk 2: Back in the Habit, the quarterly look back at the good, the bad, and the weird cinema offered us below-the-liners. This episode: April-June, or Planet Hollywood’s journey from SOURCE CODE to CARS 2. Oof.
Episode 181: CAPTAIN AMERICA / THE ROCKETEER / BEGINNERS / COWBOYS AND ALIENS / Special Guest: Zaid Abu Hamdan director of Bahiya & Mahmoud
Episode 181 – Gareth and I watch COWBOYS AND ALIENS so you don’t have to.
CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE FIRST AVENGER: That’s Entertainment
The only thing more tiresome than Marvel’s latest Shakespeare tragedy is the postmodern elevation of trash/pop/camp—a useful experiment, like shaving your head— so I won’t say Joe Johnston’s CAPTAIN AMERICA: WORLD-FRIENDLY SUBTITLE is a good film.
