Episode 201 – THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS / THE ROAD / THE BOOK OF ELI / UP IN THE AIR
It’s a blast from the past Dear Listener – a special Member’s Only episode from 2010: Reviews of THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS , THE ROAD, THE BOOK OF ELI and UP IN THE AIR. Running time: 1 Hours 21 minutes and 35 seconds – 78.4mb Listen and Subscribe for Free with iTunes / Become a TFT Member [...]
Episode 200 – TITANIC / COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE
Here it is Dear Listner, Episode 200 in glorious MP3 form! A review of TITANIC plus a brief look at COMIC-CON EPISODE IV: A FAN’S HOPE. Running time: 44 minutes and 39 seconds – 41mb Listen and Subscribe for Free with iTunes / Become a TFT Member Follow TFT on Twitter / Follow TFT on Facebook Get the iPhone [...]
Episode 198 – THE HUNGER GAMES Revisited / A SEPARATION / THE RAID / MIRROR MIRROR
Hard to believe, but true, but Gareth and I talk about an actual Adult Drama in this week’s show: A SEPARATION. We also discuss briefly the astonishing THE RAID and the less astonishing MIRROR MIRROR. Plus a listener’s email gets a direct response in THE HUNGER GAMES Revisited. Running time: 31 minutes and 20 seconds [...]
Episode 194 – The Oscars / TAKE SHELTER / Brief Thoughts on HOLY ROLLERS and VANYA ON 42ND STREET
Major clashes ahoy Dear Listener as Gareth and I disagree mightily on TAKE SHELTER, agree mostly on The Oscars and talk ever so briefly about new doc HOLY ROLLERS and old stage play VANYA ON 42ND STREET. All that and I make an appearance on Film Geek Radio and you can now find TFT on [...]
Episode 193 – WAR HORSE / TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Oh my goodness, will we ever agree on anything again? Not from the sounds of this episode as Gareth and I discuss the Steven Spielberg family film WAR HORSE, and the all smoking all the time espionage pic TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY. Running time: 34 minutes and 48 seconds – 33.5mb Listen and Subscribe for Free [...]
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 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 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.
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.
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
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.
HARRY POTTER & THE DEATHLY HALLOWS 2: Childish Things
As half-films go, David Yates’ HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2, FILM 8: ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET VOLDEMORT lurches from scene to setpiece like it’s Daniel Radcliffe’s awkwardly effortful performance.
MEEK’S CUTOFF: State of the Union
“Is he ignorant, or is he just plain evil?” Michelle Williams’ pioneer asks of hapless guide Stephen Meek as their wagon train of three loosely tied families winds up lost in the wasteland with depleting resources and a native prisoner in Kelly Reichardt’s MEEK’S CUTOFF.
OUR BELOVED MONTH OF AUGUST: Burden of Dreams
I’ve started and stopped this review so many times it’s like I’m practicing Kegels while peeing. Fitting, too, considering my subject, a fictionalized documentary (think THROUGH THE OLIVE TREES) about its own crew searching for inspiration to film the outright fiction of its last act after a dead financier imperils the project
SUPER 8: Plan 9 From the Spielberg Home for Daddy Issues
The problem with making an entire movie about the wonder and torment of lens flares is that the human eye is hardwired to detect artifice.
Episode 176 – TREE OF LIFE / ROAD TO NOWHERE / Special Guest: Steven Gaydos
Episode 176 – Thoughts on the syrupy yet beautiful TREE OF LIFE and the mysterious and stunning ROAD TO NOWHERE; includes an interview with ROAD writer Steven Gaydos. Also discussed: STAVISKY… and REJOICE AND SHOUT.
ROAD TO NOWHERE Feels Like It Was Shot Tomorrow
Monte Hellman’s new pic ROAD TO NOWHERE is so fresh in its digital image making it feels like it was shot tomorrow.
Episode 175 – MIDNIGHT IN PARIS / Brief Thoughts on THE HANGOVER 2, KUNG-FU PANDA 2 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4
Episode 175 – Review of the brilliantly light and lovely MIDNIGHT IN PARIS; how THE HANGOVER 2 could have been saved and brief thoughts on KUNG-FU PANDA 2 and PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 4: ON STRANGER TIDES.
BRIDESMAIDS: Funny Girl
I’m shocked—shocked!—to find the big, dirty bone of contention with Paul Feig’s BRIDESMAIDS is the centerpiece gross-out scene, when whole mailing lists of people expecting a nice, polite feminist comedy were driven to conniptions
Episode 174 – THOR / BRIDESMAIDS
Episode 174 – Review of the “I’ve already forgotten if I’ve seen it” THOR and my film of the year BRIDESMAIDS. Enjoy!
THOR: Norwegian Wood
If you only see one small-town American story with an Oedipal skeleton enveloping space and time and prehistoric beasts this summer, please, for the love of all that is cinematically holy, make it Terrence Malick’s THE TREE OF LIFE, because Kenneth Branagh’s nominally Norse still-life THOR is so cosmically incompetent
