Monday, December 24, 2018

FTM 472 - 2018 HOLIDAY SHOW

Merry Christmas and happy holidays from F This Movie! Fire up your Netflix and join Patrick and Adam Riske for our annual holiday episode.



Download this episode here. (45.9 MB)

Listen to F This Movie! on Stitcher.

Also discussed this episode: Speed Kills (2018), Capone (1975), The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (2018), Wreck it Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet (2018), Holiday Affair (1949), Return to Me (2000), The Muppet Christmas Carol (1992), Home Alone (1990), Venom (2018)

16 comments:

  1. Happy holidays, guys! Thank you for the show! It's so great to hear Patrick sounding well. Adam I'm so happy you liked A Muppet Christmas Carol! Have you seen how they do muppets? Like that actual set is elevated and the performers are underneath the "ground" of it? Anyway, you've probably seen it, super elaborate. I love that, too. I watched Romeo & Juliet (Lurhman) on the plane to Hawaii bc I love those crafty craft sets myself.
    Why do you have to watch kids movies more nowadays? I NEVER watch kids movies anymore, haven't even seen Moana (except I have listened to Jemaine Clement's song in it cuz he's mine), but I just feel like it's such a perk of not having kids.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I had a 2 week period where I was watching Moana while falling asleep every night recently. It's utterly delightful. You shouldn't deprive yourself, just because it's a "kids" movie.

      Delete
  2. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to my F This Movie fam! Although I don't post as often as I use to, I'm still always reading and listening and checking the site daily. Cheers to a great 2019!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Happy Holidays to Patrick and his family, the F this Movie crew, and the F This Movie community. I haven't had nearly as much free time this year to comment on articles and podcasts, or talk in the open threads, but I do want to say that that everyone involved continues to be amazing.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I've never facepalmed so hard then when I realized what the thumbnail for the show was about. I for one welcome our Shimmer Portman overlords. Merry Christmas Adam and Patrick, and Merry Christmas to all the F Heads!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Just started listening but I have to say, Matthew Modine is no Treat Williams, and never will be.

    ReplyDelete
  6. A brilliant podcast as always. I love you guys and you made my Christmas. But I have an axe to grind regarding the notion that movies are in a bad place and younger audiences have no original content or movie idols to draw inspiration from. This is the only thing that irks me about The Movies That Made Me podcast and it doesn’t help that they talk about it nearly every week. I’m one of those younger audience members. We don’t have as many great blockbusters, for sure. But my god do we have an embarassment of riches when it comes to movies. Younger audiences DO discover the great movies of our time. This year we had one of the absolute scariest films I’ve ever seen in Hereditary (not based on any existing IP); we had superb action in The Night Comes For Us; we finally got Terry Gilliam’s The Man Who Killed Don Quixote; Park Chan Wook made a 6 hour adaptation of a John le Carre novel and he absolutely nailed it; we got balls-to-the-wall crazy revenge from Nic Cage in Mandy AND in Mom and Dad; Mike Flannagan was allowed to do whatever he wanted for 10 hours in The Haunting of Hill House; Orson Welles released a new movie from beyond the goddamn grave; Lee Chang Dong released the most chilling movie I’ve seen outside of The Vanishing with The Burning and I think it’s this year’s masterpiece; Takeshi Kitano released the final part of his excellent gangster trilogy Outrage; We got a comedy as good and outrageous as Sorry To Bother You (long live the equisapiens); Stephen Sodherberg is continuing to make some really interesting stuff like Unsane despite insisting that he’s retired; Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn gave us the best heist movie of recent years; Adam Rifkin released two movies including Burt Reynold’s swan song - a movie that made me bawl my eyes out; there were a plethora of modern day exploitation films like Revenge and Holiday which are as thoughtful and nuanced as anything from the golden age of exploitation filmmaking; and Jafar Panahi risked his life again to make another movie in Iran despite being banned from doing so. These movies are not mere escapism - many of them are confronting and politically aware. It’s a laundry list of original films made by directors at the height of their powers as well as new talents to keep an eye out for and this list goes on and on.

    Once the new releases are exhausted, the “kid’s today” have the excellent work of Arrow, Kino Lorber, Scream Factory, etc. to thank for restoring movies to blu ray that previous generations felt lucky to find on VHS. Instead of some cropped, washed up VHS of Escape From New York, kids today are going to discover it for the first time in 4K on their 70 inch TV screen. And their mind will be blown.

    Kids today have modern idols in the likes of Wes Anderson, Park Chan Wook, Mike Flannagan, Gareth Evans, Michael Haneke and The Coen Brothers. These are the names that frequently cropped up in my film and tv course when students would talk about who was inspiring their short films. Movies are not in a bad place. Hollywood is in a bad place. I have nothing against comic book movies. I love comic books. But I am also sad that 500 million dollars is given to movies designed by committee, when you could give 25 million dollars to 20 directors with passion and a story to tell. But the light in the darkness is that somehow, year after year, we are bombarded with so many great movies that I’ve given up doing top 10 lists.

    If you got to the end of my rant, thanks for reading. It’s been bugging me for ages and it saddens me that Adam, Patrick and so many others seem to think movies are in such a bad place… Are we not watching the same movies? Or are you just burnt out by all the crap pumped out by Hollywood and Netflix that you have to sit through? Anyway, I love you guys and I love your work. I hope you had a great Christmas and Hannukah.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Happy Holidays to you to Marcus. Thank you for your post. My point is more the mainstream than comprehensive. The mainstream has gotten a lot more watered down. Of course, I agree with you, there are options for curious moviegoers - there always have been and always will be for those willing to seek it out. To clarify "kids today" means actual children and not curious movie fans who are teens or young adults. I'm talking about the target audience for Ralph Breaks the Internet and not Mike Flanagan.

      P.S. I don't know how old you are (only bringing this up because of the "younger audience members" mention at the early part of your comment), but I had the same passion for current cinema as you do when it was say 1998 to 2004 or so....I totally get where you're coming from. As I got older (not saying the same will happen with you), I realized that telling the older generation about how great Fight Club is was baffling to people who grew up on Apocalypse Now (just as an example) and didn't get why I thought it was so groundbreaking.

      I love that you love movies and wouldn't have it any other way. Don't let me or anyone else bother you with our opinion if it's contrary. We're not trying to change your mind but only speak our own. Stick to your gut.

      Delete
    2. I guess that's something I'll become aware of when I eventually have kids. I'll buy them the box set of English dubbed Ghibli films and they'll toss it aside to watch "Ralph vs. Alexa: Dawn of Justice Emojis". Towards the end of the podcast though you guys talked about movies becoming pure escapism and wondering what future filmmakers will draw on as inspiration if everything is based on existing IPs. I guess my point is that most movie lovers don't care much about the mainstream. It's sad that the mainstream has dropped in quality so much so that average viewers have very few options, but at the same time most of the movies I mentioned did pretty well and got a pretty wide audience. It gives me a lot of hope for the future of cinema.

      Grumpy old Joe Dante constantly says "kids today" about teenagers and twenty somethings and lamenting that they must be cinema illiterate... But Joe! You were such a big part of my teenage years! I'm 26, by the way, so not on the young end of my generation, but coming to film school at the age of 24 meant that I got to know what 18 year olds were watching, most of whom had no interest in film history but had their own modern idols.

      Then again, Melboure in Australia where I live is a bit of a haven for film culture - we have about a dozen repertory cinemas and endless film festivals. It might be a bit of a bubble.

      Thanks for replying, Adam!

      Delete
  7. The Princess Switch....is that even a title? Like a light switch?

    Anyways, Merry Christmas/Hanukkah/holidays to everyone in the Fthismovie community.

    ReplyDelete
  8. You guys are bumming me out with your talk of the state of movies nowadays. Not that i don't know in what state it is, but i don't need you to rub it in ;)

    The poem was great. I'm gonna habe to rewatch Draft Day now

    And The Princess Switch was fine. Apart from the fact that i'm in love with Vanessa Hudgens, it's just like every other hallmark christmas princess movies ever made (but on netflix). And i like those.

    ReplyDelete
  9. @Patrick and @Adam sorry guys I might be late to the party on this one but Patrick’s review of Found Footage 3D is the first one on the list on Rotten Tomatoes. You’re a Big Shot now, it’s about time!!!

    ReplyDelete
  10. This drinking game definitely made for a much more enjoyable experience when watching the Princess Switch:

    https://qz.com/quartzy/1478545/the-best-drinking-game-for-netflix-and-hallmark-christmas-movies/

    ReplyDelete
  11. Last night I watched a back to back of belated Christmas viewing double feature of The Christmas Chronicles and 12 Dates of Christmas and i noticed that these films are totally linked and not just through the obvious BUT through an actor; Martin Roach who plays Officer Dave who Santa eventually gets to believe and in 12 Dates plays the doctor... Conclusion? These two films are now a perfect festive double feature! :)

    ReplyDelete