Episodes
-
Issues of class, ambition, nihilism and family permeate our discussion of the Netflix movie Hunger (2023). We found it entertaining but cliché and lacking depth. We also discuss Thai food, Thai filmmaking, and high food culture. The movie had, to us (especially Jim), some unfortunate comparisons to a movie we hated, and covered in a past show: Whiplash. At least Hunger gives us a character with some redeeming qualities. Hopefully this movie generates some future interest in greenlighting future movies from Thai directors, a trend we welcome.
Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout
Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast
-
We return to the 1980s, sort of, with the 1998 hit comedy The Wedding Singer, starring Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler. We talk wedding gigs, 80s culture, singer moods, Drew and Adamâs chemistry, inappropriate humor, Ceceâs recent trip to Australia, and Jimâs past loathing of Adam Sandler.
Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout
Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast
-
Episodes manquant?
-
Part 2 of a Movies About / Now Itâs Dark crossover edition for the 95th Academy Awards. Tim Paugh and I discuss all 10 of the Best Picture nominations, chose our who will/should win for the major categories, and close with Timâs Top 10 movies of the year list.
Timâs podcast Now Itâs Dark is available on Apple, Spotify, Substack , and other platforms.
Now Itâs Dark YouTube channel: @nowitsdarkmovie
Patreon: patreon.com/nowitsdark
Movies About clips available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout
Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast
-
With CeCe on holiday in Australia, Tim Paugh and I decided to do a crossover podcast for the 95th Academy Awards. Tim is a filmmaker and host of the excellent movie podcast Now Itâs Dark, a pod that was an inspiration to us when we got ours off the ground. In this Part 1 of 2, we take stock of where the Academy is at in 2023. We discuss the oscars-so-white and metoo social media campaigns and how they are influencing popular filmmakingâin narrative content, popular culture, and the news media landscape. We ask what kind of politics cinema is doing and talk about Hollywood insider campaigningâin particular, the Andrea Riseborough controversy.
Timâs podcast Now Itâs Dark is available on Apple, Spotify, Substack , and other platforms.
Now Itâs Dark YouTube channel: @nowitsdarkmovie
Tim's Patreon: patreon.com/nowitsdark
Highlight clips of Movies About episodes, plus other content, is available on our YouTube channel @moviesabout
Instagram: @moviesaboutpodcast
-
As we approach the Oscars, we return to Movies About Music to discuss the Todd Field film TĂĄr. Cate Blanchett gives a stunning performance as the titular character, a powerful symphony conductor who gets canceled for sexual impropriety (we never learn what exactly). We discuss the electric scene of her shaming a gender-fluid student in class for dismissing Bach. We ask the question âWhat if she were a man?â and make connections to Harvey Weinstein, issues of power, and what it means to have influence over others. We discuss the job of conductor and how it drives and interprets the music. We make call-backs to our previous episodes on Whiplash and Mr. Hollandâs Opus and talk briefly about our recent trip to Thailand.
-
We visit Spain in our second Movie About Placesâspecifically, the titular locale of our film Vicky Christina Barcelona, directed by Woody Allen. It was a second viewing for both of us and we felt even more love for it than our first. We take a deep dive into the women in the film. Jim sees the three as channeling, in a Hermann Hesse style, three different personas or identities, while Cece discusses the different ways the women express a Beauvoirian sense of self in relation to the men around them. We finish with an update on our bordercollie Cera, whom Cece sees in Penelope Cruzâs MarĂa Elena.
-
Jim had never seen this movie. He was too busy trying to be cool. So we decided to uncork this masterpiece of millennials for our first Movie About Christmas. We discuss the movie, the celebrity and the actor Macaulay Culkin, and somehow veer into an odd discussion about Donald Trump. We also debate what makes a proper Christmas movie. We may do another pod for Home Alone 2, or maybe weâll save that for next year, weâll see. Enjoy, happy holidays, and Merry Christmas!
-
Movies About Places: Seoul. After a long break, weâre back with Season 2 of our podcast, which is now named âMovies About.â Our first episode is in the category of Places. Our place is Seoul and our movie is Parasite. We picked this not only because it tells us a lot about contemporary Seoul, but because of recent events in the city: The tragic Halloween deaths in the Itaewon neighborhood, the raging capitalism and rush for profit that drives the city, and how hard it is to have a border collie in Seoul. In Bong Joon-Hoâs film, money is a disease that effects everyone in horrific ways. Itâs a genius film that says a lot about the city we live in.
-
September 18 marks the 30-year anniversary of Singles, a movie that dramatized the grunge and dating scene in early â90s Seattle. Itâs a movie about an era more than music, and our discussion reflects this. We talk Seattle and grunge, Pearl Jam and Soundgarden. But this episode is more generally a celebration of and nostalgic look back at what was a great time to be young and alive. Much of our talk is about the overlap of erasâthe â80s into the â90s and the â90s into the 2000s (with a side chat about the documentary Woodstock â99). We remember the fashion, the magazines, the books, the attitudes, the technology (or lack of it). We close with a hint toward some upcoming changes in our podcast.
-
For our 21st episode, we discuss Honeysuckle Rose, which⊠thereâs no other way to say it⊠Cece absolutely hated. But as we talked through it, an interesting discussion emergedâabout what it means to enter another world, a world that through cinema felt very real. Itâs a terrible script with a shady protagonist, but it also gave us a view into Texas country music in the late â70s. (Later we realized this was a remake of a 1936 film, Intermezzo.) We try to reconcile all of this with the greatness that is Willie Nelson and praise this as a musical peak in his career. We also spend a lot of time, perhaps too much, discussing the adorable border collie weâre fostering.
Dog rescue links and fostering (mentioned during the show):
Care Korea: https://instagram.com/care_korea_official?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
The Dove Project: https://www.dove-project.org/
-
Fresh off our return from a three-week trip to California, we watch the only movie about music set in San Francisco that we could think of: Emile Ardolinoâs Sister Act, starring Whoopi Goldberg. We found this popular â90s popcorn movie to be surprisingly deep, with its tensions between tradition and change, church and community, and race relations. We talk about the âmagical negroâ trope, some problems with POC representations in Hollywood, Whoopiâs singing, Lauren Hillâs debut in the sequel, and the odd depiction of the Noe Valley neighborhood. Itâs a charming, cute, lively film that may not be true to the City, but is a fun ride.
-
Weâre back after a longer than anticipated break to fulfill a promise we made to discuss the 2018 version of A Star Is Born, directed by and co-starring Bradley Cooper. Lady Gaga is the titular character and, at least ostensibly, the protagonist; but we struggled to understand where her heart (and her music) lay. We discuss Gaga the singer and the spectacle, and the parallels between her career and the film; generational differences between the two films and the two characters; and comparisons with Streisand and Kristofferson. We close by wondering whether this kind of storyline has any relevance anymore, given todayâs music culture. Finally, we hint toward some changes in the podcast going forwardâincluding a new name and new direction.
-
May 23, 2022 marks the 40th anniversary of the Alan Parker helmed film Pink Floyd The Wall. We mark this moment with CeCeâs deflowering experience of the movie (okay, pun intended there) and a wide-ranging discussion about this work of art. She found it genius and Jim agrees. We talk politics, fascism, identity, Roger Watersâ songwriting, symbolism and editing in film, the connection of ìì±ë with âworldâ and âconcept,â and whether music like this is even possible anymore. We also address the question, âwhich oneâs Pink?,â and close with a pitch to CeCeâs upcoming Liquid Arts performance / gathering in Seoul on May 28.
Liquid Arts No. 36 event information: https://facebook.com/events/s/liquid-arts36-featuring-poet-j/697365654849615/
-
Special guest Gordon Bazsali Jr joins us for our 17th episode to discuss the 1986 film Round Midnight, directed by Bertrand Tavernier. It stars famed bebop tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, a role that earned him an academy award nomination. We talk about the music performances in the film, notable for being real, authentic, live performances; the all-star cameos by some of the giants of the 1980s playing the bebop of the late â50s; the filmâs take on the theme of addiction; and dip into some side conversations on jazz in Korea and our fantasies of Paris in the 1950s.
Gordon is a jazz trumpet player and a composer of a wide variety of styles and genres. You can hear his music at gordonbazsali.bandcamp.com.
-
Episode 16 is a discussion about the popular 1984 movie Amadeus, directed by MiloĆĄ Forman. We focus on the cultural impact of the film, its very â80s aesthetic codes, art versus commerce, notation as the ârecordingâ of music in the past, and the genius narrative. While we loved the film and all its lush extravagance, we both found it odd in 2022 to hear very American speaking styles in a story about Vienna. Other random topics include similarities with Shakespeare in Love, music and corporatism, censorship, Mozart and hiphop, and travel in Austria. Somehow we end the show singing Whitney Houston before closing with a tease of Episode 17.
-
Our 15th episode centers on FooFighters horror comedy Studio 666. But the episode is much more than this. The film, the loss of Taylor Hawkins, and the Chris Rock v Will Smith incident allow us to dig into themes of narcissism, violence, delusions of grandeur, being a band leader, drugs and rock n roll, the pressures of success, 90s music, drumming styles, and many other related topics. We begin by discussing the Oscar winners and The Slap (hint: weâre fully #TeamChrisRock); then discuss Studio 666, a fun, campy B-movie that turns out to be deeply allegorical; and end with a proper (and tearful) tribute to Taylor Hawkins.
#Oscars2022, #TaylorHawkins, #Will Smith, #ChrisRock
-
We conclude our two-part Oscar special with a wildly undisciplined but mostly spoiler-free discussion of all the major nominees for the 2022 Academy Awards. We pick our favorites and unreservedly criticize what we feel are less deserving nominations. Hint: we loved Belfast, CODA and Drive My Car, and we’re confused why Power of the Dog and West Side Story were nominated for anything. We finish up with a rave review of Summer of Soul for documentary, and do a spoiler-filled comparison of Encanto and Raya for animated film, one of which we loved and the other not so much.
Podcast Info
RSS Feed: http://www.jimbatcho.com/feed/podcast/moviesaboutmusic
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/movies-about-music/id1587809806
Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/15ebb340-23ab-4585-8def-8569d7c6c45d/movies-about-music
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/movies-about-music
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jqaiHvjgfR28DLfkzQqM7
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgf2uGXgLNhQ2q4_tubCSKA
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qaW1iYXRjaG8uY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC9tb3ZpZXNhYm91dG11c2lj
Instagram: @moviesaboutmusic -
Welcome to Part 1 of our two-part Oscar special. In this first part, we heap lavish praise on CODA (2021), a beautiful, emotional movie about music nominated as Best Picture. In addition to discussing the film and how it made us cry, we move into discussions about deafness and how it is represented, translation and its frustrations, the notion of living in multiple worlds, and the genius of Joni Mitchell. Our conversation continues in Part 2.
Podcast Info
RSS Feed: http://www.jimbatcho.com/feed/podcast/moviesaboutmusic
Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/movies-about-music/id1587809806
Amazon Podcasts: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/15ebb340-23ab-4585-8def-8569d7c6c45d/movies-about-music
Stitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/movies-about-music
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1jqaiHvjgfR28DLfkzQqM7
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UCgf2uGXgLNhQ2q4_tubCSKA
Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3d3dy5qaW1iYXRjaG8uY29tL2ZlZWQvcG9kY2FzdC9tb3ZpZXNhYm91dG11c2lj
Instagram: @moviesaboutmusic -
In our 12th episode, we take our first look at a Korean film about music, íŽìŽí or “Love, Lies” by director Park Heung-sik. Available on Netflix, this 2016 film explores the collision of tradition and modernity in 1940s Japanese-occupied Seoul through two singers. In addition to working through this complicated and heart-wrenching tragedy, we discuss a wide range of cultural factors surrounding the film and its story. In particular, we examine the pressures placed on Korean women to perform, an issue that continues today, and the uniquely Korean phenomenon of the “hostess bar.” We close with a preview of our Oscar Special podcast coming in two weeks. Be sure to subscribe to the pod, and if you have a moment, please post a positive review of the show!
-
Fellow musician, podcaster and friend Gino Brann joins us for a discussion of the Coen Brothers film Inside Llewyn Davis (2013). We talk about folk music, Llewyn’s disgruntled outlook on his life in music, and debate the tensions of purity, performance and attitude through his character. Gino brings the research, situating these songs within the folk tradition and the period of time depicted in the film. We end the show with Gino’s performance of the ballad played the film, “The Death of Queen Jane.” Gino’s Liquid Sound podcast can be found at https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/liquid-sound/id1538454444 and his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/EnablingHarmonic.
- Montre plus
