Episodes
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The year has ended, somewhat mercifully, and it wasn't the best year for TV, either. Strikes, endless streaming service turnover, and leftover COVID production and script delays led to one of the oddest and most scattershot years in TV history. Our TV critics, Matthew Ehrlich, Omar Gallaga, Scott Gold, and Neal Pollack cover it all.
There is plenty of good to mine. Omar loved shows like 'Fallout' and 'Mr. and Mrs. Smith', but he and Neal talk in detail about Julio Torres's 'Fantomas' and John Mulaney's 'Everybody's In L.A.' Scott pops in to join the Shōgun discourse. Neal had problems with the Anglo lead, Cosmo Jarvis, but Scott and Omar both assure him that the Japanese cast takes over by the end.
Scott's favorites included Guy Ritchie's 'The Gentlemen,' and both he and Neal fanboy over Theo James for a few minutes. It's the rare TV continuation of a movie that actually improves on the original. Neal's picks include the Australian sitcom 'Colin From Accounts,' which he and Omar both agree is totally delightful.
Now for the bad news. Matthew Ehrlich thinks 'The Perfect Couple' is ridiculous, a bad Netflix version of Succession that includes a cheesy murder mystery. He's also not high on the new network procedurals, like 'Elspeth,' 'High Potential,' and 'Matlock,' which like AI wrote them. In addition, he offers a counter-attack on 'Hacks,' which does a disservice to the memory of Joan Rivers, and he offers the perspective that Rivers was actually friends with Donald Trump and might have been a victim of cancel culture if she had lived to see the day.
Omar likes Hacks, but has his pans too, and he and Matthew take turns battering the "icky" and weird and unappealing Baby Reindeer, which is getting praise around the joint but does not meet our approval.
Neal then goes off on several shows, including 'Last Bite Hotel,' a weird semi-horror-themed Food Network show starring Titus Burgess, 'The Acolyte,' and especially the new season of Doctor Who, which featured a character who was literally the spirit of Christmas, and some gross, weird, "Space Babies."
Here's hoping for a better 2025 for all TV viewers! A new season of The White Lotus is coming.
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As we lurch toward 2025, our podcast continues to cover the waterfront of 2024's pop culture. First up, Scott Gold joins Neal Pollack to talk about 'Dune: Prophecy.' Neal wonders, why does this Max show have to take place 10,000 years before the Dune movies. That seems like a long time. Scott says it is but a grain in sand in the vastness of the universe. How would he know that? But he's also definitely right. And the show is not boring, full of palace intrigue and creepy space witches and genuine moments of horror to go along with the incredibly expensive and vivid set design and Shakespeare-level performances. Dune: Prophecy will not be for everyone, but it's definitely Game of Thrones set in space.
Decidedly not Game of Thrones in space, but almost as weird (in a different way) than Dune: Prophecy is Queer, the new William S. Burroughs adaptation from director Luca Guadagnino, who's never afraid of a challenge. Stephen Garrett joins Neal on the podcast to talk about Daniel Craig's radiant performance as a midlife seeker who desperately wants love, and also drugs. There is plenty of unrequited love in the film, and plenty of requited drugs. The really amazing part is that everyone in 1948 could just afford to kind of hang out and do whatever they wanted. This is the dream, really, and also kind of the nightmare. A brilliant adaptation of an unadaptable book.
And that's all of the podcast for this week. Isn't that enough?
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Missing episodes?
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Neal Pollack sounds the alarm on this week's episode of the BFG Podcast, and brings in the big guns in the form of Richard Rushfield, columnist for The Ankler. Together they form a united front against the scourge of people talking, singing, texting, and otherwise being rude in movie theaters. Shame on Cynthia Erivo and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson for encouraging people to misbehave during their smash hit blockbusters. Cringe as Neal and Richard discuss their strategies to humiliate offenders. Imagine what it must be like to be members of their family. Glory is theirs, but a hero walks a lonely road.
Writer and comedian Sheri Flanders joins Neal next to discuss yoga. That's right, yoga, in the form of 'Breath of Fire,' a compelling Max documentary about the cultish kundalini yoga. The documentary needed an edit and the cult of kundalini needed a bucket of cold water dumped on its head. But it's a tragedy and a story worth knowing. Come to listen to Neal talk about the true meaning of yoga. Sheri wisely does not follow Neal into the light. She has three crystals and that's all she needs.
Omar Gallaga is very disappointed in the syrupy mess that is 'A Man on the Inside,' the Ted Danson Netflix "sadcom" based on an Oscar-nominated documentary. Both Omar and Neal have a lot of negativity toward this show, which, despite an amusing setup, quickly sinks into stereotype and refuses to engage realistically with the problems that seniors actually face in our society, which paradoxically might have made it funnier. Instead, Neal recommends the movie 'Thelma', airing on Hulu, which has a similarly high-concept premise but is in fact much more grounded in the real lives of senior citizens who outlive their friends, their spouses, and pretty much everyone else. It's a problem without an easy solution, and 'A Man On The Inside' just pours on the sap.
What a great episode! Thanks for listening to the pod.
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We go big on the podcast this week as the biggest movie week of the year is upon us. Neal Pollack and Stephen Garrett, childhood best friends turned mortal film-critic enemies, come together to discuss 'Wicked,' the blockbusteriest blockbuster of the year. Battle lines draw immediately as Neal favors the performance of Ariana Grande, a theater kid who is clearly playing her dream role. Stephen prefers the more nuanced performance of Cynthia Erivo, who Neal finds a bit pretentious. They both agree that there's no reason on Earth why this needs to be two movies, and that there's a lot of filler set in a "Hogwarts without magic." But some of the musical numbers are lavish and fun. Neal is also disappointed that the monkeys do not wear diapers.
There's no such disappointment when it comes to 'Gladiator II.' Stephen thought the sequel was fun but unnecessary. Neal, on the other hand, really appreciates a movie that features CGI baboons, sharks, an angry rhino, Denzel Washington, and a monkey wearing a diaper. He calls star Paul Mescal an "angry barista". An instant camp classic, that's what we say.
Bobby Hilliard joins Neal to discuss something very disgusting, the 'Terrifier' movies, which Neal is too scared to see. Bobby worries, and with good reason, that the antics of Art the Clown are desensitizing audiences to the worst possible violence imaginable. There are things in the 'Terrifier' movie so horrible, you couldn't begin to imagine them. Bobby warns Neal that there's nothing even remotely humanizing about Art the Clown. He has no Freddy Krueger, Jason Vorhees, or Michael Myers backstory. It's irredeemable gore, with absolutely no reason to exist other than to make audiences go "ewwww". Terrifier 3 made more than $80 million at the box office. Someone is digging it.
Our podcast is unlimited. Enjoy, and Happy Thanksgiving!
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As we continue to process the cultural fallout from the 2024 Presidential election, writer and podcaster Meghan Daum stops by the pod-dome to talk to Neal Pollack about the strange phenomenon of writers and creative people leaving Twitter for Bluesky, seeking a safe space from the MAGA storm. But there's no escape, Meghan and Neal conclude, and then proceed to talk shit about people getting MFAs, and about how the world has labeled them ideological traitors. But whatever the trend is, Neal concludes, he's going to miss that train and fail to cash in. That's the one constant in life.
Meghan and Neal pivot to talking about the rise of Justine Bateman, who Meghan thinks is doing witty work right now on Twitter, providing "director's notes" for liberals having crying meltdowns over the Trump election. But let's be clear, Meghan says, Justine is one phone call away from being on Joe Rogan. She is not our friend. She has moved far beyond our reach. That's another important lesson to glean from recent weeks.
Onward to less self-deprecating topics. Stephen Garrett appears to discuss 'Anora,' which both he and Neal agree is a funny but also serious modern take on the hooker with a heart of gold motif, a kind of hyper-realistic Pretty Woman set in Coney Island. Neal considers this an Oscar contender, Stephen is maybe a little more reluctant to hand off the statuette. But they both agree that Anora is a real crowd-pleaser.
As is 'A Real Pain', from writer-director-actor Jesse Eisenberg. Neal takes the lead on this one, saying it's nice to see a movie that takes generational Holocaust trauma seriously, yet is also still funny and meaningful. And both he and Stephen agree that Kieran Culkin steals the show and deserves the praise that's about to rain down on him for the next few months.
Justine Bateman does not then make a surprise appearance on the podcast.
Enjoy the show!
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Today we bring you an audio podcast edition of the excellent cultural coverage we've been doing since the Second Coming of President Trump. Explaining political trends lies outside our core mission, but understanding cultural currents is why we exist.
Bobby Hilliard joins host Neal Pollack to discuss the outsized impact that the Austin comedy and podcasting scene had on this election. Bobby, a comedy-scene insider, explains to Neal that even though figures like Joe Rogan and Tony Hinchcliffe are millionaires many times over, they have an unfiltered, no-bullshit casual tone that appeals to the modern audience that is tired of the artifice of the news and entertainment industries. After the pandemic, hundreds if not thousands of comedians moved to Austin because it was less expensive, restrictive, and dangerous than other American metro areas. And the city, which was dealing with a downturn in the music industry caused by an upturn in the tech industry, had a ton of empty performance spaces to host them. Elon Musk appeared on Rogan, said, "this place is cool," and the modern Republican cultural ethos was born.
Neal ends the segment by telling Bobby that he, too, is going to start doing standup comedy. Bobby warns him that it's tough out there.
But not as tough as it is in Hollywood. Richard Rushfield, columnist and founding light of The Ankler, joins Neal to discuss Hollywood's disastrous participation in this election. From the condescending tone of the Julia Roberts ad telling liberal women to defy their MAGA husbands in the voting booth, to the weird twerking of Megan Thee Stallion at a Kamala Harris rally, to the endless, clueless online endorsements, the traditional entertainment industry revealed itself as completely out of touch with reality. Richard talks about how young people don't respond to movies and TV like they once did. They like their celebrities unscripted and unfiltered. Neal points out that may have something to do with the success of Donald Trump. He's a celebrity, but he's a different kind of celebrity, kind of a proto viral celebrity. Oprah Winfrey just can't compete.
You will understand everything after listening to this podcast. Thanks for joining us.
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This week we will not be discussing the seismic impact on the cultural world of the re-election of Donald Trump to the Presidency. That's for next week. We already recorded this amazing episode, and are discussing other issues of huge important in the literary world.
First-time guest and first-time BFG contributor Shana Burg joins Neal Pollack to discuss her new book Poof! The Disappearance of a Writer in the Age of AI. Shana has had a fascinating journey through her writer's life. She worked in publishing in her 20s, put out three young-adult historical novels, and then, when that market dried up, transitioned into being a content creator who wrote about her lifelong love...of taking baths. But then, just as it looked like she was going to be able to make a permanent living, AI reared its head, making her type of content creation obsolete. She and Neal discuss if it's possible to still make a living as a writer in this day and age, and what the path might be going forward.
Sharyn Vane comes by the pod dome to talk to Neal about the growing trend of "literary" writers speaking out against Israel's war in Gaza. Unfortunately, that trend has expanded to the cancellation of literary events, and now, a petition boycotting "Israeli cultural institutions." Neal Pollack, himself a writer of extreme renown, has signed a counter petition, and is firmly against canceling any Jewish writer for any reason, even if those doing the canceling are also Jewish. Look, it's a huge mess, but we will continue to try to clean it up on Book and Film Globe.
Tune in this week, and next week, when we will be the only people on Earth talking about the aftermath of the United States Presidential election. Thanks, all, for listening!
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It's October, that special time of the movie year where quality awards-bait shares space with horror flicks and other genre fare. We have space to write about it all on BFG, but barely have enough time to talk about it. So this week chief film critic Stephen Garrett joins Neal Pollack for a kind of speed-round to catch each other and all of you up on what's in theaters and also on the way out of theaters.
First up is 'Conclave,' a pulpy not-quite-murder mystery set in the Vatican. Apparently there's more intrigue surrounding the election of a new Pope than there is surrounding the selection of the new head of a Mafia crime family. Maybe they're actually the same thing, Conclave posits. Stephen calls Conclave director Edward Berger the king of "empty prestige" pictures. Neal sort of agrees with him but still enjoyed Ralph Fiennes's campy lead performance as a Cardinal-detective who's undergoing a crisis of faith.
On a less serious note, we have 'Venom: The Last Dance,' which Stephen points out has the same creator as the previous two Venom movies, both of which he also reviewed for us. While he absolutely hated the first Venom, Stephen has warmed to each subsequent installment, and he's almost a fan. At this point, we have to wonder if a Venom symbiote isn't inhabiting his body, or at least his reviews.
Parker Finn, the creator of Smile 2, is almost like a horror auteur at this point. The sequel is flashier than the first installment, and it's also a huge hit. Stephen found it a bit too long and maybe a bit too full of itself, but it's also genuinely creepy and also has some deliciously nasty ideas about how deep-seated psychological trauma can haunt people, and even kill them. But even if it doesn't, the franchise is a hit and it's here to stay.
With the election approaching, The Apprentice should be required viewing. Neal calls the Donald Trump origin story, set in the 1970s and 80s, "one of the best movies I've seen all year." Stephen won't go that far, but he has nothing but praise for Jeremy Strong as Roy Cohn and Sebastian Stand as Donald Trump. This movie is more popular overseas than in the U.S. Neal thinks it's not pro-Trump enough for MAGA types and not anti-Trump for people who are anti-Trump. But for people who love good movies, it's perfect.
We can't say the same about 'We Live In Time,' a completely dopey romantic drama about cancer and chefs and who knows what else. Stephen calls this Florence Pugh/Andrew Garfield movie "so dumb," and Neal and Stephen both marvel at the millennial uber-beta-male who is Garfield's character. Then there's the non-linear narrative, a curse on the world that hopefully this movie will end. But we wouldn't count on that
Enjoy the show!
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Art the Clown from 'Terrifier' three could not join host Neal Pollack for this week's BFG podcast because of various disgusting commitments, but Stephen Garrett is always available. He stops by the Pod Dome to talk about 'Saturday Night,' Jason Reitman's ode to the opening night of Saturday Night Live. Stephen liked the film, he enjoyed its ramshackle "let's put on a show" vibe and has warm, fuzzy memories of the early days of watching the program. Neal found the movie twitchy and annoying and overly reverential, though he did admire some of the celebrity impersonations and loved the cheap shots at Milton Berle. It's a film that celebrates something that doesn't really need to be celebrated.
'English Teacher,' now streaming on Hulu since its initial run on FX has ended, is one of the best-reviewed and least-watched shows of the year. Critic Matthew Ehrlich takes time out from digging a swimming pool in his backyard by hand to praise the show and its creator Brian Jordan Alvarez for one of the best and least woke depictions of gay life ever put to screen. Neal also really digs the show and the Texas setting and finds the side characters charming and delightful. Above all else, the show is funny, and it's also short, and it's something you really should watch.
Your opinion about 'Megalopolis' will vary from frame to frame. Neal and Stephen Garrett have a blast picking apart the weird phenomenon of a $100 million boondoggle made by Francis Ford Coppola, an 85-year-old man. Coppola is doing things that we haven't seen in movies since the 1930s. Whether or not that's a good thing will widely depend on the viewer. But we can all agree that Aubrey Plaza knows exactly what kind of a movie she's in, and boyo, does she deliver the goods as a character named Wow Platinum.
Thanks for listening to the BFG Podcast, with your new host, Wow Platinum.
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"I have never been so happy to see a film flop at the box office," host Neal Pollack says of 'Joker: Folie a Deux,' which he discusses on this week's podcast with film critic Stephen Garrett. Stephen is a little kinder to the film than Neal is, but he agrees that not much in this movie works. Neal finds the courtroom sequences boring and cliched, the musical sequences uninspired, and the dark romance completely incompetent and unbelievable. Both Neal and Stephen agree that this deeply unpleasant movie deserves everything that's coming to it, and that Joaquin Phoenix can't sing even if Lady Gaga can. Todd Phillips should go straight to movie jail for this crime against cinema. So sayeth we.
Rabbi Pollack (not an actual rabbi) invites Rebecca Kurson on the podcast to talk about 'Nobody Wants This,' the Netflix sitcom about a sex podcaster, played by Kristen Bell, who falls for a Jewish rabbi, played by Adam Brody. Boy, did Becky hate this show. It depicts a Judaism where no one talks about October 7, Israel, or the Holocaust. Neal argues that this is a Netflix sitcom about a sex podcaster so no one wants to hear characters talk about those things. Fair enough, Becky says, but this is still a morally questionable show about horrible people who don't deserve love. Neal just likes watching Brody and Justine Lupe, who plays Kristen Bell's sister, and also feels like it is a somewhat accurate depiction of a certain type of bourgeois Angeleno who he knows too well. This show does not hate Jews, Neal concludes. Maybe it's just kind of dumb.
It is a contentious week on the BFG podcast! Give us a listen and find out why host Neal Pollack calls it "the number 4 rated entertainment news podcast in The Gambia."
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Pop goes the podcast this week as Neal Pollack welcomes Scott Gold to talk about two very different comic book shows now streaming. First up, there's 'The Penguin,' starring Colin Farrell and Cristin Milioti. Scott was curious as to whether or not a Gotham-set show without Batman would work. But both he and Neal have totally bought into The Penguin's gritty mix of street-level action, car chases, mob intrigue, and endless F-bombs. "It's dark, even for a Batman show," Scott says. But it's also crisply-written, well-paced, and brilliantly acted. It comes with our highest stamp of approval.
'Agatha All Along,' the Halloween-themed witch show from Marvel, also gets extremely high marks from Neal and Scott. Unlike 'The Penguin,' this show, a spinoff of the groundbreaking 'Wandavision,' doesn't take itself too seriously. But it does delve deep into witch lore, and subsumes witchcraft into the larger Marvel Cinematic Universe framework. Kathryn Hahn hams it up to great effect, and Marvel has surrounded her with a harmonious supporting cast that includes Aubrey Plaza, Sameer Zamata, Debra Jo Rupp, and, in an incredible casting coup, Broadway megastar Patti LuPone. It's a star-stuffed ensemble even by Marvel standards, and the show is fun, a little scary, but still light enough to watch with your eyes fully open.
We can't say the same thing about 'The Substance,' the new feminist body horror movie from French director Coralie Fargeat. Neal couldn't actually watch this movie because he hates things coming out of other things. But Stephen Garrett is mercifully not so squeamish, and he appreciated the over-the-top metaphor about female aging and how our society treats women over 50. Demi Moore gives a signature performance, Margaret Qualley plays a villain with unhinged vigor, and Dennis Quaid gorges on shrimp in the most disgusting way. And this is the year's most disgusting movie, but people are digging it so we give it high marks even though Neal Pollack is a total coward.
Enjoy the show!
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It's a podcast ripped straight from the headlines this week, or at least the extremely-online headlines. Elisa Albert joins Neal Pollack to discuss the recent cancellation of a book panel at the Albany Book Festival. Two young writers didn't want to appear with Albert because she's a "Zionist." This is the latest and most appalling act of antisemitism yet in the literary world. Even though Albert admits that she is "very much a Zionist, and proudly so," the panel was about coming-of-age novels. Pollack and Albert call out this act of disgusting cowardice. "It's a lot of ignorance and a lot of performativity," Albert says. "There are a lot of opportunists. You can really fake it as an artist in many ways...this year has exposed a lot of garbage behavior from a lot of garbage people."
Writer Meghan Daum, the founder of the Unspeakeasy community for women who have dangerous thoughts, joins Neal to talk about the dangerous-thinking movie 'Am I Racist?' a documentary from conservative online personality Matt Walsh that takes on the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion industry. Neal has his criticisms of Am I Racist? as a movie, but neither he nor Meghan can find much fault with his taking the piss out of DEI hustlers. Meghan has actually interviewed Saira Rao and Regina Jackson, two of the people that the movie calls out, and she has some insider-baseball insight about why they're successful. It has something to do with the "weaponization of female rage," or maybe grievance, which Neal knows nothing about but Meghan does.
This is a great episode, the reason we do what we do, featuring two of the smartest and most contrarian thinkers in the literary world. If this doesn't put our podcast at the top of the conversational board, then nothing will. Enjoy the show, and share it with Zionist friends.
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This week, our hero and host, Neal Pollack, welcomes back Greg Ford to the podcast to talk about 'The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power.' It's the second season of The Rings of Power, and the makers of that show have doubled down on what was bad about the first season: Boring characters, slow storylines, and nonsensical world building. For resident Tolkien fans, it's a real disappointment, though the show does look terrific despite the extremely mediocre acting and lame fan service. We cannot recommend it with good conscience.
But Stephen Garrett can recommend many of the films coming out of this year's Toronto International Film Festival with good conscience. There was tons of crowd-pleasing Oscar bait this year, including the Papal succession movie Conclave, Babygirl, starring Nicole Kidman on all fours, a documentary about Pharrell Williams where everyone is a Lego figure, and a biopic about Robbie Williams where the star is played by a chimpanzee. You heard it here first! Listen up and get your fall movie viewing calendar ready. It should be fun.
Why does this new Ronald Reagan biopic feature a narrator, played by Jon Voight, who's an ex-KGB agent? If you're trying to turn nonbelievers into Reagan fans, this is not the way to do it. Contributor Adam Hirschfelder joins Neal to talk about the strange trip that is 'Reagan.' Dennis Quaid plays Ronald Reagan, a good bit of casting. Apparently, Ronald Reagan single-handedly defeated Communism and had nothing to do with the Iran-Contra Affair. Is that true? It's not up for this podcast to decide. But we can certainly decide that 'Reagan' is a silly film, an unintentional comedy that plays like a sketch-show parody of a Reagan biopic.
OK, that's all we wrote. We thank you for listening, this week and every week!
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BFG Podcast! BFG Podcast! BFG Podcast! Host Neal Pollack once again summons up the world's finest pop-culture critics to talk about culture high and low this week. First up is Stephen Garrett, appearing from the film-critic underworld to discuss Tim Burton's new hit sequel 'Beetlejuice Beetlejuice.' It's messy and too stuffed with exposition, but both Neal and Stephen think it's kind of fun, even if they don't like Justin Theroux in it at all. The major point of dispute comes over Willem Dafoe, who plays a TV cop in the underworld. Neal found it hilarious, Stephen thought it was stupid and unnecessary. Let's remember, after all, that this is a 'Beetlejuice' movie. Let's not overthink it.
It's possible, however, to overthink 'Strange Darling,' now playing at a grind house near you. Neal saw 'Strange Darling' at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles, appropriate since JT Mollner's film owes such a huge debt to Quentin Tarantino. Pablo Gallaga, who has seen Strange Darling TWICE, has nothing but praise for the film, for first-time cinematographer Giovanni Ribisi, and especially for the film's star, Willa Fitzgerald. Both he and Neal agree that Fitzgerald is a major actor in the making, and that this odd serial killer love story with an unconventional narrative structure could be her signature role.
Then there's Jeff Goldblum as Zeus in the Netflix show 'Kaos.' Critic Samuel Porteous joins Neal to deconstruct this "very British" take on the Greek gods. Sam enjoys the "world building" of the show, but wishes there were more grandeur and less overtly, or at least less obvious, political posturing. It all tries a little bit too hard and is a little bit less fun than it should be. Kaos is less of a "masterpiece" and more of an interesting failure, he says.
Unlike the BFG Podcast, which is always a success. Enjoy!
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It's a Jewish-themed episode of the BFG Podcast this week. What else is new, you're asking, and you will be right to some extent, but that's just how the dreidel fell, content-wise. First up, host Neal Pollack visits the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles, and finds the Jewish content extremely wanting, particularly in the 'Hollywoodland' exhibit, which purports to be about the Jewish founders of the eight major studios of Hollywood's golden age but quickly descends into stereotypes, calling the studio heads "predators" and tyrants" and not spending any time interested in their actual Judaism. Neal laments the lack of pride in Jewish identity in the exhibit.
Special guest Michael Kaplan, a former writer for Roseanne and Frasier (not Friends), part of a group of L.A. writers who have protested the exhibit, laments the obvious tokenism of the museum display, as well as its smallness and lack of consequence. Not once, he points out, does the exhibit celebrate the Jewish tradition of storytelling that led the founders to establish the movie business in the first place. The exhibit is a cryin' shame, and both Neal and Michael worry about the imprint it will have on the many thousands of schoolchildren who march through the museum every year.
Speaking of Jewish storytelling, Rebecca Kurson drops in to talk to Neal about 'Between the Temples,' a new movie that celebrates ordinary Judaism in all its messy glory. Becky saw Between the Temples on the date that we learned Hamas had murdered six Jewish hostages, and boy did she need this tonic, which depicts American Jewish life and celebrates it as not only normal, but necessary. Carol Kane, in full Ruth Gordon mode, is an older lady who decides, late in life, to become a Bat Mitzvah. Despite some twitchy direction, this is one of the best and most accurate depictions of Jewish devotional life in recent memory. If only the Academy Museum would have done the same.
If you're listening this week, then Mazel tov!
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We’re charting! Did you know that this podcast regularly earns a spot on the lists of top entertainment podcasts in several countries, including Sweden, Gambia, Poland, Australia and Canada? It’s true. The Book and Film Globe podcast has even cracked the Top 200 in the US a couple times, as well as UK. We are grateful to all our fans, everywhere—thanks for listening.
We’ve got a shortish episode this week as Neal Pollack, our site’s fearless editor — and this podcast’s host — embarks on an odyssey of non-trivial consequence. But as Peter Parker's uncle said, with great brevity comes great wit. Or something like that.
Neal speaks about Alien: Romulus with Pablo Gallaga, who feels that the Fede Alvarez installation to the series can’t quite make up its mind about what it wants to be.
[caption id="attachment_25944" align="alignright" width="269"] Photo of Jennifer Shirk courtesy of the author.[/caption]
Next up is Laura Roberts, who gets into it about It Ends with Us, the new Justin Baldoni-directed romantic drama with Blake Lively based on the novel by Colleen Hoover. If you’re wondering where to buy Colleen Hoover’s books, you’ve come to the right place -- our indie book store The Book House sells a ton of It Ends With Us and all of Ms. Hoover’s considerable output. With just a few weeks left of summer, head to Millburn or Long Branch to stock up on this prolific author’s paperbacks.
And speaking of The Book House …
When you finish The Book and Film Globe podcast, please give our new podcast a spin. The Book House podcast is hosted by journalist and author Liz Alterman, who every week opens a window on the business of publishing, interviewing a different author or editor. In this week’s episode, Liz talks to Jennifer Shirk, the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of 12 sweet and funny romance novels. Jennifer’s latest, Resorting to Romance, was released on July 2. The South Jersey author actually got her bachelor's degree in pharmacy and was contemplating a doctorate before turning to fiction. Listen to The Book House podcast on Apple or Spotify.
And don’t forget to like, review and follow the Book and Film Globe podcast, also on Apple and Spotify.
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Podcast host Neal Pollack revisits his roots this week as he interviews his old friend Arthur Bradford, the director of 'To Be Destroyed', a new short documentary about the efforts of the school district of Rapid City, South Dakota, to ban a bunch of books, including the novel 'The Circle' by Dave Eggers.
If you mess with Dave Eggers, you'd best not miss. And they did miss. Arthur was once a writer but is now a documentary filmmaker. He and Eggers had been talking about doing a documentary, but this was the obvious topic. Eggers went to South Dakota and met with students, and Arthur accompanied him. A crusade against injustice ensued. Neal and Arthur talk about the film and the issues at hand, and also about Neal's "psychological issues" surrounding his former colleague and mentor Eggers. A revealing conversation ensues about the realities of book banning and why Neal wants a camera crew to "follow me to Trader Joe's."
A more conventional but still insightful segment follows. Contributor Greg Ford joins Neal to talk about the strange new adaptation of Giovanni Boccaccio's 'The Decameron', now airing on Netflix. They both enjoyed the performance of main character Tanya Reynolds but also found the adaptation to be overly long and needlessly silly. Greg, who has actually read 'The Decameron,' also notes that the show isn't nearly as bawdy as the book itself, which was controversial in its time for its overtly sexual and anti-clerical content, two issues that are not a problem today.
Enjoy the show!
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The fourth-most-popular entertainment news podcast in The Gambia returns this week with a great dog days of summer episode. First up, host Neal Pollack welcomes Sharyn Vane for another important eat-your-veggies segment. Apparently, the literary world has decided that apolitical writer Gabrielle Zevin, author of the bestselling 'Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow' is a "Zionist" because her novel features an Israel character and she once gave an interview to Hadassah magazine. This is annoying at the least, and quite dangerous at the most, and Book and Film Globe will continue to stand strong against forces in the literary world that insist on marginalizing and discriminating against Jewish authors. We should be long past this as a society.
But we are not long past M. Night Shyamalan movies, and JonPaul Guinn joins our Rotten Tomatoes-approved editor-in-chief to discuss M. Night's wacky new locked-room serial-killer movie 'Trap,' which is almost a comedy, and is quite a lot of fun. JP way prefers Trap to Longlegs, and both he and Neal way prefer it to the previous Shyamalan movie A Knock At The Cabin, which collapsed under the weight of its own pretentiousness. There's nothing pretentious about Trap, it's fun. You will have fun. Have fun at it.
There's also nothing pretentious about the Apple+ TV adaptation of Time Bandits, though Scott Gold, our resident Time Bandits effort, admits that showrunners Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement lack the artistry of Terry Gilliam, who made the original Time Bandits. But for men of a certain age, which Scott and Neal most definitely are, a Time Bandits reboot is nostalgic catnip. Scott says the show is funny, if not a surrealist masterpiece like the original. A little warm glow of time-traveling nostalgia. No pop-culture product ever really dies, and the new Time Bandits is no exception.
Enjoy the show!
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We discuss the most popular movie in the world on this week's podcast, and also discuss two...books. We are BOOK and Film Globe, after all. You can't pigeonhole us.
Frequent sci-fi and fantasy reviewer Dan Friedman joins Neal Pollack on the podcast to discuss 'The Bright Sword,' a very modern retelling of the Arthurian legend from Lev Grossman, who wrote The Magicians series. Did you know Sir Bedivere was gay? Lev Grossman does! In any case, The Bright Sword is quite engaging and fun to read, and both Dan and Neal reserve praise for this book, which injects fresh life into a moldy mythology.
'The Book of Elsewhere,' by China Mieville and, we guess, Keanu Reeves, is a bit more of a lift, despite being half the length. Based on an ultra-violent comic book series by Reeves, this is the story of 'B,' an 80,000-year-old immortal warrior who cannot die, or who at least comes back to life after he dies. Think John Wick meets Highlander. It's not as much fun as it sounds, if it sounds fun at all. Mieville fills the pages between grisly action sequences with philosophical rumination on the meaning of identity, approach at your own risk. Both Dan and Neal found this book to be a bit much.
Stephen Garrett crosses over from another realm in the multiverse to discuss 'Deadpool & Wolverine' with Neal. They both found this meta-entry in the MCU to be kind of cheap and a load of fun. There's not much else to say about the #1 movie in the world, other than "Marvel is back," and nothing is going to stop it from reasserting its dominance over the pop-culture landscape. They also discuss, along those lines, the return of Robert Downey Jr. to the MCU. The years of Dr. Doom are in front of us. It's Marvel's multiverse, and we just live in it.
Enjoy the show, people of The Gambia!
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Politics and culture intersect bigly on this week's podcast. Adam Hirschfelder, a pundit-in-the-wings, joins host Neal Pollack to talk about the J.D. Vance phenomenon. Specifically, they discuss how 'Hillbilly Elegy,' Vance's memoir, was once the publishing-industry standard bearer for understanding Appalachia and the "Trump voter." "This book was embraced by liberals across the country," Adam says. Boy, have times changed. Neal points out the irony that a memoirist is potentially one step away from the Presidency. Neal compares Vance to Barack Obama, but Obama's memoirs, while well-written "actual books" were clearly part of a political strategy. No one saw Vance coming at the time in 2016. Maybe Vance did.
"It's as if one of my memoirs had become a huge best-seller, and then I became a Senator from Texas, and now was Kamala Harris's Vice-President." That would be quite a multiverse timeline. Meanwhile, 'Hillbilly Elegy' is "off the chains." "Those houses in the Hamptons don't build themselves," Adam says.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump cannot stop invoking "the late, great Hannibal Lecter" on the campaign trail. Not much to say here other than it's hilarious and ridiculous. Also, Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character. And he's not dead even in his fictional universe.
Jake Harris joins the podcast to talk about 'Twisters.' He saw it in a screening in Dallas with a bunch of meteorologists. Talk about a receptive audiences! 'Twisters' has a strong female protagonist, weather porn, lots of trucks and red-dirt country music, beautiful Oklahoma landscapes, and a realistic rodeo scene. It's the perfect summer blockbuster to appeal to Red and Blue America alike, the film that will bring us all together. Neal refers to costar Glen Powell as the "emotional support dog" for the protagonist, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones. If you feel it, chase it!
Adam Hirschfelder returns after 10 minutes in the green room to talk about his favorite subject, Kevin Costner. Why did Costner leave 'Yellowstone' to make 'Horizon,' a 12-hour Western epic? We don't know. Adam sat through the first three hours in a theater, the second three hours remains unreleased, and the fate of the saga's back end is unknown. Does 'Horizon' do anything differently than 'Centennial,' 'Lonesome Dove,' 'Dances With Wolves,' 'Unforgiven,' 'Deadwood,' or any other modern Western. It does not. Kevin Costner, you have broken Adam Hirschfelder's heart.
It's a great episode. Please enjoy!
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