Episode 169: Givenchy in No Man’s Land [The Beguiled; Okja; Wonder Woman]
It’s Episode 169 of In the Mood for Podcast!
This week we’re finally back with a jam-packed episode full of news and reviews! First on the agenda is Daniel Day-Lewis’ shock retirement announcement (which fails to convince) and Annette Bening ruling the roost in Venice, plus a record amount of invitations from AMPAS gets our seal of approval. There are reviews of Bong Joon-ho’s madcap fable “Okja” and Sofia Coppola’s period potboiler “The Beguiled,” while we venture into superhero territory with verdicts on Marvel’s latest spidey story “Spiderman: Homecoming” and DC’s critical and box-office hit “Wonder Woman”. Elsewhere, Gal Gadot’s pacing on the front line conjured up images of the catwalk for Cal, there’s a pitch for a Miranda July-led superhero movie, and Irini unforgivably mistakes Garrett Hedlund for a certain Amazonian explorer.
The week’s news:
- “The Square” wins the Palme d’Or
- Daniel Day-Lewis retires from acting
- Annette Bening to head this year’s Venice Film Festival jury
- 774 people invited to AMPAS
[3:30 – 11:25]
Preconception Corner
Reviews of:
- Wonder Woman 17:45 – 26:55
- Spider Man: Homecoming 26:56 – 32:29
- Okja 32:30 – 42:02
- The Beguiled 42:03 – 54:18
Final Segment:
- Top Films, Performances and Moments of 2017 so far
[54:19 – 1:15:55]
Shag, Marry or Kill?
The Garrett Gauge
Intro Music: Lolawolf, “House Key”
Outro Music: Dua Lipa, “Be the One”
Episode 123: The Folly of Ambition [Interstellar; Leviathan; Human Capital]
It’s Episode 123 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog.
This week we’re joined once again by Irini M., who brings us news from her home country’s Thessaloniki Film Festival in a notably more concise fashion than September’s Venice round-up. She also joins in our discussion of some interesting recent events, which includes some rare exciting news involving David O. Russell, and the bizarre spectrum of films vying for this year’s Animated Feature Oscar. We discuss two Foreign Language Oscar contenders, as Paolo Virzi’s “Human Capital” enlivens the middle-class misery of bourgeois Italy and Andrey Zvyagintsev’s “Leviathan” documents the coastal conflicts of rural Russia, before giving ambition a dressing down, as Christopher Nolan’s epic “Interstellar” comes to town. We reveal whether the cinematic influences used in the film are a blessing or curse, and whether Nolan’s scope and logic holds up under scrutiny. Elsewhere, we recount a horror show from Venice which saw Pete become a gay advocate, a mistaken text briefly convinced Cal that his niece was a child genius, while Keira Knightley’s recent quest to boost female self-image has us rather baffled.
- Darren Aronofsky to head the jury at next year’s Berlin Film Festival
- David O. Russell’s long-delayed “Nailed” re-titled as “Love in Politics” and scheduled for release in the UK
- Animated Feature Oscar qualifying list is announced
- European Film Award nominations are announced
[3:05 – 20:55]
[21:00 – 34:45]
Reviews of:
- Leviathan
- Human Capital
[43:25 – 1:01:30]
Closing Segment: Our take on Christopher Nolan’s space-set epic “Interstellar,” and discussing cine-literate films, with comment on “Allegro,” “Kill Bill,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West”!
[1:01:35 – 1:28:40]
The Isaac Range
Outro Music: Adam and the Ants, “Prince Charming”