The Dissolve: Podcasts

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Episode 20: Everyone’s Playing Wolverine Edition May 23, 2014

Show notes

We got our blood angried up a little when Disney Chairman Alan Horn started referring to his studio's new wave of nostalgia-mining films, like Saving Mr. Banks and Maleficent, as "brand deposits." But what does that phrase really mean for Disney? How long can it go on converting quaint, beloved animated films into big live-action spectacles without watering down the brand it's trying to deposit? Our special guest, Mousterpiece Cinema podcaster, Sound On Sight film editor, and newly appointed Movie Mezzanine critic Josh Spiegel, helps us sort out Disney's past, present, and future. Then, in honor of Memorial Day, we ask, "War movies: What are they good for?" Or at least, what's good about them? This week's game, Ex-X-Men, asks participants to sort out all the people who were almost-but-not-quite involved with the X-Men franchise throughout the years, and we close out with a blatantly pandering edition of our competitive-recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 19: The Temperamental Magic Edition May 09, 2014

Show notes

We’re all going to die, but how are we going to die? On this week’s podcast, the new documentary Fed Up, about the terrifying rise of obesity rates, prompts a discussion of other activist docs that push the panic button on climate change, contaminated water, peak oil, and any number of other threats. On a lighter note, the Seth Rogen/Zac Efron comedy Neighbors gives us a reason to revisit the topic of improvisation in film comedy and how effectively it’s deployed by various filmmakers and performers. The game this week is “Kisses And Disses,” a rundown of quotes from famous (and infamous) reviews that tests our critics’ knowledge of other critics’ work. And we wrap up as usual with an especially competitive edition of our rapid-fire recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 18: The Neat, Tidy, Acceptable Masterpiece Edition Apr 25, 2014

Show notes

Recently, Chicago Tribune film critic Michael Phillips made some provocative comments about Lars von Trier on the Filmspotting podcast, calling him a perpetual 14-year-old, while still praising him highly. With The Five Obstructions and Breaking The Waves getting new home-video releases, and both volumes of Nymphomaniac still sparking debate, it seemed like a good time to have Michael join us on the podcast to talk over von Trier’s peculiar obsessions and fascinating career. We also preview our Summer Movie Preview with a quick-hit look at some of the summer films we’re most looking forward to. As always, we wrap with our competitive-recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell. Sadly, no game this week, due to technical difficulties during taping, but that just gives us more time for our favorite thing: Talking about films and filmmakers.

Episode 17: The Spontaneous Choreography Edition Apr 11, 2014

Show notes

As baseball season starts, so begins the months-long torment of wading through losing streaks, blowouts, and forgettable matinees for those few transcendent moments that make it all worthwhile. But movies can skip right to the big moments, and on this week's podcast, we’ve gathered The Dissolve's only sports fans to talk about it. Then, we're pleased as heck to welcome The New York Times' Dave Itzkoff to discuss Mad As Hell, his new book about the making of Network. The game this week is "Where Did I Leave My Keyword?", in which contestants are asked which of four IMDB Keywords to various 1990s high-school movies doesn’t belong. And finally, Tasha Robinson and Nathan Rabin battle it out in a particularly close 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 16: The Bad Time To Be A Purist Edition Mar 28, 2014

Show notes

This week, we were repeatedly inspired by Lars von Trier's Nymphomaniac, but not in the ways listeners might hope. First, the film's two-episode serial structure gets us talking about how film and TV are drifting closer together in form, content, and presentation. Then we play a special Nymphomaniac-inspired game of Parental Guidance Suggested, using the user-submitted parental warnings on the IMDB—in this case, for films so violent or sexually graphic that parents should already know to steer clear. We also interview Pictures At A Revolution author Mark Harris about his stellar, ambitious new film book Five Came Back, and close with our speed-round recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 15: The Distinctive Scar Edition Mar 14, 2014

Show notes

It took him over a quarter-century in movies, but with the profane comedy Bad Words, Jason Bateman has completed his evolution from teen wolf to successful actor to director. On this week’s podcast, we talk about what we’ve come to expect from actors-turned-directors, and why they can’t all be like Charles Laughton. The arrival of the Veronica Mars movie completes its unlikely ascension from ratings-challenged cult TV show to feature film, all thanks to a Kickstarter campaign that mobilized fans to the tune of $5.7 million. We wonder what types of movies deserve crowd-funding, and what fans should expect from their investment. With apologies to Saturday Night Live, our game this week is “Dylan McDermott or Dermot Mulroney,” which is a 50/50 question that’s much trickier than it seems. Then we wrap up with a 30 Seconds To Sell segment that panders shamelessly to the host.

Episode 14: The Deep Armageddon Edition Feb 28, 2014

Show notes

The Oscars are this Sunday, and as always, we have our hopes for the broadcast—some of which might come true, and some of which decidedly won’t, since they’d involve write-in candidates and party-crashers. This week, our Oscars columnist and film reviewer Jen Chaney joins us to talk about our wildest Academy Awards 2014 dreams. Then, with Non-Stop and Grand Piano currently in theaters, we uncomfortably box ourselves into talking about the art of the claustrophobia film—the great ones, the unheralded ones, and the infuriating cheaters. We return to our Double Vision game by making contestants distinguish between the two big comet-about-to-smash-Earth blockbusters of 1998, then finally get Genevieve Koski to make her 30 Seconds To Sell debut, against the reigning champ.

Episode 13: The Grand Romantic Gesture Edition Feb 14, 2014

Show notes

But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks? It’s the Valentine’s Day edition of The Dissolve Podcast, and our hearts are swelling. (We’re on antibiotics for that. Should clear right up.) But is love dead at the movies? Two recent pieces on the modern rom-com and disappearance of the “woman’s picture” suggest as much, and we invite Criticwire’s Sam Adams, who addressed both articles in a piece called “Who Killed The Woman’s Picture?” to talk about it. But love certainly isn’t dead on the podcast, as we discuss some of our favorite romantic gestures in movie history—those big and small moments that have made us swoon over the years. The game this week, dubbed “I [Heart] Hollywood,” asks panelists to match the rom-com with its gimmicky premise, which sounds trickier than it is, because the gimmick is always more memorable than the title. And finally, we drive the love theme into the ground with 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 12: The Worrisome Cave Of Lepers Edition Jan 31, 2014

Show notes

As home theaters get more and more impressive, studios are fighting back with visually epic films like Gravity, which take the theatrical format to its current limits. Gravity’s huge box-office success and 10 Oscar nominations suggest the renewed focus on scale might work both financially and aesthetically, but what happens when movies made to get people into theaters leave the theaters, and home viewing is the only option? This week, we discuss movies where the presentation might be as important as the content, from Gravity to Jaws 3D. Then we check in with Nathan Rabin and Noel Murray, live from the Sundance Film Festival, for their picks on the best films soon to hit theaters, and their impression of how Sundance has changed since they started attending. We bring back Parental Guidance Suggested, where players have to identify a film from some of its IMDB Parent’s Guide warnings, then have Keith Phipps and Scott Tobias present their dueling recommendations in 30 Seconds To Sell. Spoiler: It’s a really close call this week.

Episode 11: The Pleasure-Seeking Knuckleheads Edition Jan 17, 2014

Show notes

Due to the holiday break, we haven’t recorded a new podcast in a month, but the movies haven’t exactly stopped provoking conversation in our absence. In fact, there’s so much to talk about that we decided to forego our usual game and 30 Seconds To Sell segments just to get to a larger fraction of the topics we had in mind. We start the new year with an argument between podcast hosts Scott Tobias and Tasha Robinson, who tend to disagree a lot, but rarely as fervently as they do on Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf Of Wall Street. From there, an advertisement promoting Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit as “From The Director Of Thor” has us wondering about directors like Kenneth Branagh, whose career seemed to promise one thing, but delivered something else entirely. And finally, we share what movies, new and old, we watched over the holiday break and offer some good recommendations.

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