The Dissolve: Podcasts

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Episode 10: The 500-Page Handwritten Script Edition Dec 13, 2013

Show notes

The tepid reception from critics and audiences toward Spike Lee’s recent remake of Park Chan-Wook’s dark, stylish 2003 film Oldboy is indicative of some of the problems and preconceptions surrounding American remakes of foreign films. We try to set aside our knee-jerk dislike for such films to discuss what they say about our filmgoing culture, and try to come up with a few successful Hollywood re-imaginings (other than The Ring). In the second segment, host Tasha Robinson talks to Jason Bailey, writer of the new book Pulp Fiction: The Complete Story Of Quentin Tarantino’s Masterpiece, about the film’s genesis, shooting, and impact on the current movie landscape. Then Tasha asks Keith Phipps, Noel Murray, and Nathan Rabin to perform some movie algebra with a new game called Icon Vs. Icon, whose simple-enough name belies a complicated—but fun—premise. Then Noel and Scott Tobias wrap it up with some rapid recommendations in 30 Seconds To Sell. PLEASE NOTE: The Dissolve Podcast is going on hiatus over the holiday break. It will return in January with new episodes.

Episode 9 — The Auto-Tracking Edition Nov 22, 2013

Show notes

Despite all of us feeling, at one time or another, that Blockbuster Video was the “Death Star” of video chains, as Nathan Rabin described it, we’re left feeling oddly wistful about the days of clamshell boxes and “Be Kind, Rewind.” But is our nostalgia misplaced? In this week’s podcast, we kick off with a reminiscence of the VHS era and the way it influenced our film education. Then, contributor Sam Adams joins Tasha Robinson and Genevieve Koski for a discussion of the Bechdel test, a metric that’s become an increasingly popular way to determine gender bias in film. In order to pass the Bechdel test, a film must feature at least two women who talk to each other about something other than a man. But for such a simple rule, it’s full of gaps and exceptions, and cases where it’s misapplied. Our panelists have different ideas about when it’s useful and when it isn’t. This week, we also introduce a new and filthy game called “Nude Review,” in which contestants are given descriptions from the user reviews at the Celebrity Nude Database and asked which perfectly oval-shaped buttcheeks belong to what movie. Then Tasha and Nathan Rabin duke it out in our quick-fire recommendation face-off, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 8 — The Desire For Chicken Edition Nov 08, 2013

Show notes

If restaurant menus worked like cinema seasons, any chef serving chicken in the fall or fish in the spring would be given dubious looks, and face nonstop accusations that his food must not be very good, or he’d be serving fish in fall and chicken in spring just like everybody else. But the division of the film year into “studio dumping ground,” “blockbuster season,” and “prestige season” is a fairly recent, entirely artificial, and not particularly nuanced, and can hurt films like Thor: The Dark World, which appear to be on the menu out of season. So in this edition of the podcast, we discuss the film “seasons,” where they came from, and whether they’re making everything taste like fish all summer long. Then we look at a number of recent documentaries that are pushing a little too hard for an artificial narrative framework, and the recent docs that are doing the exact opposite. Then we return to our “How did that character die?” game, Knife/Gun/Other. And finally, a nervous Scott Tobias and a mocking Keith Phipps square off in our competitive recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 7 — The Extreme Horror Edition Oct 25, 2013

Show notes

With Halloween coming next week, we’ve put together the most terrifying, blood-curdling episode of The Dissolve podcast to date—relatively speaking, anyway. We start by talking about the trend-hopping of the horror genre: Why do certain types of horror movies come in waves—from “torture porn” to found-footage to haunted houses—and where do we hope the genre goes from here? With The Shining coming up as our next Movie Of The Week, we interview Rodney Ascher, the director of Room 237, a terrific documentary that compares and contrasts the many far-out theories advanced by the film’s most obsessive fans. What is it about this particular film, more perhaps than any other in Stanley Kubrick’s career, that inspires such a range of interpretations? The game this week is “Reel Estate,” in which panelists are given descriptions of memorable houses and buildings and asked to name the movie in which they appeared. Then Noel Murray and Nathan Rabin are asked for their scariest recommendations for 30 Seconds To Sell. (They’re not that scary, frankly.)

Episode 6 — The Path Of Excess Vs. The Sublime Place Edition Oct 11, 2013

Show notes

The public conflict between the director and actors of Blue Is The Warmest Color has overshadowed discussion of the film, which inspired us to return to a favorite Dissolve topic: how much “extratextual” things like behind-the-scene production stories, directorial intent, or our feelings about a filmmaker should affect how we watch or interpret a film. Then, spinning off the release of Machete Kills, we discuss where neo-grindhouse movies from Black Dynamite to Hobo With A Shotgun are coming from, and what modern audiences get out of all these self-aware retro films. This week’s game is Common Denominator, where players have to identify extremely familiar characters from a list of the actors who played them at various points. Finally, Matt Singer and Scott Tobias throw down in our competitive recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell. (Hint: You owe Matt a life. Yes, you.)

Episode 5 — A Volcano With Attitude Edition Sep 27, 2013

Show notes

Opening on IMAX 3-D screens across the country today, Metallica: Through The Never goes bigger than most concert films, attaching a post-apocalyptic narrative to the expected Metallica performance footage. On this week’s podcast, we use this opportunity to talk about the evolution of the concert film, unconventional approaches to the genre, and some of our oddball favorites. Then Matt Zoller Seitz, esteemed TV critic for New York magazine and editor-in-chief of RogerEbert.com, joins us via Skype to talk about his new book, The Wes Anderson Collection, a gorgeous hardcover full of essays, interviews, photos, and graphics related to Anderson’s seven features. And our game this week is “Double Vision,” wherein the host gives clues from two movies with a lot in common and asks the panelists to guess which one matches the description. And when those two movies are Dante’s Peak and Volcano, the competition is every bit as explosive as you’d expect. (No adorably scruffy dogs or young Joseph Gordon-Levitts were harmed by lava in the recording of this game.) Finally, Tasha Robinson and Noel Murray touch gloves in the recommendation cage match that is 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 4 — If I’m Winning, I’m Still Losing Edition Sep 13, 2013

Show notes

According to Aesop, familiarity breeds contempt, but that doesn’t always hold true. In the case of filmmakers, actors, and other creators with long, well-established careers, familiarity can help us isolate their particular talents and interests. Sometimes, though, Aesop’s right, and seeing too much of someone’s work makes us respect it less. This week, we discuss what the long careers of Danny Elfman, Robert De Niro, and many others have taught us about their work. In a second segment, Scott Tobias and Noel Murray report in from the Toronto International Film Festival via Skype, laying out the best films coming to America soon, and the best films they’ve seen that are still looking for distribution. Our game segment this week is Famous Last Words, in which panelists struggle to identify a film character from the last lines they speak before dying. Finally, Nathan Rabin and Keith Phipps square off in our competitive recommendation segment, 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 3 — The Sprained Tongue Edition Aug 30, 2013

Show notes

What connects the new One Direction 3-D concert movie and the later films of Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang, besides Kevin Bacon? Both are for-fans-only propositions that appeal strongly to a niche audience without seeking to broaden the base. We discuss the freedoms and limitations of making films for some and not for all. Inspired by the humorlessness of Elysium, this week’s second segment examines the leavening effects of comedy in action movies and what happens when they get too jokey. We also play a game called Parental Guidance Suggested, where the host throws out descriptions from the IMDb Parent’s Guide and asks the panelists to name the buttock-laden movie in question. Finally, Matt Singer and Nathan Rabin pitch their rapid-fire recommendations in 30 Seconds To Sell.

Episode 2 — The World Is Bad And I Hates It Edition Aug 16, 2013

Show notes

This week, as blockbuster season careens to a close, we discuss blockbuster culture, whether Steven Spielberg’s alarmism is on point, and whether it could all be turned in a more positive direction. Our second segment focuses on the singing-and-dancing party endings of films from Beetlejuice to This Is The End to Despicable Me 2, and asks what these endings accomplish for a film, and which ones make us groan, as opposed to which ones make us chair-dance in the theater. We try out a gory new game that tests the players’ ability to remember how characters die in films, and we let Nathan Rabin unleash his inner moo-cow. Finally, Scott Tobias and Keith Phipps are given 30 Seconds To Sell us with their film-related recommendations: Keith on an iconic soundtrack, and Scott on the concept of negativity, apparently.

Episode 1 — The Nostalgia Menace Edition Aug 02, 2013

Show notes

Inspired by the throwback teen romance of The Spectacular Now and the Summer of ’93 period comedy The To Do List, we begin the inaugural episode of our biweekly podcast with a discussion on how nostalgia enhances (or maybe distorts) our perceptions of a movie. In the second segment, Tasha Robinson’s two-star review of the majestic Patrick Swayze vehicle Road House has us wondering about the “guilty pleasure,” and whether movies we enjoy can also be called bad movies. We also play a game called “Double Vision,” where participants are given two very similar movies—in this case, Pretty In Pink and Some Kind Of Wonderful—and asked to tell which detail came from which movie. And finally, Tasha and Nathan Rabin have “30 Seconds To Sell” their movie recommendations.

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