We had a full cast for this week’s episode of Now Conspiring, and for good reason. After weeks of dancing around it, we finally review Revenant once and for all, with some of us loving it and others…not so much.
We also discuss a ton of new movie news you can jump to in the show notes below, and our main segment covers the possible permanence of Disney’s new flagship franchises.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Will Star Wars and Marvel last forever?
This week on Now Conspiring, we discuss the Academy Award nominations and provide our picks for each category. Throughout, we review several movies like Dirty Grandpa, Anomalisa, Carol, and The End of the Tour.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Who do you think should win this year’s award for Best Picture? (Feel free to add any other picks for the other categories if the mood strikes).
This week on Now Conspiring, we have a full cast (plus a special surprise guest) on deck to have a full discussion about The Hateful Eight, without getting into any spoilers.
By popular demand, we’ve added Show Notes below so you can keep track of our segments and jump around to your heart’s desire.
In our main segment, we discuss our favorite Tarantino movies, and then ask you all…
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What is your favorite Quentin Tarantino movie?
This week on the podcast, we discuss our most anticipated movies of 2016. From Pixar and comic books to wizards and french cartoons, we discuss which films are on track to become new favorites.
We also briefly discuss our favorite movies of 2015 to kickoff the show (and there are some surprises, for sure). Feel free to add your favorite 2015 movie to the comments below.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: Which 2016 movies are you looking forward to the most?
We missed two weeks of the podcast thanks to holiday travels, so this week, we’re giving you a bonus episode before Sunday’s normal dose of Now Conspiring.
And it’s a different episode than normal. We brought in the “Pop Song Professor” Clifford Stumme, who is one of the leading writers on song meanings. He gives us his picks for the best songs of the year and why they’re so relevant.
Of course, we want to hear your favorite songs of 2015 down below in the comments. Let us know what’s tickled your ears and why.
You can see my personal list below, which varies quite a bit from Cliff’s picks.
What is the true story that inspired the myth? This is the question In the Heart of the Sea tries its hardest to answer, at the expense of something perhaps deeper that could have been explored within the true men who sailed the ill-fated Essex.
Strangely, the film expects you to have some previous knowledge about this tale of survival, as it eliminates its own suspense by starting with the premise that at least one person made it out of this story alive. There’s a better story in here about whether or not the cabin boy is the one telling the truth by the end of it all, but the movie trades this intrigue for something as emotive and tragic as Titanic.
The problem is that actually being familiar with the Essex story makes In the Heart of the Sea difficult to swallow, considering how far off this retelling of the book of the same name is from what truly happened during this 19th Century disaster.
To make up for this, the movie presents much of its biggest moments as art, with matte painting backgrounds and an attention to sprawling ocean vistas that spell doom for the sailors. But hardly anything pictured onscreen is believable, especially compared to most modern CGI in 2015. You’ll quickly lose interest in which backgrounds are somewhat inspired and which are purely green screen.
Some of the best scenes involve the actual whaling, a practice that is hard to watch, which makes it that much more entertaining. I shuddered (but couldn’t stop watching) when the cabin boy had to slide down the stomach of a rotting whale in order to gather the valuable blubber that felt worthless, which serves as some excellent foreshadowing.
In the Heart of the Sea is certainly passable when demonstrating the mighty themes of man versus nature. Much of this is compelling and will cause pause for anyone reflecting on the fact that these events weren’t all that long ago, and the lengths men went to for the sake of short term wealth certainly didn’t pay off the way they expected. When honor trumps the grotesque bond formed in cannibalism, that’s how you know you’ve watched a movie that is missing a few crucial scenes that tell a more interesting story.
Grade: C
Extra Credits:
My bias might come through here, but I’ve found the work of Ron Howard pretty unambitious, discounting any of his work from the early 90s. He’s certainly good at what he does, but I can’t shake the feeling that he was destined to be better.
Between this and the underwhelming Blackhat, 2015 hasn’t been a banner year for Chris Hemsworth, even if you loved Age of Ultron as much as I did.
I hate when other people do this, but…read the book. It’s better.
I forgot to mention that the cabin boy is played by Tom Holland, AKA our future Spider-Man. Along with Cillian Murphy, this movie is a superhero fan fiction waiting to happen.
This week on the podcast, Kayla and I talk about In the Heart of the Sea at length. Spoilerish alert: she’s not a big fan either.
Since the release of Star Wars: The Force Awakens is less than a week away, we discussed and ranked all six movies. Plus, we made pizza bets over whether or not The Force Awakens will become the highest-grossing movie of all time.
Later on, we read your comments from last week’s show and get lost in a wilderness of tangents.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: (Two this week!) Do you think The Force Awakens will topple Avatar as the biggest movie of all time? Also, what are some classic movies you’ve never seen before? Now’s the time to get this off your chest.
The most interesting thing about Krampus is probably how refreshing it is to see a horror Christmas movie that sidesteps the usual suspects (such as a directly murderous Santa Claus). But while Krampus isn’t actually very scary or even funny, it captures something just as welcome as horror comedies go: it’s fun mayhem.
In European folklore, Krampus is the evil shadow of Santa Claus. Rather than fulfill the happy wishes of children, he comes to satisfy their darkest desires with his band of merry murderers. A child who has become disenfranchised with how Christmas shapes his dysfunctional family tragically discards his Christmas list, which earnestly asks Santa to make everyone in his life happier. As a result, Krampus (and a magically frenetic blizzard) is called upon instead.
That said, little of Krampus is seen until the end of the movie, as we spend more time focusing on his “little helpers.” Thankfully, they almost steal the show with their remarkable practical effects and a willingness for the movie to inflict violence on just about anything in its way, creating a tension that mashes well with the chaos captured in an early scene that satires the greed of holiday shopping.
It can be easy to discount Krampus as a whole for a few rotten eggs, namely some of the performances and its odd “PG-13” rating. But it finds its groove with an inspiring throwback animation that cleverly tells the story of Krampus within a new context, coupled with a dreadful (in a good way) performance from the grandmother, played by Krista Stadler.
While Krampus may not ignite the sort of pre-Christian folklore that deserves more cinematic attention, it may prove that holiday horror is a genre worth larger budgets that keep it off the discount bin.
Grade: B+
Extra Credits:
Michael Dougherty directed and co-wrote Krampus, and the comparisons between this and Trick r’ Treat are obvious. The superior film is pretty obvious.
This is a much better cast than I think the movie deserved. Adam Scott and David Koechner play quite well together, and the relationship between Scott and Toni Collete’s character is actually quite touching.
It’s subtle, but the sibling relationship between “Max” and “Beth” was written so well, I was quite sad they didn’t spend much time together outside of the first act.
No spoilers, but I adore the ending. I wish more movies would be brave enough to let their final act match the rest of the film.
This week on the podcast, we review Krampus in more detail, get our feet wet with some movie news, read your comments from last week’s show, and get down to business on our favorite animated movies.
I’m joined by YouTube sensation, Maria “Cineclub” Garcia; Film writer, Adonis Gonzalez; and digital illustrator, Kayla Savage.
QUESTION OF THE WEEK: What is your favorite animated movie that wasn’t made by Disney, Pixar, or DreamWorks?
