The Revenant, Anamolisa, and Sicario, plus The Great British Bake Off, Top Chef, Making a Murderer, Billions, Colony, Shades of Blue, Mississippi Grind, The Gambler, and Angie Tribeca, as well as #OscarsSoWhite.
Elgin and Paul explicate and dissect:
- The Revenant – n. rev·e·nant \ˈre-və-ˌnäⁿ, -nənt\ : one that returns after death or a long absence; or the latest film directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu, shot by Emmanuel Lubezki, and starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Tom Hardy, and Domhnall Gleeson. Do the story, themes, and acting of this movie match its technical heights (including its superb camera work, editing, CGI, and makeup)? Are the depictions of Native Americans in this film representative of any true progress (as characters with agency and humanity on par with whites — are they more than just figures of white redemption)? Is the film more than just torture porn, as some critics have argued?
- Anamolisa – n. anom·a·li·sa \ə-ˈnä-mə-lē-sə\ : a person named Lisa who deviates from what is standard, normal, or expected; or Charlie Kaufman and Duke Johnson’s stop-motion animated film, full of existential dread and sometimes striking tenderness and humor, featuring the voice work of David Thewlis, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Tom Noonan. Again, do the story and themes match the technical prowess of this carefully crafted film, which took years and years to bring to the screen, even after a boost from a Kickstarter campaign? Is it a profound film, or simply dumb? And what do we make of the now (in)famous puppet sex scene? We recount our immediate reactions to the film upon walking out of the theater — and how they contrasted with our thoughts and feelings about it with some distance.
- Sicario – n. si·car·i·o \sī-cār-i-ō\ : hired assassin, or hitman; or a film about the drug war (released in theaters last fall, but out on DVD and on-demand streaming now) directed by Denis Villeneuve and starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro, and Josh Brolin. How is the film’s narrative structured, and how does that structure affect the viewing experience? Is it effective, or just too frustrating? What does it mean or imply (if anything) to focus on a female protagonist in a male-dominated field? (We draw some parallels to Zero Dark Thirty.)
- In the lead-in free-for-all segment, Paul chats about his recent viewings of BBC’s The Great British Bake Off, Bravo’s Top Chef (season 13), and Netflix’s Making a Murderer, while Elgin talks about his watching early episodes of Showtime’s Billions, USA’s Colony, NBC’s Shades of Blue; Mississippi Grind; and The Gambler. They both discuss TBS’s Angie Tribeca, as well as the controversies surrounding the latest Oscar nominations (#OscarsSoWhite).
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