Our next podcast topic comes to us courtesy of Patreon subscriber Martha, who wants us to help shed some light on one of the film industry's most notorious shortcomings: the challenges facing women who want to direct movies at every level, from thorny little indies to massive blockbusters (such as Wonder Woman 1984, helmed by Patty Jenkins, which was supposed to open next week till it got pandemicked away). As former Ottawa mayor Charlotte Witton once said, "Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult", and we'll proving that with our picks for the best women directors of all time, talented artists who had to make some of the best films ever just to get overlooked and forgotten about only some of the time.
In Worth Mentioning, we cover Antebellum, Cuties, Spontaneous and The Conversation, thanks to Patreon Travis Neely.
Here's what happened. Rob was like "Ohmigosh... we're going to talk to Brian Duffield next week about his new movie Spontaneous!" **Crickets** "Jane Got a Gun?" **Crickets** "The Babysitter?" **Crickets** "Underwater...Kristen Stewart? Oh c'mon, you're on a movie podcast!"
So as you can imagine, I was super psyched to check out this dude's movie, who apparently everybody knows, by the way. Per usual, I didn't watch the trailer or read a single thing about the film before starting, which I'm convinced really does make for the best viewing experience. I can't tell how weirdly excited I got when Katherine Langford (13 Reasons Why/ Love Simon) came on screen. I love her. Like, love love, her. I'm certain we would be the kind of best friends that snuggle and drink cocoa together on a chilly Fall day.
Katherine Langford in Spontaneous
I digress.
Spontaneous is an absolutely bonkers movie. It's not a spoiler to say that the premise of the movie is that high schoolers are randomly and asymptomatically, spontaneously combusting. It might surprise you to know that this fact ends up being very little of what the movie is about. Instead, Spontaneous explores love and friendship and how you treat every moment differently when you realize that every moment that follows might be your last.
Post-spontaneous combustion of a classmate.
You never feel overtaken by extreme emotions. Duffield balances tragedy with humor and grief with the possibility of tomorrow. We discuss the importance of not overwhelming the audience, with what is a very grim story. At the same time, Duffield aims to infuse just enough shock, that you leave feeling compelled to live your life a little differently.
We hope you enjoy listening to Brian Duffield as much as we did. Spontaneous is available October 2nd on October 6th on VOD.
Our next podcast topic comes to us courtesy of Patreon subscriber Travis, who has given us a prompt as direct as it is merciless: name our picks for the worst films of the 1990s. It was in some ways a magnificent decade for terrible films, perhaps the last time when truly godawful boondoggles could still sneak their way through the studio system, while the rise of the American indie film scene encouraged people who'd never picked up a camera before to find their cinematic voice, with results that could be great, and could be... not. From the biggest to the littlest productions, we'll savage them all, as we turn our attention to the 5 worst films of the '90s.
In Worth Mentioning, we cover Mulan, Host and Tread.
It was a very special week in the lives of your humble podcast hosts - Carrie and Rob are celebrating their tenth wedding anniversary! So that you can join in the festivities, we've decided to make this episode all about the best, most stable, most loving, and all-around enviable marriages in cinema. We're looking at our Top 5 married couples in the movies, and while there maybe aren't as many candidates as there were when we when we looked at our favorite movies about divorce (whoever would have thought?), we're pretty sure this episode is going to be a lot more uplifting and optimistic.
In Worth Mentioning, we cover Tenet, Bill & Ted Face the Music, Scenes From a Marriage (thanks to Patreon Brian Fowler) and 12 Angry Men (thanks to Patreon Julian DeBerry)