TheirsVille
Lots of podcasts cover the blockbusters, or the newest, or the worst, or the artsiest, or even the indyest.
But few dig into the best.
The best movies that is.
'Unspooled' is one podcast that does try to do just that, using the AFI's top 100 as a jumping off point and then riffing all over the place.
It's hosted by the near ubiquitous, just-below-the-scattering-waves comic Paul Scheer, who I know from 'The League' and the later seasons of 'Veep', as well as Amy Nicholson, an actual film critic with a POV so subversive (read: sane) that the culture warrior-worry-wart-wearers at 'The Federalist' take great offense:
...While many of her hot takes are terrible, it’s her personal politics that really make her unbearable. Nicholson fills in her lack of interesting things to say about movies with incredibly self-righteous posturing as a “feminist hero to the film industry.”
From her soapbox, she often cites the lack of ethnic and sexual diversity in movies on the AFI’s list, with little acknowledgement of the era in which they were created. She has made several allusions to her strong distaste for President Trump, and once referred to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as “the ultimate ringwraith” while reviewing “The Lord of The Rings.” The more she finds confidence in her role as a left-wing crusader, the less she talks about films...
If only for that Ms. Nichoson would be worth listening to, but she's also really good, especially when she acts as the fearless foil to Mr. Scheer's often more old-fashioned, if good-natured, take on things.
Their latest dissection is 1969's 'Easy Rider', which is #.... on the AFI list:
You can take a listen here.
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In addition, if your livestream dance card for this evening is not yet quite full you can join in this evening starting at 5:30 pm Lotusland/Pacific time on the 'Earwolf' Youtube channel to hear Nicholson, Scheer and various friends as well as influential aunts and uncles discuss 'Clueless'...
Personally, I'm a little conflicted about what is now the 'Earwolf' auditory sprawl....To be clear, all of their recent stuff is still free and it is not nearly as bad as that stitched-together, ten million megaton cochlear implant that also controls the entire music industry but, still, what was once a scrappy little start-up built on a content-aggregation-by-partnership model soon rolled itself into a mirrored advertiser aggregator before selling the entire chimera to EW Scripps and Co....It's important to realize that, like linear blogging before it, the salad days of a multi-dimensional, free-form RSS-caught podcasting universe were over before we even realized it.
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