Reality TV, or at least TV that vaguely resembles reality, takes over the podcast this week. First, Neal Pollack welcomes in Rick Ellis, from the Too Much TV sub stack, to discuss Neal's thesis that TV food competitions have reached their "decadent endgame." Rick doesn't quite agree. His thesis is that Jeffrey Zaslav and the other Warner Brothers Discovery executives who run the Food Network have just realized they can make more profit by producing fewer episodes. They both criticize, somewhat lightly, that Top Chef has become little more than a feeder ramp for bad Food Network shows. Rick, much to Neal's surprise, has little bad to say about 'House of Knives,' which Neal considers to be the absolute nadir of the food competition genre. Neither of them are willing to offer any praise to 'Wildcard Kitchen,' which feels phony and derivative. Regardless, this is the deepest dive into the politics and machinations of food competition TV as you're ever likely to hear anywhere. More discussed in the zeitgeist is 'Love Is Blind,' which recently concluded its 8th season with a couple of high-profile jiltings, one at the altar itself, because the betrothed couldn't agree on politics. In both cases, it was liberal women rejecting conservative or at least apolitical men. Neal and guest Rachel Llewellyn parse what this actually portends for society. It used to be the case that people in romantic relationships could disagree on politics, at least as regards some issues. Love Is Blind is really just a symptom of a larger societal illness where people are no longer allowed to disagree. Many of them simply exist in different realities entirely. These are sad times, especially if you're competing in a cooking show against someone who you might want to marry but cannot because you hold different political opinions than they do on important issues of the day. Enjoy the podcast!
Has Steven Soderbergh retired? Because his retirement looks an awful lot like making two movies a year. BFG Chief film critic Stephen Garrett, who knows more about film on Tuesday than you'll know in a lifetime, has interviewed Soderbergh several times and says that "retirement" is really more of a euphemism for DIY filmmaking. With 'Black Bag', an admittedly $50 million studio picture, he brings the DIY mentality to a star-studded spy drama that's loaded with wit and sexiness and everything else that's missing from movies for adults these days. Stephen and Neal Pollack liked it somewhat, even though it's really a condensed version of a clever streaming show about spies. Stephen feels like the stars, Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, have zero sexual chemistry, but Neal feels the heat from Rege Jean Page and especially Marisa Abela, who plays a horny young surveillance analyst. It's a clever, fun, tight thriller. And modest. Enjoy. South By Southwest (SXSW) is in the past now, and despite what you might hear, it's not dead. But the Austin-based cultural festival has trimmed back the bloat somewhat, condensing the struggling tech and music festivals and placing the booming film and TV festival more front and center. That's certainly not a problem for veteran SXSW heads Neal Pollack and Pablo Gallaga, who between them saw more than a dozen movies and waited in more than a dozen lines. Tune in for Neal and Pablo's comprehensive breakdown of where SXSW is going, and where it's been, and also a very detailed breakdown of the new Tim Robinson movie 'Friendship.' They liked it, maybe they wanted to like it more. If you meet Neal anywhere in public after May, when the movie comes out, you will have to have a similar conversation. That's why you need to follow BFG. You'll be able to talk about anything in the culture. Enjoy the podcast!
We lead off this week's podcast with a detailed discussion of what works and what doesn't work in Bong Joon-ho's sci-fi satire 'Mickey 17.' On the one hand, it's a Bong Joon-ho movie, his first feature since winning the Oscar for 'Parasite.' This film, says Stephen Garrett, is well on the spectrum with his other over-the-top sci-fi satires, 'Snowpiercer' and 'Okja.' It's a big swing. Neal Pollack really disliked Mark Ruffalo's villain performance, and really didn't care for the excessive voiceover by Robert Pattison, though he agrees with Stephen that Pattinson carries the movie as Mickey, a poor schmuck in the future who allows himself to become a corporate clone slave. This movie is the definition of a "March release," somewhere between Oscar bait and summer blockbuster. They don't always hit. Daredevil is on Disney+ now, but this is no Disney-friendly show. 'Daredevil: Born Again' is the most violent and brutal content the Marvel Cinematic Universe has yet produced, which is actually completely necessary. Daredevil is a violent character, trying to protect a violent city. Scott Gold joins Neal to break down all that's good about 'Born Again,' which is a lot, but in particular they single out Charlie Cox, as Matt Murdock/Daredevil, and Vincent D'Onofrio, once again owning his role as Wilson Fisk, the Kingpin. If you're Marveled out, you're Marveled out, but this is still peak Daredevil. Enjoy the podcast!
This is how good the Book and Film Globe podcast is: five days before Sean Baker stood in front of the world and used his glorious Oscar moment to urge people to see movies in the theaters, host Neal Pollack and guest Jacob Harper discussed Sean Baker's campaign to get people to see movies in theaters. It was also a great relief to hear Neal say that Anora was the "favorite" to win Best Picture, because obviously it did. But the quest to return people to the theaters–and to have them behave themselves once they get there–continues. We will continue to support a push for a 90-day theatrical window. It will help us arrange our schedules. In addition to his great conversation with Harper, Pollack welcomes in Stephen Garrett, as he does almost every week. Pollack and Garrett discuss the amazing career, and very strange death, of the actor Gene Hackman. Hackman was one of the greatest of the Greatest Generation, a paragon of gruff, realistic acting in an era where film actors feel more plastic than ever. The celebration of his life, and the mourning of his death, gives us some hope. Our hope is a bit more muted for James Bond, now the intellectual property of Amazon. But contributor Jamie Mason isn't quite as worked up as the rest of the world. Bond has become a bit too self-serious over the years, and maybe this changing of the guard will give us all a chance to rediscover what is fun and kitschy about Bond. We can get some period pieces. The spinoff shows won't necessarily be a disaster. James Bond is not George Smiley, and Sir Ian Fleming was not John LeCarré. Make James Bond fun again, that's what we say. Enjoy the podcast!
This week on the BFG podcast, Stephen Garrett is stateside to offer his totally objective opinion on this year's Oscar nominees. He and Neal Pollack get into it right away because Stephen insists that 'Emilia Perez' is an actual Oscar contender. Neal insists that there has never been a more canceled movie in Oscar movie. Everyone hates Emilia Perez. Neal is convinced that Timothée Chalamet is going to win best actor, though Stephen asks him to throw on the brakes. They both think that Demi Moore is going to win Best Actress, the closest we get to a sure thing this year. The Oscars are actually kind of a tossup, Neal and Stephen know more than the average person but also no more than anyone else. Get in your bathrobe, pour some wine, and watch along with us. A couple of Max (HBO?) shows are on the table this week. Matthew Ehrlich is here to dish with Neal about the incredible Season 3 from 'The White Lotus'. Who is going to die? What's up with Patrick Schwarzenegger's abs and Parker Posey's accent? What is Lisa from BlackPink doing here? Where did Greg get all his money? Why do we talk about this show like these are real people? The White Lotus is so back! As far as real people go on TV, they don't get any realer than the people on 'The Pitt,' Max's hit medical drama that is so much like ER, it stars Noah Wyle and was basically created by the same team, minus Michael Crichton. Paula Shaffer, sounding fabulous, joins Neal on the podcast to discuss this new frontier of "competence porn." It is gripping and emotional. They have their favorite doctors. Paula likes Noah Wyle, who doesn't, but is also partial to intern Trinity. Neal is considering spraining his ankle or something just to have a few minutes getting to know Dr. McKay. This show is so realistic, it almost makes you want to go to the emergency room. In Pittsburgh. Almost. Enjoy the podcast!