It's hard to imagine, but the BFG Podcast celebrates its 150th episode this week. We started out by recording it on a party line on Clubhouse, an app that people thought had potential back in 2021. Then for a while host Neal Pollack interviewed people via Skype. That's why, in its earliest iterations, the show sounds like we recorded it through tin cans at the bottom of a submarine. Gradually, Neal got some decent equipment and learned how to plug in his microphone properly, and we now use Zencastr, an easy-to-apply podcasting platform that only occasionally gives us problems. And what do you know? We are huge in Albania and Poland and Switzerland, and have even made the podcasting charts in countries where English is the primary language. We're so proud of our show, thank you for staying with us. Now, onto this week's podcast fare. Stephen Garrett is here as always, first to talk to Neal about 'The Fall Guy,' which Stephen found fun and charming. He bought into the popcorn-movie vibes entirely. Neal is a grouchy old man and hated the screenplay and didn't actually think Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling had good chemistry. Too much cutesy-pie insider Hollywood baseball, not enough stunt mechanisms. Stephen thought the whole thing worked pretty well. Neither Neal nor Stephen liked 'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.' Where are the cool ape houses and the groovy leather jackets? Whither Dr. Zaius? Why is the story taking so long to develop? Why does May's skin look like she just visited Sephora? What the hell is William H. Macy doing there? So many questions, and this movie is so dumb. Not particularly dumb is 'Sugar,' on Apple+ TV. Chris Farnsworth joins Neal to discuss the Colin Farrell detective series that actually looks like it's a stealth Martian Manhunter series. Neal and Chris are apparently both huge nerds, and they buy into the detective series-ness of it all and definitely are buying into the John Sugar Is An Alien twist. That definitely gives the series a little something extra, makes it iconic, even. At this point, we're determined to get to episode 200. Why not 300? Why not indeed? There will still be books and films and streaming TV in three years. That's our prediction. Enjoy the show!
Host Neal Pollack is full of self-righteous and justified rage this week at the actions of his fellow PEN America members, who absolutely refuse to participate in awards ceremonies or the World Voices Festival until the Zionist menace is eradicated from this Earth. Pollack and BFG contributor Sharyn Vane go off on PEN members in this week's podcast episode, as writers are more concerned with trendy social-justice concerns than freedom of speech, which really should be their primary concern. They sound like college sophomores, not published authors. It's an outrageous trend that needs immediate correction. Pollack also reviews 'Knife,' the new memoir from Salman Rushdie about his near-fatal stabbing at the hands of an ignorant jihadist. While Pollack admires Rushdie's description of the attack and the resulting medical trauma, and has much respect for him as an outspoken defender of free speech, he also thinks Rushdie isn't hard enough on his fellow PEN America members, who are a real menace to the values that Rushdie supposedly stands for and holds so dear. Maybe you're seeing a theme to this week's show. But for dessert, Stephen Garrett joins Neal on the podcast to discuss 'Challengers,' the new tennis melodrama from director Luca Guadagnino. Zendaya, Mike Faist, and Josh O'Connor burn up the screen as a racket-based love triangle. Neal and Stephen both love the script, the performances, and the general adult-drama vibe of the picture. Neal, as always, has trouble with the non-linear narrative structure. Stephen got a little tired of the aggressive musical cues. But you can forgive Challengers its little sins, because overall, the movie is a lot of fun, and allows us to forget for a while that contemporary "writers" hate freedom of speech and sound like a bunch of Maoist propagandists. Enjoy the tennis movie! Enjoy our show!
As part of the legendary first-ever Book and Film Globe Festival, we recorded an episode of our legendary podcast at The Book House in Long Branch, New Jersey, the hottest new bookstore on the Jersey Shore. Host Neal Pollack traveled thousands of miles to talk to some of his favorite contributors about the important cultural products of the day. It was delightful, and we drank much Pelican Punch. Stephen Garrett and Neal reunited on a couch to talk about Alex Garland's 'Civil War.' Neal appreciated the aesthetics of the movie but despised its politics. Stephen didn't mind the politics but didn't really think the story works. Neal says the movie is an absolute projection of liberal neurosis about the possible re-election of Donald Trump. Neal likens it to 'Red Dawn,' which Stephen thinks is vaguely ridiculous, but the comparison is apt. What kind of American are you? Hopefully not the kind of American who thinks 'Civil War' is a documentary. Does this movie imagine what a Civil War would be like in modern America? Sure. But it's still a paranoid fantasy. On the opposite end of the cultural spectrum is the fun and funny Girls 5Eva. we suppose your mileage may vary on this Tina Fey comedy about an aging 90s girl group. Contributor Matthew Ehrlich journeyed from New York City to the Jersey Shore to have a delightful conversation with Neal about the Tina Fey comedy factor, the fabulous Renée Elise Goldsberry, and who sings the Fuck the Police parody, "Ducks Are Mean Geese." Thanks to Stephen and Matthew for making the trip, and thanks for Sea of Reeds Media for operating such amazing bookstores. This will not be our last live recording ever. Thanks for listening at all times, and in all formats!
It's a vibrant BFG podcast this week, as host Neal Pollack just keeps on having opinions about things. Stephen Garrett pops into the scene to discuss 'Monkey Man,' directed, written, and starting Dev Patel. They both find the movie stylish, fun, and exciting, but maybe Dev Patel could have used someone telling him no, and could have used an editor, and could have given some of his characters name. But for everything that's wrong with Monkey Man, there's a lot that's right, and Neal, who went to yoga school, reads a lot into the serious critique of Indian society that Patel offers up. It's not just a John Wick-style knockoff. If only it didn't have so many flashbacks. Rachel Llewellyn appears to talk with Neal about 'Ripley,' the new eight-hour black-and-white adaptation of 'The Talented Mr. Ripley,' now airing on Netflix. Neal finds the new 'Ripley' way too self-consciously literary. A lot of people have been asking Neal if he's been watching Ripley, and he has been watching Ripley. Though he finds the black-and-white cinematography quite gorgeous, and has no issues with Andrew Scott's performance as Ripley, this "Ripleyist Ripley" ever made might be a little too much. It's a TV show for people who still subscribe to the New York Review of Books. Our memories of the 1990s 'The Talented Mr. Ripley' loom large. The new one looks gorgeous, but lacks glamour. 'X-Men '97' also likes glamour, but it's not supposed to be glamorous. It's supposed to bring back a classic 1990s Marvel Saturday morning cartoon. Scott Gold joins Neal to wax geekily about this fantastic reboot of a very influential show. The new X-Men cartoon is so true to the old X-Men cartoon that it feels like a direct continuation. But in a lot of ways, it's better, telling classic comic-book stories in a way that old cartoons just simply couldn't. If you like weird comics lore, this is the show of the year. And this is the podcast of the year! Enjoy.
Neal Pollack is recovering from gout but still delivers a whopper of a podcast this week, with three familiar guests and a great variety of topics. Stephen Garrett comes in to chat about the bizarre 'Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire,' which features his new favorite scene in a movie: King Kong using Baby King Kong as a club to beat up some other super underground apes. What a weird movie this is, perfect for a 10- year-old boy, essentially a Transformers movie starring King Kong and Godzilla (and Mother!) and Dan Stevens as the world's coolest animal dentist. Not as good or as fun is '3 Body Problem' on Netflix, which guest William Schwartz describes as being about how great scientists are but not really actually caring about what science does. That sums up a big problem in our culture, and in the show, which is about a super-team of super-scientists who get together to be attractive and stop a global threat, but does not even begin to approach the philosophical depth of the Chinese novel series on which it's based. We consider this a shallow disappointment over at BFG. We talk about food on the podcast, as we often do. Robert Dean stops by to praise and also make fun of 'Guy Fieri's Tournament of Champions,' which both he and Neal find entertaining, but they also find themselves wondering: What are we doing here? Why are we watching this? No one actually has the skill to cook like this in real life? Why is cooking now a sport, and not a daily activity for nourishment? And what's with all the nicknames? We ask the important questions on the BFG podcast. Thanks for listening.