320: Our Epic, Spoiler-Filled Discussion about NO TIME TO DIE and All Things 007 (w/Special Guest Jamie Lawrence!)
It’s Bond time again. We’re podcasting about it. Need we say more?
—-THERE WILL BE SPOILERS!—-
317: Present Tense - MANK, Netflix and the State of the Cinematic Union in the Late Hours of 2020
Greetings, WLM faithful!
We return to you now, after an extended, fall hiatus, with a State-of-the-Cinematic-Union-style discussion pod, followed by a thorough review of David Fincher’s decades-in-the-making, pseudo-historical biopic Mank.
We’re excited to be back, have a backlog of hot takes, and promise to never stay away so long again.
If you’re playing the WLM drinking game, today’s buzzword is EVOCATIVE!
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Spotify / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
304: Oscar and Matt's 2020 Oscar Predictions (and Matt Predictions)
We’re back from the winter hiatus just in time to submit our official Oscar predictions and lock in the choices that will determine the winner of our yearly WLM wager.
Join us as we break down all 24 categories, get foolishly optimistic about PARASITE’s chance to make history on Oscar night, and even outline a few additions and subtractions we’d love to see implemented with respect to the future slate of categories.
We’re mere hours away from Hollywood’s biggest night! Whether the big prize goes to 1917 or PARASITE, it’s just important to remember that MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL has more Oscar nominations than UNCUT GEMS. Stew on that, get comfortable with the fact that you’re going to die someday, and just give in to the annual, bizarre, intoxicating power of Oscar weekend… Just let it happen.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify / Overcast / RSS
300: The Top 10 Films of the 2010s Lists (Featuring 10 Special Guest Contributors!)
What a long, strange trip it’s been.
It took us nearly a decade to get there but we’re extremely excited to announce that we’ve officially made it to 300 episodes on the We Like Movies Podcast feed!
In honor of the occasion we’ve invited back the ten beautiful individuals who have guested on the podcast over the years to share their thoughts on the greatest films of the last decade. Since we started this journey in October of 2010 (reviewing The Social Network, no less) and hit 300 episodes just shy of 2020, we decided it made sense to spend this week creating the definitive “WLM Best of the 2010s List”.
So, between our two lists and our ten guests’ lists there are 120 individual film picks in play. We’ve assigned a point system that works in contrary order to the ranking number. In other words, ranking ten on a list gets a film one point, ranking nine is worth two points, and so on. But a film has to have been mentioned on at least two lists in order to qualify for points. Using this highly sophisticated balloting system we will seek to create a MASTER LIST.
But first, join us as we scrutinize the individual lists, wax affectionate about our wonderfully-opinionated contributors, and take a walk down memory lane to reminisce about how this whole podcasting journey got started.
We are We Like Movies and we’re SO elated and grateful to still be liking movies (and each other) after 300 glorious episodes!
Thanks to YOU, WLM family. Here’s to 300 more.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify / Overcast / RSS
297: Present Tense- JOKER Provokes, Phillips and Phoenix Progress, and Scorsese Draws a Line in the Sand
We keep our recent streak of passionate but level-headed disagreement rolling with a spirited discussion about Todd Phillips’s JOKER- a film that is either a dangerous and controversial call to violent action or merely a dark and disposable comic book novelty.
Or maybe it’s both.
Or maybe it’s neither!
Give it some thought, give us a listen, and don’t forget to sound off in the comments section.
Viva la discourse!
(And don’t forget, WLM is a podcast for people who have seen the films. We spoil early. We spoil often. Fair warns.)
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
295: Present Tense- Admiring AD ASTRA and Commencing the Awards Conversation
———Editor’s Note: Apologies for the tardiness of this episode. It was supposed to be out earlier this week but technical issues led to the late posting. But it sounds great now and we’re really proud of the conversation. Thanks for listening!———
We’re talkin’ Ad Astra, we’re talkin’ box office, we’re talkin’ festival reactions, and we’re talkin’ awards predictions.
We talk, you listen, you comment, we read… It’s the podcasting circle of life!
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
Grain of Salt - The Death of “The Filmmaker Farm System”: Examining the Implications of the Fringe-to-Franchise Pipeline
(Originally published 12/1/17)
Every aspiring filmmaker has a fantasy of how they would like their career to progress. Even those who wouldn’t admit it to their colleagues or family members have still spent hours daydreaming about directing an elaborate crane movement across a sea of costumed extras, delivering an inspired creative note that unlocks the potential for a brilliant performance, accepting a prize at Sundance or Cannes or on the glittering Oscar stage, fame, wealth, legacy, immortality... Wannabe filmmakers (even those with fiercely independent aspirations) who claim to have never visualized their own successes are, at best, lying to themselves. And while his name has become synonymous with a certain kind of mainstream, studio fare it would be hard to argue that Christopher Nolan’s career path has been anything but the Platonic Ideal of a creative and commercial Hollywood success story.
Nolan rose to prominence at the turn of the 21st century- “breaking through” with the kind of low budget fare that exemplified the spirit of the grassroots independent film movement of the 1990s. His perfectly-executed hopscotch from obscurity to golden boy anointment might be the most elegant example of the transition ever performed. He cut his teeth on the black and white, Super 16, DIY, shoestring, genre lark, Following when he was in his mid 20s. Following led to Slamdance, Slamdance led to industry attention, industry attention led to financing, financing led to Memento, Memento led to Sundance, Sundance led to studios, studios led to Insomnia, Insomnia led to movie stars and budgets, movie stars and budgets led to Batman Begins and so on... In less than seven years Nolan went from spending his weekends single-taking 16mm short ends to rebooting a superhero franchise with Oscar winners in the ancillary roles. And while the legend of Nolan’s rise to prominence is inspiring in its trajectory, it wasn’t necessarily uncommon at the time. Few careers have been as consistent or distinct as Nolan’s but there are scores of filmmakers from Linklater to Bigelow who dutifully climbed the ladder from indie ghetto to mainstream success to awards recognition to the holy grail of artistic autonomy.
288: Present Tense - Reckoning with ONCE UPON A TIME ... IN HOLLYWOOD and Tarantino's Complex Legacy
Roughly three or four times a decade we declare a national cinematic holiday in honor of the man who’s been reinventing the rules of mainstream cinema for the last quarter century. Regardless of how you feel about Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood, it’s hard to argue with the fact that Quentin Tarantino’s “9th” (mmm, “10th”?) feature film as writer/director is one of the most hotly-anticipated and hotly-debated films of the year—nay, the 2010s!
Join us as we do a deep-dive into the career of the provocateur, demarcate the three[ish] phases of his career, and take a long, spoilerrific look at his newest period epic.
Whether you’re floating in your Hollywood Hills pool, drinking a whiskey sour from a beer stein, or hanging out in your trailer, eating macaroni and cheese in the lowlands of Panorama City, this episode has a little something for everybody…
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
DO THE RIGHT THING turns 30!
In honor of the 30th anniversary of Spike Lee’s seminal masterwork—in which race-relations and temperatures rise to a breaking point on a summer day in Brooklyn—we’re re-releasing our corresponding AFI Top 100 podcast episode. The film ranks [criminally low at] 96th on the 2007 version of AFI’s list and we recorded our conversation about it just over 3 years ago.
Join us as we break-down and talk-up one of the most important films of the 1980s- a movie that writer/director/star Spike Lee is still so proud of that he name-dropped it as the climax of his Oscar speech earlier this year.
It’s 30 years young and hasn’t aged a day. And that’s the double-truth, Ruth.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
284: Present Tense - Questioning Existence with TOY STORY 4 and Hand-Wringing About the Summer Box Office
On our triumphant return to the present tense we sound off about the wild, weird, and existentially-conflicted fourth installment in one of the most beloved and critically acclaimed film franchises of all time.
We then turn our attention to another subject that weighs heavily on our minds and is also experiencing a bit of an existential crisis of late- the summertime box office.
The mercury’s rising and the box office numbers are dropping. What does is all mean..!?
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
280: We Like TV - GAME OF THRONES Wrap-Up
It’s been a long time since we’ve dipped our cinematically-inclined toes into the television pool. But what better reason to do so than the conclusion of the most cinematic show ever to grace the small screen?
Join us for a break-down, wrap-up, and maybe even a defense of the wildly divisive final season of HBO’s beloved and reviled 73 episode experiment in long form storytelling.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
Grain of Salt - The Midnight Ride of the Monoculture: Excavating the Confluence of Avengers: EndGame of Thrones Weekend
Dear Mr. Fantasy play us a tune
Something to make us all happy
Do anything, take us out of this gloom
Sing a song, play guitar, make it snappy
You are the one who can make us all laugh
But doing that you break out in tears
Please don't be sad if it was a straight mind you had
We wouldn't have known you all these years
Something remarkable happened last weekend. Something that is unprecedented in the history of popular culture. Something that may never happen again. Something that quite likely signposts the end of an epoch or more likely signals the beginning of another. The confluence of events occurring between Wednesday, April 24th, 2019 when Avengers: Endgame opened in most countries around the world (interestingly enough, the United States was one of the last countries to open the film–two days later–perhaps inadvertently acting as reminder that it’s no longer the dominant global box office force) and Sunday, April 28th, 2019 when HBO aired the Game of Thrones episode “The Long Night” (in which the much-heralded Battle of Winterfell finally played out over the course of an epic 82-minute “telefeature”), may someday be remembered by historians as the last time that a true “monocultural” media event took place. And one in which the two dominant forms of mass entertainment–cinema and television–reached the maximum number of viewers and achieved the apex of their own cultural relevance in the same watershed weekend. Movies and TV may never again be this individually impactful–co-existing simultaneously and autonomously–as they were over the five day stretch in question.
278: Present Tense - Podcasters Assemble for an Epic AVENGERS: ENDGAME Roundtable
Marvel superfans and friends of the podcast, Anders Dahl and Ryan Julio join us this week as we lightning-round the 21 previous installments in the MCU’s Infinity Saga before digging deep into the franchise’s victory lap- the three hour emotional rollercoaster known as AVENGERS: ENGAME. A lot of personal growth, unexpected revelations, and soul-searching goes on in this episode so be forewarned- there will be SPOILERS not just about the film in question but also about your hosts. We could do this all day…
Skål Beer Hall (Anders’ Norwegian gastropub)
The Greyhound Bar and Grill (Ryan’s sports bar)
ETA (Ryan’s cocktail bar)
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
274: Present Tense - Nominating Our Favorite Baseball Movies, Overthinking US, and Legitimizing THE BEACH BUM
We’re catching it up and breaking it down this week with a veritable smorgasbord of scintillating topics:
-Celebrating the beginning of the season with our favorite baseball movies (00:03:00)
-A SPOILER HEAVY litigation of the various interpretations of Jordan Peele’s US (00:14:20)
-A preemptive defense of Harmony Korine’s latest ode to hedonism, THE BEACH BUM (00:26:56)
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
272: Present Tense - TRIPLE FRONTIER and the Utter Inevitability of Netflix Ubiquity
Here at We Like Movies we’ve been extremely vocal about our love for filmmaker J.C. Chandor and have always self-identified as loud and proud “Chandorks.” But our dedication to the man’s body of work experienced some strain this past week on the occasion of his newest film premiering on Netflix.
Let’s just say that we have complicated feelings about Triple Frontier that we attempt to work out in a SPOILER heavy breakdown of the film, which develops—as these conversations often do—into a lot of hand-wringing and kvetching about the big red streaming giant that you’re probably watching out of the corner of your eye as you read this.
Zip up your windbreaker, bump the Metallica, and set fire to a stack of Benjamins. We’re heading to South America with J.C. Chandor and Ben Affleck and there may be some casualties along the way…
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
Grain of Salt: Ranking the 2018 Oscar Nominees
Watched ‘em all. Judged ‘em all. Ranked ‘em all. So there.
Read More270: Our Annual Oscar Postmortem (2019 Edition)
The Oscars came out of the gates with a bang and ended with a whimper. The night’s big winner was vexing but there were some legitimate highlights that we’ll likely be talking about for years to come.
Oscars. We watched ‘em. We’re talkin’ about ‘em. So there.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
268: Retrospectating 1999 - VARSITY BLUES / SHE'S ALL THAT
In honor of the 20th anniversary of one of the all time great movie years, we’re debuting a new feature in which we deep-dive into the most important films of the last year of the 20th century: “Retrospectating 1999!”
Join us for our inaugural episode in which we excavate the “year of the teenager” phenomenon when films like Varsity Blues and She’s All That inadvertently emerged as flagship texts for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it paradigmatic shift.
For a moment in 1999, everyone wanted to be 16. Luckily, your devoted podcast hosts actually were that age at the time. Finally it pays off!
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS
Grain of Salt: Our OFFICIAL Oscar Predictions!
With 12 hours to go before the nominations are announced, we figured we better put our official predictions in print! After all, there’s legitimate folding money on the line here. We decided to focus on the 10 categories that we deemed “most important.” No offense meant to the craft and shorts categories. We’ll get deeper into them over the next month as the ceremony approaches. See you bright and early tomorrow morning!
Read More264: Oscar Predictions by Oscar (and Matt)
On a rare episode in which we actually recorded under the same roof (on the same microphone, no less!), we get down to business with Academy Awards talk. We pontificate and prognosticate as we reveal our individual predictions in all of the “major” categories and take the time to curate our “fantasy” scenarios of who we’d personally love to see nominated.
Email: wlmpodcast@gmail.com
Donate: Thanks!
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts / Stitcher / Overcast / RSS