| Title | Qt3 Movie Podcast: 10 Cloverfield Lane |
| Author | Tom Chick |
| Posted in | Movie podcasts |
| When | March 21, 2016 |
This week we see the sequel to that beloved found footage giant monster movie. But this time, the monster... well, we don't want to spoil anything. At the 1:20 mark, we talk a bit about Jeff Nichols' latest movie, Midnight Special. Then we discuss cancer in movies..
Read the full articleThere's a discussion on the podcast about someone doing something horrible before the cataclysm and then how things change after the cataclysm has hit.
I immediately thought of The Rover.
10 Cloverfield Lane is one of the best films of the year. Outstanding.
That is excellent, Chris.
I doubt it would move you guys all that much, but reading this piece below (obligatory spoiler warning) made me like the movie a lot more, especially with respect to its portrayal of a serial abuser (and a serial abusee?). For example, I didn't even pick up on the implication that Michelle was running away from an abusive relationship at the beginning.
Thank you for that link, Jeremy. I think the writer makes a lot of good points, but ultimately her argument breaks down in the pretzel twist between Michelle "finding the courage to leave her abuser" and "Michelle isn't a cowering victim." Which is it? She never finds her courage to leave. She has it from the get. She never once hesitates in trying to escape. From the moment we see her, that is what she is doing. Escaping Ben. And as soon as she wakes up in Howard World, escaping him. From the moment she wakes up in a stupor. Even when Howard bullies her, she never quails. Never shows any real fear. That silly key-stealing scene at the table, where she "tricks" Howard by flirting with Emmett, is an example of how silly this argument is.
I like the idea, but I think the author is reaching when she links the final alien showdown to abusive relationships. And whatever Michelle's monologing about a daddy pulling a girl's arm is supposed to convey, there is no evidence that she is actually that character. The character we see in this movie would've punched that jerkwad in the mouth. That monologue is just the writers reaching for a moment, like John McClane talking to Al about his wife as he takes glass shards out of his bleeding foot. At least those words came from that character. I don't believe her story. I don't even believe she has a brother. Because I really resent that child abuse story. I think it's cheap.
I mean, I'm not going to argue for her to be a helpless waif who finally finds the courage to escape. I'm tired of that too (as marquac wrote in for the podcast). But they can't write it both ways and expect me to buy it. Either she's MacGyver/McQueen or she's not.
All of a sudden I'm wishing we'd talked about La Femme Nikita.
Hey Tom, I haven't seen that movie you were talking about the folks planning to jump off a building and happened to show up at the same time, but - do you know if that was based on a Nick Hornby book by any chance? Because I did read a book that's sounds too similar to be chance, called A Long Way Down.
I wish I had remembered this last week - I would have submitted Gran Torino for the 3x3. The story centers on the relationship between Clint Eastwood and a troubled teen, but cancer plays a major role in the outcome. I loved this movie, I'm kicking myself for not having been able to send this one in.
Also, I don't always go for potty humor, but this was the best line of the podcast:
".....Batman vs Superman: Dawn of the Justice League of America - "
"Blllllbbbbbbbbttttttttt........."
Love the show, guys.
Also - Darn you, Tom, for getting that Tiffany song stuck in my head... ugh...
Great catch, Pogue! It is indeed an adaptation of A Long Way Down! Is the book good? I thought the movie was pretty sappy and terrible.
By the way, I was wrong on the podcast; there are FOUR people who go to the top of the building at the same time to commit suicide, not three. They are Pierce Brosnon, Toni Colette, Imogen Poots, and, uh, Aaron Paul. Aaron Paul? I can't believe I tried to remember who he was by saying, "he's a young actor along the lines of Ryan Gosling or something". Egad, comparing Aaron Paul to Ryan Gosling is like comparing Chris O'Donnell to Chris Pratt.
Well, lucky for you I used the original and not whatever cover band they used for the movie.
Maybe this is a joke because I haven't seen this movie, but "I Think We're Alone Now" was originally recorded Tommy James and the Shondells in the '60s. Not Tiffany!
*by
It's been a while, but I don't remember thinking too much of the book. It seemed a bit too glib and just-so for a story about four people who have ostensibly been driven by despair to suicide at the same time. It would probably be tough to write a story on that subject that isn't a total downer, though I guess you have to wonder why try in the first place?
Right. And next you're gonna try to fool us into believing "Crimson and Clover" isn't a Joan Jett song!
Nice try!
The other nine are Embrace of the Serpent
I'm not sure what that is, but sure. That one too.
Please stop destroying my long held and cherished beliefs.
To be completely fair, Flight is based on a true story (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... ), but the attempt to fly the craft upside-down failed because it was already too far into the dive. Hearing about that, I thought that Flight would be what Kelly thought it was, revising the truth so that the pilot could be alive to defend his actions at the FAA hearing, but instead it was literal hours of Denzel Washington acting like he was trashed in a broken-down house or in various hotel rooms. The interesting (albeit mostly bad) parts of the movie are maybe fifteen minutes total, at the very beginning and end. It's an impossible disappointment.
Also, I didn't send this into the podcast because it's not a movie, but the hard sci-fi anime Planetes has one of the more affecting scenes about cancer that I've seen as an adult. One of the character's mentors, a longtime enforcer for the UN Space Authority, returns to visit them and to meet their coworkers. It's all lighthearted until he has a coughing fit and confesses that he has late-stage cancer, from twenty years spent working under constant cosmic radiation. The anime's writing doesn't push the point, but it's inescapable nonetheless: outer space is a death sentence for every single character in the show. They'll work until they're forty-five and then be dead of cancer by fifty and there's nothing to be done besides give up on the personal and public dream of space exploration... which isn't really an option for any of them, so the anime just continues with that tragedy now firmly lodged in the minds of the audience.
I'm afraid he's right...do the math - you're good at that, right?
