This week on @podcastlikeits The 2000s @emilystjams and I started a brand new miniseries on Angelina Jolie’s 2000s Action Films by talking Gone in 60 Seconds with @thelafergs ! We discuss The Fast and Furious, Nicolas Cage, Angelina’s 90s, her Oscar and her wig in this movie.
Katie has a type of cinema she loves and she named it perfectly: preposterous absurdity.
The opening of Daylight has neon piles of toxic waste. A docker deadpanning "That's a lot of toxic waste pal." Mid-90s punks stealing diamonds who are, as the group agrees, straight out of Demolition Man. A guy saying "Rump it in New Jersey." Keystone Cops energy. Everything smashing into everything for no reason except that it is the mid-90s and this movie earned it.
The consensus: it is glorious. They wanted more of the punks. They are grieving the one who died. One punk surviving and joining the group would have made this a completely different and arguably better movie.
Phil also makes the case for the underrated genre of 90s action films set in New York, surrounded by grumpy blue collar people who have absolutely no patience for whatever catastrophe is unfolding around them. He is right and someone should bring that back.
This is Episode 65 of Podcast Like It's the 1990s. Phil is joined by Tom Mison and Katie McGrath to revisit Daylight and Judge Dredd. Full video on Patreon now. Link in profile.
I got to see the last two episodes of season one of Margo’s Got Money Troubles and they were absolutely fantastic! But getting to hear @davidekelleyproductions@evafay and @michellepfeifferofficial unpack them afterwards was truly special.
Two things happened in this clip.
First: a genuinely great breakdown of what separates Schwarzenegger and Stallone. Katie nailed it. Arnold always understands the assignment. He knows exactly who he is and never tries to go outside the box of what he is good at. Stallone tried to chase that same lane and it went badly. Rhinestone. Stop or My Mom Will Shoot. And then there's the rumor that Arnold talked up the Stop or My Mom script to Stallone on purpose, knowing it was a disaster, as part of their long rivalry.
Second: Katie joined the Zoom from what appeared to be Mordor. She is sick. In pajamas. Hooded. Surrounded by greenery. Phil told her she looked like a hobbit. Tom pointed out she Googles slower than Phil. She told us she is on her way to Mordor. It was a whole thing.
This is Episode 68 of Podcast Like It's the 1990s. Phil is joined by Tom Mison and Katie McGrath to revisit Daylight and Judge Dredd. Full video is on Patreon now. Link in profile.
There are some movies you're almost afraid to see adapted. 🐺
Drew McWeeney knew Where the Wild Things Are was one of them. He compared it to never wanting to hear Hobbes' voice from Calvin and Hobbes. Some things live best inside your own imagination.
Then came the bar story.
One night, a guy from a visual effects company spent 45 minutes telling Drew that Spike Jonze was brain damaged, the movie was unfinishable, and the footage was total garbage. "He's the dumbest filmmaker I've ever met. That movie's fucked."
Drew had already learned that the people closest to a production sometimes can't see what they're actually making. He'd watched it happen before. He listened, filed it away, and waited.
He was right to wait.
This week's episode of Podcast Like It's 2000s is on Patreon now. Link in profile. 🎬
This week on @podcastlikeits The 1990s Patreon I continued our 90s Action Box Office Flops miniseries with Tom Mison & Katie McGrath by talking Daylight. We discuss Stallone’s career, disaster movies and how hot Viggo Mortensen is.
This week on @podcastlikeits The 2000s @emilystjams and I wrap up our Jonze/Kaufman miniseries by talking Where the Wild Things Are with @drewmcweeny ! We discuss the beloved book, unorthodox production and Drew’s conversation with Spike Jonze! Let The Wild Rumpus Start!
🎬 "It's a great film. It might not be a film for children."
That's how film critic Drew McWeeny describes Where the Wild Things Are (2009). And he's been sitting with this one longer than almost anyone.
Drew saw a rough cut in Pasadena before a single effects shot was finished. The monster suits had faces that didn't move. The creature heads Jim Henson built were 50 pounds and got scrapped six weeks before filming. Thomas Tull personally called him after that screening hoping Drew would help pressure Spike Jonze to change the film. Drew said he thought it was great. That ended his relationship with Legendary Pictures.
On Episode 93 of Podcast Like It's 2000s, Phil and Emily sit down with Drew to dig into everything: the troubled production, the practical genius of shooting fully handheld with no green screens or tracking dots, why James Gandolfini was the perfect Carol, and what it means to watch this movie as a parent who's been the angry one in the room.
This is one of the most personal conversations we've ever had on the show. New episode drops tomorrow on Patreon. Link in profile.
#WhereTheWildThingsAre #SpikeJonze
Last night’s @mjlenderman / @waxa_katie concert at The Walt Disney Concert Hall was absolutely wonderful. It felt truly special for many reasons but them ending the show with a cover of @kittythefool ’s Six O’Clock News was the cherry on top.
Two working actors breaking down exactly how stunt work actually functions on set. 🎬
Katie McGrath and Tom Mison get into something that rarely gets discussed: the collaboration between an actor and their stunt team isn't just physical. Every stunt performer who knows what they're doing watches the actor first. They study the character. They want the transition between their work and the actor's to be completely invisible.
Katie puts it plainly: she'll always do as much as she can. But she's genuinely happy to hand it off to people who've dedicated their entire lives to making a character look exactly right.
And both of them have real admiration for Geena Davis wanting to do all of it on Cutthroat Island. Not for the glory. Because that's how you serve the film.
Full episode on Patreon. Link in profile. 💜
#CutthroatIsland
"I don't know what's going on. But it just feels right. I'm just gonna ride it." 🎬
That's Angie Han on Synecdoche, NY, a film so surreal it sometimes felt more like real life than life itself. You stop trying to understand it and just let it carry you. The house is always on fire. You don't ask why. You just go.
Then Emily drops the real observation: they all exist somewhere in that warehouse. Caden Cotard's life-size reconstruction of New York is a place where we all just live, whether we like it or not.
Phil does not like it.
Phil is played by John Hawkes.
Full episode on Patreon. Link in profile. 💜
#SynecdocheNY #CharlieKaufman
