The Telluride Film Festival is what Sundance would be if it took place in heaven. Every year the tiny mountain hamlet hosts four days of hassle-free cinema paradise. There were grumblings about the lack of American films, but we still found plenty to love. Mike Leigh (Secrets and Lies, Vera Drake) came with his delightful new movie, Happy-Go-Lucky. He sat down for a disgruntled yet insightful interview. Paul Schrader (Affliction, Hardcore) seemed as blow away as we were by his latest film, Adam Resurrected, starring Jeff Goldblum.

 

 FilmCouch 86 [33:52m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, Telluride faves: Waltz with Bashir, Revanche, The Good, the Bad, and the Weird, Tulpan, The Rest is Silence.

7:04 - Happy-Go-Lucky, with Mike Leigh interview.

19:52 - Adam Resurrected, with Paul Schrader interview.

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Some movies are violent, some are disturbing, and others are just plain wrong. Paul W. S. Anderson’s Death Race is a fun ride with some gnarly crashes, but it can’t hold a candle to its demented predecessor, Roger Corman’s Death Race 2000 (1975).

Cinema’s favorite weirdo, Cripsin Glover, is taking his film across the country, personally hosting a series of screenings. The film, What Is It?, is dense and provocative filmmaking, but not necessarily in a good way. Glover describes his opus as a critique of corporate-controlled studios’ fear of taboo. It’s either that, or just a whole lot of snails being killed, mixed with porn, mixed with possibly exploitative uses of actors with downs-syndrome.

For a more upbeat take on the absurd, we take a look and some the fun being had in Spout’s Movie Games group. Specifically, what happens when scenes from our favorite movies are digitally translated to another language, then back into English. The result: surreal hilarity. Our dramatic reading proves that The Big Lebowski could have been a whole lot weirder.

 

 FilmCouch 85 [37:54m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro

3:05 - Death Race, then and now

16:30 - Crispin Glover’s What Is It?

31:29 - Fun with online translators, Big Lebowski style

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The epic battle between McCain and Obama will shape America’s future. To prepare, we look at an eerily similar battle from America’s past, the 1960 primaries between JFK and Hubert Humphry, as portrayed in Robert Drew’s verité classic, Primary.

Karina stays in for the weekend watching back-to-back movie marathons to settle an age-old debate: Who’s better, Gene Kelly or Fred Astaire? Also, she shares her fantasy of seeing Olympic gymnastic ass-kicker Nastia Liukin star in a prison-break exploitation flick. It never hurts to dream…

On a more serious note, we talk to director Richard Berge about his documentary The Rape of Europa. The film recounts the heroism of WWII monument men, soldiers tasked with protecting the most priceless artifacts of Western Civilization. Berge tells the story of two veteran monument men debating the film’s central question: can a work of art be more valuable than a human life?

 

 FilmCouch 84 [33:52m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

0:00 - Intro, send us your Olympian movie pitch

3:55 - Primary

12:33 - Karina on Gene Kelly vs. Fred Astaire, and Nastia Liukin’s future in Hollywood

24:16 - The Rape of Europa

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Tropic Thunder is taking heavy fire, not for Robert Downey Jr.’s blackface performance, but rather for Ben Stiller’s spoof movie-within-a-movie, Simple Jack. Is this a case of political correctness gone too far? Or does Hollywood have serious flaws in how it portrays people with disabilities? The latter may have been Stiller’s point all along…

Our friend Kevin Kelly shares the tale of his journey to the fabled Skywalker Ranch to see Clone Wars and meet the elusive George Lucas. The film, essentially a two hour trailer for the upcoming animated series, gets into some pretty wonky territory when it asks the question we’ve all wondered: What would Truman Capote be like as a Hutt?

Karina checks in with what she’s watching. An Elliott Gould retrospective sheds some light on Little Murders and Jean-Luc Godard’s refusal to direct it. Also, Azazel Jacobs, director of the upcoming Mamma’s Man, Doris Day in Please Don’t Eat the Daisies, and soft-core porn sci-fi web show, The Fold.

 

 FilmCouch 83 [40:19m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch 83

4:07 - Tropic Thunder

16:50 - The Clone Wars, Skywalker Ranch

25:30 - Karina’s Media Diet

Rogen and Franco are hilarious in Pineapple Express, but the pothead to really watch out for is Danny McBride. Often relegated to brilliant and all-too-brief supporting roles, McBride stars in The Foot Fist Way, which is finally getting a gradual release thanks to Will Ferrell and Adam McKay. McBride’s magic lies in his ability to be a complete asshole 100% of the time on screen, while still charming the viewer. How does he do that?

ALSO, a call to Karina brings us back to the mid-twentieth century with some great television. What is it that makes AMC’s Mad Men so addictive? Need an excuse to not leave the house for the rest of the summer? Try TCM’s Summer Under the Stars.

 

 FilmCouch 82 [31:57m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

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Pineapple Express, TheFoot Fist Way

Keanu Reeves tells Kevin Buist–in very inhuman terms–what it’s like to be an alien getting in touch with his “humanness,” just before Kevin gets melted by a cosmic glare for being near Keanu at Comic-Con. So, what’s up with all these A-list Hollywood types going to a comic book convention? Kevin tells the story of his first Comic-Con visit.

Eureka! One of the great documentaries to slip through the cracks in 2004 was released this week through new DVD label, Carnivalesque FIlms. Mardi Gras: Made in China deftly examines globalization by stringing together life in a Chinese bead factory with the drunken, breast-baring party life of New Orleans during Mardi Gras.

Plus, a listener emails us two movies about female vigilantes. Can you guess what they are?

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The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)

Responding to your emails on The Dark Knight conversation. Wholphin 6 is here! Our favorite DVD quarterly returns with some amazing short films that have to be seen to be believed. We talk to Wholphin editor Brent Hoff about where it came from.

Bonus: Can you name a post-apocalyptic movie where the human race is condemned to death? We can and do.

 

 filmcouch-80 [26:17m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch 80

The Dark Knight totally changes the landscape of comic book hero movies, a kick-ass action flick with a lot to chew on. Two conversations, the first on how great the movie is, the second–at the end of the show–full of spoilers and plumbing the depths of The Dark Knight’s conclusion. Also, what Karina watches when her cable goes out.

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0:00 - Intro, how do other vigilante movies measure up to The Dark Knight?

4:35 - The Dark Knight gush review.

19:24 - Karina prepares for a trip to Branson, Missouri by watching basic cable.

27:50 - The Dark Knight redux, with spoilers.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

This week we’re taking movies with fans, colleagues, and friends. An e-mail from a listener gets us thinking critically about our love for post-apocalyptic movies, and watching the amazing 1962 French short, La Jetée (pictured above). Kevin talks with David Chen and Devindra Hardawar from /Filmcast about podcasting, Roman Polanski, and really good cartoons. Later we check in with Karina Longworth, where she tells us about overlooked Japanese classic When A Woman Ascends the Stairs and a whimsical WWI quasi-musical, La France.

0:00 - Intro, post-apocalyptic movies, La Jetée

8:00 - /Filmcast’s David Chen and Devindra Hardawar

19:50 - Karina’s Media Diet

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

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WALL-E may look like the bastard child of E.T. and a backhoe, but inside he’s all Snake Pliskin from Escape from New York (1981). YouTube’s Sara Pollack on the most exciting thing to happen to short films since… well, maybe ever.

3:11 Sarah Pollack from YouTube

14:33 Wall-E vs. Escape From New York

18:23 Movies to watch

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The death of George Carlin was a big blow to the entertainment world. At the risk of sounding crass during a sensitive time, we dare to ask why? Why is comedy so important? Why do some people seem to construct their very identities around their favorite broad comedies? We think the answer has something to do with the inevitability of growing up, while resisting growing old. Discussed are such life-shaping films as Dumb & Dumber, Grosse Pointe Blank, Caddyshack, The Jerk, Office Space, and many more.

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M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening is as bad as we feared (or hoped?). Shyamalan, and the studios who have dared to work with him, would like to paint him as a first-bill auteur, a director of genius and vision who’s name atop the poster puts butts in seats. Alas, things do not looks good for ol’ Manoj. In this episode of FilmCouch we compare The Happening with two classics by directors whose names do sell movies, and who have influenced Shyamalan’s career: Spielberg and Hitchcock. Duel, Spielberg’s first film, is a lost gem, and a must-see for anyone hoping to populate their film with a faceless evil. And of course, we look at Hitchcock’s The Birds, the genesis of the spooky nature-turns-on-man sub-genre.

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

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The Happening, The Birds, Duel, Shyamalan, Spielberg, Hitchcock

An enjoyable trip to the cinema to see Kung Fu Panda leads to some unexpected ponderings. If kung fu is the epitome of lifelong self-discipline, what does it mean when Jack Black’s fuzzy panda learns the ancient art overnight? In our epic quest to define the true spirit of kung fu, we look at a few new documentaries: Resolved, a fascinating account of competitive high school debate, and Bomb It, which tracks the evolving art of graffiti around the globe.

 (Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

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Kung Fu Panda, Resolved, Bomb It

Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, a riveting documentary airing June 9 at 9:00pm on HBO, digs into the facts of Polanski’s notorious case around his sexual misconduct with a 13 year old, and how the justice system failed them both. The Promotion–opening tonight–looks like a comedy but is more an unnerving lightning rod for middle class anxiety, a darkly comic portrayal of what the American Dream has become. People expecting John C. Reilly and Seann William Scott to be foolproof laugh material will be surprised.

 

 FilmCouch 73 [32:24m]: Play Now | Download

(Subscribe to FilmCouch–Spout’s weekly movie podcast–in the iTunes store or to our RSS feed and an episode will download each Friday)

FilmCouch #73 - Be careful what you laugh at
Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired, The Promotion