What the Flick?! Podcast 12/24/18

Image result for vice movie

All is merry and bright on this final What the Flick?! Podcast episode for 2018. Alonso, Ben and I enjoy a spirited discussion of Adam McKay’s polarizing political satire “Vice,” which greatly divided us, as well. We also review a couple of biopics: “On the Basis of Sex,” about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, and “Stan & Ollie,” about Laurel and Hardy. And we wrap up with “Destroyer,” which finds Nicole Kidman going to deep, dark places as a Los Angeles police detective. Thank you all so much for sticking with us during this year of flux. We can’t wait to show you what we have in store for next year. All the best to you and yours during the holidays, and here’s to a great 2019!

 

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  3. Sold me on Stan and Ollie. I wasn’t that interested, but I’m going to keep an eye out for it now. Reilly is so great. I was just watching Boogie Nights again the other day and his timing is so great in that one…the scene where he meets Dirk for the first time is classic.

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  4. Loved Ben’s comment, they were given a degree of humanity but it didn’t diminish their monstrousness. The movie trailer seems to suggest a cartoonish treatment of the subjects but even with the low scores, your provocative analysis encourages me to see Vice. Looking forward to experiencing the device of running credits midway through the movie.

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  5. I’m even more intrigued to see Vice now – especially considering how underwhelming the reviews have been for it, as well as it getting a lot of nominations at these early award shows. It will be interesting to see if The Academy embraces Vice as much as the Golden Globes did

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      • I saw Vice today, and it definitely is one of those movies where you either love it or you don’t. With saying that, I can see why you guys weren’t the biggest fans of it, but something about it just worked for me. I don’t know exactly what it was, but I left watching Vice with the feeling I get when I’ve just watched a great film. It will definitely be interesting to see how this film goes in terms of Oscar Nominations.

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  6. Watching you all, and then listening to you all, is one of the things that helped me get through 2018! No lie. I hope that you all have a great holiday and that 2019 turns out to be a good one!

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  9. Thank you for continuing to provide your weekly reviews after losing your video spot. I very much have grown to enjoy this format, but am looking forward to your news in 2019. Great work, you all, and happy new year

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  10. Thank you Christie, Alonso, Matt and Ben. This regular viewer is now a regular listener who hopes to be a regular viewer again. All the best for 2019.

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  12. Re: Speaking of Lousy Years in General

    Something for Alonso, that he probably didn’t include or manage to research for his book about Christmas. It was made here for Irish television. Not at all a bad documentary. Was reminded about it, when Ben described his enjoyment of the Laurel and Hardy movie. Creative collaborations and those kinds of challenges.

    ‘Fairytale Of New York – The Story Of A Christmas Classic’.

    I like the part where Bob Geldof, the hard core rock and punk, said that everything in his being rebelled against liking the sound that the Pogues were making. But he still couldn’t help liking it. Paul Simon and other musicians get a word or two in the documentary too. they talk about the use of lyrics and words in the music, and talk about geographical situation of the song in America, instead of Britain. The life of British female artist Kirsty MacColl comes into the story as well. And how she was able to operate as a strong counterpoint to the lead singer in the Pogues music band. The part where Shane finally gets thrown out of the band is interesting too, and all he can ask them is how did it take you guys this long?

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    • This is interesting. I have never heard of this song. Yet, it was a huge hit in the UK and Ireland and is considered there one of the great classic Christmas songs. The Pogues never really penetrated the U.S. market. I was only vaguely familiar with them because of the song “The Body of an American”, not because of its subject matter, but because it was featured in Season Three of “The Wire”.

      Alonso did not include the documentary about the making of this song because, as far as I can tell, it has never been made available in the U.S. either on disc or for streaming (though it is available on YouTube, I suspect illegally). I also think that Alonso focuses on Christmas films, rather than television documentaries, though I could be wrong.

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      • Re: Butterfly Wings and Randomness

        Yeah, I know. I just think it would be the icing on the cake though, to this documentary. Is one of those clips they put into the end of movies when the credits are rolling. Where Alonso and Matt, are wearing those Christmas jumpers, and arguing about whether this is a real Christmas song or not. The makers of the documentary here in Ireland managed to fit in Paul Simon, and his take on it. However, they dropped the ball, in not getting Matt and Alonso to argue about it’s classification, in the way only they can do.

        The one thing that people are certain about, over here in Ireland this year for some reason. Is that ‘Die Hard’ is really a Christmas movie. I don’t know whether or not that ‘meme’ started with the two guys, and somehow traveled over here with the gulf stream. But I strongly suspect, is that is exactly what did happen. One year later here in Ireland, everyone is talking about ‘Die Hard’ movie. It all started over there, with two guys in Christmas sweaters. What is that they say about Chaos theory, and a butterfly flapping it’s wings in South America? It’s the same thing, in movie and cultural terms.

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  13. Re: Speaking of Movies that Set a High Bar and Do Get it Right

    A movie that I enjoyed the most this year, The Last Witness (2018). It does something that Ben was talking about in his review of the movie with the Australian female actress in it. The one where the movie critics were glad to see the daylight again, after the movie was over. I was very convinced by the way the Polish film director presented the narrative of the film, and tied it up for a decent conclusion. An example of where it’s done fairly skillfully. Part of that though, was the enjoyment of following the journalist along his journey of research, where he got stone walled at every step along his way. It’s like you’d take one of those templates to use for an investigative journalism movie, but set it in immediate post-war Britain. Speaks a lot about themes also, such as displacement of people in times of global crisis. Very much. The ending part, where Michael Gabon plays the newspaper editor, and finally has it out with the young, idealistic reporter is worth the price of the admission by itself. All best.

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  14. BTW, Ben was right about this. Not only was “The Big Noise” (1944) not the last Laurel and Hardy film, it wasn’t even the next-to-last. They also did “The Bullfighters” (1945) and “Atoll K” (or “Utopia” in the U.S.) (1951).

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  15. I find it interesting that Vice is the second Adam McKay film that the WTF team has reviewed in which there was a strong disagreement between Ben and Christy/Alonso. In both cases, “The Big Short” and “Vice”, Ben held a significantly higher opinion of the film. I believe he thought “The Big Short” was one of the best films of the year (Matt agreed), while Christy and Alonso were basically ‘meh.’

    I haven’t seen “Vice” yet, so I can’t comment on that, but I am definitely with Ben on “The Big Short”. I, too, thought it was one of the best films of that year, and, more importantly, I thought that it was a significant film about an important event in history that people should see that was not only informative but a hell of a lot of fun as well.

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    • Agreed, the Big Short is an important factual film, but I thought that year The Revenant should have won. That final scene . . . listening to our hero’s last breathes . . . chilling.

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  16. Just want to say thanks for keeping this going. I’m sure it’s not easy and I’m sure there is a lot of things behind the scenes that the average listener like me doesn’t know about. I look forward to it every week! Happy New Year!

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  17. I loved GET ON UP because I grew up on James Brown and his wonderful music. Plus the introduction to the amazing Chadwick Boseman. He became Brown.

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  20. Thanks once again! I love you guys, and especially love it when Ben can make it in. He’s becoming a special guest on his own show! lol I need to see Stan and Ollie. I pretty much agree, or at least can understand your perspectives on the other flicks. Happy Merry and all that!

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