Catfish: More Disgusting Than Chicken Rape? Grosser Than Ira Glass?

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Partial return of the old format! The old intro, old loves, old hates, old dramas of the podcast, DOES ANYONE HERE REMEMBER LAUGHTER? Oh, and homework returns next week. Assignments! Who doesn't love assignments?

0:00 - 16:38 - Sean watched a bunch of early John Waters movies. Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972), Female Trouble (1974), directed by John Waters, starring Divine, Mink Stole, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pierce, Edith Massey, Cookie Muller. Also mentioned in this section - how we both saw these movies way wayyy too early, Tucker going on a date to see Crybaby, the documentary Divine Trash, Pecker, Desperate Living, Terminator 2, Last House on the Left, and how much Sean hated the David Foster Wallace piece on David Lynch, and John Waters still going to punk clubs. Oh, and Sean didn't fully sell how awesome Mink Stole is in Pink Flamingos. Mink Stole is my fucking hero.

16:39 - 22:49 - Tucker watched The Empire Strikes Back (1980), directed by Irvin Kershner, written by Leigh Brackett, Lawrence Kasdan, and George Lucas, starring Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Billy Dee Williams, Anthony Daniels, Frank Oz, Peter Mayhew, Alec Guinness, Jeremy Bulloch, Kenny Baker, Clive Revill. And the cgi special editions, and how just how fucking good the end of Empire Strikes Back is.

22: 50 - 31:05 - Tucker also watched Two Lovers (2008), directed by James Gray, written by James Gray and Richard Menello, starring Joaquin Phoenix, Gwyneth Paltrow, Vanessa Shaw, Isabella Rosselini, and Elias Koteas. We also talk about the first book on the films of James Gray at Notebook, Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman in his I'm Still Here-era, Gwyneth Paltrow's career, and Joaquin Phoenix being a pretty great actor that we didn't realize until recently.

31:06 - 40:04 - Sean watched Sleepwalk With Me (2012), directed by Mike Birbiglia and Seth Barrish, written by Mike Birbiglia, Joe Birbglia, Ira Glass, and Seth Barrish, starring Mike Birbiglia, Lauren Ambrose, Marc Maron, James Rebhorn, Carol Kane, Kristin Schall, Jessie Klein, David Wain, and Wyatt Cynac. Which he didn't like much. He did like the comedy album/one man show the movie was based on, and we discuss how an indie movie can easily be over-written, the ad campaign and Tucker's theater experience watching Independence Day, plays that became movies (listen to Sean say "Carnal Knowledge" like his jaw is torn off and he's pressing his tongue to a formica card table).

40:05 - 48:48 - Tucker watched Catfish (2010), directed by Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman. And he fucking hated this movie, which he talks about in detail. Also we mention the It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia parody of it, the ad campaign the MTV spinoff show, mostly how victimizing and shitty it is of the people in it.

 

48:49 - 55:10 - Sean watched Dredd (2012), directed by Pete Travis, written by Alex Garland, starring Karl Urban, Olivia Thirlby, Lena Headey, Wood Harris. We discuss just how much it isn't The Raid, Tucker talks about Judge Dredd/2000AD comics, cheapness, Chris Morris' Brass Eye, Shako!, John Frankenheimer's Prophecy, the mission of the week format (and Suicide Squad). An interesting thing about the slo-mo scenes is that they were soundtracked by an ultra-slowed-down version of Justin Bieber's "Baby". Knowing that makes the movie  better.

55:11 - 1:01:15 - Tucker watched Identity (2003), directed by James Mangold, staring John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Clea Duvall, Alfred Molina, Amanda Peet, Rebecca De Mornay, John Hawkes, Jacke Busey, John C. McGinley, Pruitt Taylor. We also talk about other movies James Mangold directed, John Cusack's career, and Amanda Peet being awesomely against Jenny McCarthy parenting.

1:01:16 - 1:06:22 - Sean watched Jabberwocky (1977), directed by Terry Gilliam, written by Gilliam and Charles Alverson, starring Michael Palin, Harry H. Corbett, Neil Innes, David Prowse, Terry Jones, Max Wall, Brian Glover (from American Werewolf/Alien3), and how much Gilliam was influenced by Pasolini's Trilogy of Life, and Tucker talks about a 90s action movie he watched at the post office (The Chill Factor), and the guy from MI5 who shows up in it, and things from bad 90s action movies we miss.

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NEXT WEEK - Our homework films will be THX-1138 (the original director's cut), and Gamer.

SEE YOU NEXT WEEK.

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Comments

[Boffo]

I'd be interested in hearing why Sean thought The Raid had a better script than Dredd, per se. My main flaw with The Raid was its lack of any real cathartic retribution for its main baddie when the movie decided it was trying to make a point ("police corruption exists and is bad") after all. I could admire Dredd for its sheer dedication to keeping its story as straightforward as possible.

[Sean Witzke]

Per se.

[Bob Temuka]

I have been a Judge Dredd kid since I was three-years-old, so I can't talk about the movie without bringing in all that baggage, but I have to disagree with Sean about the performances from Lena Headey and Wood Harris. I really liked the way they underplayed the fuck out of those roles - mainly because so many actors use the "it's a comic book movie!" excuse to just go totally over the top and chew the hell out of every scene, and it was kinda refreshing to see bad guys who went so far in the other direction. (Plus, I just saw Southland Tales again recently, and after that, a restrained Wood Harris can only be a good thing...)

[R.S. David]

I would suggest re-watching "Desperate Living"--I actually think it is his best of the early Waters. It has a more balanced mix of story and weirdness than the other work. Also because Divine is not in it, the other Waters players really shine especially Mink Stole (who, if I remember correctly was the victim in the rape scene, not Edith Massey).

Also, DL was categorized as "horror" at the Hastings chain store I rented it from.

On a related note to Water's strangeness continuing into old age, did you see this story about his recent hitchiking trip?

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2012-05-25/features/bal-john-waters-hitchhiking-journey-ends-book-chronicling-it-to-be-called-carsick-20120525_1_john-waters-hitchhiking-journey-carsick

[MB]

This is definitely Citizen Kane. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGYJyeX-oMc

[Matthew Allison]

I try not to get hurt when you guys aren't keen on a movie I love but I felt bad when Sean said FEMALE TROUBLE is boring. That movie is such a joy for me. Listeners should give it a try.

Great film based on a play - DEATH AND THE MAIDEN