The Society For Film

On this week’s show, Fernando talks about earthquake readiness in Tokyo, James reviews Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in San Andreas, before we get into a wide-ranging discussion about the disaster movie genre itself, & the cause of its enduring popularity… Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:25 – Discussing last weekend’s tremblor in Japan & living with earthquakes 15:29 – Review Of San Andreas 30:52 – The State and hiistory of Disaster Films 58:09 – End Notes and Outro Music

This week we cast our eye over three recent female-led films, starting off with Elizabeth Banks’ directorial debut, Pitch Perfect 2, then the bold new take on the much-loved musical Annie followed by the Melissa McCarthy action comedy Spy. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:10 – Pitch Perfect 2 19:05 – Annie 32:02 – Spy 44:12 – End Notes and Outro Music

On this week’s dispatch I get more than a little enthusiastic about George Miller’s return to his hugely influential dystopian action franchise with Mad Max: Fury Road, then Fernando talks about Ana Lily Amirpour’s Iranian vampire drama, A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. Before that, we get into one of our regular rambling chats about walking, working and finding work-life balance as a freelancer. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:09 – Revisiting Singapore and Urban Walking 06:10 – Walking, working and freelancing 24:19 – Review of Mad Max:Fury Road 49:55 – Review of A Girl Walks Home Alone At Dark 66:36 – Final Thoughts, End Notes and Outro Music 67:58 – Brief Review Of Kingsman:The Secret Service

After a quick digression to talk about Fernando’s recent experience at a Taylor Swift concert in Tokyo, we manage to steer the show almost seamlessly into an in-depth discussion of Avengers: Age Of Ultron. We then throw our net broader to address the online fracas caused by some fans’ less than enthusiastic response to Marvel latest superhero rumpus, whose vitriol caused writer-director Joss Whedon to quit Twitter. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:07 – Taylor Swift Live In Tokyo (& Pop Music Today) 10:06 – At What Age Do We Disconnect From Music & Pop Culture? 20:04 – Review Of Avengers: Age Of Ultron 38:15 – The “Fan” Backlash 47:10 – Final Thoughts on Avengers: Age Of Ultron 61:10 – End Notes and Outro Music

On this week’s show, James talks about his recent trip to India to visit the set of Baahubali, and then joins Fernando in a discussion about two recent films – British comedy Pride and the Maori action adventure The Dead Lands – both of which are well worth checking out. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:04 – James’ Birthday Blu-ray haul 07:13 – James’ Big Indian Adventure – Visit to Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad & the set of Baahubali 17:35 – What is World Cinema today & where do Indian Films fit? 33:55 – Review of Pride 51:43 – Review of The Dead Lands 57:52 – End Notes and Outro Music

On this week’s show, we discuss the latest grease, blood and adrenaline-smeared instalment in the ever-expanding Fast & Furious franchise. James also touches on one or two of his favourites from the Hong Kong International Film Festival, and we kick things off by spending a few minutes with some of the week’s top stories – including Star Wars, Twin Peaks and Doctor Who. >h3>Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:18 – Star Wars is now available on iTunes 03:27 – David Lynch may not be on board for Twin Peaks TV reboot 07.43 – No Doctor Who movie to made 10:41 – Landmark court case, Dallas Buyers Club vs ISPs 14:51 – Furious 7, big opening & review 31:21 – Hong Kong International Film Festival & review of Victoria 37:24 – End Notes and Outro Music

Let’s talk about sex. Specifically, let’s talk about contractual, dominant, controversy-laden, potentially unfulfilling sex, as it appears in recent blockbuster 50 Shades Of Grey. Certainly not the best, but unlikely to be the worst film of the year, this slap-n-tickle-fest has garnered plenty of attention and debate since its release. This week we try to put that into some kind of perspective. The List – Top Five Film News Stories From Around The World This week’s five news stories from around the film world. 1. Big Hero 6 comes out as the biggest grossing animated film of 2014. 2. Kodak tries to appeal to Indie Filmakers in an attempt to save film. 3. Matt Damon and Andy Lau to star in Chinese mythic blockbuster. 4. Bollywood actresses are still paid less than equivalent male leads. 5. Michael Fassbender looks unconvincing as Steve Jobs is a leaked on set poster. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:06 – Big Hero 6 the highest grossing animated film of 2014. 03:28 – Kodak tries to keep film alive 09:50 – The Great Wall announced, with Matt Damon and Andy Lau 12:20 – Female actors underpaid in Bollywood, like everywhere else unfortunately 19:20 – 50 Shades of Grey (with reference to 9 1/2 Weeks, American Pyscho, Crash, R100 and Secretary) 58:24 – End Notes and Outro Music

Every year fans are up in arms as the latest round of sequels to their beloved favourite films are announced and another summer of franchise instalments clutter the blockbuster season and throttle creativity in cinema. But, are all sequels really that bad? Do they suggest nothing more than that filmmakers have run out of ideas? This week we tackle the subject of sequels, and more importantly, stick our necks out to defend some of the ones that really are worth your time. Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 01:08 – Lineup of the Hong Kong International Film Festival 07:49 – The Lyndsey Addario biopic, This is What I Do with Jennifer Lawrence and Steven Spielberg 13:36 – Netflix buys the distribution for Beasts Of No Nation 17.37 – Neill Blomkamp to direct an Alien sequel 22:57 – Blade Runner sequel with Harrison Ford and Denis Villeneuve directing 25:38 – Our discussion of sequels (including Action, Drama, Sci-Fi, Horror, Westerns and Bollywood) 62.37 – End Notes and Outro Music

The time has come for our fourth Academy Awards’ prediction show. Over the past three years, James has done rather well, with a 76.4% success rate at picking Oscar winners, with Fernando trailing not far behind with 73.6% correct. However, this year has some very tight categories (you can see the full list of nominees here) and with few clear favourites it’s been a fun challenge to make our predictions this time around, both for the films we think will win and the ones we wish would win (and films Fernando insisted should have been nominated). Podcast Timestamps: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:46 – Introduction 02:17 – The films almost no-one gets to see (Short Film Live-Action, Short Film – Animated, Documentary Feature, Documentary Short Subject) 06:48 – The writing awards (Writing – Original Screenplay, Writing – Adapted Screenplay) 12:46 – The music and sound awards (Sound Editing, Sound Mixing, Music – Original Song, Music – Original Score) 21.52 – The technical awards (Visual Effects, Production Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Film Editing, Costume Design, Cinematography) 36.45 – Foreign Language Film 38.44 – Animated Feature Film 44.46 – Directing 47.28 – Actress – In A Supporting Role and, Actor – In A Supporting Role 49.04 – Actress – In A Leading Role and, Actor – In A Leading Role 55.03 – Best Picture 61.36 – End Notes and Outro Music

This week James and Fernando share an open and honest conversation about film reviewing. With the rise of blogs and social media, reviewing has changed forever, altering the way we approach everything from looking for places to drink coffee to snobbery in restaurant reviews to, of course, choosing the films we watch. We thought it was time to lift the lid on what goes into writing reviews and what you should look for in good film criticism.

On this week’s show, Fernando and James discuss a few of the more prominent new films they have seen, including Morten Tyldum’s multiple Oscar nominee The Imitation Game, Tim Burton’s return to more serious filmmaking, Big Eyes, and Argentinean Best Foreign Language hopeful, Wild Tales. The guys also introduce a new regular feature looking at topical film-related stories in the news over the past week. Enjoy!

How good a year was 2014 for cinema goers? Well, we didn’t even bother making a list of worst films and if anything, we struggle to whittle our respective viewing lists down to only ten films each. On top of that, there was only one film which appeared on both lists, which only adds to our perception this has been a gold letter year for film lovers. Podcast Notes: 00:00 – Theme Music and Introduction 01:01 – Christmas in Tokyo & Hong Kong 07:20 – 10 Through To 7 On Our Lists 41:03 – 6 To 4 In Our Ranking 71:36 – Our Top 3 Picks 102.01 – Review and Summary

2014 has been a very mixed year for family and kids’ films. There have been some memorable hits but also a lot of misses and it seems that studios are paying less attention to this particular demographic right now than they used to. This week we discuss kids’ films, family films, animated features and issue films on offer to younger cinema goers (and their parents) over the past 12 months.

It’s that time of year when we are snowed under frantically binge-viewing screeners ahead of our various year-end commitments, as well as buying the odd Christmas present for our nearest and dearest. Despite all this, we did manage to record a short podcast this week to discuss Peter Jackson’s (hopefully) final offering from Middle-Earth, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies. Even in high-frame-rate IMAX 3D, it proved a slightly underwhelming affair.

On this week’s podcast, James and Fernando open with a discussion of the James Bond 24 cast and title announcements, as well as the Star Wars: The Force Awakens teaser, before launching into spirited defences of two recent franchise entries that they feel have been much maligned by the critical and movie-going public in general. Namely Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk and Paul W.S. Anderson’s Resident Evil: Afterlife 3D. Enjoy! Podcast Notes: 00:00 – Theme Music 01:08 – Spectre – The Next Bond Film 14:25 – The Force Awakens – The Next Star Wars Film 31:40 – James Defends The Incredible Hulk 51:30 – Fernando Defends Resident Evil: Afterlife 71:13 – Farewell

Christopher Nolan’s epic space thriller, Interstellar, is the subject of this week’s podcast. We take an in-depth look at the film, discussing its themes and technical details in a spoiler-free conversation. We also announce the winner of our first giveaway, a sealed Criterion Blu-ray of The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp. Podcast Notes: 00:00 – Theme Music 01:04 – Giveaway Winner 03:22 – Interstellar Review 14:24 – Sci-Fi Post Gravity 19:08 – Between Star Wars And 2001: A Space Odyssey 25:42 – Some Key Themes In Interstellar 37:22 – Did We Like The Film? 42:36 – Next Week’s Show And Announcements

This week, in recognition of Armistice Day and the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, we embark on an exhaustive, exhilarating and wide-ranging discussion of Powell and Pressburger’s Technicolor wartime epic, The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp. We also have a sealed, mint condition Blu-ray of the recent Criterion release of the film to give away to one lucky listener – so listen in to find out how this fantastic release can be yours! Podcast Notes: 00:00 – Theme Music 00:47 – Introduction and details about site update 04:16 – Review of The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp 54:10 – Giveaway details and upcoming shows 58:20 – Outro Music

Do you remember the first time you went to the cinema? This week we take a walk down memory lane and recall our first cinematic experiences and the movies that inspired us to take this artform seriously. Along the way we remember blockbusters, Asian films and Arthouse classics that shaped and fuelled our passion for films. Towards the end of the podcast (from the 59th minute) we take a closer look at Ghostbusters – a film that we both enjoyed in our younger years and which is now celebrating its 30th anniversary.

We criss-cross the cinematic world on this week’s show, starting with the Indian blockbuster Gunday, before surrendering to the indie charms of Begin Again and finishing off with a unique tale of masculinity and nature with Japan’s Wood Job! – Enjoy!