Podcast: Sicario & Stonewall
Katey, Joe, Nathaniel and Nick, all returned from TIFF (where the four of us were actually in the same place at the same time for the very first time ever!), return to "Now Playing" cinema to catch shrapnel coming off of Sicario & throw bricks at Stonewall.
43 minutes
00:01 TIFF postscript & Room
03:30 Sicario dark, haunting, superbly crafted, POV politics
21:00 Stonewall (2015) what were they thinking?
33:00 Stonewall (1995), Stonewall Uprising (2010), and other final thoughts
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Related reading: Katey on Room, Nathaniel on Stonewall, Nick on Sicario, Noah Tsika's negative reaction to Sicario, Jeffrey Wells's super-weird war on fans of Room.
And in case you missed it, here's the photo of the podcast team at TIFF.
Reader Comments (7)
a) Yay podcast!!!
b) (pause).... "I saw 47"
c) Massively disappointed to hear that Baitz was the writer of Stonewall. The Substance of Fire and A Fair Country are two of the best American plays of the past 25 years.
d) One day Katey is going to sit down and watch The Iron Lady and Stonewall. Let's get a kickstarter to fund that. And the alcohol required afterwards.
Loved the movie, loved the podcast, but I'm trying to understand Noah Tsika's reaction (especially about racism and the entomological reference). I read the movie as neither pointing-fingers nor reducing-blame, but instead just showing us the way things are, which I found really compelling. Also, More on Del Toro, please...that last scene between him and Blunt choked me up.
I've heard some others verge towards the "Mexico is a hellhole = simplistic" angle, but I didn't see it at all. I mean, Mexico is shown as a hellhole, but it's also very much about America's sketchiness and how they are complicit in making Mexico that way.
FANTASTIC podcast this week, even if Katey hadn't seen either movie which made me laugh.
I actually do see where Noah's coming from, even though it didn't strike me while I was watching and I'm still not sure I'd share that reaction when I revisit the film. But I think it's interesting every year when some movies get called out as Problematic right from the drop on issues of representation and others seems to skate right by despite debatable biases. So I'm glad we're discussing this one, even if a lot of folks on here don't seem to have received the movie the way Noah did. (I admit he's someone whose work I respect so much that when he's responded to something I haven't I'm quicker to trust him and doubt myself.... but then, I'd say the same for everyone in this podcast and comment thread.)
Thanks for this podcast. Stonewall sounds very flawed and misjudged, but I appreciate the way in which you all tried to offer a balanced and fair perspective on it.
Looking forward to seeing Sicario.
Is Joe talking about the documentary "We Were Here" instead of "How to Survive a Plague" or am I just not remembering the San Francisco elements of 'Plague'?
Re: Brolin. I had some of the same issues as Joe with his performance, but ultimately I thought it worked because so much of the movie is kind of a tug of war about who gets to be the protagonist of this story, and there would be no doubt in Brolin's character's mind that he is the star of the show, the smartest, funniest, coolest man in charge.
Also, Guillermo Diaz is one of the stars of the 1995 Stonewall. And Sicario is basically the hunt for someone named Guillermo Diaz. A connection is made!