Podcast: Aquaman Into the Poppins-Verse
Nathaniel R and Murtada Elfadl and Chris Feil talk new films
Index (51 minutes)
00:01 Mary Poppins Returns, the songs, the costumes, the Blunt
20:17 James Wan bonkers vision of Aquaman, shirtlessness and the lack thereof, and the kick-ass fun Nicole Kidman is having as Aquamom
30:08 Returning to the Poppins-Verse for a moment
33:20 Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and comic book style
40:40 Split opinions on Cold War but we all love the cinematography, music, and the performance of its leading actress Joanna Kulig
46:47 Murtada makes us talk about Beale Street... again.
49:45 Wrap-up
Further Reading / References
• Pawel Pawlikowski on KCRW's "The Business"
• Chris's review of Aquaman
• Yahya Abdul-Mateen underneath the "Black Manta" suit
• Jason's review of Cold War
• Tim's review of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse
You can listen to the podcast here at the bottom of the post or download from iTunes. Continue the conversations in the comments, won't you?
Reader Comments (6)
Ooooh - best Christmas present of all!
None of you talked about how Miranda fared as a cinematic screen presence?
3rtful - i mentioned it at the very beginning of the discussion.
I saw COLD WAR yesterday and...sigh...I guess I'll have to give it a second try? It was so, so beautiful to look at but felt so distant and enigmatic. And I normally *like* distant and enigmatic! I even share some of the same cultural and familial background as these characters, and still couldn't quite make sense of the precise ways that the arc of the lovers' relationship interacted with its sociopolitical context. I think the movie doesn't intend for this interaction to be precise--in the way that the personal and political often exist on somewhat different wavelengths--but the increasingly tortured nature of the relationship left me grasping for something to hang on to. The ending didn't work at all for me, and I can't imagine that changing entirely on second viewing.
Agree that Joanna Kulig has an impressive presence on screen, and I actually feel the same about the male lead, Tomasz Kot, who is pretty stunning to look at. I just wish they'd been given more to play.
Where is your MPR review Nathaniel?
Thank you so much for the Christmas present podcast, was very useful to help unwind over the last couple of days.
I have a question for the next podcast, if there's time.
The reminder list on Oscars website includes 348 eligible titles, of which 291 list over 2600 performances for consideration. That's a lot of films, and I doubt any member of the academy will have seen all of them (I can't even imagine many critics have seen all of them).
Do you think there should be a minimum number of films a member should have seen before they vote? And how should Academy members prioritse the films (assuming they won't see all of them)?
Thanks in advance.