FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #71 – “True Story” (dir. Rupert Goold)

Poster for "True Story"

This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel learn more about the mystery of Christian Longo and Michael Finkel than they ever wanted to. Enjoy the intense and inexplicable bromance that ensues as we reflect on whether or not strong performances from James Franco and Jonah Hill can redeem such a deeply uncomfortable film (29:20).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 6 out of 10

Show notes:

  • Music for tonight’s episode is…the movie’s trailer. Not much soundtrack to be had in this film.
  • Bart Layton‘s 2012 documentary, The Impostor, is a movie we’d recommend over this one (in fact, we did!) – and it is indeed on Netflix streaming as of this writing.
  • Apropos of nothing, here’s a link to Rob Cantor‘s performance of “Shia LaBeouf” Live. As we said… it’s delightful, and will change your life.

Listen above, or download: True Story (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)

FilmWonk Podcast – Episode #70 – “Furious 7” (dir. James Wan)

Poster for "Furious 7"
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel bid a fast and furious farewell to both Paul Walker and Justin Lin, bid a mostly positive hello to James Wan, and ponder the future of Hollywood’s biggest, dumbest action franchise that we just can’t get enough of (36:25).

May contain NSFW language.

FilmWonk rating: 7.5 out of 10

Show notes:

  • Music for tonight’s episode is the film’s opening theme song, “Ride Out” by Kid Ink, Tyga, Wale, YG, and Rich Homie Quan.
  • CORRECTION (kinda): We referred, slightly critically, to the “artifice” of the cars-dropping-from-planes sequence. To be clear, whenever we actually see the actors in the cars, it’s clearly fake, composited from green-screen footage shot elsewhere. So this critique still seems fair, even if that’s also been true of many of the simpler street racing stunts throughout the franchise. But, as one of our astute listeners pointed out, the stunt team actually did jump cars with skydiving cameramen out of airplanes to get the footage. Check out the (pretty awesome) behind-the-scenes featurette here.
  • CORRECTION: Not for the first or last time, I mixed up the names of Luke Evans and Lucas Black. I regret nothing.
  • We referred to a video from The Onion that featured “the 5-year-old screenwriter of ‘Fast Five'” – it’s well worth a look. And Chris Morgan has actually written the last five Fast and Furious scripts – everything from “Tokyo Drift” on.
  • Um, it seems we didn’t mention Kurt Russell at all on this podcast. Just an observation.

Listen above, or download: Furious 7 (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)