In this week’s podcast, Glenn and Daniel return to the stylish world of writer/director Edgar Wright, and find it strangely exhausting this time around. Can an array of fun gangster performances overcome an oppressive soundtrack and wasted, one-dimensional female leads? We’ll struggle to find out (27:52).
May contain NSFW language.
FilmWonk rating: 5 out of 10
Show notes:
Music for this episode is the tracks “B-A-B-Y” by Carla Thomas, and “Bellbottoms” by The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, from the film’s soundtrack.
Listen above, or download: Baby Driver(right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser)
This week on the podcast, Glenn and Daniel take on a surprising double-header. First comes Promised Land, a reunion between Matt Damon and Gus Van Sant (Good Will Hunting), along with newcomer John Krasinski (from “The Office”), featuring salesmen trying to convince a small town to let them drill for natural gas in their backyards (a process known as fracking). Then comes Django Unchained, an escaped-slave revenge romp from Quentin Tarantino starring Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, and Leonardo DiCaprio. The biggest surprise? After declaring Inglourious Basterds the FilmWonk favorite of 2009, we had a very different experience with Tarantino’s latest (1:09:22).
Music for this episode comes from Luis Bacalov‘s original theme song to the 1966 Sergio Corbucci film Django, which also appears in Tarantino’s film.
While we certainly don’t attempt to settle the fracking issue on this podcast, you can read more about it here.
CORRECTION (from Glenn): Upon reflection, I must retract my comment about Spike Lee. While he did attack Django Unchained for depicting slavery in the context of a spaghetti western, and has criticized Tarantino about his use of racial epithets previously (NSFW), he has not (to our knowledge) ever stated that Tarantino’s race is a factor in his ability to make a film about slavery. Read his exact position (in brief) on Twitter. We apologize for the error.
While Glenn adored Inglourious Basterds, Daniel was definitely not a fan. Revise history in his presence at your own peril!
Listen above, or download: Promised Land/Django Unchained (right-click, save as, or click/tap to play on a non-flash browser).
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