My friends, it’s been a fantastic birthday.

This year I kept things much lower-key than I have in the past, and perhaps in a sign of my old age, I found it very much to my liking. As I moved to and for through my wonderfully low-key birthday weekend, I was kept in a constant state of joy thanks to the many well-wishes that were getting sent to me by my fellow bloggers and podcasters. So while I’ve said it a few times already, let me say it once more: I’m a lucky man to have the sort of readers, listeners, friends, and family that I do.

As for the podcast, it gets in on the birthday celebration by continuing the newfound tradition of discussing an old favorite. Considering how much I’ve latched on to Billy Wilder over the last twelve months, the choice of film was a no-brainer. As for my guest, I reached out to someone who has become as good of a friend as one could want for, and has done it with a great deal of generosity and grace.

Finally, I made one more change to the show. I know last week I said that going forward I would be using My Morning Jacket as the official theme song of The Matineecast, but in listening back, I didn’t feel like it struck quite the note I wanted. So this week, I’ve gone with a different choice – one that I’m more apt to stick with going forward.

The Birthday party os just about over, but there’s still tea and cake. So help yourself and listen in as I start my 35th spin around the sun.

 

Here’s what’s in store in episode eighty-six…

 

Runtime
71 minutes

Up for Discussion

1. Introduction
2. KNOW YOUR ENEMY– Q& A with this week’s guest Jess Rogers (2:30)
3. COME TALK TO ME – Fielding some listener feedback on the best films of the last 35 years (13:45)
4. THE NEW SLANG – Review and reaction to THE APARTMENT (27:53)
5. THE OTHER SIDE – Jess couples DOUBLE INDEMNITY (47:16)
6. THE OTHER SIDE – Ryan couples EASY A (58:06)

You can subscribe to the Matineecast via iTunes or RSS

Comments and feedback are welcome, and thank-you very much for listening.

Enjoy!

Podcast: Play in new window | Download | Embed

Subscribe: Android | RSS

12 Replies to “Episode 86”

  1. I really loved this episode 😀

    First of all, thank you so much for the shout out. Really made my day.

    I adore The Apartment. I don’t think I realised the first time I watched it about how attractive the leading pair are, and you’re right, they are just adorable. Also the fact that the really good romcoms do have a solid, mostly serious, issue at their core. I think whenever someone insults romcoms in front of me, I tell them to watch this, but then half the time they are put off by the black and white and I have nothing to say anymore.

    YES! to Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I always feel so left out whenever people are constantly praising Raiders of the Lost Ark. Don’t get me wrong- I love that one too, but Last Crusade is by far my favourite.

    Also I was so happy throughout the Tucci-Clarkson praising. They are my favourite thing about Easy A. Dream parents.

    I will think a little and get back to you for the “hero” thing.

    1. Thanks Nik – like I said, your show was like a birthday gift had arrived early.

      You’ve had a while to think about it, any ideas for a movie character hero?

  2. A cold open is a cold open is a cold open sir…

    While you’re completely wrong on The Apartment… this movie isn’t great… it’s PERFECT!!!!

    Ye that ‘buddy boy’ thing always got me, mainly because it’s something I refuse to accept in my own professional life. Whenever someone calls me anything other than Mr. Robinson or Andrew I stop them and correct them, when I see them ignoring that I super-correct them, and I also do it in the opposite direction such that I refuse to call anyone at work anything other than Mr. X or their name…

    Something about the moment where Baxter is outside the theatre waiting on Fran with a cold sticks with me though. The shot when everyone’s gone in and he’s realised she’s not coming and you just see this slew of papers dragging across the ground by the wind and Baxter walking off on his own (with his apartment in use) just slays me.

    PS. can’t wait to hear your response to CLOSE-UP when that comes around

    1. For a moment, I got worried because there’s an old film titled CLOSE-UP that I thought TCM was going to be showing instead. When one looks at the TCM website, that old film also shows the criterion dvd cover as its poster art.

      Thankfully, I’ve confirmed that it’s the Kiarostami version that will be broadcast in 10 days.

      PS – Your hero so far as movie characters go?

  4. Nice to hear about an old movie for a change! I haven’t seen The Apartment but I love both Double Indemnity (my favourite noir so far) and Easy A (one of the best teenage movies of the last few years). One thing I don’t think any of you mentioned about the latter, is that it has a lot of references to 80s rom-coms, which makes it a really cool experience too, when you’ve seen the movies. So it sort of introduced me to that part of cinematic history.

    Interesting that there were so many war movies as an answer to your question… actually, I think both of yours were.

    And of course a big thank you for plugging our podcast!

    1. Thanks Mette!

      More than once when I’ve started talking about an old film, I begin to wonder why I don’t do it more often. Perhaps you’re on to something, especially since I’d wager you could hear how excited I was to be talking about such a stellar movie.

      Were there a lot of war films? I didn’t notice! Guess I’ll have to re-listen to that section.

      PS – Did you have an answer for the next feedback question? A movie character that you see as a hero?

    2. Oh, I forgot all about the feedback question! I’ll go with a movie I saw just recently and a male character (even though I always try to choose female ones): Ferris Bueller. He’s a bit too perfect to be real, which to me is one of the things that define heroes, and he has been inspiring kids ever since the movie came out in the ’80s. Even though 9 days of absence really doesn’t seem like a lot to me (don’t know whether it has to do with the difference between American and European school systems), Ferris stands for the idea of taking a break and not blindly following the expectations of society – in his case, the expectations of his parents and teachers. Also, he’s not lazy, but uses his “stolen” free time to just have a good time and do cool things like performing a musical number and driving around in a Ferrari.

  5. Great listen. Enjoyed it. Wilder had a gift for blending really dark and really light material, something which the rom coms of today just don’t do. Or maybe I should say, aren’t allowed to do. I really, really liked Easy A (especially Stone in it) but it struck me that there was a little bit more darkness in that material that kind of needed to stay out of sight for modern times.

    My movie hero? Rose DeWitt Bukater from “Titanic.” Forever and always. No one movie character will ever mean more to me, and I’m not ashamed to say it.

Comments are closed.