• Still watching Eyes Wide Shut - a film w/novelistic depth. #
• still still still watching eyes wide shut - the show is gonna end up being 10 hours long! #
• watching generation kill…not bad #
• Getting ready to record the TFT ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ Appreciation Show #
• @icedcoffee EWS is a neglected masterpiece - guess ya gotta listen to find out why! #
• recorded the Eyes Wide Shut show - it’ll be 90minutes long! #
• limbering up to edit TFT Part 28 - Journey to the Center of Hellboy! #
• installing the twitter on facebook - ideally i’d like to show up in the TFT facebook group! #

• about to watch Le Samourai! #
• http://tinyurl.com/5kkpft #
• @tinythoughts ouch! #
• @davedelaney hmmm…plurk. #
• @tinythoughts be careful! #
• gettin ready to watch rest of Le Samourai #
• starting to watch ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ for a TFT Kubrick Appreciation Special #
• @talktennessee sorry to hear that! #
• @christopholies i miss chattanooga too - got to visit again someday! #
• @evilrooster have been waiting on my Mac to arrive for months (stuck in some shipping container somewhere! #

• writing the notes for this week’s show: Journey into the Center of Hellboy! #
• just recorded chapter 28 #

‘the savages’ has a joke for a title, in that it implies we haven’t progressed much as a race since the prehistoric times when throwing bones in the air was the height of creativity, or even more recently, when the european medieval homicide rate was 50% in some places (you had a one in two chance of being murdered by someone you knew in the days of the black plague, the early inquisition, and orlando bloom’s inter-faith dialogue). ‘the savages’ is about siblings trying to care for the elderly father who didn’t treat them well, and whom they don’t like very much. in that sense, it is about living and dying, and, in the context of contemporary medical culture - which can keep people alive far longer than ever before, leading to the inevitable fact that one day, someone is going to have pull the plug. savage indeed. or at least potentially so.

there are dozens of movies about ‘dying well’ - from ’stepmom’ to ‘terms of endearment’; and even though these have a reputation for over-egging the sentimentality, i don’t mind them that much. we all have to deal with the death of loved ones; this is hard enough without taking away the comfort that a ’soft’ movie might bring to the bereaved. though, of course, in these movies debra winger and susan sarandon don’t exactly die like we do in real life.

‘the savages’ wants to present something more honest; and in philip seymour hoffman and laura linney’s brother and sister pair, and most especially philip bosco’s father, portrays a painful little play. these are characters with whom you sympathise, rather than like. they make bad decisions. they are self-centered. they have a little bit of heart. it feels like real life.

no magic solutions present themselves; but facing the death of a parent does in some sense help the children grow up, if only a little. and the movie ends with a motif that some may find grating, but i think is one of the most honestly life-affirming images in the movies.

Hey Dear Listener it’s a ‘Bite-Sized’ episode of the Show!

Film Reviewed This Week: Illegal, Ghostbusters

Other Topics of Interest: Battlestar Galactica, Michael Keaton in White Noise and Multiplicity, Riker getting hit with a Poison Dart, Jett’s Role in Spy Game and Color of Money used in a Countdown Test.

* The Film Talk - Part 25 - Illegal Ghostbusters! (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)
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Films Reviewed This Week: Indiana Jones and Temple of the Crystal Skull / Ryan’s Daughter

Other Topics of Interest in the Conversation: Sydney Pollack, Contact, 2010, Forbin - the Colossus Project, Leo McKern, Zodiac, Starman, the Socratic Dialog, Carl Sagan, Helen Mirran, 70mm, CGI, Trevor Howard.

The Film Talk - Part 21 - Indiana Jones and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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In which Jett Loe spits up coffee all over this print, Gareth Higgins is bored out of his mind, Speed Racer and Imax are discussed at length and a contest is proposed. 

The Film Talk - Part 20 - Speed Racer!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

In which Jett Loe wakes up Gareth Higgins in bed and much is talked about. Films, people and things discussed include Santa Monica, The Odd Couple, Heaven’s Gate, Glasgow - Kentucky, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, Jewreview.net, Don’t Mess with the Zohan, Full Metal Jacket, Slumber, Michael Shannon, Tom Jones, a ‘Preview’ of The Dark Knight, ConstantComedy.com, Sidney Lumet, Eurobeat, Shine a Light and finally right near the end of the show: Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead.

The Film Talk - Part 19 - Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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In which Jett Loe and Gareth Higgins struggle together to restore their faith in cinema and are perhaps successful. Films and people discussed include Superhero Movie, Inland Empire, Sapphire and Steel, the ABC Democratic Debate, Jaws, Jaws 2, Jaws 3, Jaws 4, Full Metal Jacket, Blueray, the Shining, Laura Dern, David Lynch, the Queens Film Theatre, DVD Beaver, Shine a Light, Forgetting Sarah Marshall, Stop Making Sense, Fanny and Alexander, Deception, and Dante Spinotti.

The Film Talk - Part 18 - Faith in Cinema Restored!, (Click to Play, Right-Click to Download)

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