Film Junk Podcast Episode #497: The Interview and The Theory of Everything

Posted by on December 30th, 2014   Filed under: Featured, Film Junk Podcast

podcast497

0:00 – Intro
5:32 – Review: The Interview
30:41 – Review: The Theory of Everything
54:15 – Headlines: Entourage Trailer, White God Trailer
1:06:39 – Other Stuff We Watched: Foxcatcher, Coherence, The Red Chapel, Unbroken
Christmas Evil, Silent Night, Deadly Night, Ernest Saves Christmas, Big Eyes, Gone Girl, The Gambler, Maps to the Stars, Frank, Metro, Jodorowsky’s Dune, The Train
2:01:00 – Junk Mail: Is The Hobbit the Biggest Disappointment Since The Phantom Menace?, Frank’s Growing Appreciation for Horror Films + Extreme Horror, Is 48 FPS the Future of Cinema?, Qualification Rules for Top 10 Lists, Using the Letterboxd Like Button
2:45:38v– This Week on DVD and Blu-ray

Film Junk Podcast Episode #497: The Interview and The Theory of Everything by Filmjunk on Mixcloud

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  • Sam

    My rating scale is definitely different from all of yours, but if I had 7 “5-star” movies in one year, it would be an amazing year.

  • Lori Cerny

    Re: Using the Letterboxd Like Button…

    For me, the button is a matter of personal appeal to a movie, not how “good” a film is in the zeitgeist of film criticism. Kinda akin to food. A thick, juicy steak is probably delicious, but sometimes you prefer a cheap-ass McDonald’s burger.

    I rated 1982’s Fanny and Alexander 3 1/2 out of 5, but I did not click the “like” button. I appreciate the direction and acting in the film, but felt no connection to the characters, themes, or story.

    In contrast, I gave Zontar: The Thing from Venus (1966) a 2 out of 5 because it is a BAD movie, but I did “like” it because I find it bizarrely fun and very re-watchable.

  • Essie

    I was thinking the same thing! If I had two in one year it would be an amazing year…

  • Sam

    2007 is a year I usually look back to as a recent “amazing” year, and I think there was only 3 clear “5-star” movies for me.

  • Frankie Knuckles

    I definitely skew towards higher star ratings. Last comparable year for me quality-wise would be 2000 or 2001. I still hold out hope for Inherent Vice, Whiplash and a few others too.

  • Sam

    I don’t think I disagree with you though about the quality of this year overall, though I also haven’t seen Foxcatcher, Whiplash, Inherent Vice, Interstellar, Boyhood, The Drop, or Birdman so there’s a big chunk of potentially good movies I still need to catch up on.

    That said, I have seen a lot of other stuff and having a tough time thinking of something that “feels” like a number 1 type movie.

  • Matt Gaffney

    Got Van Damme’s Street Fighter at a 2.5 stars, and that’s got a big, hard “like”.

  • Sam

    I agree anyway you look at it is problematic, but I think Jay has the best idea as far creating Top 10 lists for a given year.

    If you’re looking to recap your favorite movies for the current year, I’d say it’s acceptable to put a festival movie that may not see a release until the following year on it, as long as you saw it that year, AND/OR include a movie that saw a festival or international release the year earlier, but got a U.S. release the current year. I feel both are acceptable when creating your list in the moment.

    5-10 years down the line though, I usually go with Frank’s idea of going by IMDb/Letterboxd years, but if all we are doing is creating a personal Top 10 list for ourselves that will sum up that current year in movies for you, I would say it’s completely acceptable for someone to include both Under the Skin and a movie from festival that won’t see release until 2015, on Top 10 list of 2014, as long as both were seen for the first time in 2014.

  • ECONOMYpolitica
  • Phil

    This was a great episode.

  • j-diggle

    Sean, I use Vudu to play my UV movies through my PS3. That any good for you?

  • Sean

    I was looking into that this week. It’s a U.S. only app and I have a U.S. PSN account so I was able to download it but it won’t even start up if I’m logged into my regular Canadian PSN account.

  • Sean

    Thanks Phil!

  • Jack Burton

    CFACT is a horseshit conservative lobby group funded by oil companies BTW.

  • scoobydelite

    I have a strange reluctance to rate a film five stars. Since 2011, have only given 3 films 5 stars on Letterboxd (not including documentaries).

  • ECONOMYpolitica

    Can you disprove any of the facts on that page?

  • Jameson

    For me, I don’t think about star ratings so much as what movies I’ll be talking about years from now. This year has more than a few I can think of.

  • Azazel

    I kind of wish you could select in letterboxd/imdb the release date to be shown.
    There are movies that have a festival release in a year and only have their first theater release at the end of the next.

    The Hurt Locker is one of those movies that is a mess if you want to put in some year list.

  • schizopolis

    Frank, when it comes to problems with my retail purchases, I’ve now learned to gripe on twitter directly at the retail store’s twitter account. I make sure my complaint is a reply to one of their tweets. That way every one of their followers can see. When I did that, I got a response immediately and they hooked me up!

  • Azazel

    I share the same opinion. Some movies i have 5 star rating and i didn’t use the like button. It was very good in technical terms, the plot was tight, the characters amazing etc. but i didn’t felt that like button.

    Other movies with lower rating i give the Like easily. Same with some movies that i loved when i was younger, and if i watch it and i still love it i will like that bad boy even if i can see the flaws and rate accordingly.

  • Azazel

    I think is a matter of preference. The thing to consider sometimes is are you potentially exposing yourself to all ratings?

    If you really compare every movie and rate them fairly there are movies out there so bad, that wouldn’t allow you to give 1 star to the movies you would normally. The thing is that you already made a pre selection in the movies you want to see, so that 1 star in not for all the movies but just for the ones that for some reason you decided to watch.

    Saving the 5th star to the truly especial movies and giving the standard rating (like 1.5 or 2 or 2.5) to the kind of “meh” movies is an approach i tried to avoid lately. I feel like i can rate some movies with 5 stars, and i can still differentiate them in a list, and i can express to others which ones i like more or less without having to be represented in the stars.

    It should generally skew towards high ratings i guess. If not than selecting the movies we watch would be kind of random. Sometimes a movie completely disappoints you, especially if you have high expectations for it, but most times i guess if you only watch what you want and don’t do it as a job you would find even the not so great movies to be in the 3 star rating at least since you already selected this movie based on some factors.

  • Phil

    Definitely a heavy five out of five.

  • schizopolis

    Great food analogy. You gotta learn to “like” your vegetables!

  • kyri

    I don’t know, I thought Babaduke was a bit too scary … couldn’t finished it. :(

  • Nick

    I could’ve sworn Sean talked about that North Korean documentary a year ago or so. I remember it very distinctly.

    Anyway, great episode. You’re on a roll!

  • Kasper

    I think the Entourage movie will get panned by critics and people of finer cinematic taste, but I’ll end up loving it for the entertaining schlock that it’ll no doubt be.

  • ReelJunkie

    Wouldn’t it have been more appropriate to have this as the Best Films of 2014 episode?

  • devolutionary

    Other than the fact it’s based off of one Colorado research source from 1 site finding, it’s as tough to disprove any more than it is to prove (kind of like ppl’s argument for religion). Those findings are extrapolated over barely 40 years. None of the charts take into account the bigger picture over thousands and thousands of years. There’s a ridiculously far-reaching angle from the site commenters as well which almost reeks of Fox News.

  • Jameson

    You sum it up best. Thinking about retroactively making top lists for past years, I do wonder if 50 years ago there were as many instances of limited/festival releases where the wide release date was significantly later.

  • ECONOMYpolitica

    How do the perceived political leanings of website commenters have any effect upon scientific data?

  • devolutionary

    Oh it’s not perceived, many seem more than willing to voice their displeasure or religious zealotry. But aside from that minor gripe, yes the Scientific data can be treated as fact on its own but spun in any number of ways based on the author’s intentions. If the idea of a Global “Cooling” only ‘factually’ started in 1978, then those charts would be pretty damning. 1 single reference (based on a few spreadsheets of plotted data) does not a great argument make.

    http://journals.ametsoc.org/doi/abs/10.1175/2008BAMS2370.1

  • I use it pretty much as Sean describes: anything 3.5 and above gets the like button, and I choose whether or not to use it for a 3/5 movie, which in my book is “just ok.” This is mainly so I can quickly separate “films I like” from “films I’ve seen,” like so: http://letterboxd.com/krudsma/likes/films/

  • devolutionary

    Ugh, which reminds me that I really need to update my Letterboxd as a new year’s resolution. Haven’t been logging in weeks.

  • Happy New Years guys, thanks for an episode across the holidays and THANKS for the past great Film Junking podcasting year! You guys fucking rock.

  • pcch7

    I did not enjoy the HFR in the Battle of the Five Armies, not at all. I don’t ever want to see it again until James Cameron comes around to prove it can be done well.

  • Kasper

    It’s been a great year for Film Junk with tons of amazing episodes. May 2015 be just as awesome!

  • Anthony

    You know the comparison between The Hobbit movies and The Phantom Menace likely has to do with both being prequela, not trilogies, right?

  • Not that it will affect your appreciation more or less for Coherence, but it is interesting to note that the almost the entire movie is improvised by the actors. There was no script.

  • Lior

    A few years ago, in the pre-letterboxd days, I met Frank in a Film Junk meetup in Toronto. Over a beer I revealed to him that the “what we watched” segment is my favorite on the show. Frank was nice enough to inquire:
    “So what have you been watching this week, Lior?”
    “The Train. Have you seen it?”
    “No, I have not”.
    “It’s really good”.
    “Okay”.

    It has now all come full circle for me… wait, it would’ve been full circle if I was talking to Jay… but never mind. It’s close enough.
    Also, when you meet celebrities you remember what you told them, but they remember nothing. Frank, you’re a celebrity.

  • Bo Jackson

    I thought “The Interview” started out well but went downhill as it moved towards the end. I do think the supporting cast more than held its own with Rogen and Franco, however; in some ways, Randall Park (Kim Jong-un) and Diana Bang (Sook) kind of stole the movie and had the more interesting characters to play.

  • Lior

    I wish the little orange heart was more prominently displayed. It appears as “liked” in the activity feed (most overused word in the Internet ever) and does not appear on your personal profile page at all.
    For me it’s very useful to be able express a specific affinity for films for whatever reason: Nostalgic, thematic, etc. It works for high rated films but there are always films that cinematically don’t merit five stars or even four stars and yet I love them dearly.

  • Lior

    Only 2014 film I rated 5 stars is Whiplash… I haven’t seen everything that was out there but I’ve seen most of the big ones… can’t think of anything that left my jaw on the floor like that film did.

  • Brian_M

    Frank on the money again re: Letterboxd, with where to put movies in end of year lists. Also, regardless of the year, if the movie is that good it should go into your top ten.