Awesome Friday Movie Podcast Episode 4: ‘Vivo’ & ‘The Suicide Squad’

Awesome Friday Podcast Vivo & The Suicide Squad

Greetings programs, it’s Awesome Friday on a Sunday, which means we’re back with another episode of the Awesome Friday Movie Podcast!

Join us this week as we discuss two new movies. First up is the new Sony Pictures Animation film Vivo, which features the voice, and songs, of Lin-Manuel Miranda and was released to Netflix this week. Second up is James Gunn’s triumphant return to superhero movies; the Warner Brothers and DC released The Suicide Squad, now in theatres (and on HBO Max in the United States).

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Review: ‘The Suicide Squad’ is wacky, juvenile, committed, fun, and familiar

The Suicide Squad

James Gunn has a distinctive voice. It’s always been there, from his days at Troma through writing the Scooby-Doo films and the Dawn of the Dead remake, and from his early directorial efforts like Slither and Super all the way to the Guardians of the Galaxy and now, the Suicide Squad. That voice is juvenile, a little dark, and also –and this is most important– fun.

I say this because The Suicide Squad, the movie he signed on to make while briefly exiled from Marvel Studios, is a juvenile movie. And it’s a little dark. And it’s pretty fun. But while its R-rated excesses are probably the logical extension of his voice as a storyteller, it is also cobbled together from his greatest hits from other projects. Your mileage may vary on whether it feels repetitive or merely familiar, but it’s also enough fun that that probably doesn’t matter.

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The Year in Books: Crime, Time Travel & Whatever The Southern Reach Trilogy Was About

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Trying to wrap up “the year in books” is an almost impossible task.  Sure, new books come out every week, but let’s be honest unless you’re someone who works in publishing and/or gets advance copies you are probably unlikely to be read up on all the books that come out in a particular year.  Reading takes time, and readers aren’t confined to a schedule.  A great book can be read the day it comes out or decades later.  So the prospect of wrapping up any particular year is a bit dodgy.  The best I can do is tell you how my year in books went. Continue reading “The Year in Books: Crime, Time Travel & Whatever The Southern Reach Trilogy Was About”