Greetings programs! We’re breaking down two new Netflix releases this week on the show. First, we look at the Norwegian kaiju film Troll and then the new stop-motion adaptation of Pinocchio by director Guillermo del Toro.
Greetings, programs, and welcome to this week’s episode of the Awesome Friday podcast! This week we’re taking a closer look at two new films: first up, the satire of southern baptist megachurches from first-time director Adamma Ebo, Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul. Which stars the electric duo of Sterling K. Brown and Regina Hall. Following that we have the latest from Mad Max creator George Miller, the modern fairy tale Three Thousand Years of Longing starring the inimitable Tilda Swinton and Idris Elba.
This week Simon is away, so once again, I’m joined by award-winning Toronto-based critic and friend of the show Rachel Ho!
There are JustWatch-powered streaming links for both titles below, our ratings, how you can listen to and support us, and where you can find more of Rachel’s content.
Grief is a complex emotion and one that requires time and energy to process properly. Yet, for many, there needs to be an outlet, some creative space or activity that allows one to examine their feelings in a removed but still direct manner. This is the premise of The Souvenir Part II. In a landscape of blockbuster franchises and a dwindling market for low and mid-budget dramas, this film already feels like a minor miracle: the sequel to a 2019 semi-autobiographical character study of a young woman in love with a toxic partner, Part II picks up immediately where The Souvenir left off and takes a deeper and more thoughtful dive into writer-director Joanna Hogg’s past.
Apichatpong Weerasethakul is a unique filmmaker with only a few films under his belt, but each of them garnering widespread acclaim, probably most notably with 2010s Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, for which he won the Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Memoria is the first film he has made outside of his native Thailand, and the first time he has worked with an international cast. While the film is beautifully shot and singular in its vision, it’s also overlong, incredibly indulgent, and will reach into your soul and pull out… something.
I haven’t had a lot of time this weekend but here are some quick thoughts on two movies you can see this week. There’ll be more detailed analysis in the next episode of the podcast.
Wes Anderson is a film maker with a distinct voice. He tells stories with emotional cores and often tells them using characters that don’t always seen to want to, or even know how to, express those emotions and sets them in a world that is just over the border into absurdity and littered with all kinds of fine detail, interesting colour palettes, and now stop motion.
Basically he crafts a whimsical world and then populates it with non-whimsical people.
In any event, The Grand Budapest Hotel may be his best film yet by virtue of the fact that it’s probably the most Wes-Anderson-y film he’s made to date, but in the best way possible.
Wes Anderson makes a certain flavour of film. I like to call it “Wes Andersony” because he’s the only guy that makes that particular flavour. _The Grand Budapest Hotel_ appears to be the most Wes Andersony film yet. Let’s watch!
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