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The Neon Demon | The LAMBCast
The Vern’s choice for Movie of the Month was the winner for March, and he hosted the show on 2016’s “The Neon Demon”. Those of you longtime listeners of the Lambcast know that The Vern enjoys a divisive movie conversation, and that’s exactly what we got with this week’s show. Matthew Simpson from the Awesome Friday Podcast, and James Wilson from Blogging by Cinema Light, joined us for an examination of “Drive” Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s last theatrical film. Link: https://largeassmovieblogs.com/2024/03/lambcast-725-the-neon-demon-march-motm.html Be sure to check out the other guests on this episode:
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The Classics Shelf: Cannes ’82 | That Shelf
Continuing on from the Criterion Shelf, The Classics Shelf is an ongoing retrospective of classic cinema produced monthly by writer Bil Antoniou and in collaboration with other writers in the That Shelf stable. This month’s theme is the 1982 Cannes Film Festival, and I contributed a review of the 1982 film Moonlighting, starring Jeremy Irons, which won the Best Screenplay award at the festival for writer-director Jerzy Skolimowski. Moonlighting is a film about many things, but primarily about isolation. The men are isolated in the house they are remodelling, and Nowak is perhaps even more so as he is trapped not…
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Dune: Part Two | The LAMBCast
Three years ago, the first part of Denis Villeneuve’s science fiction vision of the Frank Herbert book, appeared and was incredibly successful at the box office, in spite of being streamed simultaneously on HBO Max. Well, the service is now just called MAX, and it did not get the film before audiences could encounter it in a theater, one that had a different MAX brand,…IMAX. Nick Rehak, Matthew Simpson, and Thomas Stoneham Judge, insisted on an upscale presentation: IMAX, Laser Max, Dolby Atmos. Nicole Ayers saw the film in a traditional AMC Theater, in a borderline neighborhood, and hers were…
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The Zone of Interest & Spaceman | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! Join us for a discussion about Jonathan Glazer’s academy award nominated The Zone of Interest and Johan Renck’s Adam Sandler starring existential sci-fi drama Spaceman. It’s a good discussion, and we hope you enjoy it! Listening Links: On this week’s Patreon supporter bonus episode, Matthew saw Dune Part Two and then hijacked the whole show to talk about it. Simon also asks about movies and shows that we were expecting to not like but ended up loving, which is a fun discussion for reasons you may not expect. Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/march-3rd-bonus-99691980
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28th Annual Online Film & Television Association Film Award Winners
This year, I joined the Online Film & Television Association and voted for their annual film awards, which have now been announced! The Online Film & Television Association has selected Oppenheimer as 2023’s best film. In addition, it was presented eleven other prizes. Christopher Nolan’s historical epic about the construction of the atomic bomb also claimed the awards for Supporting Actor (Robert Downey Jr.), Ensemble, Casting, Director, Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Film Editing, Cinematography, Sound, Sound Effects, and Cinematic Moment along with the publicity award for Movie Poster. Barbie and The Holdovers tied for second with 4 awards each. Barbie won for Original Song (“What Was I…
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2023 – 2024 International Film Society Critics Awards
As a member in good standing, I was privileged to vote in the 2022-2023 International Film Society Critics Association Awards proceedings, both to determine the nominees and select the winners. I also wrote up the announcement post this year, where you can find a full list of the nominees and winners. The International Film Society Critics Association has announced their full slate of award winners for the 2023-2024 season. The nominees were officially announced on Twitter on February 21st 2024, and our membership of 79 critics from around the world voted on the winners. This year, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer leads the…
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Anyone But You & Avatar: The Last Airbender | Awesome Friday Podcast!
This week on the show, we’re looking at the new Shakespeare-adapted rom-com Anyone But You and the new live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender. Listen to find out how they each hold up! Listening Links: This week, Matthew & Simon went on an actual trip to an actual cinema to see Christopher Nolan’s film Tenet in 70mm, so that ended up being the major topic of discussion in this week’s bonus round, as well as more talk about Mr Nolan and his filmography. Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-25-in-99292465
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Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ Once Again Fumbles the Source Material | Exclaim!
As with any adaptation, Avatar walks a tricky line, seeking to please fans of the original material and appeal to new fans. Showrunner Albert Kim has publicly said that one of his goals was to broaden the appeal to an adult audience, citing Game of Thrones as an example of the tone he’d like to set — a tone he strikes within the show’s first few minutes when a character is immolated on screen by the series villains, the Fire Nation. An incongruity is apparent just as quickly, though, as the series looks and feels like a live-action adaptation of the made-for-children source material.…
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Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent Review: The Iconic Franchise Comes to Canada | That Shelf
[T]his reliance on archetypes and such a well-established formula is both the show’s biggest weakness and its greatest strength. It’s either “another Law & Order…” or “Another Law & Order!” That might seem like a fairly narrow distinction, but it’s true. Once again, this is a franchise with enough episodes under its belt that if you watched one a day, it would take you three and a half years to watch them all, and that’s before you consider counting international remakes. It has its own tropes, and the pilot episode hits almost all of them, up to and including ending on…
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The King of Comedy | The LAMBCast
This month’s selection as Movie of the Month came from a list of Blind Spots submitted by the host. A Martin Scorsese flop from 1983, which has grown in stature over the years, “The King of Comedy” starring Robert DeNiro. DeNiro is the frustrated, Rupert Pupkin, obsessed with becoming a comedy great. However, when he confronts his idol, talk show host Jerry Langford, with a plea to perform on Jerry’s show, he is only given the run-around. He does not give up, however, but persists in stalking Jerry until he gets what he wants. Eventually he must team up with…
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I.S.S. & The Taste of Things | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! We’re back after a week away and talking about the new outer space set thriller I.S.S. and then catching up with France’s official submission for the Best International Feature Oscar, The Taste of Things. Our opinions are both the same and different about both of these movies, and one of them garnered a pretty specific reaction from [me]. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/02/podcast-i-s-s-the-taste-of-things/ This week for your bonus episode, Simon and I talk first about films from our childhood that don’t really hold up despite the nostalgia we may have attached to them, and then move on to films that are…
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‘Shōgun’ Is a Grand Epic Without Focus | Exclaim!
… [T]he series contains many great performances and an excellent production design that make it worth watching. Everything from the costumes to the CG cityscapes feel as considered and authentic as possible, and for those of us who appreciate stage violence, this has its fair share. Shōgun is a good show — but it sometimes feels like something is missing, and that something is holding it back from being great. Link: https://exclaim.ca/film/article/shogun-series-review-review-disney-plus
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Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom & The Beekeeper | Awesome Friday Podcast!
This week on the show we’re catching up with the last CDEU film, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and then we move on to Jason Statham’s new action movie The Beekeeper. Both of these movies are more fun than you think; join us to find out why! Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/02/podcast-aquaman-and-the-lost-kingdom-the-beekeeper/ This week’s bonus chat has us discussing our favourite against-type performances! Link: https://www.patreon.com/posts/february-4th-98000437
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Oscars Special: The 2024 Academy Awards Predictions & Preferences | Awesome Friday Podcast!
Greetings programs! It’s that time of year, the Oscar Nominees have been announced! This week, we’re breaking down our preferences and predictions for (almost) every category of the 96th Academy Awards. Some of our choices line up, and some of them don’t, so take a listen to see if you agree with Matthew, Simon or both. Link: https://awesomefriday.ca/2024/01/podcast-oscars-special-the-2024-academy-awards-predictions-preferences/ Staying on theme with the Academy Awards, we look back at the best picture winners of our lifetimes and try to choose a favourite, and then try to pick out the year that makes us each say, “Wait, that film won…
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2024 Pandora International Critics Awards
This is my third year as a voting member of the Pandora International Critics, and this years awards have now been announced. I’m both proud and excited that Past Lives took the top prize and the Filmmaking Breakthrough Award, as well as recognizing Charles Melton, Andrew Scott, and Sandra Hüller, who, in my opinion, haven’t seen enough love this awards season. In a year for Oppenheimer and Barbie in humongous, explosive fashion right across 2023, the Pandora International Film Critics still hailed the greatness of world cinema in its 5th annual awards hand-outs. The Greta Gerwig and Christopher Nolan monsters did come away with…
I am a Rotten Tomatoes-approved, freelance film & television critic and podcast host from Vancouver, Canada! I am a co-founder of the Cascadia Film & Television Critics Association and a voting member of the International Film Society Critics, Pandora International Critics, and the Online Film & Television Association.
I maintain bylines at Exclaim!, Awesome Friday!, That Shelf, ForReel, Movies We Texted About, KeithLovesMovies, and I can be heard regularly on the Contra Zoom Podcast and The LAMBCast.
