I couldn’t find this topic when I searched for it. If I’m wrong and it exists mods please feel free to move this
Be Kind and Rewatch It has been my favorite podcast from this site apart from Waypoints and I’ve greatly enjoyed all the discussions that’ve been had.
This is by no means a topic intended to say, “hey waypoint do this film for your podcast.” They’re going to do the films they want to do and I’m going to listen regardless. So this absolutely shouldn’t be thought of as anything other than a discussion-based wishlist!
On the episode about Glass, concern was raised about the quality of the films being picked.
What I want to know is this: if you could pick a film or two for Be Good and Rewatch It, regardless of quality, what would those films be?
For me…
I’d like to see a critical lens brought to Kathryn Bigelow’s Strange Days (1995), a film I have fairly complex feelings about.
Also Johnny Mnemonic because I want to get online. I NEED. A COMPUTER.
David Cronenberg’s Naked Lunch, because it’s utterly bizarre and I need to listen to other people say “mugwump jism”
EDIT: NO, holy fuck, I got a better answer! Brian Yuzna’s 1989 film SOCIETY. It’s an absolutely, positively, ESSENTIAL piece of leftist cinema that you SHOULD NOT, under any circumstances, spoil for yourself. Don’t watch the trailer, look for images, go to the Wikipedia page, none of that. Do whatever you can to go in as blind as possible.
I remember Austin talking about the foundations of cyberpunk and how they’ve always been compromised, and I’d like to here him go into that a bit more with some of the first cyberpunk films!
I’d like to see them talk about some Michael Mann movies, maybe. Heat and Collateral make a fantastic double feature, and I love the way Mann plays with morality and what’s expected in typical crime thrillers. Heat is great with playing on your perspectives of good guys vs. bad guys. It kind of goes into a theme I like, where you find yourself sympathizing with the criminal gang more than the cop gang. Collateral is basically a philosophy debate between uncompromising nihilism and late-capitalism stagnation.
I’ve always had this fun idea of playing a continuous loop of Heat and Collateral back to back, never going to credits. It could just be some channel on Twitch, or some other platform. It works because Collateral starts in an airport and ends at a subway station, while Heat starts in a subway and ends at an airport.
I know that it probably wouldn’t happen due to how many movies there are but I’d love to hear them do the Resident Evil movie franchise. Those movies are ridiculous and silly and they’re all varying degrees of bad but I really genuinely enjoy them for what they are. Well, except for The Final Chapter. That one is a dumpster fire and I’d love to hear them tear it apart.
Also, I like @trty0’s idea of Naked Lunch but mostly just because I, for some inexplicable reason, have been thinking about that movie a lot lately.
Oooo for movies I’d love to see Kiki’s Delivery Service, especially with the ongoing conversations in games regarding burnout, overwork, and the value of having a community that encourages a healthy working culture. Might also be nice to have something thats just happy and fun to watch.
… its also basically my favourite movie so im extremely biased here.
Perfect Blue might also be a good choice for those themes, and it would probably result in more discussion.
Yo I really want them to do Dog Day Afternoon! It’s my favorite movie next to Children of Men; and I think it’s such a fantastic, tense, heartbreaking ride from start to finish. It deals with some real heavy shit pretty deftly, and Pacino’s performance in it is also one of my all-time favorites. I don’t want to say anymore without spoiling but it’s a wild film and if you haven’t seen it I can’t recommend it enough. I’d love to hear them talk about it!
I rewatched Dog Day Afternoon recently and absolutely agree that it would be great for Be Good and Rewatch It. It holds up even better than I remembered. It might be my favourite Pacino performance, too. His criminal incompetence and slow stressful unraveling as the movie reveals his motivations is fantastic.
I’d really be interested in having them watch selections of some anime series or anime films.
But since their focus seems to be finding the interest (or adding perspective) to decidedly B live action movies I would suggest Spke Lee’s Inside Man.
It is a very good film that gets done what it sets out to do. It is extremely good but does nothing to attract others to it or to give it a sense of novelty. This is surprising given Spike’s reputation for trying things out and making movies that draw people to them.
More than that, it says a lot of interesting things about post 9/11 NY and just about about 21st century America in general. I rewatched it and it was somehow even more subtly incisive than before. It would be really interesting to see them really dig into it.
Films no one else will mention because they’re probably more Be Good and Watch It than (Re,) but I think they’ll make great conversation pieces (and Austin/Rob might have seen some of these.)
-Sansho the Bailiff: Kenji Mizoguchi tells different, more mundane stories about feudal Japan than contemporaries like Kurosawa and Kobayashi, though with no less lush detail or drama. This film more directly focuses on class than his other two most popular films, Ugetsu and The Life of Oharu - Ugetsu might be a more common starting place.
-Pather Panchali: Satyajit Ray invents the Indian arthouse and introduces the music of Ravi Shankar with his Apu Trilogy, recently restored on gorgeous 4K by The Criterion Collection. This film delves deep on Indian poverty and childhood, and I think Patrick will appreciate its depiction of fatherhood (and absence therein.)
-Tangerine: Sean Baker’s 2015 film began the trend of shooting critically acclaimed films on iPhones and tells the story of two trans sex workers in LA who seek resolution with one of their boyfriends/their pimp after he cheated. Baker has spoken about how in developing the film’s script he made sure actresses Mya Taylor and Kiki Rodriguez we’re developing the film’s dialogue and story. It’s hilarious, life-affirming, and even on Netflix!
-Hausu: A madcap Japanese horror comedy by an advertising director that makes me laugh and cry every time. Definitely inspired Nintendo in the N64 era with two direct references in Super Mario 64 and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask.
