The Pestle: In-depth Movie Talk, No Fluff | Film Review | Spoilers

We sing through National Lampoon’s “Christmas Vacation” and discuss: editing; physical comedy; story; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “What’s funny is funny. The same thing that made you laugh a hundred years ago makes you laugh now.“ – Chevy Chase Watch us on YouTube: Short Spotlight: “Threads” This Week’s Recommendations: The post...

We sparkle through “Twilight” and discuss: writing and story, what makes Twilight an awful movie; special guest Scott Garrett Graham; Wes maybe gets stoned on air as a coping mechanism for intellectualizing a bad movie; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “There is nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at […] The post Ep 96: “Twilight” appeared first on Th...

We do the math on Bennett Miller’s “Moneyball” and discuss: plot and subplots; performances; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “I don’t want a lot of guys like me who played the game. Quite frankly, I want blank canvases; I want people to come in with new ideas. I don’t want the biases […] The post Ep 95: “Moneyball” appeared first on The Pe...

We speed through Christian Bale’s “Ford v Ferrari” and discuss: super in-depth cinematography breakdown; writing, and keeping a story on topic; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “I woke up this morning, and I still don’t believe I won the Daytona 500.“ – Dale Earnhardt Notes & References: Gator in the water prank […] The post Ep 94: “For...

We try to recall Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind” and discuss: cinematography; writing and story, subtle commentary; we are joined by special guest Dr. Jennifer Sapio!!; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “I hate a movie that will end by telling you that the first thing you should do is […] The post Ep 93: “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotle...

We relive Doug Liman’s “Edge of Tomorrow” and discuss: shooting a time travel story; writing and story; cinematography, how color grading, lenses, and lighting impacted the story; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Victorious warriors win first and then go to war, while defeated warriors go to war first and then seek to […] The post Ep 92: “Edge of Tomorrow&#...

We cackle through Joaquin Phoenix’s “Joker” and discuss: cinematography; story; performances; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Remorse for what? You people have done everything in the world to me. Doesn’t that give me equal right?“ – Charles Manson Notes & References: Denis Villeneuve IMDB Short Spotlight: This Week’s Recommendations: The po...

We tiptoe through John Carpenter’s “The Thing” and discuss: cinematography; special effects and how they tie into the theme; building suspense; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Horror is always the same. It changes with the culture and changes with technology. The stories are always the same. There are just two basic stories […] The post Ep 90: John Carpenter&#82...

We stalk through Drew Goddard’s “The Cabin in the Woods” and discuss: cinematography; story and writing; allegory; the role of horror films in society; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Some people ask why people would go into a dark room to be scared. I say they are already scared, and they need […] The post Ep 89: “The Cabin in the Woods” appeared fi...

We sprint through Danny Boyle’s “28 Days Later” and discuss: cinematography, how the film medium affects the story; story and writing; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Show people your stuff, listen carefully to their responses, but ultimately don’t value anyone’s opinion above your own. Be influenced by writers you dislike as well […] The post Ep 88:...

We ride through Michael Mann’s “Collateral” and discuss: cinematography, film and digital; emotionally investing in characters; challenging the characters; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Don’t be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.“ – Ralph Waldo Emerson Notes & Referen...

We jazz-hands our way through Christopher Nolan’s “The Prestige” and discuss: writing tricks; story; the film’s real “prestige”; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “What the eyes see and the ears hear, the mind believes.“ – Harry Houdini Short Spotlight: This Week’s Recommendations: The post Ep 86: “The Prestige” (2006) appe...

We fly through Gus Van Sant’s “Finding Forrester” and discuss: cinematography, and how lens selection affects the perception of the story; writing; story, and inciting incidents’; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “She wasn’t doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.“ – [&#...

We decipher Denis Villeneuve’s “Arrival” and discuss: cinematography; color; story; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “A language is not just words. It’s a culture, a tradition, a unification of a community, a whole history that creates what a community is. It’s all embodied in a language.“ – Noam Chomsky Notes & References: […] The post...

We venture into Steven Spielberg’s “Saving Private Ryan” and discuss: cinematography, camerawork, and lighting; story & writing; storming the beaches in the opening scene; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “...just know that every man I kill the farther away from home I feel.“ – Captain Miller Notes & References: Moral Injury Maggie […] The post...

We kickpunch, blast, and stab our way through Keanu Reeves’ “John Wick 3” and discuss: world building; fighting; we interview Aaron Alexander, an actor, stuntman, and fight choreographer (“Lucifer”, “Agents of Shield”, “Dirty John”, “Threads”, et al); and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Always be yourself, express yourself,...

We blast our way through James Cameron’s “T2: Judgment Day” and discuss: wardrobe; vfx; story & writing; scifi rules of time travel; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “I tend to like strong female characters. It just interests me dramatically. A strong male character isn’t interesting because it has been done and it’s […] The post Ep 81: “Term...

We stalk our way through James Cameron’s 1984 sci-fi/horror/action film “The Terminator” and discuss: visual storytelling; fx; robots & AI; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “With artificial intelligence, we are summoning the demon. You know all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, and he’s like, […] The post Ep...

We drink our way through Alexander Payne’s “Sideways” and discuss: story; cinematography; performances; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “It is better to hide ignorance, but it is hard to do this when we relax over wine.“ – Heraclitus Notes & References: Wes’ vineyard mini-documentary This Week’s Recommendations: The post Ep 79: “Sidewa...

We blast into Marvel’s “Avengers: Endgame” and discuss: story; theme; genre mixing; and a plethora of more things such as this. “The end of a melody is not its goal: but nonetheless, had the melody not reached its end it would not have reached its goal either. A parable.” – Friedrich Nietzsche This Week’s Recommendations: The post Ep 78: “Avengers: E...

We drift into Tom Hanks’ “Cast Away” and discuss: cinematography; story & theme; how subtext creates powerful emotions; and a plethora of more things such as this. “Black holes ain’t as black as they are painted. They are not the eternal prisons they were once thought. Things can get out of a black hole both […] The post Ep 77: “Cast Away” appeared fir...

We burn through Tony Scott’s “Man on Fire” and discuss: editing; performances; writing, how writing drama for film can differ from TV; And many of the things. “There came this point where I sat down with all my notebooks and I had to start to write, when I thought: this whole notion of writing for […] The post Ep 76: “Man on Fire” (2004) appeared first on The Pe...

We land on “Apollo 11” and discuss: cinema verite vs direct cinema; power of editing; celluloid vs digital; and a plethora of more things such as this. Clip of the Day: Notes & References: Vanity Fair article & video Space.com featurette Wiki: Direct Cinema vs Cinema Verité Todd Douglas Miller detailing cameras, footage, scanning, et […] The post Ep 75: “Apollo 11&#...

We slide into Judd Apatow’s “The 40 Year Old Virgin” and discuss: defining the romantic comedy genre; cinematography; comedy story structure; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Realize that sleeping on a futon when you’re 30 is not the worst thing. You know what’s worse, sleeping in a king bed next to a […] The post Ep 74: “The 40 Year Old Virgin” appea...

We take a swing at Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby” and discuss: cinematography; boxing as a metaphor; and other such stuff and things and stuff. “Don’t count the days, make the days count.“ – Muhammad Ali Notes & References: “The unexamined life is not worth living.” – Socrates This Week’s Recommendations: The post Ep 73: &#822...