The Wages of Cinema

I'm sure some of us (no, let's admit it, all of us) have asked oruselves or others, possibly when we're stoned, if we could be any animal which would we pick? A dog? Most of us might choose a dog, they're so lovable and cuddly and want to be for their masters. But what about a turtle? Or a lobster? Or a parrot? What kinds of existential questions come with becoming something... else? This might be...

First of all, WOO HOO! WE MADE IT TO EPISODE 50! ::blows horns, does a jig:: Second, couple of things to get out of the way: 1) the audio may sound wonky at times due to an air conditioner that was close by (welcome to summer!), we apologize in advance for that, and 2) if you want to avoid SPOILERS stop listening at 29:24 into the podcast (or when the reprisal of 'Sweet Dreams' comes up). Now, wha...

Who is James Rolfe? Ever hear of him or the Angry Video Game Nerd online? Maybe you've seen the movie he made based on his character or seen some of his reviews of games that he takes you back to the past to play and which may suck a particular body part. Well, anyway, we're not here to promote him, per-say, however we did take a look at his "Ghostbusters" *non* review, and it branches off not jus...

Sometimes you just don't have enough dough to go to the museum, preferably the Russian art and history museum. And sometimes you don't have the transportation to get there, or the means to grab a hold of a book of Russian history (not that there isn't Wikipedia, but you want something that makes you feel *immersed* in the last 300 years of what Russia's gone through). However, if you have Netflix,...

In this first part of our latest Wages of Cinema podcast, it's time to talk... movies, of course! And we got a lot of them (or Jack does, but Andrew has an accomplishment that you should listen to and congratulate him on). From blockbusters of the nearly forgotten kind to horror and thrillers both new and classic (including a major tip of the hat to Mike Flanagan), and a David Bowie 1973 concert f...

From the look of things this year, between Fox with their X-Men movies and DC with their franchises and Marvel continuing their cinematic universe (and Sony, well, they now have no choice but to co-parent Spider-Man with Disney, but I digress), it looks as though there's no other space for movies that might come from other comic books or graphic novels in the world. But Jack and Andrew are here to...

Boy, being a witch once was really difficult... Jack looks at the 1922 silent film by Benjamin Christensen, HAXAN: WITCHCRAFT THROUGH THE AGES in this week's Cinema Immersion Tank, where we each watch a film five times in a row. What to uncover this episode? Well, let's see... SATAN!? wagesofcinema@gmail.com (Features music from the film, Haxan, which is in the public domain, and snippets of the s...

Since Andrew can't seem to get the Batman v Superman episode out of his head - the justice is now in the day when it was once just a dawn, of course - he goes back ten years and checks out Bryan Singer's version of a Superman sequel-cum-reboot, SUPERMAN RETURNS. Then, at 21 minutes in, Jack gets to discussing films he's seen over the past two weeks that range from new movies of the independent pas...

(PLEASE NOTE: Spoilers begin at 26:11 into the podcast, right after the audio clip from the movie) Imagine this, fellow listeners: a comic book movie with people who have special abilities and powers and can punch and kick and move and flip and fly really fast and awesomely... with stakes? What happens when the philosophies of characters get challenged by the world in ways that feel impactful? Civ...

It's one thing when you meet an actress - seemingly in New York city you can poke a stick any which way and come up with someone who's been on Law & Order or at least auditioned - but it's another when you meet someone who has their proverbial s*** together, and has a business no less. This is Jordan Elizabeth Gelber, who has been featured on shows like One Life to Live, House of Cards and (most r...

For our main topic of the week, we return to something we tried out last year to some success - a discussion of horror movies in that spooktacular-est of months, APRIL! (Hey, if you've filed your taxes you know what we're talking about). This time Jack discusses four movies - three of which Andrew has seen - and they go across the spectrum from Italian exploitation, 90's urban, 80's "slasher" (in...

Los Angeles. 2019. What about New Jersey. 2016. Hmm? How deep can one go into the world of what many consider THE science fiction film-noir hybrid in the history of the cinematic art-form? Blade Runner is cited as Ridley Scott's masterwork, loaded with visual splendor (via the great Douglas Trumbull and his team), and featuring Rutgetr Hauer at his Rutger-yest. But is it a movie that is, shall we...

First up on this new episode of the Wages of Cinema Jack and Andrew discuss the brief but (thank goodness) aborted plan by AMC to allow texting in theaters; a brief talk about The Magnificent Seven (remake) trailer and Westerns in popular culture; and then at 26 minutes in, Jack talks about some movies he watched in the past couple of weeks. What sort of movies? The range goes from a (sadly late)...

What happens when a director from Russia who's mostly only done music videos involving Go-Pro cameras that involve the word 'Motherf***er' in the title (no, really, look up Ilya Naishuller and you'll see what we mean) a $10 million budget, Sharlto Copley, and not just some of the guns and ammo and stunt-men game for anything (including having aforementioned Go-Pros)? Well... I hasten to think of w...

The realm of time travel movies is all about the 'What if you COULD do this' scenario. We all think about this, what if you could make your life better or make more money or make this girl or boy fall in love with you, or stop an assassination from happening. With Shane Carruth and his first feature film, 2004's Primer, he wasn't so much interested in the 'what if's as much as showing hardcore, ho...

Sometimes when you try to talk about any art form, and particularly for movies and cinema, certain buzz words are hard to escape. One of those is 'pretentious'; the dictionary calls it "attempting to impress by affecting greater importance, talent, culture, etc., than is actually possessed." Of course you can use some other words in place of it - overbearing, ostentatious, pompous, elaborate, extr...

On this illustrious 44th episode (first part) of the Wages of Cinema, we discuss at the top of the show some possible idea for future episodes from emails we received; at 9:20 there's some time to talk about Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Disney and Gareth Edwards' trip into an anthology series which gets a trailer; at 26:20 we then get into a talk about the Richard Donner Superman, which Andrew wa...

What's it like to work as a production designer? Or as part of the art direction crew? What do you do if you have to make sure Dominic Monaghan's on-screen jacket is there? Or do color correction for a commercial directed by a comedy mega-star? And what do all of these things lead up to seeking a career as a sketch comedy filmmaker - with feet deeply in Upright Citizen's Brigade - into a new serie...

Want to hear us talk about a giant slew of trailers? Well, that's what we're experimenting with this week! Check out the link here for more, and listen to this intro to hear what's going on. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecf45UzfcEg&feature=youtu.be

MARTY! YOU GOTTA COME WITH US! BACK TO THE FUTURE PODCAST! Andrew digs deep as he possibly can into this Robert Zemeckis/Steven Spielberg modern comedy-action-sci-f wonder of filmmaking. He looks at the questions you may not have considered (what *is* a flux capacitor?) and realizes that Crispin Glover can't be praised enough. Love the movie? Have you gone back in time yet to see it? HAVE YOU? mes...

First we talk about a new wave of propaganda movies dubbed by us "CHRISTSPLOITATION" (i.e. God's Not Dead 1 & 2, Left Behind, Kirk Cameron's Saving Christmas, War Room). Then once done, (thank God!) at the 25 minute mark we talk about the movies we've watched the past week. 1) Christian movies 2) EVERYBODY WANTS SOME!! (2016) 3) GOJIRA/GODZILLA: KING OF THE MONSTERS 4) MIDNIGHT SPECIAL (2016) 5) S...

Do you bleed after listening to the 59th review of Batman v Superman (aka Batman Five Superman)? Well... maybe you will after this, who knows. The Wages of Cinema has strong side effects which may include massive bleeding and hemorrhaging... of common sense after seeing this movie! But really, the critics have spoken, the audience is seeing this likely in droves, will you be one of those? How did...

We finally RETURN with our Local Vocal series with a conversation with Risa Pappas. She is a director, a sound operator, script supervisor, producer, writer, radio producer, you name it she DOES IT. It's one thing that she is our first female director guest, but she is more than that. You will hear things you won't be able to un-hear, and we mean that in good ways (for example, you will know the w...

Do you like happenings that FREAK YOU OUT? Do you like breasts of various shapes and sizes (mostly large ones)? Do you enjoy that groovy rock and roll? Or soap operas? What about the 20th Century Fox Fanfare used in such a creative way that it may make you think differently every time you watch Star Wars? Join us for a look at the Russ Meyer/Roger Ebert (yes, that Ebert) collaboration of the in-na...

History shows again and again that when Jack and Andrew get together there's lots of dissection of things!