PODCAST: Oscars 2020 [The Movie RobCast]

Robs Daniel and Wallis give their take on Oscars 2020, aka The 92nd Academy Awards, aka the year that a film not in the English language finally won the Best Picture statue, not just Best Foreign Film. Sorry, Best *International* Film, as the Academy are now calling it.

PODCAST: Joker [Electric Shadows]

In episode 70 of The Electric Shadows Podcast, Robs Daniel and Wallis set their laughing gear to discussing Todd Phillips’ Joker.

A controversial film being hailed as a masterpiece, the two Robs are baffled as to why.

They both talk about why the film left them unimpressed and non-plussed, from the slavish homage to Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy to Joaquin Phoenix’s mannered performance.…

REVIEW: Joker

After all that critical adulation, it’s a punchline worthy of the Clown Prince of Crime himself that Joker isn’t very good.

We’re in early ’80s Gotham for DC’s latest movie. Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix), battling mental illness, is employable only as a street clown sign-spinner for local recession-hit businesses.…

Irrational Man is the cinematic equivalent of artisanal popcorn

Woody Allen has got it made.

Despite the allegations against him that have come to light in recent years – I bring this up only to say that I don’t have a stance to take – he gets to jet off once a year to wherever takes his fancy and shoot a film there with, it seems, any actor who takes his fancy; though mostly young, attractive ones of late.…

Inherent Vice is stoner noir par excellence

 

From aspiring porn stars in the sun-drenched ‘70s to megalomaniacal, turn-of-the-century oil barons, Paul Thomas Anderson is one of the most uniquely identifiable directors currently working in cinema.

His projects range enormously in topic and scope; all that connects his work is a handful of recurring themes and a certain visual acuity that marks him as a director.…