The Good, The Pod And The Ugly podcast

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Artificial intelligence is evolving at an unprecedented pace—what does that mean for the future of technology, venture capital, business, and even our understanding of ourselves? Award-winning journalist and writer Anil Ananthaswamy joins us for our latest episode to discuss his latest book Why Machines Learn: The Elegant Math Behind Modern AI . Anil helps us explore the journey and many breakthroughs that have propelled machine learning from simple perceptrons to the sophisticated algorithms shaping today’s AI revolution, powering GPT and other models. The discussion aims to demystify some of the underlying mathematical concepts that power modern machine learning, to help everyone grasp this technology impacting our lives–even if your last math class was in high school. Anil walks us through the power of scaling laws, the shift from training to inference optimization, and the debate among AI’s pioneers about the road to AGI—should we be concerned, or are we still missing key pieces of the puzzle? The conversation also delves into AI’s philosophical implications—could understanding how machines learn help us better understand ourselves? And what challenges remain before AI systems can truly operate with agency? If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe and leave us a review on your favorite podcast platform. Sign up for our newsletter at techsurgepodcast.com for exclusive insights and updates on upcoming TechSurge Live Summits. Links: Read Why Machines Learn, Anil’s latest book on the math behind AI https://www.amazon.com/Why-Machines-Learn-Elegant-Behind/dp/0593185749 Learn more about Anil Ananthaswamy’s work and writing https://anilananthaswamy.com/ Watch Anil Ananthaswamy’s TED Talk on AI and intelligence https://www.ted.com/speakers/anil_ananthaswamy Discover the MIT Knight Science Journalism Fellowship that shaped Anil’s AI research https://ksj.mit.edu/ Understand the Perceptron, the foundation of neural networks https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perceptron Read about the Perceptron Convergence Theorem and its significance https://www.nature.com/articles/323533a0…

The Good, The Pod and The Ugly

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Long-running film podcast featuring hosts Ken, Ryan and Thomas and numerous guests talking filmographies, oddities, classics and side hustles. Through thirteen season they have talked about nearly every movie ever made (verified by PodStats Inc).
SEASON 14: REDUX 2025! Watching movies we've already covered for fresh perspective and better audio!

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The Good, The Pod and The Ugly

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REDUX: ANIMAL FARM PT. 2: THE WHALE 53:44

πριν περίπου 7 ώρες53:44

53:44

Send us a text THE WHALE It’s the fourth episode of Season 14, and our hungry boys are still going for seconds with their rewatch of the recently covered THE WHALE (2022), original episode from TGTPTU’s initial pairing that started the epic scarf/Darren Aronofsky season (S11, E2, Airdate 2/17/24). Jack sits out this first of host Ryan’s two redux picks, leaving Ken and Thomas to rehash the original episode. That episode marked an early, and soon to be recurring, appearance by Ryan (this was before he was made a provisional host, which was before his becoming a host and now teetering again on provisional status). As a gentlemen’s agreement between Ryan and Thomas, Season 14 was premised on Ryan agreeing to have The Whale be one of his picks and to actually watch the movie being discussed this second time around, watching the movie being something he was reluctant to and didn’t do the first time around as our guest caller at the top of the ep points out. And it wasn’t just the caller who got upset by that original episode released just over a year ago: Ken, too, related how he regularly wanted to destroy his device during his relisten. Meanwhile, Thomas repeatedly repeats himself to say again and again how he was impressed by his ability to keep calm during that original episode, if he hadn’t mentioned it before. TGTPTU retreads old ground in covering the adapted play’s script and the re-viewing experience (second time for Ken, third time for Thomas). With greater time elapsed, hosts are able to speak more on lead actor Fraser’s “Brenaissance,” or lack thereof, and to find new insight into the family dynamics and semiology. A deeper consideration and attention is given to Ellie, the teenage daughter role played Sadie Sink. So what did Ryan think upon fully watching the film he’s reviewing? Wait, did he watch it before recording this episode? No spoilers! Instead, know that Ken continues to support listening to the podcast at 1.5x speed and recommends getting insurance or at least the extended warranty on your phone in case the temptation to throw it against a wall in rage or smash it under your heel is too great. Thomas, if he hadn’t said so, was really impressed by his restraint that initial episode. And Ryan gets personal with addiction while Thomas is a little less calm and Ken gets mileage out of how often someone if coming, going, or knocking on the movie apartment’s door. So find an old Zune in your junk drawer or an iPod or phone you won’t mind destroying, put your earbuds in, and come and knock on our door. (Three’s company too.) THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Podcast: goodpodugly Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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REDUX: ANIMAL FARM PT. 1 PIG 50:37

πριν 7 μέρες50:37

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Send us a text PIG Season 14 continues serving up second helpings of movies previously covered on TGTPTU with PIG (2021). Jack’s flick picked this week pulls from his, Ken’s, and then recently added host Thomas’s post-Eastwood season CAGE UNCAGED (S4, air date 7/23/21). As established in the original episode, the Nicolas Cage movie is set and shot in Portland, Oregon prior to it burning to the ground just shortly after shooting wrapped; while the city remains in rubble, the movie is remembered by the original hosts (Ken, Jack, Thomas) fondly as a film they returned to theaters post-C19 to watch in-person and honor the memory of the city that was, a place of underground restro markets and fight clubs. Now, nearly 3-1/2 years later, the hosts reconsider their predictions for Cage’s career and their responses to the film after watching again at-home. Enjoy Ken, doubled-up NyQuil, and his takes on the flick, including recasting as a Charles Bronson movie, and his quoting Twin Peaks Season 3 (Lynch - rest in power); listen as Jack Letterboxd-checks Ryan about where he was the Summer of 2021; hear for the first time what Portland-area transplant TGTPTU’s new and increasingly provisional host Ryan thought of the quiet film; and celebrate with Thomas finding the secret snore-track on the DVD from Multnomah County Library. Bon Appétit. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Podcast: goodpodugly Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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REDUX SZN: DEATH BECOMES HIM PT. 2: HOLY ZEMECKIS 59:53

πριν 14 μέρες59:53

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Send us a text DEATH BECOMES HER (1992) For the second episode in TGTPTU’s Season 14 redux series, the film choice was Thomas’s. As he explains at the top of the ep, he wanted to do a Streep rewatch with recent co-host Ryan, specifically and especially a comedy. His first choice of Adaptation got nixed as it had previously been covered twice, first during the Cage and then again in the Streep season. So paired with the previous episode’s High Plains Driver, this week TGTPTU (re)presents SHE-DEVIL (1986), the laugh-out-loud revenge story featuring Roseanne Barr as— Oh, apologies. We just lost half of our hosts and all of our listeners. Okay, let’s try again. For the second in our Season 14 redux series, the choice is Thomas’s and I guess we’ll go with DEATH BECOMES HER (1992), originally recorded in 2023 as Season 8, Episode 12. And although during that Streeps of Fire season surprise special guests and Jack recorded an excellent episode in all but audio quality, none of the three current hosts (Ken, Thomas, or Ryan) were on to talk Robert Zemeckis’s special effects comedy starring the co-billed Streep, Hawn, and Willis. So grabs some fresh takes on the film (e.g., Death Becomes Her structured a TV dinner) as Ken beefs with writer David Koepp; Ryan with Zemeckis; Thomas with olds telling youngs how to spend money on food; and Jack with the ghost of Maggie Thatcher. Thomas also puts Jack on blast for not watching films he mentioned going to watch during the original episode’s recording while, don’t worry, She-Devil receives plenty of mentions throughout. And if that’s not enough ep for you ingrates, cohost throughout Season 8 and the voice singing the first three seasons’ intro songs, the illustrious and always opinionated Andi drops in briefly to say some unkind words of demotivation to the boys. Stay flaccid, y’all. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Podcast: goodpodugly Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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“REDUX” SEASON PREMIERE! DEATH BECOMES HIM WITH “HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER” 59:54

πριν 21 μέρες59:54

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Send us a text High Plains Drifter (1973) TRIGGER WARNING: HPD features sexual assault as a plot point. Season 14, a new season with a hefty helping of old, comes to town as the TGTPTU hosts return to movies they undervalued and/or missed over the thirteen seasons, beginning with Jack’s pick to rewatch HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER (1973). In that original episode released as S2, E6 in 2020, then hosts Ken and Jack were joined by a special guest, and now ongoing host, Thomas. High Plains Drifter, Eastwood’s second directed film, left a bad taste in Jack’s mouth five years ago when the Eastwood character appears celebrated early in the film during a rape scene, one of arguably multiple instances of sexual violence in the film. As TPTPTU-celebrated director Alex Cox shares in a commentary track on the HPD Blu-ray, while such things were common in and to be judged as of their time, “It is hard to discuss these scenes in an enthusiastic way.” Now five years older and perhaps some the wiser, Jack returns as a guest to weigh in on his rewatch and is joined by new and ever-so-provisional host Ryan who contractually has to relate any and all films shot in the early 70s to ‘Nam. This one is no exception. Hear the frustration as Jack gets his head stuck in plastic bag and how half a decade can change one’s take on a movie. Season 8 guest Maggie Thatcher also drops in to offer her two pence. So paint the town red and get the pigshit outta your ears: it’s time to go full Western gothic with Malpaso Productions’ giants Eastwood, Geoffrey Lewis, and Buddy Van Horn. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @goodpodugly.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Podcast: goodpodugly Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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LARS VON TRIER #4: THE GANG SELLS THE COMPANY, "THE BOSS OF IT ALL" 57:49

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο57:49

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Send us a text BOSS OF IT ALL (2006) Well, as the famous playwright Antonio Gambini once wrote: All good things (and Season 13 of TGTPTU) must come to a close. And what better stage for which our four hosts to give their final thoughts and review of the four directors covered this 4x4 season, as well as their general opinions of Lars von Trier, than with LvT’s office comedy THE BOSS OF IT ALL (2006)? (Sorry, we can’t hear you response. This isn’t a radio show, and you’re not live on the air and it was a rhetorical question as The House that Jack Built would have been better, your author of the Show Notes knows, but the movie was banned from discussion by the TGTPTU’s boss of it all.) Before LvT’s crippling depression set in (see previous episode covering 2009’s Antichrist), while mainly dealing with anxiety, and in-between his second and still unmade third installment of his America Trilogy, the enfant terrible and Cannes darling challenged himself with a genre he’d yet to, and hasn’t returned to, film: a comedy. While edited using his Dogme 95-influenced time-cut style, instead of hand-held camerawork by LvT himself The Boss of It All was another- first-and-only for the filmmaker in using Automavision. This LvT invented technique let a computer decide focus and movement as replacement for a cameraperson. Allowing the blame to be put on the computer instead of himself, LvT symbolically repeats the conceit of his comedy where the character of Ravn hires an amateur actor and playwright Gambini stan Kristoffer, played by Jens Albinus (mentioned previous ep), to pretend to be The Boss of It All, an absentee owner that Ravn created to pretend he did not own the company and to shunt unpopular decisions but now needs Kristoffer to pretend to be in order to sell the company. Hilarity ensues. Join the fearsome foursome for their collective explorations of neoliberal capitalism while, individually, Ken predicts beyond the new year into the near future by betting LvT has sent drones back in time to shoot the comedy that will be Year 2025; Thomas nearly learns Danish; Ryan reveals he hates the look of a $20k engine inside a Datsun; and Jack stays awake for the entire film. And keep listening past the wrap of our fourth movie by our fourth director to enjoy a surprise visit from a musical guest--the Boss himself--who introduces hosts’ LvT four-film rankings and Season 13 reflections. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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LARS VON TRIER #3: NATURE SPURTS WITH "ANTICHRIST" 1:04:43

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:04:43

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Send us a text 4X4: Lars von Trier #3 Breaking our own arbitrary rules just like Lars von Trier, the enfant terrible final director of Season 13’s 4x4, the TGTPTU crew for our final pairing breaks with release date order to review the later paired film earlier, giving you this week ANTICHRIST (2009). From the throes of depression, LVT emerged to sink the world into his vision of grief, anxiety, and madness with the horror story of a couple (played by Willem Dafoe and Charlotte Gainsbourg), their gendered power dynamics, and a totally normal depiction of married sex life. Not only are these two main husband-wife characters unnamed (something host Jack hates), with the exception their child who won’t survive the movie’s Prologue, all other characters are extras who appear with faces blurred, maintaining the isolation and focus on the archetypes of a controlling male and a woman who cannot find herself in the narratives of motherhood. Or, that’s one interpretation of many readings Antichrist allows as it questions, potentially: whether human nature is good or evil, if there is a different nature for women than men, how nature influences nurture, and if nature itself can be framed in terms of good or evil. Also left to questioning: the crew on this film as to whether LVT would finish the movie as his struggle with depression persisted. But what is not open to question is how visually arresting the film is. In combination with the Dogme 95-inspired handheld camerawork complemented by the time-cut style discussed last episode with Dancer in the Dark (also with no preproduction rehearsals for actors), LVT introduces two visual styles new to his filmography. The first, shot in a repetitive extreme close-ups, is a sequence reminiscent of Aronofsky’s hip-hop montage (see Season 11) and 2024’s Cuckoo (see future Season 19 Singer vs. Singer) that captures the feelings of anxiety experienced, initially, by the wife. The second stylist tone, and the one that opens the tragedy of their neglected child falling from a window while they are having black-and-white penetrative sex, uses high resolution slow motion for gorgeously crisp imagery that later is repeated but spectrally layered as if in a dream. From the hosts this week: Thomas demonstrates effectively totally knows what sex is; Ryan goes Cartesian; Jack receives a visit from the Sight and Sound people about putting Audition on his list; and Ken is a grump who wants LA to burn to the ground. Join one pair of hosts in praising the film or perhaps pose the question as a reporter for the Daily Mail did at Cannes (available on the Blu-ray) to LVT: “Would you please, for my benefit, explain and justify why you made this movie?” What does it really matter? Chaos reigns. Content Note: While a forest retreat where Dafoe’s character discovers a mommy deer, a helpful crow, and a talking fox might sound like a family-friend animated film, the genital mutilation in the film definitely veers toward adult content. So CONTENT WARNING: while you might enjoy this film as two TGTPTU hosts did, you’re not going to leave this film content. Final Note: At the release of this episode (late-January 2025), Bob’s Big Boy in LA has been booked solid and the front of the building covered with flowers, but at the time of this episode’s recording David Lynch had yet to slip into the ether. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Rya…

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LARS VON TRIER #2: GETTING FUZZY WITH DANCER IN THE DARK 1:03:02

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:03:02

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Send us a text DANCER IN THE DARK (2000) Broadcasting live from 1964, and entirely in song, this week’s very special episode of TGTPTU covers Lars von Trier’s sixth film (but only our second of his covered this 4x4): DANCER IN THE DARK (2000). It’s been over a hundred episodes, since Season 1’s Paint Yer Hereafter ep during our Clint Eastwood coverage, that TGTPTU has covered a musical. Dancer in the Dark, the third entry into Lars von Trier’s Golden Heart trilogy, follows LVT’s preceding two film both in being shot à la the Dane’s handheld style developed during TV show The Kingdom and in their general plot of a woman who sacrifices more than most would believe conscionable. And starring in Dancer as that woman, an immigrant named Selma with diminishing eyesight who takes on extra shifts at the factory and side work to finance her son’s secret surgery and slips into worlds of musical fantasy, is Björk. At perhaps the height of her stardom (and somehow choosing to be in a relationship with TGTPTU’s previously discussed avant-garde director Matthew Barney), Björk in her first major movie role had a stake in the production and her own interpretation of Selma, which caused friction on set with the notoriously controlling Danish director, but likely contributed to her winning Best Actress at Cannes and the film the Palme d’Or. That friction may have been caused by her taking on an emotionally fraught role, especially in the second half of the film as Selma faces execution for a murder she did not intend for reasons she cannot share or else risk the wellbeing of her son. The situation onset may have also not been helped by alleged events that came out during the #MeToo, which while referenced in the episode can be found more fully here: https://www.nme.com/news/music/bjork-lends-voice-metoo-campaign-detail-sexual-harassment-hands-danish-director-lars-von-trier-2150898 As to that handheld camera style, often held by LVT himself, its digital video and potentially jarring, anti-Hollywood time cuts are complimented with a second camera aesthetic reserved for the musical moments, called “100 cameras.” This technique involved using a hundred stationary DV cameras of lesser quality than the one used for handheld footage. The hope for this multitude of cameras was for them to capture a single take of a performance without different setups. These cameras were remotely operated on ten monitors hardwired with a toggle switch inside a special construction trailer hidden in the background of the shot. Alas, this hope, unrealized, for the capture of movement to allow smoother cutting than the time cuts LVT used for the handhold was not to be. Yet the hundred camera experiment would still allow for a different feel and aesthetic from the handheld footage, especially when their transfer to film used cathode ray tube (verses the sharper laser transfer for main handheld DV camera). So tune in on your home system or your crystal radio on the a.m. dial, close your eyes, and let the dulcet voices of our four hosts’ song set against industrial percussion transport you up through your ceiling and into cinema heaven. Clang! Bang! Clatter, crash, clack! THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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4X4: LARS VON TRIER #1: GET WET 1:07:15

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:07:15

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Send us a text ELEMENT Welcome to a new year and a new director as TGTPTU’s latest 4x4 reaches its fourth of four directors: Lars Von Trier . We start with his first wide-release feature THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984). And so begins our wrap-up of Season 13 with water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink… Set in a post-catastrophe Europe (as will the Dane’s next two films forming his first thematic trilogy: Europa), The Element of Crime follows the memories under hypnotism of an investigator named Fisher who employs the methodology of his now disgraced mentor, namely, the-now-clichéd-but-then-fairly-metafictionally-fresh-idea-of-following-in-a-psychopathic-criminal’s-footsteps, to enter their thinking. And so begins a degeneration and headaches and sex atop the hood of a vehicle in order to track down the Lotto Killer, a serial murderer who targets young girls who sell lotto tickets and who might be closer than Fisher realizes. Paired with next week’s Dancer in the Dark (the final film of LVT’s second trilogy) which will utilize an entirely different cinematic language, The Element of Crime is beautifully shot as it follows Fisher throughout the flooded landscapes of Europe lit by sodium light that create a sepia tone (and, in some cases, LVT will cheat by shooting in black-and-white and colorizing). The script originally focused on three encounters Fisher has with the fascistic police chief Kramer played by Jerold Wells, a British actor perhaps best known for his work with Terry Gilliam ending with Time Bandits (Gilliam’s Brazil with its own pneumatic tube future will come out the following year), but the world was expanded as LVT and his team of two Thomas’s (cinematographer Tom Elling, and editor and possible horse murderer Tómas Gislason) found new locations such as sewers and dilapidated buildings to expand Fisher’s search as he finds himself inside the pattern to the killings. Listen in and get the skinny on LVT’s challenge to Steven Spielberg and masturbating monkeys from Thomas; hear about Ken’s beef with a German post-punk band ruining his joke; and scream along silently with Jack in frustration about the ongoing technical issues the once-and-future provisional co-host Ryan reliably brings to being unreliable. The host unanimously agree: a beautifully shot movie with an amazing final image. Are you there? You can wake me up now. Are you there?... THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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MERRY CLINTMAS! JUROR #2 AND 2024 WRAP-UP 1:37:12

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:37:12

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Send us a text JUROR #2 It’s late-December and, foregoing our usual Christmas-adjacent movie watch, this year TGTPTU has a very special treat for the holidays. That’s right, listener, we bring to you our hot takes on what may prove to be Clint Eastwood’s final film--and even more likely his final theatrically-released film--JUROR #2 (2024) in time for its MAX streaming release so that you might celebrate with us and have yourself a very Merry Clint-mas. Eastwood’s latest film with Warner Brothers continues what was a trend (excepting Cry Macho and The Mule) of not starring the star of the 70’s ape comedies and the Dirty Harry series, instead keeping Eastwood off camera and bringing in a murderer’s row (some pun intended) of character actors, including Nicholas Hoult from multiple Bryan Singer flicks as the titular Juror #2; Toni Collette from The Sixth Sense as Assistant DA Faith Killebrew who may put her career on the line to explore whether the person she put away for murder is guilty; J.K. Simmons from Postal (and likely some other films) as a former detective on the jury who also has suspicions of innocence; Cedric Yarbrough from Reno 911! as juror out for justice; Kiefer Sutherland from multiple Joel Schumacher flicks as Juror #2’s AA sponsor and lawyer confidant; and even one of Eastwood’s many children--Francesca Eastwood--giving the double bird in multiple, retold scenes Rashomon-style playing the once-and-future corpse. From The Mule & Richard Jewell, cinematographer Yves Bélanger is back with Mark Mancina returning from Cry Macho for the score. And surprisingly and, as discussed, perhaps as a first for Eastwood as a director, the man who addressed an empty chair at the RNC and practices TM actually worked with the film’s writer to GASP! rewrite the script, an act host Ken who has seen and reported back on every Eastwood film takes to mean Juror #2 is the 94-year-old director’s swan song. And the song is good! While the hosts conflict on where the movie lands politically in its cynicism and realism, all four of the folx talking in your earholes believe the moving picture a solid mid-budget thriller that harkens back to a time/era of pre-streaming moviegoing. Speaking of an era ending, Warner Brothers appears to believe the Time of Eastwood is done, releasing this latest film from the long-time collaborator in under 50 theaters seven scheduled weeks before releasing it for streaming on MAX. So get your spoilers here, and listen to the end of the p for what starts as a rant against WB’s treatment of Eastwood and becomes men complaining about previews and ads before films that eventually ends with the four hosts recapping their 2024 movie-going experiences before awarding their best films of the year. Also fun: Evidence is presented throughout by hosts Ken and Thomas for whether provisional cohost Ryan should be promoted to a full-time host. Congrats, newly fully-fledged host Ryan. Don’t rush to mess this up. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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BIG WILLIE #4: THE COLLECTOR (OR HOW ELON AND GRIMES MET) 1:04:41

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:04:41

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Send us a text 4X4X3: WILLIAM WYLER CONCLUSION: THE COLLECTOR TGTPTU wraps its third director of Season 13’s 4x4 with a discussion of a fourth and final William Wyler film THE COLLECTOR (1965). Like The Big Country, its paired film from last week, The Collector began as a book, this one penned by John Fowles, author whose adapted novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman was covered by TGTPTU during our Meryl Streep season. The Collector was Fowles’ first published book, and Wyler took liberties with its epistolary structure to refocus the movie as, mentioned later below, a “love story.” And like last week’s western picture, The Collector is shot in glorious color, interestingly unlike Wyler’s preceding The Children’s Hour (problematic treatment of lesbianism? who knows? not your hosts, not in time for this ep, but maybe TGTPTU’s loquacious critic Annabel with offer their opinion on a future ep?) whose black-and-white film stock marked a departure from Wyler’s two preceding films The Big Country and Ben-Hur where in the latter someone may have died filming the chariot race and was also a book adaptation. But as for The Collector, which was very provisional cohost Ryan’s ringer of a movie, that is, the one he pitched when he was sandboxing his 4x4 choice of directors because he was sure it would score, our final Wyler film under discussion misses the post leaving the hosts wonder whether it’s close enough to count as Wyler-essential (horseshoe puns aren’t part of The Collector, just your show note writer’s indulgence). While a dark tale of sexual abduction and obsession, Terrence Stamp--the titular collector of butterflies but also of at least one woman in his dungeon--was told by Wyler that they were secretly shooting a love story and while Wyler utilized his old-Hollywood directing style by shutting out on set the relative novice actress Samantha Eggar in the role of abducted in this two-hander movie (a cast of seemingly four credited actors) so that she would feel the isolation her character locked away lost in the British countryside, the direction and acting can’t seem to overcome a rather flat script. But stay tuned to the end to hear the boys rank their Willies, including from the first movie pairing how they prefer their dicks and for all four flicks hear them consider their manhood as Willy exposes it. Throughout the ep, listen for the tension in Ken’s voice as the other three hosts conspire to stretch the recording session into kickoff time with Ryan sharing stories from the streets and country clubs and Thomas striving for an episode parental advisory warning. And laugh alone as the hosts skip right past Ken’s allusion to The Sound of Music. Next episode: A very special Clint-mas Ep for the wintertime, then back in the new year with the fourth of our four directors, the Danish Darling also known as Lars von Trier. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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BIG WILLIE #3: THE BIG COUNTRY 1:08:47

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:08:47

1:08:47

Send us a text 4X4: WILLIAM WYLER. #3: THE BIG COUNTRY (Note: Don't skip the theme song this week) TGTPTU Host Ryan’s Willie gets a glow-up with THE BIG COUNTRY (1958), the third in our cultivated William Wyler collection. Shot in glorious Technicolor on large-format Technorama to set it apart from the glut of midcentury black-and-white television Westerns, the big-budget film was not a financial success despite winning one, after being nominated for two, Academy Awards and starring at the time four-time Oscar nominee Gregory Peck in the lead role of James McKay, a stranger who comes into town (thanks, Ken! 50-50 odds on this plot by your own estimation), who reunites with his fiancée out on the American frontier only to be hazed by her father’s foreman Steve Leech played by Charlton Heston (no Oscar noms at the time but a big win the next year on Wyler’s next film Ben-Hur, which, btw, did you hear someone died filming the chariot race?) and later to fall in love/respect/mutual ownership of property with school teacher and Big Muddy landowner Julie Maragon played by Oscar-nominated Jean Simmons (not that one, it’s spelled differently, Thomas). The voice and the eyebrows, the legendary singer and thanks to this film an Oscar-winner, Burl Ives plays Rufus Hannassey, the patriarch of a rival company of cowpunchers who also uses the Big Muddy and gets into a scuffle with Peck character’s father-in-law-to-be. This spat spirals out of control, Peck’s character presents the view with a confident pacificist, and there’s a good plot summary on Wikipedia and elsewhere. What you can’t get elsewhere is Ryan’s special intro with lyrics and deep cuts even more deeply researched for you cineasts, Thomas’s pun on seamen, re-ranking the Major, a Hal Ashby connection, and a surprise new ghost guest added to the pod’s lore and collection when Charlton Heston’s noncorporeal agent visits the studio. The four hosts on this 4x4 do their best to discuss performative masculinity and the connection to war while ensuring they get their f*cking auto-assigned EXPLICIT CONTENT WARNING from their AI censors. “Now tell me, you: what did we prove?" THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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WILLIAM WYLER #2: LIKE SAND THROUGH AN HOUR GLASS... SO ARE OUR DESPERATE HOURS 1:08:38

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:08:38

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Send us a text WILLIAM WYLER: PART 2 OF 4: THE DESPERATE HOURS Paired with last week’s Detective Story , TGTPTU’s Big Willie Winter continues with THE DESPERATE HOURS (1955), another black-and-white film adaptation by William Wyler and a rare feature from the director to not earn a single Academy Award nomination. Perhaps first home invasion picture, The Desperate Hours was adapted from a book that itself was inspired by tragic, real events (bonus fact: Richard Nixon would become involved in a lawsuit defending Time Magazine against the real-life victims who hadn’t agreed to a photo shoot in questionable taste at their former family home). Playing the lead heavy, Humphrey Bogart who with his character’s younger brother (played by Dewey Martin who, fun fact, was first married to a woman from Portland, Oregon and subsequently singer Peggy Lee) and a lug with more muscle than smarts on the lam take over a suburban home (bonus fact: the fictional house where the story takes place would later be used for the television show Leave It to Beaver) and soon butt heads with head-of-the household Daniel Hilliard, played by Fredric March, after seeing a bicycle left outside, a key indicator of a family with kids or, as those on the run know, prime hostage material. Wyler shows his mastery as a director getting an amazing performance from a child actor playing March’s son and providing depth and gravitas to all the characters. Oddly cast from the script and the book, Bogart at age 56 was significantly older than the original story would have his Glenn Griffin (Paul Newman, who would play the role on stage before the film was released, was only 30 years old). But the performance is nuanced, perhaps measured by Bogart’s at the time being diagnosed with the cancer that would soon kill him. During the course of The Desperate Hours (bonus snark: perhaps more accurately entitled The Desperate Afternoon Leading into that Night and on into Late the Next Day), Wyler ties in his recurring themes of pacifism, masculinity as performance, and the dangers of the police state in this film that, while feeling set-bound, it should be recalled that the play was written and performed after. All the same, a truck flips, a person is run over, and March has to pretend he’s drunk to disgust a visiting schoolteacher and save his family. Good stuff. So give up sixtyish minutes for respite, ours will discuss it: flowers for Wyler, service ages for WWII vets, the elusive reality that started the Boomer Generation, and perhaps try a Bogart impersonation or two. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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WILLIAM WYLER #1: DON'T SAY THE A WORD, DETECTIVE STORY 1:08:52

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:08:52

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Send us a text DETECTIVE STORY Season 13’s 4x4 has reached its 1/2way point with our 9th of 16 movies and a new director, provisional co-host Ryan’s pick of the 15-time Academy Award-nominated, 3-time Oscar-winning director William Wyler. This week, we cover the first of Ryan’s four curated Wyler flicks DETECTIVE STORY (1951). Up for four Academy Awards, including Best Director, but winning none, Detective Story was Wyler’s 22nd talkie and his earliest we’re covering the for the pod (the directorial powerhouse also shot about thirty silent films prior the talkies and two documentaries during WWII when he enlisted in the U.S. Army Air Forces). Like many of Wyler’s works, the picture was adapted from a successful contemporary play and stars Kirk Douglas (Spartacus nine years later) in the main role of Detective Jim McLeod with stage roles reprised both by Joseph Wiseman (Dr. No eleven years later) as a booked burglar who goes (SPOILER) for a gun and by Lee Grant (featured on TGTPTU seventy-two years later and amazing always) as a flighty shoplifter in a performance that would win her Best Actress at Cannes. As a play adaptation, Detective Story is staged almost as a bottle movie, escaping its second-floor New York City precinct set only to introduce main characters in the opening minutes and for an aborted car ride. Speaking of abortion, the film’s creative team couldn’t under the Hays Code. This silencing through censorship changed a major component of the play when adapted, namely when Detective McLeod who sees in black-and-white (morally, not just because of the film stock) confronts the messiness of the gray world in his pursuit of a doctor’s medical malpractice manslaughter during a birth gone bad and, subsequently, upon learning of his wife’s secret life prior to knowing him when she’d used the same doctor’s services for... So join the boys as they kick off Big Willy Winter with Ryan parodying the Fresh Prince lyrics; Ken maps Inspector Harold Francis Callahan (a.k.a. “Dirty Harry”) onto Det. McLeod; Tom gets thirsty for Lee Grant; and Jack stays awake. And keep subscribing and following for next week’s pairing with The Desperate Hours. THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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TSAI MING-LIANG: MAMA SAID THERE'D BE DAYS LIKE THIS 1:00:37

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:00:37

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Send us a text 4X4 III: TSAI MING-LIANG 4: DAYS TGTPTU’s back to finish (cough) the job handily (cough) with a happy ending (oh boy) for our coverage of director Tsai Ming-liang, coming together (really, dude?) to get every ounce our four gents have to offer, pulling and tugging (grow up) on each’s points and hot takes for this fourth and final 4x4 film of Jack’s offering (was that a pun?) called, in its English release (are you serious?), DAYS (2020). If you like washing your vegetables in your bathroom or the feel of burning paper during your non-erotic electroshock massage sessions and also like to take things slow, boy-howdy do we have a film for you. Or if you like your massage erotic, well, this possibly sad, possible love story might be up your rainy, post-apocalyptic Bangkok alley (or busy street). And for fans of the previously covered Goodbye, Dragon Inn who enjoyed its minimal subtitles due to its paucity of dialogue, get excite: There is even less talk and zero subtitles in this latest Tsai Ming-liang joint. Naturally, actor and muse Lee Kang-sheng returns. Also billed, Anong Houngheuangsy in his debut film. Lee Kang-sheng plays an older dude who goes to the city for an obscure medical treatment for his back. Anong Houngheuangsy plays a younger guy on his grind (and occasionally Grinder?). About an hour into the film, these two hook up, a gift is exchanged, and the two have a quiet, postcoital meal outside a restaurant. Then they return their separate, silent ways after about forty-five minutes of shared screentime. And with just minutes to spare in this movie just over two hours long, we watch Anong Houngheuangsy’s character at a bus stop as he sits and waits and waits and waits until, wait for it, what appears in BMI and skin tones to be a herd of Americans passes by. Listen along as the foursome wraps up (and Thomas declines to rank) Tsai Ming-liang’s four covered movies. EPISODE SPOILER: Ken reveals for perhaps the first time to English-speaking audiences the sitcom origins of Tsai Ming-liang’s films. Next ep, we begin the first pairing of the four William Wyler films chosen by Ryan: Detective Story (1951) and The Desperate Hours (1955). THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I. Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0 Twitter: https://twitter.com/thegoodthepoda1 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/ Letterboxd (follow us!): Ken: Ken Koral Ryan: Ryan Tobias…

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HaLLoWeEn SPECIAL: JEREMY SAULNIER'S GREEN ROOM 1:27:07

πριν περίπου ένα χρόνο1:27:07