BARB/ENHEIMER
Pre-shownotes note: CJ sounds bad because he was recording on his airpods like a complete rube.
Actual shownotes:
* CJ does not complain about the giant corporation he works for
* Why #barbenheimer? (the marketing phenomenon)
* BARB/
* Disclaimer: we’re dudes, talking about a movie made maybe not for dudes
* Unsurprisingly, we loved Ryan G
* Big hits (production design, cast, some humor), big misses (…the rest?)
* What we should expect from a movie about a Mattel toy sponsored by Mattel
* You can’t speak truth to power when the power is funding your movie
* The third act culminates in an unearned sermon
* A token zoomer in a movie made by and for millennials
* Absurdism spins out of control without something to consistently ground it
* CJ mic drops on the haters
* /ENHEIMER
* On the merits of seeing a Christopher Nolan movie twice
* Jordan responds to CJ’s response to Jordan’s invitation to go see it with him for the 2nd time
* Masterclass in filmmaking, but…
* It’s too long, and too “important,” and not nearly entertaining enough
* Whole first hour feels like a montage
* Nolan loves his nonlinear storytelling, but his best films are his most linear
* What kinds of movies earn rewatches?
* A discussion of the film’s most unironically important scene
* The emotional core of the film is Robert Oppenheimer being cursed with existential guilt
* Special shoutout to Florence Pugh, who accomplishes a lot with a little
* Also Casey Affleck
* The visual conceits deployed to keep the audience oriented in space and time
* Nolan is a great, very fallible director
* An example of a director who understands how to conjure a truly great script: Denis Villeneuve
* Where does Oppenheimer fall in the pantheon of Nolan films?
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