Long after its world premiere last July at the Fantasia International film Festival here in Montreal sharply divided viewers, Robin Hardy’s long-in-the-works sorta-sequel to his famed cult classic The Wicker Man is finally making its way to theaters – nearly 40 years after the first film opened. Justine, Ricky and Simon offer their takes on the new flick, as well as taking a look back at the 1973 original.

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All music is taken from Paul Giovanni’s original soundtrack to The Wicker Man.

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We have a long and storied history of feting David Cronenberg over here at SOS – hell, the first iteration of our podcast was called The Naked Lunch. Our Cronenberg fanboyism gets seriously tested this week, though, with the opening here in Montreal of perhaps Cronenberg’s most well-behaved films – on the surface, anyway – the period drama A Dangerous Method. All hands – Ricky, Justine, Julian, and Simon – are on deck to have it out over the flick, as well as touching on Croney’s then-controversial psychosexual 1996 dramaa Crash.

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Music Playlist:

Howard Shore – “Reflections”

Tiger and Woods – “Gin Nation”

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No year is complete without at least one new Soderbergh vehicle, and despite his proclaimed status of sorta-retirement, 2012 will bring two of them; the first is the Gina Carano-powered actioner Haywire, which reteams him with Limey / Kafka scribe Lem Dobbs. (We’ll have to wait a little longer for his “Channing Tatum, Male Stripper” flick Magic Mike.) The whole gang is here to dissect the surprisingly divisive thriller, along with one that slipped through the SOS cracks last year, Contagion.

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Are there any mainstream American filmmakers who have carved out as distinctive a niche as David Fincher? His subject matter may vary from time to time, but he tends to keep one topic close at hand: serial killers. His breakout feature, Seven (or Se7en if you prefer) started the thematic throughline back in 1995, and it continues all the way through to his adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, starring Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara. Ricky D, Justine Smith, and newly minted co-host Julian Carrington are here to assess the carnage.

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Music Playlist

Karen O – “Immigrant Song”

Nine Inch Nails – “Closer”

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It seemed appropriate to kick off Sound on Sight’s third year of podcasting with a Montreal-born filmmaker – even if he’s more or less associated with Toronto. Jason Reitman’s been slowly getting more serious over the years, progressing from 2005′s light DC-centric satire Thank You For Smoking, all the way to his latest, the pitch-black sorta-comedy Young Adult, starring Charlize Theron as a successful-but-bitter writer. Ricky D, Justine Smith and Simon Howell are here to talk about both films, and Reitman’s career as a whole.

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Music playlist

Teenage Fanclub – “Concept”

Tex Williams – “Smoke Smoke Smoke”

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Since the (very) black comedy Citizen Ruth announced him as a writer-director to be reckoned with, Alexander Payne has been one of the most consistently acclaimed American filmmakers of the last 15 years; he doesn’t make movies very often, but when he does, both critics and audiences take note. Recently, he released his latest, The Descendants, starring George Clooney. With special guest Joseph Belanger (of Black Sheep Reviews), we’ll be taking a look at Payne’s latest, along with his 1999 breakthough, the bleakly funny Election.

Check out the list of the best soundtracks of 2011 here.

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Music Playlist

Kavinsky – “Night Call” – Drive Soundtrack

Jonathan Keevil – “Bland” – Bellflower soundtrack

Billie Holiday – “Did I Remember” – Midnight In Paris soundtrack

Roger Neill & Dave Palmer – “Beginners Suite” – Beginners soundtrack

Johnny Cash and June Carter – “Jackson” – The Help soundtrack

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Music Playlist:

Alberto Iglesias – “Skin I Live In Score”

Chris Garneau – “Between The Bars”

Alberto Iglesias – “Moon River”

Alberto Iglesias – “Titulos de Cabacero”

Hoop Dreams might very well be the most acclaimed documentary of the 1990s, but its co-director, Chicago-based documentarian Steve James, has continued to create distinctive, relevant films in the near-20 year interval since that film’s release. His latest, The Interrupters, screened at Cinema Politica here in Montreal and so impressed the SOSers who witnessed it that we made sure to request a screener, with the express purpose of putting a James spotlight together – and now, with the help of special guests Derek Gladu and Michael Waldman, we finally got ‘er done. (Special thanks to Kartemquin.)

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Playlist:

The Roots – “Make My” (ft. Big K.R.I.T.)
Scarface – “On My Block”
Big K.R.I.T. – “Something”

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James Gunn began his career in filmmaking with Troma Entertainment, for whom he wrote and co-directed Tromeo and Juliet. After contributing to several other films for Troma, he wrote, produced and performed in his own superhero comedy, The Specials, directed by Craig Mazin. In 2010, Gunn returned to the world of non-comic-book-superheroes with Super. The film recently played at the Fantasia Film Festival and on that same week was released on DVD and BluRay; so we’ve taken this opportunity to finally review it, alongside Gunn’s directorial debut, the splattery horror-comedy Slither.

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Music:

Tyler Bates – “Aftermath and Resolution”

Shabazz Palaces – “Black Up”

Tsar – “Calling All Destroyers”

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Writer/director/actress/visual artist Miranda July’s second feature, the highly divisive The Future, has been rolling out through the arthouse citcuit for some time now, and Ricky D, Justine, Simon ans guest Josh Youngerman are eager to debate July’s new movie, along with her first feature, 2005′s acclaimed mosaic comedy/drama Me and You and Everyone We Know. And hey, we got some pretty kickass news this week, and they’ll be talking a bit about that too.

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Music:

Handsome Furs – “We Hate This City”

Cody Chesnutt – “On A Yoyride”

Jolie Holland – “The Future”

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John Landis, the director behind The Blues Brothers, Animal House, American Werewolf In London and Michael Jackson’s Thriller, is back after 12 long years with Burke and Hare. The film had its Canadian premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival this past week and the director Landis was present to receive a lifetime achievement award. So naturally it only made sense that Ricky D set up an interview with the filmmaker and with it comes our very first special dedicated to his work.

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Music:

Radiohead “Bodysnatchers”

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With the Summer of Superheroes drawing to a close, one last major Marvel Studios release remains: , the last of Marvel’s superhero team to get a formal introduction before Joss Whedon’s The Avengers takes over our collective wallet in 2012. The film’s director, Joe Johnston, has done a WWII-period comic-book adaptation before: 1991′s The Rocketeer. It seemed sensible to discuss both movies and find out if anything seperates Johnston’s movie from the recent glut of superhero pics.

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Music:

HEALTH – “USA Boys”

Gang of Four – “I Love A Man In Uniform”

Air – “Surfing On A Rocket”

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No director inspires more of an impassioned divide between fanboys and critics as Kevin Smith. After his 1994 indie breakout sensation Clerks helped reshape American independent moviemaking, he developed a cult fanbase with his profane, cheeky comedies. Now he’s back with his first horror film, the independently distributed Red State, which just had its Canadian Premiere here in Montreal at the Fantasia Film Festival. Ricky, Justine and special guest Alex Moffatt of CUTV, weigh in on the new film, and take a look back at the movie that made him a geek household name.

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Music:

Love Among Freaks – “Berserker”

Beastie Boys – “Don’t Play No Game That I Can’t Win”

CSS – “Hits Me Like A Rock (Dillion Francis remix)”

Over the past weekend, Michael Bay’s latest volley of testosterone, Transformers: Dark of the Moon, raked in over $400 million worldwide – so what can three puny humans possibly have to say about it? Plenty, as it turns out – Rick, Derek and Justine take on the third film of Bay’s ever-ballooning franchise, as well as his 1996 “opus” The Rock, which you can find in a deluxe Criterion edition. Expect lots of trenchant discussion of the state of film criticism. And explosions. And psychoanalysis. And giggling.

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Playlist:

Transformers – ‘You Got the Touch’

The Futureheads – ‘Robot’

Dead Kennedys – ‘Chemical Warfare’

Please note:

(This show is long, longer than what we normally produce, but what can you do when you discuss such a talented filmmaker. I strongly suggest listening all the way to the very end, at which point we review what I think is Kubrick’s best film.)

Long, long after the folks at home started urging us to do so, we’re finally taking on the oeuvre of possibly the best-loved American director of all time, Mr. Stanley Kubrick. A Clockwork Orange turns 40 this year (!), so it was a natural choice, but we decided to go with a couple of slightly less obvious picks to accompany it: 1957′s anti-war flick Paths of Glory and 1975′s divisive three-hour period drama Barry Lyndon. Ricky, Justine and Simon are joined by special guest and general film-world veteran Bill Mesce, making this a truly epic roundtable befitting one of the most influential filmmakers ever.

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Playlist:

Henry Purcell – A Clockwork Orange Theme Song

Bob Dylan - Masters of War

David Bowie – Suffragette city

Music by Leonard Rosenman. Composed by Handel – Barry Lyndon Theme

Show Notes:

Here is the review of Barry Lyndon by Roger Ebert which I mentioned twice on the show.

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