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Simon and Rick take on three more TIFF highlights that didn’t quite slot in anywhere else – John Hillcoat’s long-delayed adaptation of Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, starring Viggo Mortenson; Miguel Arteta’s Youth In Revolt, featuring a sneering, mustachioed, French Michael Cera; and Jason Retiman’s follow-up to Juno, the George Clooney sorta-comedy Up In the Air. Al and Mariko reutrn next week to help us cover Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma.
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[...] Listen to our review from podcast #157 [...]
[...] Listen to our review from podcast #157 [...]
I still don’t understand Simon spent 30 minutes complaining about a film that made him cry. If The Road was that powerful, why did you not say something nice…
Shame on you Simon
You guys need to do your homework BEFORE recording your audio-blog. In Cormac McCarthy’s book The Road, The Man finds a can of Coca-Cola (the brand is specified by McCarthy in the book) in a gutted soda machine and gives it to The Boy as “A treat. For you.” Coke is an iconic emblem of The Man’s destroyed world — a world The Boy has never known. In this moment, The Man has a chance to share just the tiniest piece of the enormity he has lost with his son. The deliberate choice to specify Coca-Cola is highly symbolic. I’m sorry for you that you couldn’t grasp such a simple concept, especially since it was so beautifully portrayed by Viggo Mortensen and Kodi Smit-McPhee.
On a smaller note, if the can hasn’t been compromised, why WOULDN’T the drink still be fizzy? Less than a decade has passed since the event that destroyed the world, not hundreds of years. Dwelling on silly stuff like that and missing the POINT of the scene is just a real shame.
Thanks for the insult Karen. As I recall, I did mention I read the book. I also read the book three years ago so it is almost impossible for me to remember every small detail. Also I don’t remember complaining about the soda pop. That was Simon yet you are attacking the two of us. In fact I went so far as to say it was a powerful, moving and amazing motion picture that might make my top ten list. So why are you being so rude? I don’t get paid to do this show and yet I find time to review six movies a week. I think we both do a good job.
Actually Karen, I have to defend RIck. He is right. He never made any negative mention of the Coca-Cola scene in the film. At the same time I have to take your side and disagree with Simon. This was a key moment in the book. Mc Cartthy really focused on the Coca Cola scene for a long time. I have not seen the film and I do not know how it translates on the big screen but from what I have been reading, the film is very respectful to the source material. Anyhow good job once again with the show despite this small misstep.
The “point” of the scene was hardly subtle, and not lost on me. I just thought the use of brand-name food items took me out of the film’s otherwise blank, dead universe. I made clear that I was being nitpicky, but I still insist that a number of choices made by Hillcoat (and/or the studio) negated my own immersion in the film’s universe at key moments. As with “Youth In Revolt,” I wish they’d taken more liberties with the material; “The Proposition” proved Hillcoat can do wonders with a bleak setting but this felt compromised.
I can download the mp3 from here, but the download links don’t show up on my RSS feed aggregator.
Same here.
Are you referring to the I Tunes feed or the RSS feed on the site? I post the show at 4:00 in the morning here in Montreal and I notice that many people especially in Europe download the show a few hours later and I Tunes has not yet had the chance to recognize the added show. So it might be that you guys are so awesome that you go out and download the show faster than I Tunes can recognize the new episode.
Refering to the show on the site.
I’m from Australia and the show is available to download on the site on a Tuesday afternoon here.
Just was’nt available as a clickadble link for a couple on minutes.
Awesome show just needed my fix as soon as possible
LOL – So basically you are downloading the show as I am uploading it.
Very Nice!