Stealing the Remote

Back for another comic book movie, I lure Mom in with promises of Colin Firth without spoiling/warning that he violently kills dozens of people! In our episode on Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service we talk for a bit about my mom’s legs, she confuses the first scene for the second scene and vice versa, and I rely completely on what she tells me about Pygmalion; the Shaw play, not the myth, as there are decidedly fewer statues to fall in love with. Somehow, we briefly mention Donald Trump, because I’m sure he’ll love the media attention. I try to get to the bottom of what framing of violence is worse to my mother’s sensibilities, in order to gauge whether or not movies that question why, as a society, we enjoy violence as entertainment are less offensive to her – and therefore possible future episodes. For this episode’s Trailer Time, Mom gets to choose from the Aquaman and Shazam! Comic-Con trailers and picks the latter, which is a choice I approve of. Send in any questions or suggest a movie you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

We make our triumphant return to form with a superhero film that requires me to explain the history of the genre in order to make Mom understand this wasn’t actually that mediocre for the time it was released: Bryan Singer’s X-Men! Having been on vacation to Israel, where we visited Yad Vashem, we get into our happiest episode yet, as we extensively discuss the Holocaust and when it is appropriate to use that as character motivation, especially in the case of a Jewish villain. We also discuss the problems surrounding the Mutant Registration Act and the possibility of facilitating prosecution by registration in general, a segment in which I confuse the Belgian and Dutch systems of distributing social security numbers; you’ll survive, I’m sure. There was also some confusion about whether or not Patrick Stewart was actually Ben Kingsley. As Mom tries to remember the name of Lara Croft, I show her a trailer for something she actually wants to watch, David Yates’ Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

We’re back with a movie that’s my own age! We explain where we’ve been for a month – the answers are disappointing, I assure you – and dive into Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting. We earned the Explicit rating on this one. Mom brags about her memory and recalls her high school students watching this wholly appropriate film about heroin, while I mistake the amount of boys in my elementary school for the amount of girls (trust me, it was relevant in the context of the episode) and forget everything she said to me while we were watching. I ask about the nineties and what the world was like when I was born, to which Mom responds by making self-deprecating jokes about achieving nothing with her life. Thankfully, she did make me and I made this podcast, so it was all worth it. We discuss music and Gulf Wars for a bit, because we never go quite off-track enough apparently. When we do get back to the film itself, I share some of the knowledge which paying college tuition for a course featuring this flick has granted me. That knowledge did not include the word “suppository”, however, or else I forgot all about it. There is also the obligatory scene-that-Mom-saw-differently, and oh boy, is it a good one this time. The trailer we watched was of course for Danny Boyle’s T2: Trainspotting and the outtakes include part of the first take on our opening for this episode with Mom talking into a microphone that wasn’t recognized by my computer (but she was loud enough to get picked up on mine). Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

Welcome back to your regularly scheduled episode where Effie is in charge! (Well, almost regularly scheduled.) Mom talks about our recording time for a bit, as well as those other Avengers you may have heard about, and her childhood Halloween dreams from before Halloween was a thing here. The word coiffure gets thrown around, so on behalf of Mom: please excuse her French. More apologies are also issued about her English – feel free to let her know she’s doing fine, by the way – as well as a “you’re welcome” for editing out whichever ones I can. The conversation also turns to the materials of Scarlet Johansson’s wardrobe in the movie, and not even the outfits you’re thinking of, before we tackle Chris Hemsworth’s abs and I make some Easter-related jokes. Representation of German people also somehow becomes a topic and I make some more good points, Mom admits. I also understood most of the references, so go me. In this episode’s Trailer Time we, of course, watch the second trailer for Avengers: Infinity War! Disclaimer: There might be a slight echo in our voices since I’m still getting used to a two mic setup, but let me know if you noticed. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

It’s Mom’s turn again in this episode! We know she promised a funnier film, but what you got is David Lean’s Doctor Zhivago. After joking around about Mom’s new boyfriend wrecking our recording schedule, we get into the credits, the music, and the general handsomeness of Omar Sharif. We discuss some Russian history, Boris Pasternak, and whatever a Stadtpalais is in German. Also included is a short reminder on what a stepsister actually is and whether or not you should fuck, marry or kill yours – just to be safe, the answer is D) none of the above. To really get you in the mood, this episode truly needed a musical break between acts, which isn’t quite as orchestral as the score for the entr’acte in the film, but thankfully also nowhere near as long. Afterwards we get back into the life choice we all encounter: whether or not to cheat when you’re already in a happy semi-incestuous marriage. We also discuss the essential art of film kissing and how this one’s main smooch ranks. From the balalaika we somehow end up talking about the zither, not to be confused with the sitar. For anyone looking to read the poems for Lara, you can do so here: http://sites.utoronto.ca/tsq/10/barnes10.shtml. You can look up the history of turtlenecks yourself. The trailer for this time was the International Trailer #2 for Tomb Raider! Mom even remembers the Angelina Jolie version despite having never seen those films. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

This time we discuss Alfonso Cuarón's Children of Men, yet another dystopian vision of the future, because the ultimate goal of this podcast, as it turns out, is to depress Mom. She shares some childhood memories and we conclude I am a likeable person. Mom drags in Son of Man, Soylent Green, and Sophie's Choice and I try to understand how films I've never heard of are related to the subject matter at hand. She gushes over some of the actors she loves that are in this film, albeit for a short while. Mostly we go through the story and highlight our favorite scenes and continue to find that none of it is really all that fictional, let alone sci-fi. We look up a couple of actresses without mentioning their names to you, because we mostly wanted to know their characters' names. The government handing out suicide pills leads to a tangent full of miscommunication, but no one commits suicide at the end of it. Someone does get pumped full of bullets and Mom is quite interested in how the body convulses before hitting the ground. In the interest of never going into politics - as is totally the mission statement on our podcast, in case none of you had ever noticed - Mom jokes about Trump's response to the Parkland shooting. The trailer for today was the Official Trailer of Francis Lawrence's Red Sparrow, which stars some actors Mom absolutely loves! Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

This week we get around to Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, the most expensive arthouse sequel ever! I was suffering from a sore throat and had no voice after a night out; don’t worry, I edited out most of the painful coughing I had to deal with. We try to remember what the Ridley Scott’s original Blade Runner was about (something something what is humanity), talk about whether or not Harrison Ford is a replicant (it’s probably just his character), and trail off to a Dutch play about sex robots that none of you will know (it was good though). Before I could get to the issues of ableism surrounding Jared Leto’s role and behavior, mom brought up the pronunciation of 2049, another hugely important matter of social relevance. Spike Jonze’s Her begs to be brought up as well in conversations about artificial intelligence in films, so we graciously comply. We also briefly discuss the other three movies we went to see that day: Ruben Östlund’s The Square (set in Stockholm, we almost guessed right), Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, and Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk. This episode’s trailer time showcases Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, prompting us to share our memories of the franchise. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro/Outro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

Welcome back for our episode about Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri! If in your culture it’s still acceptable to wish you a happy New Year in February, happy New Year; if not, have a nice Tuesday, I guess. After putting our New Year’s resolution out there to upload more consistently from now on, we venture into remembering what our target audience even was. Don’t worry, we still spoil basically everything, so figured we’re not suddenly aiming at people who haven’t seen the film yet. Prepared as ever, we fail to correctly spoil what the billboards say (“Raped while dying / and still no arrests? / How come, chief Willoughby?”) but we were close-ish, I’d say. Police ranks prove to be confusing for us throughout, as do different firearms (but really, who cares about the difference between a rifle and a revolver, we’re European). I also did try to keep my mom from saying overly intellectually ableist things on air, but couldn’t stop myself from saying revenge-y instead of vengeful at some point. We also talk about the Oscar nominations and make some uneducated guesses about which films will get Academy Awards in 2018! Mom spirals into a rant about Call Me by Your Name and as a result, I probably won’t watch it myself (something with gay representation having been shitty since forever). Me showing her a trailer at the end of the episode will be a regular segment from now on though, and we start off with the Red Band Trailer for I, Tonya! Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Tweet at us on Twitter: @RemoteStealing Like and/or contact us on: Facebook.com/StealingtheRemote Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

Today mom and I discuss Kenneth Branagh’s Thor and Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger! After the shortest coming out I’ve ever done, given how there’s no room for asking questions immediately in this one-way street of a medium, we dive into the local weather. In our end segment What Did We See Without Being Forced?, we talk about A Ghost Story, Suburbicon, Bordertown, The Punisher, and Murder on the Orient Express. Mom confuses a friend’s cat named Floki for Loki and I assume she was referring to Vikings the historical people and not Vikings the TV show. She compares Thor to another fish-out-of-water comedy I’d never heard of, appreciates Anthony Hopkins as any sane person would, before we end up confusing the entirety of Scandinavia because we couldn’t tell a Swedish name from a Danish one if our lives depended on it. Natalie Portman is a negligible topic, as is the CGI Destroyer, which we compared to Lego’s Bionicle line of toys. She really liked Lady Sif, I forgot one of the Warriors Three is played by an Asian actor, and mom has more opinions on Scandinavia to share – all of which are based on Scandinavian cinema and nothing else – before we devolve into a discussion about autism – which I’m sure neither of us is qualified for either. When we get into Captain America, I first have to explain that, yes, that blue cube in Thor is the same blue cube as in The First Avenger. Mom mourns the loss of our good cop-bad cop dynamic now that she likes these movies and we discuss which of Cap’s bodies was his real one. I tell her about the Agent Carter One Shot and TV show and she promises to try not to die before I’ve shown her that. We’ll finally get to The Avengers soon, which mom expects to have a combination of Russia, the Asgardian Gods and Germany for its villain. Before then, she will continue trying to pick a subject for my theses at university, apparently. I show her the trailer for Infinity War, just so she understands it helps to watch previous movies before going to sequels, and she scolds me for dropping just as many F-bombs as she had done earlier in the same episode. Casey Affleck and A Ghost Story in general gets our language more vulgar anyway, while mom’s language also continues to become more German, which means I’m translating across three languages for her half the time. Leftovers are shade being thrown at our internet provider and my mom singing for a bit, so enjoy that. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

Right on time for our latest episode, Zack Snyder’s (or let’s be real, Joss Whedon’s) Justice League is finally here! I took my mom along for my third viewing and we’re here to give our opinions: mom was glad that she liked one of my comic book movies again, but didn’t know what she signed up for, as I have a lot of issues to work through with this film. In a truly legendary role reversal of our usual good cop-bad cop, I ask mom about her overall thoughts before explaining the troubled production this movie went through; she didn’t notice them, but I sure as hell did and needed to vent. I earned that explicit tag on this episode, as even my notes included some F-bombs. I tackle the Amazon costume controversy, the Superman porn mustache, and the leaked VFX scenes, while mom brings up Harry Potter and It for comparisons and is amazed at how difficult I’m making it for myself to just have fun. I also confuse Ben Affleck’s Best Picture Oscar with a Best Directing Oscar he never got, so whoops. Included in this podcasting package are: reviews of different actors’ eyes, as well as Thor: Ragnarok, and The Fall. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

In this episode we finally get to Christopher Nolan’s Batman Begins! That is to say, after we talk about protecting your children from scary movies, my little brother’s school trip, and our own future traveling. We also confuse Mr. Bean and Johnny English, try to make sense of Batman’s “no killing” rule, mom insults Cillian Murphy’s face for a bit, we review Morgan Freeman’s beer commercial, and look forward to the guy from Brokeback Mountain in the next installment. I try to explain the horrors of Batman & Robin to someone who has thankfully never been exposed to the movie, we trail off into 007 territory, I confuse a Bond girl for Bond, struggle to remember Olga Kurylenko’s name, mom gives the perfect description of Adam West, and insults Amy Adams when I show her the latest Justice League trailer. She warms up to Ben Affleck, but then proceeds to call a DC show I love “stupid”, so it’s a small win. Talking about the detective show she spent this week on, she confuses actors that look nothing alike; talking about Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River, I forget to mention Elizabeth Olsen is also in a Marvel movie – even together with Jeremy Renner. Mom compares it to two LGBTQ+ related films in a row for some reason and we somehow end up discussing Tarantino as well. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

We continue the MCU with Louis Leterrier’s The Incredible Hulk and Jon Favreau’s Iron Man 2, and as if mom didn’t have a hard enough time trying to remember two films she slept through parts of, she’s also getting sick. To cheer her up, I try to explain comic connections and tell her trivia about the productions of the just-okay part of Marvel’s Phase One, before we delve into Andrés Muschietti’s It, Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!, Stephen Frears’ Victoria and Abdul, and Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Yeah, it’s pretty clear we’re able go to the cinema as often as we’d like. There’s also a Freudian slip in there, so enjoy that one. We end off with a discussion of recent political events in Germany that will severely date this episode! Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

We get started on The Lord of the Rings epic with Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring! First I had to say sorry for misrepresenting the movie I showed mom, then we recap all our experiences with The Hobbit trilogy and the Harry Potter octology for some reason. A friend of mine is with us in spirit, even if she didn’t want to actually be on the show to profess her love for the books in English. Mom recommends Edgar Allan Poe to me, mentions Predator out of nowhere, we argue about statues and whether or not Michelangelo’s David has arms, I turn out to be right, she confuses some American landmarks, and we bring it full circle with an Asterix reference – trust me. Mom also makes some interesting predictions for the next couple of films and we scroll through Ian McKellen’s filmography LIVE on air! I also spoil Atomic Blonde, so, you know, watch out for that. Listen to the crossover with DC on Screen! http://www.dconscreen.com/2017/09/dc-films-we-want-to-see-crossover.html Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

We finally tackle a Marvel movie, starting off with the MCU and therefore Jon Favreau’s Iron Man! As we discuss the film that kicked off the cinematic universe craze, I struggle to keep mom from switching to other films she happens to have seen before the end of the episode and ultimately fail, we discuss ancient technology from the eighties and of course the whining of Pepper Potts. Part of the recording started to skip part of every sentence, so you’re missing out on our opinions on the quality of Arabic in Iron Man (no clue) compared to German and Russian in Atomic Blonde (cringe-worthy) and Dutch/Flemish in Wonder Woman (horrific). You do, however, get to listen to me having to explain that the Department of Homeland Security isn’t fictional, but S.H.I.E.L.D. definitely is. I wish you could also see my face when mom says she didn’t recognize Samuel L. Jackson, but such are the limits of the medium. Mom saying “shit” never gets old, we guess wrong on whether or not The Omen is older than The Shining or not, and mom still sort of spoils Wakefield for me. Also, enjoy a bunch of barking in the background, courtesy of Amy and Lizzy! Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY

As mom gets to host her first episode, she steals the remote to make me watch Rob Reiner’s Stand By Me! She also assumes “an Android” is just as clear of a description as “an iPhone” for listeners who want to know what kind of phone she has, doesn’t appreciate my synopsis of the film, calls me negative for calling something the film doesn’t even do “bad writing”, and together we confuse some scenes. I plead guilty on charges of misandry, mom still isn’t sure if issues of representation just drive listeners away, I give a shoutout to all my emetophobes out there, mom cuts me off for a bit, and we decide the theme of the episode is great child actors as we move into Sofia Coppola’s The Beguiled. Send in any questions or feedback you want us to discuss: stealingtheremote@gmail.com Twitter @RemoteStealing Or write a review on iTunes or Stitcher! Intro Music: "Immortal" by Fleslit From the Free Music Archive CC BY