Filmspotting

With the first decade of the MCU coming to a close with AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR (and its 2019 sequel), Adam and Josh are forced to reckon with the fact that 19 films into Marvel's uneven series, they've developed some affection for many of its Chrises, er, characters. And, oh my, are there so many characters. And while Josh at various points refers to the film as "exhausting" and "a long con," Adam defends directors Anthony and Joe Russo ("Captain America: Civil War") for bringing discipline and sound storytelling to their massive undertaking. Also on the show, the Top 5 "Filmspotting Avengers," which has Adam and Josh assembling their own teams of cinematic heroes. (Yes, of course this Top 5 has inspired a t-shirt design contest.)0:00-2:07 - Intro2:44-27:25 - Review: "Avengers: Infinity War"Waxahatchee, "No Question"30:04-36:14 - Next Week / Notes36:14-42:16 - Massacre TheatreWaxahatchee, "Recite Remorse"43:57-46:34 - Donations46:34-1:14:55 - Top 5: Filmspotting's Avengers1:14:55-1:17:46 - Close

UK writer-director Andrew Haigh has spent the first part of his career quietly defying expectations. With his feature breakout "Weekend," he crafted an intimate tale about two young gay men spending a weekend getting to know each other. For his 2015 follow-up, "45 Years," Haigh turned his focus to an aging husband and wife haunted by the past. (Charlotte Rampling was nominated for an Oscar for her performance.) And now Haigh's latest takes another surprising turn, with his adaptation of the Willy Vlautin novel LEAN ON PETE, which chronicles the relationship between a displaced teen and a past-his-prime race horse. But true to Haigh's work to date, PETE is a clear-eyed, unsentimental piece of work that - like his other films - is still capable of delivering a punch to the gut. On this week's show, Adam and Josh have a review of LEAN ON PETE and, in the tradition of inspired Top 5 topics like Bicycle Scenes and Movie Redheads, they share their Top 5 Horse Scenes (horses on stage! horses in the jungle! ship-wrecked horses!). Plus Chicago critic Steve Prokopy drops by to share some details about the upcoming Chicago Critics Film Festival (May 4th-10th).0:00-2:05 - Intro2:43-34:21 - Review: "Lean On Pete"Hurray for the Riff Raff, "Hungry Ghost"38:13-49:28 - Milos Forman / Notes49:28-59:20 - Filmspotting Madness Recap59:20-1:15:24 - Preview: Chicago Critics Film FestivalThe Osmonds, "Crazy Horses"1:17:54-1:51:53 - Top 5: Horse Scenes1:51:53-1:55:29 - Close / Josh Recommends: Pizza Ranch    

After working through six films spanning nearly two decades in the career of Vincente Minnelli, Adam, Josh and guest Nathaniel Myers roll out the red carpet for "The Garlands," the best of the marathon awards, including their favorite Supporting and Lead Performances, Scene, "Minnelli Moment" and Picture. For the full Minnelli lineup and conversations, visit the Marathons page at filmspotting.net. 

It's a little surprising to see nice guy "Office"-alum John Krasinski directing a monster movie, but Adam and guest-host Michael Phillips agree that his A QUIET PLACE is a tense, finely-crafted film that feels a little like a Western and a well-observed family drama – even as it's scaring the pants off you. Krasinksi's movie also exploits its smart premise to potent effect: its monsters hunt by sound, so everyone - including the audience - is on aural high alert. For this week's Top 5, Adam and Michael look to films from icons like Kubrick, Hitchcock, Coppola and Spielberg for scenes that make effective use of silence. Plus, your 2018 Filmspotting Madness Champion.0:00-1:42 - Intro2:26-32:07 - Review: "A Quiet Place"Wye Oak, "The Louder I Call, the Faster It Runs"34:10-41:52 - Notes / Next Week41:52-56:20 - Filmspotting Madness Champion56:20-1:11:45 - Top 5: Quiet ScenesDave Shire, "The Conversation" (Main Theme)1:13:43-1:36:01 - Top 5: Quiet Scenes cont.1:36:01-1:39:57 - Close

Guest-host Michael Phillips says of Minnelli that no one shot better wide-screen Cinemascope compositions and calls the director's SOME CAME RUNNING - based on James Jones's 1957 novel - "one of the great adaptations of a truly lousy book." (RUNNING is based on James Jones's follow-up to "From Here To Eternity.") In the film, which was nominated for 5 Oscars, Frank Sinatra plays a slumping novelist back in his small Indiana hometown for the first time in 16 years. He's torn between two women - call girl Shirley MacLaine and sophisticated English teacher Martha Hyer. Along for the ride is Dean Martin as Sinatra's gambler pal. Michael admits to being "in the bag" for Minnelli's masterfully shot melodrama. But can Adam see his way past the movie's retrograde sexual politics?

Is there a four-hour cut of READY PLAYER ONE? Adam and guest host Tasha Robinson (TheVerge.com, Next Picture Show) have no idea, but it would help explain some of the narrative shortcuts in Spielberg's visually impressive adaptation of the Ernest Cline bestseller. The good news about the story's leap to the big screen is an improvement on the fun, but slight source material and some electrifying moments of nostalgia-fueled fun. Adam and Tasha also go on an Easter Egg hunt of sorts, with their Top 5 Movie Homages (that is, movies referencing other movies), including a movie-length Tarantino homage that gobsmacks Adam when Tasha points it out. All that, plus the championship round of Filmspotting Madness.0:00-2:44 - Intro3:30-41:25 - Review: "Ready Player One"The Blow, "Get Up"44:30-49:41 - Next Week / Notes49:41-58:56 - Filmspotting Madness: Final58:56-1:23:04 - Top 5: Movie HomagesThe Blow, "The Greatest Love of All"1:25:06-1:57:43 - Top 5: Movie Homages, cont1:57:43-2:01:03 - Close      

Vincente Minnelli's 1956 Van Gogh biopic starring Kirk Douglas as the tortured artist is as bold and emotionally vivid as one of the painter's visionary canvases. Which is to say that, yeah, it lacks a bit of subtlety now and then. But Douglas gives an intense and painfully vulnerable performance as Van Gogh, alongside memorable turns by James Donald as Vincent's long-suffering but loyal brother Theo, and Oscar-winner Anthony Quinn as a belligerent, larger-than-life Paul Gaugin.

In 2007, Wes Anderson took his act overseas to India for "The Darjeeling Limited," and was accused by some of cultural insensitivity. Anderson's latest - the stop-motion animated ISLE OF DOGS - is set in Japan, and some of those same criticisms have resurfaced. While acknowledging its critics, Josh deems the setting "crucial" to the film's power and anoints it an early front-runner for his film of the year. But does (relative) Anderson-skeptic Adam follow his co-host's lead? A review of "Dogs," Josh and Michael Phillips' Top 5 Wes Anderson Scenes (from 2014) and the Filmspotting Madness: Best of the '90s Final Four revealed.0:00-2:05 - Intro3:00-37:24 - Review: "Isle of Dogs"Jack White, "Why Walk a Dog?"39:58-49:07 - Next Week / Notes49:07-1:01:11 - Filmspotting Madness: Final Four1:01:11-1:16:39 - Top 5: Wes Anderson Scenes (2014)The Ramones, "Judy Is a Punk"1:17:24-1:36:48 - Top 5: Anderson Scenes cont.1:36:48-1:39:04 - Close         

When Steven Soderbergh returned to feature filmmaking last year with the low budget heist caper "Logan Lucky," it was just another chapter in the mercurial director’s career. Blockbuster filmmaker. Indie auteur. Soderbergh has done it all. He shot his latest - the psychological thriller UNSANE featuring Claire Foy ("The Crown") - on an iPhone 7. Fresh from their screening, Adam and Josh offer up some "still processing" thoughts. Plus, results from the Sweet 16 matchups - "Fargo" v "Before Sunrise"? "Big Lebowski" v "Boogie Nights"? - of Filmspotting Madness: Best of the '90s.0:00-2:01 - Intro4:06-30:02 - Review: "Unsane"Carter Burwell, "Fargo, North Dakota"32:32-41:39 - Next Week / Notes41:39-58:40 - FS Madness: Elite 858:40-1:00:00 - Close

"Professor" Michael Phillips returns for a conversation about one of his favorite Minnelli films, the 1953 musical THE BAND WAGON. The plot has Fred Astaire as a washed up song and dance man who gets paired with Cyd Charisse's anxious ballerina for a doomed stage musical based on the Faust legend. With Astaire and Charisse and a script by the same duo that wrote "Singin' in the Rain," expectations were high. But despite a few stand-out numbers - go ahead and YouTube "Dancing in the Dark", and the film's noir-inspired "Girl Hunt" finale - Adam and Josh come up a little short of being able to say: "That's Entertainment."

Note: your "Coen Brothers Ranked" lists may need some readjusting. Especially if you haven't seen - or haven't seen in a long while - the Coens densely plotted and impeccably cast third feature, MILLER'S CROSSING. The period gangster picture was a revelatory experience in Josh's early cinematic life, but it had been a couple decades since his last visit. Likewise for Adam. After getting unceremoniously bounced in the first round of the Best of the 90s Filmspotting Madness tournament, they decided to give "Crossing" another look and find it somehow an even greater achievement than those ecstatic first impressions. A couple decades watching Coen Brothers movies can, it seems, help you see even their earlier work more clearly. (And, oh man, that Carter Burwell score.) All that, plus Filmspotting Madness round two results and third-round matchups.0:00-1:30 - Intro3:54-41:52 - Sacred Cow: "Miller's Crossing"Carter Burwell, "Miller's Crossing Theme"45:40-50:39 - Next Week / Notes50:39-1:03:36 - Filmspotting Madness: Sweet 16Stealers Wheel, "Stuck In The Middle With You"1:05:50-1:26:44 - Filmspotting Madness: Sweet 16, cont1:26:44-1:29:13 - Close     

Take a quick look through Vincente Minnelli's directing credits and one thing becomes clear: he only worked with the best. In his 1952 Hollywood melodrama THE BAD AND THE BEAUTIFUL, Minnelli gets a simultaneously charming and sinister performance from Kirk Douglas as a movie producer who'll do anything for his art. And - even better - Lana Turner as a starlet struggling with drink and depression.

It's been a week since their review of "Annihilation," but it feels like Adam and Josh never quite escaped The Shimmer. Ava DuVernay's visually adventurous adaptation of the beloved (and "unfilmable") sci-fi/fantasy kids novel shares some of the apocalyptic themes of Alex Garland's film - as well as some of its ability to confound. While agreeing that DuVernay managed to make something personal out of her 100-million-dollar, effects-driven film, they disagree about just how successful that something is. Plus, Filmspotting Madness: Best of the '90s opening round results and second round matchups.    0:00-2:08 - Intro4:42-22:13 - Review: "A Wrinkle in Time"Shannon and the Clams, "The Boy"24:53-32:05 - Oscars Recap / Next Week / Notes32:05-50:15 - Filmspotting Madness: Round 2 Jonathan Richman, "There's Something About Mary"51:29-1:21:36 - Filmspotting Madness: Round 2, cont1:21:36-1:24:24 - Close / Hot Mics

Vincente Minnelli's first collaboration with future wife Judy Garland was the 1903-set MEET ME IN ST. LOUIS, the second film in Filmspotting's six-film Minnelli Marathon. Coming a year after his 1943 debut "Cabin the Sky," the movie charts a year in the life of the Smith family, happily settled in the title city and eagerly anticipating the 1904 World's Fair. Despite its reputation as one of the great MGM musicals, Adam and Josh admit to some disappointment at the film's lack of stakes and its nostalgic embrace of the nuclear family as a platonic ideal. They admit to being charmed by Garland, though, along with a number of scenes that allow Minnelli to show off his technical brilliance.

Adam and Josh exchange theories about "Ex Machina" director Alex Garland's latest mind-bender, ANNIHILATION, which continues Garland's sci-fi exploration of what it means to be human. (That's one theory, anyway.) After giving the movie a thorough, spoiler-free working over, they dive into some spoiler talk and discuss the movie's ending in detail. (Fear not! They give you plenty of warning - and a music break - before getting spoiler-y.) Then it's into the mouth of madness as they walk you through the 32 opening round matchups in this year's Filmspotting Madness: Best of the '90s Edition. 0:00-2:04 - Intro2:58-29:39 - Review: "Annihilation"29:39-43:25 - "Annihilation" SpoilersLoma, "Relay Runner"46:33-52:50 - Larsen Recommends: "Killer of Sheep"52:50-1:08:49 - Next Week / Notes1:08:49-1:37:05 - Filmspotting Madness: Opening RoundDanny Elfman, "Ice Dance" (Edward Scissorhands)1:40:13-2:12:38 - Filmspotting Madness, cont2:12:38-2:24:04 - Close / Hot Mics