Buried Cinema

We're joined by special guest, comedian Dan Kapr, for part one of our junk january in which we review two of the worst movies we could find: Derek Savage's supposed anti-bullying (but very pro-Derek) PSA, COOL CAT SAVES THE KIDS (2015); and the first animated feature to come out of Scotland (though they may want to skip that in the tourism brochures), SIR BILLI (2012), featuring the voice talent of a retired Sir Sean Connery. Sure, they're both terrible movies full of problematic content. They sure are. Join us next time for part two when we talk about RIKI-OH: THE STORY OF RICKY and SGT. KABUKIMAN N.Y.P.D.

We had some trouble getting this one out before 2019's end, but here it is. We're discussing mystery movies, with a popular one currently in theaters and just today nominated for a screenplay Oscar, Rian Johnson's KNIVES OUT; and a documentary from a few years ago about one of the weirdest cases of identity fraud ever, Bart Layton's THE IMPOSTER. We have all new weird audio issues this episode, what with all the fairies flittering around Tom's head out there in Utah, so we hope you'll forgive us and wish us better luck in 2020.

Speaking of 2020, join on us on our next episode, because it's our annual Junk January, and we once again will be reviewing some of the worst movies we could dredge up.

Our recording session was as WTF as the movies we watched. It's time for our annual WTF podcast, when we review the strange and bizarre--just in time for Thanksgiving! We kick things off with the O.G. WTF film, Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dali's 1929 surrealist classic UN CHIEN ANDALOU. Next we jump to 2006 with Michael Arias' anime adaptation of Taiyō Matsumo's manga TEKKONKINKREET and discuss the concept of yin and yang. Then we bring back podcast favorite, Rubber writer/director Quentin Depieux, with his 2014 film REALITY. At the end, we look forward to a couple of movies about iconic artists Vincent van Gogh and Frida Kahlo.

Brian has first pick and chooses Don Bluth's wannabe Disney-princess film ANASTASIA (1997). Tom tears it to shreds and then switches to the opposite extreme to defend his pairing, THE BRAVE LITTLE TOASTER (1987). What makes both of these films terrifying fare for children? How does The Brave Little Toaster exemplify what's wrong with America? What does Nate's impression of a pissed-off Sylvester Stallone sound like? Find out on Buried Cinema as we ask the question: Wait... that's not Disney?

Our podcast this week consists of a college professor, a high school English teacher, a former science teacher, and a one-time substitute assistant pre-school teacher, but we all used to be high schoolers. Our movies this week are ME AND EARL AND THE DYING GIRL (2015) and HEARTS BEAT LOUD (2018), both featuring Nick Offerman, which mixed with a certain recent popular deep-fake video gave our sound editor literal nightmares. We talk about death. We talk about racism. We talk at length (no pun intended) about Superman's codpiece.  We make revelations about our own high school experiences. Join us as Buried Cinema goes "Back to School."

Nate chooses 'Alien: Covenant' to kick things off this month, and gives us the theme "seconds." We're all still a little hazy on why. Nevertheless, Kevin dug deep and chose John Frankenheimer's 1966 psychological thriller 'Seconds' starring Rock Hudson (segment begins at 32:24). And join us next week as we discuss 'Songs from the Second Floor' and 'Once.'

Brian chooses the alt-Superman origin story BRIGHTBURN, which just got released on home media. It's a movie about a little shit who discovers he has super powers and then turns into a little shit who kills people with his super powers. Next we discuss our first ever film submitted to us for review by a distributor (Rock Salt Releasing), Sonia Escolano's HOUSE OF SWEAT AND TEARS, a Spanish horror flick about an isolated religious cult. It's an indie horror twofer this week on Buried Cinema.

Buried Cinema is nine years old. Usually we celebrate a milestone by reviewing some classic or tentpole of cinema. This year, we're going a slightly different route. We are reviewing classics, but each one of us picked a "classic" we hate. We begin with a delightful musical that musical fan Nate hates, 1954's WHITE CHRISTMAS. Next we discuss Brian's choice, one of the most egregious Best Picture Academy Award-winners ever, 1956's AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS (segment begins at 19:15). Next up is another Best Picture winner, and a deserving one, unless you ask Kevin, who hates 1965's THE SOUND OF MUSIC (begins at 41:01). Tom picked a "fun" war movie that nobody else even knew of, 1970 Clint Eastwood vehicle KELLY'S HEROES (1:01:45). Last of our despised classics is self-professed "sci-fi guy" Steve's pick of 1982 (or 2007, depending on how you judge these things) tech-noir standard BLADE RUNNER (1:19:28). Finally we look forward to a couple of animated movies that are NOT Disney... we think.  

We said we'd be reviewing BRIGHTBURN, but that movie didn't burn bright so much as it did fizzle at the box office, so we're putting that one off till the home media release to try and be more timely. Instead, this week we're talking about Shirley MacLaine, because she's timeless! Tom picks MacLaine's 1966 film GAMBIT, co-starring Michael Caine. Nate, tasked with the theme of "'gambit' but it has to star either Shirley MacLaine or Michael Caine," goes with the broadest possible definition of the theme and picks the 1989 ensemble film STEEL MAGNOLIAS, starring Shirley MacLaine and five other women who aren't Shirley MacLaine. There is some confusion over members of our troupe disappearing and appearing throughout the podcast, and it's totally not because this is edited together from several different recording sessions. Our review of BRIGHTBURN will be out soon, along with our first review of a film submitted to us by an actual film company, HOUSE OF SWEAT AND TEARS.

Continuing with Nate's theme of "Seconds," Patrick chooses 'Songs from the Second Floor,' a Swedish film based on the works of a Peruvian poet, because sure. Brian pairs the 2006 musical 'Once,' because he likes to be contrarian. (Segment 2 begins at 24:11.) At the end we look forward to next month's heist movies.

We review Edgar Wright's 'Baby Driver' as well as other heist movies, Bill Murray's 1990 comedy 'Quick Change' (segment begins at 23:19) and David O. Russell's 1999 Gulf War film 'Three Kings' (38:28). After that we discuss David Mamet's 1988 Mafia buddy-comedy 'Things Change' (56:12). At the end we look forward to our 7-year anniversary podcast (1:14:52).

Steve has first pick and chooses Jordan Peele's sophomore effort US, starring Lupita Nyong'o. The theme is "impostors," and Brian once again goes classic and picks Billy Wilder's 1959 SOME LIKE IT HOT, starring Jack Lemmon, Tony Curtis, and Marilyn Monroe. At the end, we look forward to watching the James Gunn-produced BRIGHTBURN and a special screening of a new Spanish horror film, HOUSE OF SWEAT AND TEARS.

A little over seven years ago, in 2010, Nate, Steve, and Tom started this podcast. Along the way we picked up Brian, Kevin, and Patrick, and now we six have decided to honor our seven year anniversary by each choosing our favorite film of all time and letting the others pick it apart. (This goes better for some than for others.) We discuss The Great Escape, The Shawshank Redemption (segment begins at 17:17), City Lights (35:46), A History of Violence (53:33), Fight Club (1:15:39), and Chinatown (1:33:48). At the end we look forward to next month's podcast (1:55:22).

Kevin's all about fantastic finishes. Also, the MCU. So he picks AVENGERS: ENDGAME for us to review. Tom goes a slightly different direction with the pairing and chooses Nicolas Winding Refn's 2016 love letter to the fashion industry, THE NEON DEMON. Flickchart gives us Endgame vs. Citizen Kane, leading us into a surprising review of the nature of film criticism itself. Steve thinks Jena Malone is creepy, not just because she molests dead bodies. Nate destroys children's love of books. It all happens this week on Buried Cinema. (It's a long one, but hey, it's only half the length of one of the films we reviewed.)

Kevin had thematic control for the month of. . . September. . . so we watched. . . movies that came out when we were six years old. . . so we ended up with the 1979 (supposed) comedy 'Scavenger Hunt', 1979's 'The In-Laws', the 1988 remake of 'The Blob', and Jim Jarmusch's landscape-changing and divisive 1984 'Stranger Than Paradise.' There may be some name-calling.

Nate's theme this week is "giant monsters," and he's chosen Nacho Vigalondo's 2017 allegory COLOSSAL, starring Anne Hathaway as a giant monster destroying Seoul... sort of... which Brian dubs "the Freaky Friday of Godzilla movies." To pair, Tom chooses André Øvredal's 2010 found footage film TROLLHUNTER. This movie confuses Steve, who thinks all Norwegians look alike. (The Trollhunter discussion begins at 28:24.) At the end, we look forward to Kevin's "fantastic finishes," which is more PG than it sounds.

With Brian back from hiatus, we gave him control with first pick and theme, which he decided would be "Stage-to-Screen." He picked his nostalgic favorite, Frank Capra's ARSENIC AND OLD LACE (1944), starring Cary Grant. Bringing nostalgic favorites to the podcast altar never results in the knife being stayed. Sorry Brian, most of us kinda liked it! To pair with that classic, Kevin dug up a movie none of us had even heard of: the David Mamet-penned, Stuart Gordon-directed, William H. Macy-starring EDMOND (2005), which stirs up a lot of debate, even though none of us really liked it all that much.  (Our Edmond review begins at 20:40.) At the end we look forward to the next podcast and Nate's "Giant Monsters" theme.

Nate decided he wanted to watch "unexpected musicals," and picks Brian De Palma's 1974 PHANTOM OF THE PARADISE. Steve calls it his new personal low. Kevin picks John Cameron Mitchell's 2001 adaptation of his own play, HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH. We all struggle tripping over pronouns because of our wokeness. And Tom is on Nyquil for the entire podcast, so that's fun. At the end, we look forward to our returning podcastmate Brian's theme of stage-to-screen with ARSENIC AND OLD LACE.

We're just a bunch of straight white guys who'd like to say, "F U" to the MRA's, so we're discussing the MCU's newest hero, Carol Danvers in CAPTAIN MARVEL (2019). Yes, Tom's theme this week is "pissing off the Men's Rights Activists," and Steve's pairing is Niki Caro's WHALE RIDER (2002), a film that definitely does not feature Alaskan Inuits, but does feature a young Maori girl whose traditionalist grandfather refuses to recognize her ability to lead their people. We ask the tough questions, like why Thor can survive a neutron star but can't kill Thanos, and which character from Captain Marvel would look best with a mustache. Fair warning, this episode gets shamelessly nerdy. (Did we mention that MRA's can get bent?)

We have a tradition at Buried Cinema. Every first month of the year, we dig up the worst movies we can find, watch them, and record our "regret our life choices" episode. We call it Junk January. This January, we watched rip-offs. (Well, they were supposed to all be rip-offs... Nate.) Here we review the Soviet Avengers-style superhero flick GUARDIANS (2017); The Asylum's atrocious crime against humanity, NAZIS AT THE CENTER OF THE EARTH (2012); Spanish/Italian animated horror-fest TITANIC: THE LEGEND GOES ON (2000); NUKIE (1987), a South African production that is basically the worst possible version of E.T.; and finally Michael Mann's unfortunate trainwreck of a production, THE KEEP (which once again features Nazis). If you ever see a rapping dog, run, for disaster is close at hand!

We are joined once again by our regular Junk January guest, Baltimore-based stand-up comedian Dan Kapr. You can (and should) check out his own podcast "Dan Has Jokes," in which he interviews other comics and delves into the science of joke-writing.

This week we're talking B movies, starting with the 1982 cult slasher flick PIECES, followed by James Gunn's 2006 directorial debut, SLITHER. Next we move to classic Hammer films, 1958's HORROR OF DRACULA and 1961's SCREAM OF FEAR, both starring Christopher Lee. At the end we look forward to our Junk January line-up, followed by a post-outro reminiscence on a particular Junk January episode of the past.

It's our annual WTF month, and we're doing spoof movies, with Steve Oedekirk's 2002 'Kung Pow! Enter the Fist,' Marty Feldman's 1977 'The Last Remake of Beau Geste,' and Takashi Miike's 2004 'Zebraman.' And join us next time as we look at a bunch of remakes (that have nothing to do with Beau Geste).

Taking a page from our last podcast, where the theme was green and we watched a Jeremy Saulnier film, for this episode the theme is blue and we are watching a Jeremy Saulnier film. We discuss revenge thriller BLUE RUIN (2013) as well as buried 80s sci-fi horror "gem" BLUE MONKEY (1987), which has nothing to do with monkeys or even colors, really. At the end we look forward to talking about some B-horror movies. (Wait... didn't we just do that?)

Steve's theme this episode is "green." Yep, that's it. So we watch Jeremy Saulnier's brutal thriller GREEN ROOM (2015) and Derek Cianfrance's multi-generational drama THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES (2012). Steve airs his personal beef with Patrick Stewart, and Kevin surprises everyone with his answer to which character from Green Room he'd most want to make out with. At the end we look forward to our next podcast. The theme for that one is blue. Yeah, we're a creative bunch.