Apologies: At the 2:30 mark or so we were missing a one-minute audio clip from another podcast I had meant to insert; that is there now. Again, very sorry about that, should be fixed now.
On this week’s episode, Sonny Bunch (The Bulwark), Alyssa Rosenberg (The Washington Post), and Peter Suderman (Reason) discuss the controversy (or possibly the nontroversy?) surrounding Spike Lee’s inclusion of 9/11 Truthers in his new documentary about New York City’s last 20 years. (To get a full sense of the issue, make sure to read this Slate piece by Jeremy Stahl on what Lee included.) Do filmmakers have a conspiracy theory problem? Are they poisoning the minds of their vulnerable listenership? And the gang also discusses Disney+’s What If … ?, the new animated series highlighting alternate universes from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Spoiler: It’s not great, Bob.
And make sure to check out our members-only bonus episode on Candyman, a movie Alyssa was too scared to watch but which Sonny and Peter found fascinating; you can sign up here to listen now if you haven’t already.
Man, I wish I saw Candyman the way Peter did but I did not. I really did not like the movie, even though I do think it is a very good looking movie.
Ffs, you three can be annoying. I mean if you don't like Marvel that much, it is what it is, but it's pretty obvious that What If? was made as a cartoon not just because filming this stuff would be prohibitively expensive, but also because it's the creators having a 30 minute laugh/spitball session with the fans. So I guess it's simply that it wasn't made for you
It is entirely possible that it "simply wasn't made for us."
And that's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, not everything has to be for everybody. In the last year I got introduced to Gentefied and the series Hollywood, and while I can see how they would have merit for others, they weren't made for me
The thing is, I think we've been positive or mixed-positive on most everything else from the MCU. This is just a particularly bad show imo.
I disagree, but hey, your milage may very, and that's cool
Hollywood is ultimately a what if story, now that I think about it
Any chance you all can stop reviewing comic book/MCU films as the main review section? Or at least just limit them a bit? There are tons of movies that could get this treatment that would offer more insight IMO. I know that gets the views, but I would love more variety personally. Thanks and I'll keep listening.
I think you'll enjoy the Candyman bonus episode!
It's tricky because a.) we want to do things that are widely available but also b.) Alyssa really doesn't do horror. And much of what's in theaters right now is a.) horror and b.) comic book stuff. There was also some behind-the-scenes discussion about whether or not we want to be MCU completists and ... I think WHAT IF...? killed any urge we had to be completists.
That said, we pretty much have to do SHANG CHI next week because a.) it's the biggest release of the week, possibly the month, b.) it presents a variety of interesting avenues of discussion, from the state of the industry with regard to China to the fate of theaters, and c.) that's the movie mostly likely to be seen by people.
But yeah, I'll be excited to get to awards season and start talking about something other than Big Splosions.
Will try out the Candyman bonus podcast. And I totally understand about Shang Chi and Black Widow. But What If, Loki, Falcon and Winter Soldier - that is a bit much. A secondary idea - maybe a poll a couple weeks out from the episode gauging interest.
Yeah, agreed: The completist dream has died this week, I can assure.
As a preview, after Shang Chi I think we have the new Paul Schrader/Oscar Isaac movie (The Card Counter), the new Clint Eastwood (Cry Macho), The Eyes of Tammy Faye, and then The Many Saints of Newark (The Sopranos prequel movie). So we're getting into a slightly more diverse segment of the movie calendar, for sure.
Just FYI, I mentioned this up top, but in case you come here looking for answers: At the 2:30 mark or so there was an audio file that was meant to be spliced in and I forgot to splice it. But it's there now, sorry if your feed sent you a version of the pod that didn't have it. It's a good clip, you should listen to it!