I recently posted several short reviews of movie podcasts that I listen to… and since then, I’ve come across a few other good movie podcasts.
- FilmCouch – This is Spout.com‘s weekly podcast, which has rather quickly become one of my favorites. Each show is about a half hour long and they typically use a new release as a starting point for a more general discussion. For instance, instead of just reviewing Quantum of Solace, they had a discussion about what makes a good spy film and how recent spy movies have tended to emphasise action over espionage. They also try to highlight obscure and overlooked films (for instance, Gabriel over the Whitehouse). This sometimes makes the podcast feel like it’s more interested in indie movies than popular movies, and they do sometimes focus a little too much on film festivals (which can be interesting, but is usually kinda frustrating because us listeners don’t have a way to check out the films they’re talking about until months or years later), but overall, it’s an excellent podcast, and even when they take on a subject that doesn’t sound good, they usually manage to make it interesting. It’s become my second favorite podcast (behind Filmspotting, which is still the gold standard).
- Left Field Cinema – This weekly 10-15 minute UK-based podcast is a little more formal than most, but it’s excellent content. The podcast is run by Michael Dawson, who basically reads a short essay every episode. Each episode is a bit short for my tastes and I prefer the back-and-forth of a multiple person podcast, but when you combine those traits, it actually works out (at least, in this case it does). I particularly enjoyed the 5 part series called Horror Movies as Modern Day Morality Tales.
- Filmically Perfect – I actually mentioned this one in my last post, but didn’t mention much about it. This is a weekly half hour podcast hosted by Niki Dakota, J. Todd Anderson (who is a storyboard artist that works for, amongst others, the Coen brothers) and George Willeman (who works at the Library of Congress). Each podcast is about a particular film, one which has been chosen by the hosts to be “perfect.” Their criteria seems awfully vague at first, but after listening to a bunch of episodes, it’s grown on me. I’m still not convinced, but even if it not a great set of criteria, it makes for a decent way to look at the movies. Here are their four rules for a perfect movie:
- A perfect movie creates the world it exists in.
- It wholly sustains that world.
- Regardless of changes in society, it retains its meaning and entertainment value.
- A perfect movie is never placed in any preferential or numerical order. Each film is perfect by its own scale.
Rule #3 is probably the most important of these and one of the tougher hurdles to clear. They appear to be on something of a hiatus recently, but there’s an ample set of episodes covering everything from Citizen Kane to Office Space.
There are plenty of other podcasts I haven’t gotten to yet, but these have been keeping me busy lately…