We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
Words by Kpolly
This week on Cinebuds, we’re safe at our homes and recording remotely. Kristopher is wearing tissue boxes for shoes and Justin has made a tin foil hat. But, despite this, we’re doing fine. So fine, in fact, that we decided to discuss a film that was just released to stream on Hulu, “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”
Director Céline Sciamma tells the story of a painter who is commissioned to do the wedding portrait of a young woman who has just left the convent. She’s a reluctant bride to be and the painter must paint her without her knowing. The two women slowly develop a forbidden connection.
This much-talked-about film from late last year was a common sight on innumerable end-of-year lists from critics and fans alike. It premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival where it won the Queer Palm, which is an award that started in 2010 to highlight queer cinema at the French festival. Sciamma is the first woman to win this award. And then she went on to win 43 more awards. That’s roughly 43 more awards than I’ve ever won for a film. So, not too shabby, huh?
Style and emotion are at the forefront of this movie. The performances are all in the eyes. And, in some ways, in the armpits. (You’ll have to watch to understand that one…)
This and other recommendations for what to watch await you in the podcast. Don’t forget to share, subscribe and rate Cinebuds online. That helps us get into heaven!
Stay safe everyone!
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Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
In the past couple years we have seen the rise of A24.
One time I was at Rush Mor Records in Bay View and Bill, one of the owners, said to me, “You wanna see a movie tonight? We are seeing ‘Green Room.’” And when I asked what it was about he said, “It’s gory and it’s about music and it’s produced by A24, I will see anything those guys make.”
In eight years A24 has become that kind of company. They’ve gone from making a couple cool films, to being the indicator of excellence when it comes to movies. You’ve probably seen the logo flash before the beginning of “Uncut Gems,” “Midsommer,” “Eighth Grade” or “Moonlight,” and known that you were in for something good.
But what exactly is A24?
What do they do? What role do they play? How did they start? And why are they so dominant?
That’s exactly what we talk about this week on Cinebuds.
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Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
Kpolly here. This week on Cinebuds we’re… living through a pandemic! Just like everyone else. First and foremost, we hope you are all staying healthy and safe and have the cleanest hands of your lives. It’s a weird time and, like everyone else, we’re figuring out what we should be doing. For now, we’re gonna keep on keeping on — and making a podcast is a good way to fill our time!
Justin and I are fine and staying home, which means we’re not out seeing films in the theater. But, obviously, this is a time where everyone is going to be bingeing shows and movies like crazy. So, we’re going to share some of the films we think would be good for our collective cocooning. Fun movies (keeping it light), romantic movies (if you’re with your sweet ones), scary movies (if you want to lean into the fear), family movies (keep those kids occupied, am I right?).
We’re also reading books, trying out new streaming platforms, and trying out new ways to record (our producer Kenny is going to have his hands full, man!).
We hope we can give you some fun new options, and let us know what you’ve been watching/reading/getting up to while you’re waiting out the madness. Share your thoughts on our social media pages. And, as always, SHARE – RATE – SUBSCRIBE! It keeps us rolling in one dollar bills!!
Like what you hear? Subscribe!
Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds. On this week’s episode we’re discussing weird movies.
Weird movies. We love ’em. We watch ’em. We love talking about them. But what constitutes a “weird movie?” We debate it a bit and we settle on a scale.
The scale is from “Eraserhead” to “Sorry To Bother You.”
“Eraserhead” is on the line of weird movies that are weird for the sake of being weird. Some others we talk about in this category are “Gummo” and “Pink Flamingos.” These movies can be accomplishments just to get to the end of them.
“Sorry to Bother You” is on the other end. Weird? Yes. But also, it won’t make you gag at any point. A bit fantastical, surreal for sure, and has a solid plot.
In the podcast we talk about some of our favorite weird movies that fall along this scale. Kpolly talks about “November,” a favorite weird movie of his, and of course, we talk about what else we are watching.
‘Eraserhead’
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Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
On this week’s episode we’re discussing The Band documentary “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band.” We all know The Band. If you don’t jam with “The Weight” when it’s playing in a Walgreens or The Gap, you are likely heartless or living under a rock. BUT do you really know The Band? They seem to be one of those bands that is in the either and we nod along to when they are mentioned, maybe we know some of the finer points but not all of them. That makes them perfectly ripe for a documentary.
This documentary follows the lead of founding member Robbie Robertson’s memoir, “Testimony,” which he released in 2016. It tells the story of a band that started young. Robertson got his first songwriting credit when he was only 15 years old. The come up is exciting and fraught. They back Bob Dylan on the dismal tour where he went electric and got booed every single night. The band’s take was, “It was a strange way to make a buck.” The vacillate between hard working studio musicians and finally find themselves as full blown artists by hunkering down in a basement in Woodstock, NY. Ultimately, the doc and the story of the band follows that of many music docs and heroin enters the scene, then the band is re-birthed with some kind of triumph, in this case, the famous Last Waltz. It feels like a spoiler typing that, but if you are interested in this movie at all you probably have seen “The Last Waltz.”
In the end it doesn’t break any norms or conventions, but it
does tell an exciting story of kids that lived their dreams and left a mark on
history that is still heard. After watching the doc me and Kpolly listened to
The Band all weekend, and that seems to be just about a perfect accomplishment
for what this doc is setting out to do.
In the pod we go into the specifics of the doc, our favorite moments, funny moments from talking heads, and, of course, our favorite segment, what else we have been watching.
Like what you hear? Subscribe!
Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
“The Photograph” is a new movie with a very cheesy poster that debuted on Valentine’s Day. All signs indicated that this was a made-for-Hallmark-straight-to-DVD-after-spending-Valentine’s-day-in-the-theater-schmaltzy-romantic-blah-fest that is safe to skip. BUT, don’t let that black and white poster with their foreheads just ever so slightly touching and the release date fool you, “The Photograph” is more than it seems.
Michael Block (LaKeith Stanfield) and Mae Morton (Issa Rae) in The Photograph | Photo courtesy Universal
It stars LaKeith Stanfield, who smolders oh so smoldery all through this movie, making you fall EVEN more in love with him. Lil Rel Howery plays, basically, the same character he played in “Brittany Runs a Marathon,” but that character is so funny and we need more of him in every movie. The score is done by Grammy Award winner, and musical genius, Robert Glasper. Sure, it is still boxed in by the typical beats of any love story, BUT it plays well within its boundaries.
‘The Photograph’ is, as they say, worth a thousand words. And we say all those words in the podcast. Check it out below.
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Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
This week on the podcast we are talking about the epic new documentary “Fantastic Fungi” – a dazzling new film about the magical world of fungi and their power to heal, sustain and contribute to the regeneration of life on Earth.
Are we going all Birkenstocks and hacky sacks over here! I mean, sure. But there’s a lot more to this topic than you might initially believe. Not only does the film bring you some white hot factoids about the grand scheme of how fungi relate the planet (ex. every step you take there is 300 miles of fungi below your foot!), but it delivers this info with “Matrix”-like visual effects and sweeping landscapes that will blow you away.
You know that fast-motion thing they do with mushrooms when you see them grow in a couple of seconds? This film is lousy with them. File that under the “oddly satisfying” label…
Brie Larsen provides the voice of the narrator on this mushroom adventure and there are some luminaries such as author Michael Pollan, and THE Tradd Cotter (honestly, I don’t know who that is, but it’s kind of a great name).
If this kind of movie is your thing, we’ll give you some
other recommendations for movie-going!
Don’t forget to rate, follow, and share our podcast if you like it. And if you don’t like, please do it anyway.
Like what you hear? Subscribe!
Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
Words by Kpolly
This week on Cinebuds we will be discussing Dolittle. Why, you ask? I’ll be honest. I’m not really sure. It just kinda happened and neither of us fought it too hard. It’s like when you walk into a room and you forget why you walked in there…
Leaving behind Rex Harrison and Eddie Murphy, we now have “Bobby Down” as the titular physician. Dr. John Dolittle lives in solitude behind high walls 19th-century British mansion, surrounded by a variety of exotic animals that he can chat with. When the Queen of England is in trouble he must leave his lavish refuge and embark on a quest with his animal crew.
Clearly a film aimed at children, the movie still has some pretty across-the-board naysayers. One of us gets why. The other one feels like the criticism might be a bit too harsh.
Is it a go-nowhere failed adventure flick? Or is it “Pirates of the Caribbean” with wise-cracking ostriches? Or is it both?
We will also let you know, as we have done lately, what else we’ve been watching. God forbid, we go outside once in a while!!
And don’t forget to like, subscribe and share our podcast with your pals. If you don’t, we’ll be fired and probably have to get real jobs!
Like what you hear? Subscribe!
Get all of 88Nine’s podcasts delivered right to you weekly at RadioMilwaukee.org/Podcasts. We’ve got podcasts about music, food and film, with fresh episodes dropping every week! And don’t forget to check out our new podcast “Backspin: The Search for Milwaukee’s First Hip-Hop Song,” a six-part exploration of the birth of Milwaukee rap. All episodes are streaming now.
Bong Joon-ho, here with interpreter Sharon Choi, won big at Sunday’s Oscars. His film Parasite took best international feature and best picture, and he was recognized for his direction and writing.
For the first time ever, a film in a foreign language won best picture when Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite, a comedy-drama-thriller about class and secrets, took the big prize. Bong also won the awards for best director and best original screenplay. He delivered three warm and generous speeches, including one when he won for his directing and thanked fellow nominees Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino for inspiring him and boosting his career, respectively. (He acknowledged Sam Mendes and Todd Phillips, too.) And, while he gave most of his speeches in Korean with interpreter Sharon Choi, when he won the first one, he stopped and noted in English: “This is very first Oscar to South Korea.” The affection in the room for the film was evident every time it was mentioned, as well as in its strong haul of awards (though it absurdly landed not a single nomination for its uniformly excellent cast).
The evening began three and a half hours earlier with a combination of the old and the new: the kind of themed singing-dancing number that used to be the typical Oscars opening, but in the absence of a traditional host, it was performed by the thoroughly modern Janelle Monáe. A version of her own song “Come Alive” was accompanied by dancers dressed in costumes saluting not just nominated films like Joker, but also conspicuously snubbed ones — several of them, but not all, from black filmmakers — including Us, Queen and Slim, Dolemite Is My Name and Midsommar. The monologue that followed, however, was much more creaky and awkward, despite the best efforts of Chris Rock and Steve Martin (the latter of whom regrettably blew the name of best actress nominee Cynthia Erivo).
The awards in general, and the ones this season in general, have been heavily criticized for how white the nominees are, the failure to nominate any women directors in a year when several made highly regarded films, and plenty of other shortfalls in inclusivity. The Academy’s discomfort with that criticism seemed evident: There may not have been a lot of performers of color among the nominees, but there were a lot among the presenters and speakers and performers. Several presenters — as well as Monáe in her opening number — made mention of the limitations at issue, which is the kind of thing that happens when people are placed in a situation they don’t want to ignore but also aren’t there to challenge too much.
One new inclusion was a land acknowledgment — a custom that’s commonly observed in other places, including Canada, at cultural events (I’ve personally seen them at the Toronto International Film Festival). In this case, it was writer-director Taika Waititi, nominated for Jojo Rabbit, who read an acknowledgment of the indigenous people who have lived on the land where the event — in this case, the Academy Awards — takes place. Whether this gesture will be followed up by any action as to the broadening of the Academy’s taste remains, of course, to be seen.
Parasite‘s win for best picture stood out, particularly because almost all of the other awards that had seemed likely to go a particular way did: Legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins won for his work on 1917, the WWI film engineered to look like a continuous shot. Film editing is often a precursor to other big awards, and this year the winners were the editors of racing drama Ford V. Ferrari. Parasite had been expected to win (or at least to contend strongly) in the categories of best international feature film and for Bong Joon-ho’s original screenplay. Waititi was a favorite for best adapted screenplay, which he won.
The acting awards this year had heavy favorites going into the ceremony: Joaquin Phoenix as best actor in Joker, Renee Zellweger as best actress in Judy, Brad Pitt as best supporting actor in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Laura Dern as best supporting actress in Marriage Story. They all won. Most of them said about what you might expect (although Phoenix surprised many of us by adding to his speech about fighting injustice a mention of the cruelty of artificially inseminating cows and then stealing their offspring, while Zellweger listed many of her heroes in a speech that matched his, meander for meander).
The lower-profile (but critical) behind-the-scenes awards were spread across a bunch of films. Best production design went to Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which re-created the late-’70s L.A. landscape and aesthetic with a lot of loving attention. Little Women won its only award of the night for Jacqueline Durran’s costume design, full of beautiful dresses both fancy and not. The transformation of actors into familiar faces from the news won an award for the hair and makeup team from Bombshell. The sound editing award went to Ford v. Ferrari and both sound mixing and visual effects went to 1917.
The non-surprises kept coming: Toy Story 4 won best-animated feature. Best documentary feature was awarded to “American Factory,” which boasts Barack and Michelle Obama as producers and which comes from Netflix. Hair Love, a lovely film about a father learning to do his daughter’s hair for the first time, written and directed by Matthew A. Cherry, won best animated short, and Cherry dedicated the award to Kobe Bryant: “May we all have a second act as great as his was.” Best live-action short film went to The Neighbor’s Window, and best documentary short subject went to Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl).
The nominated best original songs were performed on stage as usual. Introducer Josh Gad had some fun pointing out that Idina Menzel’s name is “pronounced exactly as it’s spelled” (take that, John Travolta) before she performed “Into the Unknown” from Frozen 2. Menzel was joined by some of the singers who have performed the song in other languages in one of the evening’s better innovations. Chrissy Metz performed “I’m Standing With You” from Breakthrough, accompanied by the choir that’s nearly obligatory. Randy Newman performed “I Can’t Let You Throw Yourself Away” from Toy Story 4, and Cynthia Erivo (also nominated for best actress) performed the song “Stand Up (From Harriet),” which, as its title suggests, is from Harriet. Elton John performed “(I’m Gonna) Love Me Again” from Rocketman, seemingly hamstrung by a bad sound mix.
When they’d all been heard, “I’m Gonna Love Me Again” was victorious. Hildur Guðnadóttir won best original score for her work on Joker.
The musical moment you probably would not have expected — because, really, who could? — was that actor Anthony Ramos introduced Lin-Manuel Miranda; Lin-Manuel Miranda introduced a montage saluting the music used in movies over many decades; and that montage led to Eminem performing the Oscar-winning “Lose Yourself” from 8 Mile, to which the audience responded rapturously. It wasn’t an obvious move to throw in that performance, given that it’s not celebrating any kind of round-numbered anniversary; it won at the 2003 ceremony, though Eminem didn’t perform it then.
But it made people happy and got the crowd going like nothing else did all evening except Parasite winning awards, and there’s something to be said for that. Not long after, there was a recap rap from Utkarsh Ambudkar, an actor who appeared this year in Brittany Runs a Marathon, reminding everyone what had happened so far. That’s a lot of rap for an Oscars ceremony.
Last year’s ceremony also went without a host, and it wound up being dominated by the actual wins and losses. That made big nights for Green Book and Bohemian Rhapsody, neither of which seemed to excite the crowd, very disappointing. But this year, the fact that there’s good feeling around so many different films — and enormous respect and love for both Parasite and Bong Joon-ho — means that this ceremony fared much better.
Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
We’re 88Nine’s Justin Barney and Milwaukee Film’s Kpolly. We’re buds, we like cinema — we’re Cinebuds.
On this week’s episode, we’re digging into “Marriage Story,” the new film from Noah Baumbach. He’s directed other movies that deal with personal relationships and how those relationships change over time, “Kicking and Screaming,” “Frances Ha,” and “The Meyerowitz Stories” among others.
If you haven’t seen “Marriage Story,” but have been on Twitter, you may have seen a particular scene in which Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson are yelling at each other. We talk about this scene. We talk about the music, (which is done by Randy Newman!) the premise and its nomination for an Academy Award for Best Picture.
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