Like Mother, Like Son, Like Movies

In this episode we are going to talk about the films that were featured in the Best Picture category of Oscars 2022. We will go through them one by one and give our thoughts. Getting through all of them is way too big discussion for one episode, so this is just the first part.

We go through our favourite movies of 2019 with some honorary mentions and other memorable experiences.

Last time the Oscars gave us such a depressing event that we almost didn’t want to do our annual reaction episode this year. Somehow we found the energy and settled for the most thrilling awards ceremony since Moonlight (2016) winning best picture.

Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s Netflix release The Irishman (2019) which was a very long crime drama movie. We start the episode with a story of how hard it was for Aharon to find a moment to watch this movie. We continue with a discussion on the length and editing. Then we move on to the de-aging technology. And finally with some nice closing thoughts on the magic of cinema.

In which we are having more relaxed time and discuss first hand thoughts about movies we saw recently. Aharon tells a story about how several movies he saw tied together and Liisa is dying to get into Todd Phillips’ Joker (2019) and Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time In Hollywood (2019).

We found ourselves this time surprisingly talking about J. A. Bayona’s 2016 dark fantasy film A Monster Calls, adapted from the novel of the same name. While I had both negative and some positive feelings about the movie my mother simply didn’t understand why we were talking about this movie. Nevertheless like usual we managed to dig ourselves deep into fairy tales and children in cinema.

So here we are again. The Academy Awards were given while we avoided the news until we sat down and hosted our own Oscar special during which we revealed the winners. This year we wanted to include into the discussion also the movies from 2018 that didn’t get any attention in the Oscars and which we would definitely recommend people to see. So this time we will first go through a handful of Oscars winners and the other half we will dedicate to our own recommendations.

Luc Besson’s space adventure The Fifth Element (1997) still holds up as one the most entertaining movies coming out from 90’s. Naturally the fans were excited when the director chose to revisit space with his 2017 film Valerian and the City of Thousand Planets. The movie flopped at the box office and was forgotten relatively fast. Oddly we found this topic enough interesting that we had some thoughts of our own to put up on the table. We compare both movies and examine what are the failures of Valerian while also diving into the origins of the comic. While my mother gives interesting recommendation of other movies I try desperately to receive some value from watching Valerian.

Paul Verhoeven’s Elle (2016) is probably the hardest movie we had to talk about. It is a complex movie with very heavy subject matter. It’s a challenge to define the characters and their motives as confidently as the movie presents itself. But we knew it was a movie we had to get out of our system somehow. For my mother especially it was a major experience that ended helping her with her own life. In our talk we, among other topics, try our luck with analysing the characters and events, share thoughts on Paul Verhoeven and Isabelle Huppert and at the end I describe to my mother a fan theory that could turn the whole movie upside down.

I became really interested in Lynne Ramsay’s movies and because I heard so much about We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011) I decided to put it on the table for us to discuss. Little did I know Liisa was more than familiar with the movie and not very happy about it. Apart from Kevin we talk about psychopaths, mothers, Tilda Swinton and other Lynne Ramsay movies we are excited about. We kind of sidetrack at the end towards other directors, their methods and role of actors in productions. I had to record my end outside so you might hear some cars and a baby crying at some points, so try not to let them bother you too much.

Prior to seeing mother! my own mother told that her primary goal with Darren Aronofsky's 2017 film was to see what he was all about. Apparently she never really got him. In the other hand I have been following him very closely ever since I saw Requiem for a Dream (2000). That said, it has been surprisingly fascinating (and confusing) to observe his latest output. Similarly to my mother I also found myself bewildered. So fortunately we got to sit down and talk about it and finally put the topic to rest.

Despite mentioning Haneke frequently in our podcast, we haven’t had the chance to have an episode dedicated to him solely. But with his recent drama set in Calais, France, which my mother honoured to be the (other) best movie of 2017, we finally got our opportunity to focus on him. We talk of course about Haneke’s style and techniques in storytelling. This movie also gives us a good example on how he examines political content through his stories. We get lost in dissecting the characters and their actors and in the end my mother gives us an intriguing mystery to think about.

After Ruben Östlund’s memorable Force Majeure (2014), we were looking forward to his next film, The Square (2017). Especially after it won the Palme d’Or at Cannes Film Festival. A satire about the art world seemed like a welcoming subject, but oh boy, the movie did not sit well with us. And we knew we had to talk about it. If for nothing else, just to get it out of our system. So abandon all hope, ye who enter here. We discuss of course about what exactly went wrong here. About Östlunds previous films and how he constructs his own cinematic reality. And how Paul Verhoeven would have made that Ape Scene better. Spoiler warnings: We talk openly about the plot of The Square.

To get the whole Wicker Man experience completely out of our system after our talk about the original Robin Hardy masterpiece, we decided to examine Nicolas Cage’s accidental comedy The Wicker Man (2006). Our focus is particularly on the differences between the remake and the original and how exactly the makers of the remake failed to conceive the concepts of the original movie. Also we talk about the surprising merits of the remake. In particular the fact that both films have achieved a cult status with their own special ways. My mother is not familiar with the “so-good-its-bad” subgenre so I get to inform her about that. And of course we give our two cents about what we think of Cage’s acting talents. I mention Alamo Drafthouse C4GED marathon evening one point. I make a lot mistakes trying to remember the event, so just read this article for the right accuracy: http://birthmoviesdeath.com/2017/01/30/nicolas-cage-attended-this-years-c4ged-marathon-at-the-alamo-drafthouse Spoilers: we talk openly about the plot so the movie will be spoiled if you have not seen it.

1st of May is around the corner and what would be a better way to celebrate Spring than talking about the greatest movie about the May Day, Robin Hardy’s masterpiece The Wicker Man (1973). Me and my mother both really love this film and have been waiting for the right time to share our thoughts about it. We dive into the ambiguous definition of the films genre, various details about the making of the film and of course the amazing cast. The second half we devote for the deeper themes of this peculiar story. Why it is so serious about the old pagan traditions, how the battles of ideologies bring together the central point of the movie and how does the Garden of Eden fit into all this.

50 episodes later down our podcast series we go back to the beginning. In the very first recording we talked about Paolo Sorrentino’s La Grande Belezza (2013). Now we return to the acclaimed director with his movie Youth (2015), which my mother has been desperate to talk about. In addition we manage to also discuss the first season of his mini-series The Young Pope (2016). We talk about being old and young, beauty, death, music, writing, religion and how the Xbox Kinect works. Spoiler alert: We talk openly about the plot of Youth so watch the film before listening our discussion. If you have not seen The Young Pope, don’t worry, we don’t spoil plot details about that.

Ruben Östlund has seemed like an interesting filmmaker and this film was on our movies-to-watch list for a long time. It was quite fascinating to see what would unfold during an avalanche in the French Alps. Next to the usual digestion of the film itself, we ended up talking about masculinity and the discussion about gender roles in general. And towards the end we also weight in little bit of perspective about Finland and sauna. Spoilers: We talk about the plot openly and discuss the ending in detail so I would recommend you first see the film.

Despite being banned for 20 years of making movies, Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi has found numerous ways of continuing making films. Both me and my mother have been fascinated of his current path and not only the various techniques he films his movies but also how he balances between documentary-like reality with fictional drama. We dive into his reality with two of his post-ban movies: This Is Not a Film (2011) and Taxi Tehran (2015).

Continuing our tradition we entertain ourselves with the latest Academy Awards ceremony. Like last time we avoided the winner announcements and instead host our very own Oscar episode in which we go through selected categories and talk about our predictions and reveal the winner to each other as we go along. This year we had complex feelings towards the nominated movies (and movies that weren’t nominated). Next to the overall Oscar talk we get to share our opinions, among other things, about Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, The Shape of Water and Dunkirk. Spoilers: Unfortunately in order to speak our mind we have to reveal plot twists in Three Billboards and Dunkirk, so be aware.

We enjoy Jim Jarmusch’s films enormously and his quiet and meditative Paterson (2016) is definitely no exception. While arguably his most accessible film for general audience, he was able to bring a soft balance to the dominating hectic drama filled cinema. But above all it is a masterful portrait of poetry. During our discussion we praise the achievements, but also examine how some viewers felt dissatisfied. We also explore the poetic elements of the film and bring up some examples of real magic on screen. Spoilers: We spoil the plot, so do watch the film beforehand.

This time we dwell into a subject matter that both me, or my mother, have any experience about: college in United States in the 1980’s. Fortunately we are very familiar with the director, Richard Linklater, and his masterful career as a filmmaker. Upon viewing Everybody Wants Some!! we saw an opportunity to open a discussion on his films and how this particular movie represents his thematic and stylistic motifs. Next to Linklater we explore High School movie tropes and nostalgia in movies. Spoilers: We do reveal the end scene, so be aware.

After discussing in depth about Spectre with Vincent Gebruers, we spend a lot of times entertaining ourselves in all topics about Bond. One of the continuous comments that caught my interest was when certain movies were referred to as “James Bond copy cat movies”. This came up most notably whenever we dared mention the Mission Impossible series, which has a conflictive history with Vincent. So we decided to get together (with Liisa also this time) and see how far the rabbit hole we can go tracing back action/gentleman/spy movies to their original British influence. After getting through the obvious Tom Cruise example, we take the challenge to identify other ways the modern action movies have shaped themselves from Bond (and maybe even the other way around). The idea of how far or close other movies get to copying Bond is also fascinating subject in itself. We met on the same table, but we had only one mic, so some voices might be more clear than others. We also had a tea dispenser next to the mic which you might hear couple of times, sorry for that. Spoilers: We talk about a great number of movies, but not spoil any plot points in them.

This is the second part of our discussion on Todd Solondz’ career. Last time we started things off with Wiener-Dog (2016) and the various connections of themes and characters it opened to Solondz’s previous films like the cult film Welcome to the Doll House (1995) and Palindromes (2004). Now we concentrate on his arguably most famous movie, Happiness (1998), and the various crossroads it takes us within Solondz’s oeuvre. Not to forget the uncomfortable rooms it opens when exploring the human condition.

We have been wanting to talk about Todd Solondz for a long time. For us, and arguably for most people, his twisted cinematic universe was introduced with Welcome to the Doll House (1995) and Happiness (1998). Understandably after watching them the audience might not want to see another film by him, or be left intrigued for more. Me and my mother fell in with the latter and gracefully watched whatever he was able to produce. This is the first part of our in depth discussion and analysis of Solondz career and themes in his movies. We start with his latest movie Wiener-Dog (2016) which seems as good place as any to crack open his challenging mirror of our world. Spoilers: We don't spoil major plot points in any of the movies we discuss.

Despite of our in depth discussion with my mother on the Japanese culture and thematic concepts explored in Martin Scorsese's Silence, we could not help no to dedicate another discussion on the matter. But instead of the usual mother-son chit chat, I sit down with Eddy Van der Borght, a professor at the The Faculty of Theology at VU University Amsterdam. He was an amazing conversationalist with whom I got to share thoughts on the theological weight of Endo's story. Next to the themes of the film and novel, we go through a lot of the history of jesuits and Christianity in Asia. We also talk about theology and how religion relates to people today as well as the role of movies in challenging our morals. Spoilers: I repeat the same warning as before and advice that you first see the film before listening, if you want to avoid spoilers. Also if you are familiar with the story it will help to join in the topics related to the film.

Martin Scorsese is one of my mother's absolute favourite filmmakers. She always manages to go into the deeper levels of his narrations. She is also crazy about the cultural history of Japan. So when Scorsese utilises his thematic moral core to the Japanese culture and brings onscreen a massive epic religious drama, for sure we will have some thoughts about it. We talk about and compare both the film and the original novel. And as the culture plays a big role in the story, we also paint the landscape of an historical rural Japan in 1600’s. Of course we don’t forget to put down our own two cents on the whole issue of a silent God. I was having a cold during our talk so my voice is not in the best shape. Also it happened to be that my baby girl was born during these months when we recorded the episode and her crying can be heard in the background, because the apartment where we stayed is not big enough. Sorry about that. And try not to worry about it, she is taken care of. Spoilers: We talk openly about the plot, so I would strongly recommend to watch the film first.

So my mother somehow finally got around to see Peter Jackson’s adaptations of Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Listen us remember our own personal introductions to Tolkien’s books and how we both couldn’t not get over the first page. And then how the movies won us over and why especially for Aharon the first trilogy has a special place in his heart. We also go examine certain noticeable perks in Tolkien movies and fantasy genre in general and take the opportunity to mention our love for Christopher Lee. The story about Michael Jackson wanting to play Jar Jar Binks I heard from the amazing I Was There Too podcast. I mention that Christopher Lee was satisfied with his character treatment in Return of the King. Actually I remembered it wrong. He was disappointed for a good reason. Spoilers: We mention openly plot details, so if for some reason you have not seen them already, you might want check them out first.

Ever since my mother first mentioned her interest in Jack Arnold’s The Incredible Shrinking Man we have been looking into movies that deal with shrinking. For this grand episode we bring together all we have learned about downscaling. Keeping Jack Arnold’s amazing sci-fi adventure as the center focus, we go through its story beats and analyse the deeper themes in its core while drifting off and examining links to other sci-fi movies dealing with shrinkage. Spoilers: We talk about the whole plot of the movie, so if you are sensitive, then go and see the movie first.

I had the unfortunate experience of going to see I, Daniel Blake in a bad mood. Despite agreeing a lot with what the movie wanted to say, I could not handle the preaching tone. So I came out of it conflicted. Nevertheless I have been ever since recommending everybody to go and see it. My mother on the other hand found deep connection with the story straight away. Next to being in general interested in the subject of poverty, she found the movie showing the audience the struggle that she goes through in her daily life. Just like Dave Johns in the movie, she belongs to the older generation who is less than ready to take in the complex digital transition of our social systems. Spoilers: We don't go into the plot details so it is safe to listen our episode even if you have not seen the movie.

Continuing themes explored in our previous episode, Memories of Murder and La Isla Minima, about series of murders set against a political turmoil in the 80's, we discuss Pablo Trapero's Argentinian 2015 drama movie El Clan. Based on the real story about the Puccio family that kidnapped and murdered people in Buenos Aires, the movie gave us such a strong impression that we ended up talking most of our episode about the psychology behind these characters. Spoilers: We talk openly about the whole plot, so if you are sensitive to spoilers you might want to first watch the movie.

Continuing our Oscar special from last year, me and my mother sit down next day after the Oscar ceremony without knowing the winners and discuss the people and films while reveling the category winners. This time we tried picking a handful of categories that interest us and for which we have time to dwell on. We start easy and move on to the bigger categories towards the end. So, you are welcome to discover the winners with us (if you have not discovered them already for some reason) or to just join in on our discussion about the movies nominated and awarded. As said, we recorded our episode without seeing anything about the ceremony and relating only to the winners in our talk, so we did not know anything about the events that took place during the ceremony. This is why we don't mention any of this in our podcast. Then again, knowing afterwards what really happened makes our reaction to the winners even more emotional.

Just in time before the 2017 Academy Awards we sit down and talk about Barry Jenkins's instant classic, Moonlight. It is an incredibly intimate portrait of one mans life searching for his identity that is able to tell a very specific story of race and sexuality being in the same time as universal as you can get. We mainly just go over the details that make this such a great film. For example how the opening scene itself sets up perfectly the upcoming life journey. But we also go over our thoughts on the upcoming Oscar gala. Spoilers: We don't talk about the story in details so it is safe to hear even if you have not seen the movie.

My mother described Stéphane Brizé's The Measure of a Man as the best movie of 2015. So naturally I got more and more interested about it. And sure enough it was nothing less than that. A minimal but truthful narration through the casual life of an unemployed man trying to find the means for himself and his family in France. It is a grand work speaking very quiet but saying so much. We sat down to talk get to the bottom of the movie; Vincent Lindon, neorealism, the heavy subject matter, genius use of set pieces, morality, and the extremely important argument about if Thierry's car and bungalow were meant to be portrayed as poor or not. My voice quality changes by the end, because our internet connection was lost suddenly and we had to try pick up the discussion when we got back online. I didn't notice that my mic settings got rebooted so my voice is not the best. Sorry for that. Spoilers: We talk about the story until the second half, but it is in overall very vague so you should be fine.

My mother has a natural interest in going back to the original versions of stories. After she has discovered that they might have been remakes or at least inspired from a previous source, she dives deep into the connections to see the whole evolution of the concepts. Some time ago she discovered that Martin Scorsese adapted his Boston crime thriller The Departed from a 2002 Hong Kong movie Infernal Affairs and naturally she could not let it go until we had a podcast about these two movies. Spoilers: We don't give away any of the plot twists, so it is safe to listen even if you have not seen the movies.

Swiss Army Man is the debut feature film by two friends called Daniels about a man and a corpse on a magical surrealist adventure. Many also knows it as the movie in which Harry Potter's corpse farts endlessly. We didn't really know what to expect from it. But in the end it turned out to be one of the best movies of 2016. Honest. Despite the juvenile humor and bizarre concept (and probably because of these) it incorporates some the most earnest and emotional film making in a long while. All the while separating itself from the majority of films with its originality. We explore our thoughts, experiences and interpretations about the absurd journey and how it stand out in the long history of cinema. Liisa has a definite compartment with F.W. Murnau and I have theory of how the film reflects every individual viewer in the audience and their personal position in society. Spoilers: We don't talk about the story in any way other than describe the premise, so don't worry if you have not seen it.

By the time The Walking Dead started playing I got bored of zombies in pop culture. Then again my brother got a real kick for them along with The Walking Dead. And then there is our mother who has never seen a zombie in her life. So it was quite exciting when we found each other being really enthusiastic to go and see Yeon Sang-ho's first live action movie Train to Busan. It's yet again another zombie movie, this time on a train across South Korea with an ensemble of colorful characters. But it promised something much more than what we had in the west these past years. Join in to hear what we thought. Olli gives an explanation why zombie movies are like Finnish saunas and we get to hear how the zombie genre met the expectations of our mother, including her review of The Walking Dead pilot. Spoilers: We don't go into crucial parts of the story, so you can listen to the episode even if you have not seen the movie.

"Is this the new one? Why it looks so old?" My mother waited for the dvd of Star Wars: Force Awakens for half a year. When I saw it on top of her pile I knew it was a podcast discussion not to miss. So we saw it and talked about right after! I could not wait to hear her opinions about the imaginary adventure action for the new generation. The last time she saw Star Wars when she went with my brother to see the last two of the originals in the theaters. Amazingly our talk expands from just about Star Wars to the magic of cinema in general. We share thoughts about generations of movie goers and open up about our very first memories of going to the movies. Spoilers: We talk openly spoilers, but by now it would have been probably hard for you to avoid them anyway.

László Nemes's holocaust drama Son of Saul has been on our absolute must see watch list ever since it came out and some time ago we finally had the opportunity to see it. Naturally we could not wait to sit down and pour our thoughts out of it. The strange thing about it however was that I happened to be visiting in Israel at the moment when we did our Skype talk, which brought the effect of the film to another emotional level. Our discussion drifted apart from the movie to topics about faith, humanity and generational aftermath and trauma. Spoilers: We don't spoil anything about the plot.

Even if we wanted to, it seems that we cannot get out of South Korea. As long as we still have a fresh interest in it we take our opportunity to talk about a hugely entertaining movie, Bong Joon-ho's 2003 dramatization of South Koreans first murder case labeled as serial killing, Memories of Murder. Next to that we bring in a more recent Spanish murder thriller from 2014 called La Isla Minima (English title: Marshland) by Alberto Rodríguez. As both take place in the 80's and involves heavily influenced political background, we wanted to explore the similarities with the Asian true crime story and the Spanish southern murder case. Spoilers: We do not reveal any crucial info about the plots,so you don't have to worry if you have not seen the movies.

The next movie we decided to talk during our face to face discussion in Finland happens to have the youngest target audience so far. We watched Shaun the Sheep Movie by Aardman Animations and true to our nature we could not help but create some unconventional opinions out of it. After some Aardman centered chit chat my mother presents a deep analysis on the animal warden antagonist, Trumper, creating bridges from Les Misérables to Hannah Arendt to paint the picture of what this character truly is underneath the overlapping story line. So you will be dramatically mistaken if you thought this episode is going to be just about a sheep wanting to have a holiday. Spoilers: As with many children movies, it is safe to say that good prevails. Otherwise we will not go into the story that much actually.

With me and my mother living in different countries it is not so often that we get to meet face to face and when we do we really try savor it. And of course these days one of our favorite thing is to do a podcast. While staying together in Finland we watched all kind of movies of which we took a couple as our subjects for the two next episodes. The first one is Spike Jonze's Where The Wild Things Are, which I have always held as an example on how to really do a good adaptation. We are joined by my long time partner Merel Gebruers to discuss the psychoanalytical nature of the source material and how they deepened the concepts for the movie. We also talk about the mixed reaction of the general audience upon release and how does it work as a children movie. Spoilers: We explain in the beginning the basic story structure of the book, which is basically 12 sentences, so we do spoil the story if you are concerned about that.

With our third episode about a South Korean movie, the country seems to get a common status in our podcast. At the end of our talk of Thirst I gave some movie recommendations which I thought my mother would like. And the one movie that shined out specifically was Kim Jee-woon's I Saw the Devil. Focusing on a bloody revenge story with a serial killer it is safe to say that this is so far our most darkest and violent movie we have talked about in our podcast. But it gives us also weirdly the catalyst to dive into the subject of cultural examination through film making. Next to interpreting the South Korean culture through the visualization of the cruel events we also get to go deeper discussion about Asian actors in Hollywood and the meaning of satisfaction in revenge. Spoilers: We don't really go into the story aside from the premise, so it is very safe to listen to the discussion even if you have not seen the movie.

By the end of our earlier podcast about Park Chan-wook's Thirst, we went off topic and talked about South Korean movies and one major filmmaker that came up was Bong Joon-ho. I recommended my mother to check all of his movies and particularly his first English speaking production Snowpiercer. In general my mother does not watch Sci-Fi action, but in relation to South Korea it might be an interesting watch, and most importantly I wanted to know if she liked it. Because the fact is that I didn't. When I saw it in the theater it was more and more mediocre experience for me towards the end. But then I started to hear all the praises underlining it as a masterpiece. Ever since that I have been struggling with my view on the film. Should I just get over the overly simplistic thematic structure, obvious ending, praise the action and cinematography and just go with the universally agreed opinion? How to deal with being the one swimming upstream? I hoped my mother could give me some advice on this, so we brought it up on our podcast, dived deep into the movie and searched for answers. Enjoy! Spoilers: I think its safe to say that a lot of our discussion drives towards the end parts of the movie, so I would recommend you watch the movie first.

This week Steven Spielberg offers a refreshingly historical story about spies in the mix of the Cold War, which for some reason went under the radar for me when it came out. My mother in the other hand caught up with it immediately and came up with an interesting realization about what kind of effect Mark Rylance's performance had on the rest of the movie. Without a doubt it sounded like something we should save for our next discussion. Join us as we dive into the merits of Steven Spielberg's craftwork as well as the sentimental side of his storytelling. Later Liisa will also make an suprising comparisment with the 2010 movie Fair Game. As for spoilers, we believe the movie is fairly so simple that we cannot spoil it by talking about the plot in overall. But we do make a big effort not to reveal any emotional twists in the ending.

On the fourth episode on the topic of vampires we step little bit backwards and look at an older movie that made it into my mothers top four vampire movies. Next to being the oldest and most traditional in its lore, it happens to be also the only comedy. Filled with the master filmmakers personal interests, such as fun winter activities and sports, and careless humor supported by fake makeup it is a fascinating production that perfectly completes our vampire topic. Even though this time me and my mother may not be on the same ground on all of the details...

The very physical work of Chan-wook Park, to whom most of the audience is famous from Oldboy, has won over my mothers admiration over and over again. But it really culminated with the mix of vampirism and family/household drama Thirst. Our series on vampires takes an interesting turn from the previous quiet and more slow paced vampire dramas as we discuss a movie which at first hand feels all over the place, but manages to feel natural enough in its chaos to discuss multiple levels of topics. And on top of that do a satisfying vampire flick.

Continuing with the vampire genre after Let The Right One In, which brought us closer to our home environment and culture, we explore the spiritual and social concepts in the 2013 drama Only Lovers Left Alive and why exactly this movie sparked my mothers mind. We get to analyze the movie from its characters, themes, locations, music and even its name to the unique filmmaker behind the wheel. Also my mother reveals a surprising history between Finland and Tangier. For people who have not seen the movie yet, rest assured with this movie we don't give away any crucial plot details, just so you know.

Liisa has never been really into the classic horror genre and least of all into such a ridiculous theme as vampires. So I was kind of shocked when I heard that my mother is suddenly really into these gothic nightcrawlers. I gave her a list of all the vampire films I could think of and she watched all of them. Understandably I could not wait to hear what she got out it. From all them we chose four that stood out to her to discuss on the podcast. So this will be a short series of four episodes concentrating on the vampire genre. The first of them being about the 2008 Swedish bully movie Let The Right One In. Most notably we include the American remake Let Me In for comparison, but also we talk about the Swedish setting and how it relates to our home environment, memories related to vampires and bullying and not to mention of course the usual break down of the film's thematic concepts. Even thou we will not go into details about the events of the story, we do talk about the ending in overall. So if you are super serious about spoilers then it would be recommended that you see the movie first before listening the episode.

Continuing our small break from Part 1, we spent some more time to explore thoughts about the cinematic ingredients of Bond (including the possibility of example Idris Elba playing Bond), how Bond movies reflect their release time period and get a closer to our analysis with Spectre involving the symbolism of women in Daniel Graig's portrayal of the character. Spoiler warning: Again, we do talk openly about the new movie, so beware. In this episode we also talk about the female relations in all Graig's Bond movies, so we will spoil them if you have not seen them yet.

In the honor of Daniel Graig supposedly concluding his Bond arc with Spectre I dived deep into his characters story in the previous three movies in order to prepare myself with the emotional package which was to come. I was fortunate to have in the family a very dear friend who happened to be a huge Bond fan. With Vincent the whole experience of watching Bond movies had an extra level of fascination. It wasn't a hard decision to ask if he would like to do a podcast related to watching Spectre and amazingly he agreed. We recorded our discussion about a week after seeing the movie in theaters when it came out (that being in November) at his apartment. Because of the environment has a lot of everyday noises and music in the background. As you might have known from the title, we had so many things to talk about that the conversation went on for around three hours. It has so many interesting topics and ideas we touch on that I separated it into to parts, instead of cutting it into a short one episode. Because I watched all three previous Bond movies our range of discussion easily extends into analyzing the whole scope of Daniel Graig's Bonds, comparing all the previous Bond movies and relating all this to Ian Fleming's books. We try to give also our thoughts on Spectre. Spoiler warning: We talk quite openly about the story line in Spectre, so it will be spoiled if you have not seen it yet. We also talk about the previous Graig Bond movies, but less in comparison to the latest. So I don't think our details would spoil those movies.

We always have a lot of fun talking about the Oscars. The anticipation and the inevitable final disappointment when that one movie didn't get that price. On top of this the ceremony is filled with real problems that tend to come up every year, this year the concerns being wrapped in #whiteoscars. For our discussion we managed to avoid reading who the winners were and saved the reveal for our discussion. So you can hear our reactions as we predict and analyse the resulting list of winners. We wanted to tackle as many categories and movies as possible so the podcast blew up into two hour spectacle. At least we got to speak our minds about certain issues and movies.

Just like we mention in the intro, originally we intended to talk more about The Hateful Eight and just a little bit about The Revenant. But as it usually goes, our plans don't stick around and the discussion quickly folds into a lengthy exploration about racism, realism in film making, how certain movies speaks to certain people and what is the entertainment value of watching movies in the end. And even thou it does not necessarily come out that clear, Aharon (for reason unmentioned here) had a rough time coming into the podcast so his approach takes a more confronting attitude. Because of this you might find this episode to have a more dramatic atmosphere. But rest assured the podcast escalates in good health. I think we might talk some small details about both The Hateful Eight and The Revenant, so maybe it is not a safe podcast for those who want to see these films with clear mind.

This discussion was recorded in the beginning of February and we had the fortunate circumstance to be able to go and see the movie in the middle of a snow blizzard and sit in a cold theater for three hours. Rarely we have had such a relatable experience in cinema. We talked about it the next morning at Liisa's apartment and the only way of recording the talk was with a headset in the middle. Despite of this the quality is relatively good. Actually if you listen close enough you can hear in the beginning our cat, Avi, purring on Liisa's lap. Individually bot Aharon and Liisa have started to have different kind relation with Tarantino's movies, the other starting to more and more love them, and the other getting more and more distant. By the time of Django Unchained we already had a completely opposite opinions. So understandably we have waited a long time to see how Tarantino does western again. We avoid surprisingly well spoilers, expect around 53:28 when Aharon explains his opinion about a certain week moment in the story.

Now after long passed its theatrical lifespan and even the Oscar spotlight, our podcast about Ridley Scott's sci-fi adventure is finally edited and online. Our discussion was recorder in November when the movie was in the theaters just after Aharon saw the movie and was excited to share his thoughts about it. In the podcast we talk about survival (or "fiasko") movies and how The Martian seems to take a different kind of look at it. There is also a personal connection with the movie so the reasons why Aharon saw this movie and how it affected him will take a major role in the discussion. We also go deeper into the origin of the movie and talk also about all the scientifically impossible circumstances, as if we would understand anything of it. This time our goal was to keep it short, so we don't get to end it properly and the talk might close up suddenly. At least we still don't have a intro music and we don't know how to start or end our conversation anyway.

Needless to say this episode is going to be a baffling topic at first glance, but hopefully something that becomes more and more clarifying towards the end. At better yet, something that will give a new perspective to all three movies. Our podcast starts as Liisa reveals her intentions with compiling these specific movies for our discussion after which we go into all three films separately. In the end we go more deeply into the overall theme that combines these movies. For example in relation to the latest Bond we discuss such highly sophisticated topics as comparing Bond with MacGyver, how Buster Keaton's slapstick legacy continues in modern Bond films and all the necessary issues we have with Daniel Craig's looks now that he is getting older. With Hugo we go all out expressing our love for that movie, but get also into thinking about different aspects of the film such as the relationship between fantasy and realism, it being a children movie suitable for adults just as well and why the hell does Salvador Dali, James Joyce and Django Reindhart appear in the film. Lastly we get to the juicy part with Liisa's favorite heroine of all time: Adèle Blanc-Sec by French comic artist Tardi. We approach the famous comic heroine with the assumption that people maybe don't really know her, so we explain all we know about the comic series and how it was adapted into film by Luc Besson. Being the last element of our trio we compare her character in the broader sense with James Bond and Hugo Cabret. You can be quite safe with spoilers. We don't reveal anything from Spectre and talk about so many different small details that you will be safe from overall spoiling of these stories.

"Why the young terminator did not act like a terminator and instead acted like a hulk?" While anticipating the new Terminator movie we realized that we had the amazing opportunity to actually talk about Arnold with someone to whom he has been an idol in the fields of bodybuilding and business, not to mention growing up with all his movies. Aharons brother and Liisa's first born son Olli is our families full blown Arnold fan who has always seen the best in him. When he is not in the gym himself he spends his time working on cool award winning games like Legend Of Grimrock. Thanks to him we get to have an unseasoned flavor to our podcast with some great insight into why we love Arnold so much. Not to mention his brilliant contribution with his digital painting (you heard me right, it is a painting!) of the terminator in action! For example we dwell quite a bit into Arnold's career like for example how he acts with his body and muscles and how he got guided by a certain gun slider legend. Among our other topics include analyzing the "young Arnold" scene, the new type of terminator, nostalgic references, use of music, style of science-fiction, and how does the original author fits in with the evolution of sequels. Liisa also goes deeply into the reasons why to even spend time looking at Arnold's movies and Olli analyzes the values that has made Arnold the portrait of the "working hard success story". At the end we have a classical investigation about what makes a "quality movie", which basically turns into "I know best" kind of debate. Having three separate connections open for the recording we inevitably were confronted with internet problems. Around 40 min into the podcast Olli was apparently being attacked by Skynet which resulted into him understandably loosing the connection for a while. Thankfully he secured the premises and was up and talking with us again. So don't mind that. It just shows how vulnerable these kind of recordings really are. Once again we don't shy away about talking spoilers, but we basically only examine Terminator Genisys this deep, so you don't have to worry about other movies being spoiled.

"If you can't stand excitement, don't go and see this film, because it is pure excitement." Liisa's words couldn't describe this movie better. From beginning to finish the movie takes the viewer through the war driven border with the most intense energy we have seen in a while on the silver screen. There wasn't any question for us about it and this much we did agree on themovie. Apart from this we venture towards the possible disagreements and confront each other with loaded opinions. We circle around the usual premises like cinematography, music, actors, screenwriting and float along analyzing the story, concept and execution in overall. We also compare the movie with others that come into our minds and give our final thoughts on the fact that Villeneuve is inevitably going to direct the feared Blade Runner sequel. We talk about the plots of Sicario and Enemy from front to end, so there are spoilers all around the podcast. Because of this you might consider to watch these movies first. Also it is useful to refer to the table of contents underneath if you want skip certain parts (if you don't want hear about Enemy for example) or jump straight into a topic of interest.

Timing, in many ways, is an essential part of influence. It is quite simple to think how much it has meant that we have had an experience on the doorstep of another. When an experience is compared with another. It is a basic equation that has it's role in constructing our complex mental web that is personality. This in mind it was an exquisite chance that Aharon happened to watch Ida and Gloria one after the other (two movies that coincidentally have their lead characters names as the main title ) and to feel how much the lives of the characters felt weirdly connected, despite both stories being separated by continent and time period. Adding to this comparison Liisa, who have been waiting for a while to talk about the two movies, happened to see Being john Malkovich for the first time and realized how much seeing especially Gloria and experiencing her life resembled the themes discussed in Charlie Kaufman's and Spike Jonze's first collabration. And while in the subject it is hard to step aside an not talk more about Charlie Kaufman, so Liisa gives her thoughts about her experience with Adaptation.

It's time to take a car flipping sidetrack and deviate from the family podcasting and discuss George Miller's fourth Mad Max with the company of good friends Dimitri 'Jangojim' Sakelaropolus and Anneke Caramin. Being also a film enthusiast, it was only natural for Dimitri to sit down at some point with the recorder and share his thoughts on movies. Luckily we were accompanied with Anneke who gave some hard hitting points and in overall kept a rational mind among the adrenal filled drooling men. We recorded the podcast at their apartment and you might hear some city ambient in the background due to the fact that we were recording with an open window. All thou this is not as distracting as the quality with our voices. The podcast might start in a somewhat strange fade, which is a result of general incompetence in quality podcasting (basically the recorder didn't have the recording volume set up when we started). Despite all these technicalities we had a lot of fun and the talk lasted until late night. This is a highly edited version in which we manage to stay mainly in the region of Mad Max movies. The talk goes on and off so much that it is needles to try and find horrible spoilers for any movies we mention. Above all it should also be mentioned that Dimitri and Anneke are both amazing artists and you should - no matter what - go and look at their work.

Staying still in 2014 for a while it's time to float with Michael Keaton from scene to scene and discuss Iñárritu's existentialist comedy and it's absurd name. In our most (over-exaggerated) dramatic podcast to date, we find ourselves arguing quite a lot about the movie. We didn't seem to find a common ground at all among the subjects such as the latino influence of Iñárritu, whether Birdman is "man movie" or not, and how much Naomi Watts talked dirty in her scenes. How thrilling! But despite all this commotion between us we dive also deeper into the subject, comparing Iñárritu's previous films and explaining how much we like Edward Norton. Next to us talking about how old Micheal Keaton looks, Liisa does not forget to mention again how much she hates Emma Stone. As a surprising twist, Aharon also makes a conceptual comparison to Ricky Gervais' tv series Extras. Traditional spoiler warning: We talk little bit about the ending of Birdman and Amores Perros. With Amores Perros it a vague description and shouldn't ruin your movie experience (if you are not picky). But with Birdman we describe more openly what happens, so take care.

After learning about the young musicians at the Shaffer Conservatory we had quite a lot of thoughts about the whiplashing teacher responsible for the pupils, the idea of torturing yourself for art, and how this ties in with the Cypriot figure of Pygmalion. Next to the concept of art and the character of Fletcher it is also interesting to mention that we talk about the similarities to the life story of David Helfgott and the story of My Fair Lady. We do talk about the story in whole and don't really care to hide the ending, so technically there are spoilers. Just for you to know.

In this podcast we find ourselves having quite an alternative perspective on the morality of Dan Gilroy's debut film Nightcrawler and it's antihero protagonist. We talk about the background of Louis Bloom and why he is the way he is and who are the real double faced people in the story. Next to that we don't forget to use our ability to associate and find a connection to Odyssey. It is very likely that we mention some minor details about the ending and stuff that could possibly be spoiling to see the film with fresh eyes. Nothing dramatic, but we like to be clear about these kind of things.

We have been dying to talk about (wow, that came out heavier than meant) the latest and last animated feature movie by Hayao Miyazaki and the documentary that followed it, The Kingdom Of Dreams and Madness. We talk about the beloved Isao Takahata, "animated realism" (whatever that means), and how Miyazaki changed Liisa's life. Oh, and of course about what a great movie Kikujiro was.

For once we let ourselves be relevant and talk about the Cannes Film Festival 2015 just before they give away the awards. A timing that does not happen often. Aharon has a cold so you don't hear him that much, and when you do it's mostly sneezing. Nevertheless topics were discussed and the Cannes catalogue looked trough thoroughly. Considering the podcast, we still have not learned how to begin and end our conversations, so the podcast will just end at some point. Sorry about that.

So you went and spend almost 3 hours to see a film that does not seem to have any point in it? Well how about spending 2 hours more listening two people talk endlessly about it. This is our breakdown of the Thomas Pynchon adaptation, fresh out of the premiere (which was two months ago). We talk about the movie in detail, so you could consider it to give away a lot about the movie. But considering the complexity of the actual narration in the movie and our inability to have coherent podcast, I think the movie will be still quite fresh if you see it afterwards.

While recording our first podcast we realized that both of us had watched La Grande Bellezza already and that we were finally able to share our thoughts on it. I think we can admit for sure that there are no spoilers in this podcast, except for the core meaning of the movie (if in case you are that kind of person who likes to find these things by yourself).