We’re back with a review of Charlie Kaufman’s 2002 “look-mom-I-wrote-myself-into-this-movie-about-orchids” classic, Adaptation. It’s a real noodle-bender which features one of Nicolas Cage’s finest performances. Fitting, since it puts a bow on the Summer portion of Season of the Cage.
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Despite containing perhaps Nicolas Cage’s finest performance, and being one hell of an interesting movie, we manage to turn the livewatch for Adaptation into nearly two hours of jokes about missing teeth, monkeys, and a man who loves to fuck orchids. Enjoy the show!
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Turns out that the discussion presented in our review of Adaptation was about half of what we actually recorded. In typical fashion, we digressed quite a bit into topics that we’ll call “creatively related” to the movie; what Dan Harmon has to say about creative writing, episodic vs. serialized TV, our creative hangups and methods for overcoming them. As Club Bald Move members, you get to enjoy the entirety of our extended Adaptation discussion.
Cecily and A.Ron declare the latest episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse, “Fire and Reign” to be, at the very least, banging adjacent. Sure, there isn’t a lot here that is new, and it’s feeling more and more of a lock that next week is going to end with “TO BE CONTINUED”. But, there was a lot of entertaining action, fun world building with new wrinkles of witchcraft (allowing a Romanoffs crossover!), and we feel a bit more self-awareness in the jokes and Illuminati-fueled madness. Can’t wait to see what you all though on FEEDBACK FRIDAY!
HBO’s The Deuce wrapped up it’s second season in fine style, with the finale episode “Inside the Pretend”. Simon and Pelecanos did an admirable job putting all their players in position to make the jump to the 80’s. The pimps seem on the wane, the porn industry is still waxing, but the men and women of the industry don’t seem to be enjoying their ascent as much as it would have seemed at this season’s outset. It’s hard to have a sunny outlook when people you care about wind up dead; that goes double when you’re the one doing the killing. Can’t wait to see how things shake up next year, we’ll see you then!
The fifth episode of Amazon’s The Romanoffs has something to say, but we’re not sure what it is, if it’s worth saying, and if Matthew Weiner is the right spokesperson for the message, which seems to be; the worst thing you can be accused of is accusing somebody else of something they didn’t do. Regardless of how we felt about the themes at play, the presentation left a lot to be desired as well, featuring clunky dialog and either stagey acting and/or bizarre editing choices or both. You know, hallmarks of Mad Men, the series that made Weiner famous.
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Cecily and A.Ron open up the mailbag and consider feedback for the latest episode of FX’s American Horror Story: Apocalypse, “Sojourn”!
Jim and I had a helluva lot of fun seeing the Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody tonight, starring Rami Malek. It’s getting mixed reviews, but we’re struggling to understand why. Malek does an incredible job embodying the greatest rock band front man of all time, the soundtrack is just literally all of the greatest Queen hits, so what’s not to like? Unless the movie tells just truly egregious and hateful lies about Mr. Mercury, which we’re not in a position to verify, or the justifiable suspicion around the film’s director is souring people’s opinion on it, we can’t see much not to like.Freddie Mercury is front and center of the stage as he should be, but it does a great job of highlighting the incredible talents and creativity of Brian May, John Deacon, and Roger Taylor as well.
The Season of the Cage continues with another of Nicolas Cage’s best films, The Weather Man (2005). He plays a well-payed Chicago weather man who would have the perfect life if only he could make his father proud, get the job of his dreams, win back his ex-wife, and stop ruining the lives of his children. Will Cage’s raging summer ever end? Yeah, of course it will, so enjoy it while it lasts.