Thursday, May 31, 2018

Cinema Joes Podcast: May 2018 Update


            We were not able to get as many recorded episodes out this month due to scheduling difficulties, for which we profusely apologize.  However, those we did work in were of particular meaning to us, so they are still worth listening to and downloading on our Itunes page! 

May 9th: Avengers: Infinity Wars

            Our Marvel role continues with our long, and very detailed, examination of the latest and biggest MCU installment, where we decide if we felt the buildup and wait of a decade was worth it. 

May 14th: Our Movie Memories with Mom (mini)

            In honor of Mother’s Day, we each shared a particular movie, franchise, or theater experience that is of particular importance to our relationships to our mothers.  A bit cheesy?   Maybe, but every bit of it is from the heart. 

May 23rd: Our Favorite Comic Book Movie Villains (mini) 

            Our saga of exploring every which way of superhero movies continues!  We already have an episode dedicated to our least favorite comic book villains, so it’s only fair we took the time to discuss our favorites as well. 


            Please continue to like, share, and recommend our podcast to all with ears!  And even those without! 

-Noah Franc

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Review: Taste of Cement


Taste of Cement (2017): Written by Ziad Kalthoum, Ansgar Frerich, and Talal Khoury, directed by Ziad Kalthoum.  Running Time: 85 minutes. 

Rating: 4/4


            Unlike last year’s Human Flow, a sprawling epic of a film that sought to cover the global nature of the current global refugee crisis, Taste of Cement is hyper-focused on just a handful of Syrian refugees in Beirut, the capital of Lebanon, Syria’s closest neighbor and currently the unwilling host to over a million Syrian refugees- a quarter of the population. 

            The men have found work to get by on as construction workers; by day, they scuttle around the top of a massive highrise that seems to loom endlessly over the city and sea surrounding it, like a modern-day Tower of Babel.  By night, they sit together and sleep in a large basement hold directly beneath the construction site, which they enter via a slanted hole and staircase cut into the concrete.  Because of discrimination and threats they face from locals, Syrian workers strictly required to stay in their work area during nighttime. 

            Their world is one of constant, unceasing noise and withering heights.  Cutting stone and wood, mixing cement, working brick by brick and level by level as the building stretches ever-higher into the sky.  The rest of the city and its buildings appear so miniscule and far away compared to where they work, like they are merely a painted backdrop, nothing real to touch or connect with.  The wiry, uncovered metal rods waiting to be covered with cement are like bars on a jail cell, keeping the workers permanently separated from the world around them.  They are surrounded on all sides, day and night, by cold hard cement and a pitiless sun.  And always, to the West, the seemingly endless blue of the sea. 

            What sort of film is this?  A documentary in part, certainly- all the footage is of real workers doing their real jobs- but not entirely.  No one on-screen speaks.  There is a narrator, but whether he is one of the workers relating his specific tale, or an actor hired to read the part, or whether what he says is even the true story of a single person or a collection of several people’s stories combined into one, are all things we do not know and are not told.  And that’s rather beside the point.  Films like this ultimately are not about what’s “true,” but rather about what’s real; and this film’s essence is powerfully, viscerally real.   

            If there is a structure to the film at all, it’s that the scenes loosely follows several days of their work, with the scenes going more or less sequentially from morning to day to night and back again.  It is at night, when the chatter of a jackhammer can no longer distract them, when the news repeatedly plays scenes of bombing and destruction in their homeland, that the nightmares come, and the film strikes with its most deeply provocative footage.  An image of falling bombs overlaying a man on his cot, trying to fall asleep.  Videos of explosions shown, not directly on a TV screen, but reflected in the eyes of those watching.  Scenes of carnage and destruction that play more as dream, or rather nightmare, sequences, as opposed to reality.  Perhaps that’s the only way to live with it. 

            The second dream sequence brings this to a profound climax; we are stumbling through a corridor filled with what looks like rain; the camera is in slow-motion, moving as if through thick water.  The corridor leads to a door.  The color is washed out, the sound is heavily muted, until we go through the door, and sound and focus return; the screams in the aftermath of the bombing ring out, painful and clear.  Cracking stones, screaming children, men yelling.  The most terrifying image is in a part of a building that has collapsed; a man has crawled into a tight space in the wreckage and is slowly shoveling out refuse.  It was only after the film had cut to this moment several times that I understood why.  Something finally shifts behind the man’s body- it’s a head.  A living, blinking head, protruding from the wreckage, caked in cement.  The sound eventually seems to overwhelm the camera itself, and we pull back through the door, and are once more encased by a watery-like silence. 

            Early in the movie, the narrator seems almost amused by the idea that the workers are all below the city at night, unseen, and above it during the day, still unseen.  Until he realizes that this is merely an illusion; they are always below Beruit, surrounded by sea and cement, alone, waiting for the next wave coming to break upon their heads. 

-Noah Franc

Wednesday, May 16, 2018

Producers in Focus: Todd Nathanson (Todd in the Shadows)



            It’s such a simple idea, perfect for an amateur starting out with nothing more than an idea and a camera- sit in total darkness, save for just one well-placed lamp to highlight your silhouette, set up the camera and mic, and just talk. It’s so basic it’s something of a wonder that no thought of it before Todd did.  In that sense, the trajectory of his internet career perfectly encapsulates the Wild West nature of the early Web, where whoever happened to try out a particular gimmick first then had that niche effectively cornered forever. 

            It’s also an extremely durable style that, location changes and the occasional camera upgrade aside, Todd has not had to alter at all since he began his videos in the Fall of 2010, and he, or rather, his shadow, has remained a constant presence providing regular, sharp, on-point music commentary ever since.    

            It wasn’t too long before he started out on Youtube that Todd was invited to join the TGWTG team, and by 2011 he had already established himself as one of the site’s heavy hitters.  He had a particularly close working relationship with Lindsay Ellis (aka Nostalgia Chick) and Allison Pregler (Obscurus Lupa); the three would make frequent cameos in each other’s videos, and at one point even created a particularly tortured love triangle between their respective personas in the year leading up to To Boldly Flee (and say what you will about the film as a whole, the reveal of Todd’s “face” was one of its most inspired moments).  His videos remained a major part of the website until March of this year, when, right when #ChangeTheChannel started to really heat up, he became one of the first to publicly break with the site, and was soon followed by, well, everyone. 

            The span of his pop song reviews, which make up the bulk of his work, serve as a remarkable glimpse at how trends, figures, and styles in the American pop scene have shifted over the past decade.  His early videography is dominated by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry, Black Eyed Peas, and Kesha, among others, but they no longer define the pop charts the way they did at the turn of the decade.  Train forced its way onto his radar for a few years with a series of hideous number ones, but has since faded.  Sadly, Taylor Swift, Maroon Five, Chris Brown, and Justin Bieber have continued to be regular (and necessary) targets of his ire. 

            For a number of years now, though, he’s also worked to expand the sort of work he does.  In “Cinemadonna,” he went through each and every film appearance of Madonna in her efforts to establish herself as acting as well as a musical threat (spoiler- she didn’t).  He’s released a small number of videos under the title “Trainwreckords,” about particularly disastrous albums released by major musicians.  My favorites, though, are his “One Hit Wonderland” videos, where he examines a wide variety of one-hit wonders from musical history and provides a remarkably comprehensive look at the origins and eventual fates (some good, some not) of musicians that, for one reason or another, were able to streak across popular culture and make a mark for a brief moment before fading from public view. 

            His style and tone has also altered little- his style has always been quieter, more subtle, and effortlessly self-effacing, eschewing the theatrics more typical of his contemporaries.  That noticeable difference may be a key to what made him stand out early on and allow him to build his own fanbase.  Plus, the fact that he has consistently stayed “in the shadows,” resorting to an eye-covering mask when forced to appear in harsh daylight, has allowed him to retain a certain anonymity increasingly rare in our digital world.  For his sake, I hope it stays that way as best as it possibly can.  I have no doubt there exists a whole cottage industry devoted to “spotting Todd,” but I intend to remain perfectly ignorant of it for as long as I live.   

            Movies and video games were early and easy targets during the rise of internet criticism, but Todd was one of the first to realize the untapped potential in being a video music critic, and his establishing of himself in this field makes him as important and as influential an entrepreneur in the world of online video as anyone.  His videos are fun, funny, and are never less than immensely informative.  Here is a shortlist of my favorites (thus far). 

All His Top Ten Best/Worst Pop Songs




            The links above are for his latest Top Tens for 2017, but all of them are amazing time capsules worth your time, as they consistently rank among his best and most entertaining works. 

The One-Hit Wonders

            Here, again, all of these videos are worth your time, and are on such an equal plane I feel it would be unfair to pick out the “best,” but for the record, the ones that, for one reason or another, have the most personal meaning for me are 500 Miles, Who Let The Dogs Out, Float On, and Safety Dance. 

Todd’s Pop Song Reviews

            There are SO MANY of these at this point, all of them are solid, most are great enough to merit repeat viewing, and given vagaries of taste and humor style there’s no way one person could categorically list the “best,” but here are a few that have remained all-time favorites of mine-

Firework vs. Born This Way


            One of his earliest videos, this contains some of his best examinations of the dual careers of Lady Gaga and Katy Perry, especially since I always felt both these songs were a bit overrated at the time.  It’s hilarious to watch it now and think over just how radically different the trajectories their respective careers have since taken. 

Turn Up The Music


            Despite the best efforts of the entire Republican Party, Chris Brown remains at the top of the list of the most vile human walking the face of the earth, and in one of his first videos directly dealing with him, Todd breaks down as best as anyone can why. 

Talk Dirty AND Wiggle




            I actually had to sing an early Jason Derulo hit with my college acapella group way back when, so when he reappeared on the pop charts with these two songs, both of which are particularly heinous examples of “bro” music, Todd’s takedowns were especially needed to help me rebuild my faith in humanity.    

The Time/Dirty Bit


            One of the biggest drivers in Todd’s early videos was the rage induced in him by the worst of what the Black Eyed Peas were putting out at the time, and this video, right when the group was finally falling apart, is where it all comes to a head. 

Look What You Made Me Do


            The last Taylor Swift single I was able to stand, and actually liked, was “Mine.”  Since then it’s been all downhill.  Todd has a somewhat more mixed opinion, and has argued in favor of a number of her lesser hits from recent years, which I can get, but the bad Taylor stuff has been really, really bad.  All of Todd’s videos of her work are well worth watching, but my favorite remains last year’s examination of, arguably, her worst one yet. 



            Are there any former TGWTG/CA producers you’ve been missing and what to get caught up on?  Then check out and follow the Unawesomes page on Twitter.  Let’s make the internet economy of tomorrow a better, more equitable place, starting now. 

-Noah Franc

Tuesday, May 8, 2018

Review: Infinity Wars


Infinity Wars (2018): Written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, directed by Anthony and Joe Russo.  Starring: EVERYONE.  Running Time: 149 minutes.  Based on the comics created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

Rating: 3.5/4


            It’s all been building up to this.  10 years of some of the most ambitious expanded-universe filmmaking in cinematic history, and the cumulative effort has finally hit theaters and is already breaking box office records.  And for my money, one of the most highly-anticipated movies of all time pretty much manages to meet most of what could have reasonably been expected of it.  It has far more named characters than any other superhero movie to date, and there are about a dozen moments where the whole thing could have easily flown apart at the seams, but it works (mostly).  It’s beautifully crafted and realized, and is noticeably more cohesive and tightly-managed than its predecessor, Age of Ultron.  While I’m not sure its one of the “best MCU offerings ever” (though definitions of that are highly variable), it is a solid work worth seeing and experiencing cold on the big screen. 

            One of the smartest moves the creators made- one really only possible with a dozen-and-a-half prequels backing it up- is to not stop for more than a few seconds at a time to try and exposit who Thanos is, what infinity stones are, and what they do.  The story and action just starts, and flows until the end.  As such I, too, will not bother to try a plot summary, because this is an Event Film, and no one’s here for the story- we’re here to see Ironman and Doctor Strange try to out-wit each other while fighting off a Space Magician.  And besides, anyone committed to knowing the minutia and lore already does, and anyone who doesn’t will have no trouble following along, because the primary plot of “Magical McGuffin is bad, no let Bad Guy get Magical McGuffin” is about as simple and straightforward as human storytelling gets. 

            The real trick is in taking the sheer number of named characters coming together, in many instances interacting for the very first time on-screen, and balancing out their scenes to let them feel fun and interesting and action-packed, but not too uneven.  Thankfully, the movie pulls this off; this is a massive, loooooong cinematic undertaking, but it pretty much never drags or feels padded out just to get one more quip between Thor and Starlord muscled in.  There are plenty of jokes that made me laugh out-loud, but many of the central characters get powerful acting moments that build on character development set up in previous films.  Thor, Starlord, Gamorra, Spiderman, and Captain America each get to do some real heavy lifting here, highlighting some of the best scenes in the film.   

            And that, for me, speaks to what has always been the greatest strength of the MCU, one that I suspect is the key to their success, despite the very real flaws in many of the movies and in the expanded universe concept as a whole.  For all the massive budgets and fancy special effects and oddball fighting powers they toss around, these movies ultimately work because they have always gotten the characters right, through perfect casting and solid writing.  These characters have always felt vibrant and real even in the weakest MCU offerings, and the scenes that make this movie one of the best are all scenes that hinge on one or several characters having moments of real emotional pathos. 

            This is especially true for, of all people, Thanos.  I have always felt the trope of “MCU villains always suck” to be a tad overblown- they’ve had plenty of effective antagonists, even if few of them are really great- but Thanos easily earns a ranking as one of the best.  Josh Brolin is able to convey the twisted internal logic of Thanos’ mind through facial expressions and his voice despite all that fancy CGI work making up his body, proving yet again that he is both one of the best, and yet most underappreciated, actors working today.  That said, some of the debate around his character has already gone way too far; why no, having a purely logical argument in its favor does NOT make genocide okay, because that’s what separates Fascists from Not-Fascists. 

            We are long past the point where any one human can reasonably be expected to have followed up on EVERYTHING in the MCU, and we are also long past the point where there is much use in trying to bring people in cold who aren’t already on-board; either you are with this crazy ride, wherever it may lead, or you aren’t.  And if you aren’t, that’s fine!  But if you are, this movie is as great, and in a few instances as daring, as anything this project has yet offered us. 

-Noah Franc

Wednesday, May 2, 2018

Cinema Joes Podcast: April 2018 Update


           This is update is a bit delayed this time around, which is all on me.  It was another fairly low-key month for us, but May will already start out with a bang, with our upcoming episode on Infinity Wars.  Until then, check out our work on our Itunes page. 

April 1st: A Wrinkle In Time/The Polarization of Film Criticism



April 8th: Our Favorite Underappreciated Character Actresses (mini) 



April 18th: Ready Player One/ The Beauties and Perils of Nostalgia



April 22nd: Our Worst Comic Book Movie Villains (mini)