The Playlist Podcast Network

The Playlist Podcast returns with a Halloween episode where The Playlist Managing Editor Charles Barfield is joined by co-hosts Mike DeAngelo and Brian Farvour to talk about the horror facing movie theaters during the pandemic, as well as discuss three new spooky films, "The Craft: Legacy," "Spell," and "Kindred."  0:00 - 18:00 - Movie Theaters, the pandemic, and James Bond 18:00 - 27:00 - Kindred 27:00 - 38:15 - Spell 38:15 - 60:00 - The Craft: Legacy 60:00 - 72:00 - Horror recommendations for Halloween

It’s Halloween week, and nobody embodies the committed glam and eerie camp of the holiday quite like Tim Curry. This week on Be Reel, Chance and Noah celebrate and reappraise the British legend’s iconic costumed roles: “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975), “Legend” (1985), and “It” (1990). We also make a brief return to “Clue” manor (1985). Recorded deep in the Vermont woods, this episode also features Noah's girlfriend, Lucy, and their mutual friend Brie, who have come prepared with indispensable "TC Fun Facts."

You may recognize Mark Webber as the talent, the creep, or the kid from cult favorites like 
“Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World,” “Green Room” or “Broken Flowers.” What you might not know is that the well-traveled character actor has embarked on an ambitiously self-interrogative directing career as well, culminating in his latest film: “The Place of No Words.” This week, Webber talks with Chance about acting with his children in movies they can’t watch, the stewardship of Jim Jarmusch, and leafing through bittersweet set photos from “Green Room.”

For the 30th anniversary of "To Sleep with Anger" (1990), we dive into the films of principal "L.A. Rebellion" director Charles Burnett. Part of the first generation of Black directors to come out of American film school, Burnett brought a daring cinematographer’s eye and watchful activist’s pen to films like "Killer of Sheep" (1978) and "The Glass Shield" (1994). Of course, one can’t talk about Burnett without discussing how underappreciated he’s been compared to white directors of his era with similar influences and indie bonafides. So let’s appreciate, dammit. In addition, Be Reel would like to continue directing you to causes that support Black artists and creators. This week, please consider a donation to the “Our Stories Our Lives” response fund from the Portland nonprofit Open Signal. It’s turning donations into hundreds of stipends supporting Black filmmakers in the Northwest. Thank you for supporting their work. https://secure.givelively.org/donate/open-signal/our-stories-our-lives-black-media-maker-response-fund

Being the son of one of Canada's most heralded genre filmmakers casts a large shadow often resulting in tired comparisons between their respective works that might not have been drawn otherwise. The desire for film fans to group filmmakers together due to familial ties isn't exactly a new concept (even if it is unfair), however, it is something Brandon Cronenberg has had to grapple with his entire filmmaking career. It's fair to acknowledge an overlap of interests given both he and his father, David Cronenberg, have a knack for practical effects-driven body horror. However, that's where the comparison should stop. David is more interested in creating something visually and/or viscerally arresting first and uses that to propel you through the story, whereas Brandon seems more interested in allowing the world of his films to breathe and develop using that to crescendo to a bloody fever dream. With Brandon's latest film, "Possessor," many will be quick to quote "like father, like son" (in a positive sense I might add), however, it's clear the budding filmmaker is personifying the conflict and torment of his own personal identity crisis to say something more. In "Possessor", Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough) works for a secret organization with brain-implant technology, allowing agents to inhabit other people's bodies and commit assassinations for affluent clients. The years of becoming someone else has taken its toll on her as she begins to lose any semblance of her former self. Her latest mission requires her to slip into the consciousness of Colin Tate (Christopher Abbott) as the lines between who she is and who she wants to be are blurred. Brandon Cronenberg's directorial debut, "Antiviral," was the product of the filmmaker's own sickness as he obsessed over the idea of someone else being inside of you via the transmission of disease. Continuing this exploration of existentialism, Cronenberg's sophomore effort was birthed out of his experience on the press tour for "Antiviral" during which he struggled with the idea of creating a media persona detached from "David Cronenberg's son" and living life as different people day-to-day. "[While I was making the film] it was very much a personal experience," said Cronenberg. "Traveling with a film for the first time is incredibly surreal because you're constructing a public persona and you're performing this other version of yourself, this new, media version of yourself that runs off and has its own life without you. That experience and a few other things led me to feel like I was waking up in the morning and sitting up into someone else's life and having to madly construct some kind of character who could operate in that context. So I wanted to write a film about somebody who may or may not be an imposter in their own life as a way of talking about how we build characters and narratives in order to function as human beings. Of course, we perform for other people, but we also perform for ourselves. I don't think the way we see ourselves represents the true version of who we are. I think we have our own self-image and personal mythologies as well." During our conversation with Cronenberg, we also discussed Canadian existentialism in horror, how his previous artistic ventures in fine art and music eventually led him to film, practical vs. digital effects and why he thinks filmmakers stray away from the former, wanting to adapt Phillip K. Dick, and much more.

God loves a terrier and probably the directorial work of Christopher Guest, too. On the latest Be Reel, we watched “Waiting for Guffman” (1996), “Best in Show” (for its 20th anniversary), “A Mighty Wind” (2003), and “For Your Consideration” (2006)—all currently streaming on Hulu. Let’s dive in to ask what these movies tell us about today’s documentary craze for wild subcultures and whether there’s anything funnier than Parker Posey freaking and Fred Willard yapping.

As we enter the most fraught back-to-school season in recent memory, Be Reel looks back at Hollywood’s conception of underserved students and the inspirational educators who rescue their learning. This week, it’s “Stand and Deliver” (1988), “Lean On Me” (1989), “Dangerous Minds” (1995), and “Precious” (2009). Joining us are Dr. Micia Mosely and Kia Walton from Black Teacher Project to discuss 2020 classrooms, ideas for improved and updated teacher movies, and their organization’s mission to develop and sustain more Black teachers (36:55). Learn more and donate at BlackTeacherProject.org.

For a screenwriter, to be featured on the coveted annual Black List is a tremendous accomplishment that’s jumpstarted the career of many of the industry’s hottest writers. If you’re Mattson Tomlin, you’ve not only been featured on that list six times in the past four years, but you’ve done so before the age of thirty. Like the most accomplished athletes, Tomlin regularly exercises his creative muscles averaging anywhere from 8-12 scripts a year. While the writer himself acknowledges many of those scripts aren’t pitch worthy, they have led to the creation of projects such as Netflix’s latest film “Project Power.” Set against the backdrop of New Orleans, “Project Power” is an original “real world” superhero story that centers around the use of a pill that gives the user unpredictable abilities for five minutes. The story follows a teenage dealer (Dominique Fishback), a local cop (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), and an ex-soldier (Jamie Foxx) as they try to take down the organization responsible for creating the drug and releasing it onto the streets. With “Project Power,” Tomlin confidently establishes himself as a writer who’s a true fan of comic books, graphic novels, and all the titans of pop culture many of us grew up obsessing over even stating that he considered turning his screenplay into a graphic novel had it not gotten picked up. Perhaps that’s precisely why the film is the perfect precursor to the slew of high profile projects Tomlin is attached to; namely, Matt Reeves’ “The Batman” and the upcoming “Mega Man” movie. While Tomlin might be attached to some of the hottest upcoming blockbusters, he remains accessible and active on social media and, especially, Reddit eager and willing to pay his good fortune forward. He understands all to well the struggle of being an aspiring screenwriter and wants to give real, honest, and useful advice (no bullshit) while he still can to help the next generation of writers carve out their own path. During our conversation with Tomlin, we also discussed the responsibility on screenwriters to be honest in their depiction of film’s in the “cop genre” in 2020, the upcoming “Mega Man” movie, the greatness of “Batman: The Animated Series,” “The Batman,” how Bryan Singer’s “X-Men” influenced “Project Power,” why David Fincher’s “Zodiac” is one of the greatest films of the 2010s, and MUCH more.

Only in a career as pioneering and storied as Gordon Parks' could an achievement like "first Black Hollywood director" fall into the second paragraph. Yet Parks' significance as a photographer and renaissance man does often overshadow a film career that saw him direct "The Learning Tree" (1969), "Shaft" (1971), and "Leadbelly" (1976). This week, Be Reel revisits these too-forgotten cinematic portraits of Black life, joined by director/producer Craig Laurence Rice to discuss the years he spent with Parks making the Emmy-nominated documentary "Half Past Autumn" (2000).

Ryan Oliver and Jenny Nulf (Austin Asian American Film Festival, Austin Chronicle) discuss five of the new releases that came out across various platforms this last weekend, including "The Old Guard," "Palm Springs," "First Cow," and more. 0:00-24:14: "The Old Guard" 24:15-43:30: "Palm Springs" 43:31-01:13:50: "Relic" and "The Beach House" 01:13:51-End: "First Cow"