The Film League Podcast: Recent Episodes
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Each month, Josh and Alexandra pick a film theme (Samurai September, Occult October) and discuss and review what they watched. Updated bi-weekly.
Geek news is light on the ground this week, so Josh and Alex are previewing DragonCon (yay!) and the fall TV schedule (meh). They get distracted embarrassing themselves re: video games (what else is new?), chatting about Josh’s new Twitch stream (twitch.tv/joshfromtheinternet), and their shameful Mass Effect completion records. They also talk books, having just met Ernie Kline (Ready Player One) and fallen in love with Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. Josh breaks down the AMC and HBO formulas, including the Justin Theroux wall blowjob tactic. Alex reports on Outlander episode 2. She’s so embarrassed about how much she’s enjoying it, though it remains blowjob free.
Spoilers:
Outlander episode 2
The Film League returns! But were we ever really gone?? Whatever, who cares. Josh wets his pants over a game that's not even out yet (Destiny); Alex won't shut up about a book that's not even out yet (A Hero at the End of the World by Erin Claiborne). Then they chat about how much they loved Guardians of the Galaxy (haters to the left), and how wary they are of Starz's new show Outlander. We're hella punchy after taking such a long hiatus—Alex reveals way too much about her attraction to Peter Dinklage, Josh spends 10 minutes talking about Superman's chest hair.
Spoilers:
Guardians of the Galaxy
Outlander
Man of Steel (chest hair mostly)
Josh and Alex catch on fire with talk of Hungry, Hungry, Hunger games. They also talk about their surprising adoration of Smaug, reaker of 'desolation'. Alex is really into The Walk, an exercise app made by The British and Josh has discovered the ABILITY TO READ. They watched Harry Potter 5 and 6 - one was enthralling and the other one was a total snooze. Josh looks forward to the promise of a bleak blockbuster after seeing the trailer for Godzilla and Alex reminds us that alien fetus Voldemort was a thing that happened.
SPOILERS
The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
In Episode 17, Alex and Josh continue their two month long journey into the world of Harry Potter films with the excessively murky middle act, The Goblet of Fire. Josh has a particular affinity for French nipple hats and wizard rock bands while Alex struggles to find the charm of a slightly dented looking future vampire. Alex is all about the punk-rock aesthetic of Vikings, but can't stand the slapstick world of Hannibal. Josh continues to tow the Nintendo line, once again heaping praise on the 3DS and Wii U systems. This is my design!
Spoilers
Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire
Vikings
Hannibal (mild)
This week, Josh and Alex say some stuff about their very favorite Harry Potter film—you know, the one directed by Alfonso Cuaron and featuring everyone's favorite werewolf and animagus boyfriends. They talk about catching up on movies they've missed from 2013, including Only God Forgives, which Alex found boring beyond belief. Josh loves the new Mario game, Super Mario 3D World, while Alex tries to convince everyone to back a Kickstarter for original novels by fandom authors who've written, among other things, lots of gay erotica. Let's be real, it's not a week at TFL unless we're thinking about gay erotica. Sirius/Remus 5evr.
In this episode, Josh and Alex totally ruin Thor 2: The Dark World for anyone who hasn't seen it. They also dish on their first ever Harry Potter series rewatch starting with The Sorcerer's Stone. Did they manage to stay awake? Alex gives big ups to Marvel Films while Josh pledges his neverending love for Nintendo, yet again.
SPOILERS
Thor: The Dark World
Harry Potter & The Sorcerer's Stone
In Episode 14 Josh and Alex review Alfonso Cuaron's GRAVITY. Word to the wise, this conversation will be spoiler filled. If you haven't seen the film already, GO SEE IT ON AS LARGE A SCREEN AS POSSIBLE!
Alex won an Emmy for her work on The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, so she spills the beans on what it's like to meet famous people and stuff. Josh talks about his obsession with Grand Theft Auto 5 while Alex confesses her love for Pacific Rim. Then the two of them talk about a few new TV shows and the return of a few old favorites. No spoilers this go around, folks!
This week we recap the shenanigans and henanigans of DragonCon 2013. Josh talks about his love for the Wii U and Pikmin 3 while Alex loves running from zombies. What a weirdo! We also have an extra special surprise at the very end of the Podcast which we'll be talking all about on future TFL podcasts. Hope you enjoy it!
This week's theme is BADASS CG CREATURES WITH SCALES!!!! No but really: Josh and Alex break down the first four episodes of this season of Game of Thrones, in a new segment that doesn't yet have a name. Then they make themselves and everyone else feel old by discussing the 20th anniversary of Jurassic Park, which they just relived in the theatre (in three whole dimensions!). It's basically hug a reptile week.
PODCATS FOREVERRRRRRRR. It's true, Alex and Josh saw Harmony Korine's Spring Breakers and they're kind of obsessed with it now. They discuss it in depth, along with Chan Wook Park's Stoker, and concede that one was way more interesting than the other. Additionally, Alex quibbles with Rifftrax's poll designation of Twilight as the worst film of all time and gets out of breath explaining why Queen of the Damned is a way way way worse film, while Josh just tries his damnedest to explain some Kickstarter campaigns.
Fair warning! This podcat episode has lots of NSFW talk. Slap on your headphones before venturing with us through a discussion of oddly-colored female anatomy and things you can do with your hands. You know what kinds of things we mean.
Alex and Josh discuss the hullabaloo surrounding the Veronica Mars kickstarter and the upcoming SyFy channel "transmedia experience", Defiance. They also throw out some fresh rhymes for Lee Van Cleef movies, Battlestar Galactica, Deadwood, Justified and Chan-wook Park's American debut, Stoker. Then they get super arthouse and shit with Alex's take on Devyn Waitt's Not Waving But Drowning and The Taiwan Oyster. There's so much jaw-flappin' in this pint sized episode that you'll swear there's a frakkin' helicopter about to take off. Worry not, for it's just the confabulation of two nerds, fixin' to grease the grimey gears of gossip and highest of high-brow, eye-brow lifting conversation for the delight and contentment of the populace of this great U. S. of Internet.
Alex and Josh return from their unplanned hiatus to discuss who went home with a little man on Oscars night, and who just went home with a little gold statue. It's an action-packed, lean and mean 53 minutes of cajoling and criticism aimed squarely at the hoity-toity, upper-crust of Hollywood's Elite (and Seth MacFarlane). Also, unless you are completely unfamiliar with the winners, this episode represents our first ever spoiler-free affair. Finally, you can listen with impunity as we only vaguely describe the plots to some of the most critically lauded films of 2012!
Josh and Alex are in the midst of the winter blahs—now that they've seen Django Unchained, there's very little in the cinemas to look forward to. Instead they've been delving into Unchained's predecessors, like Django and Drum. They talk Tarantino, wax poetic about Franco Nero's beard, and look forward to revisiting more Westerns this winter. They also compare two nerd culture indie films currently streaming on Netflix, and decide that The FP is everything wrong with hipster cinema, while Unicorn City is a great example of how to tease a subculture without being an asshole to them or anyone else.
It's the last episode of 2012! Josh and Alex delve deep into their thoughts about The Hobbit, from Barry Humphries's goiter to Martin Freeman's hobbity little ass. They also try to say something about the non-action-blockbuster films they saw this year, but frankly, there weren't many. They get meta about the work of Wes Anderson, prognosticate on the Oscar narrative for this year, and look forward to what the future brings.
As the year draws to a close, Josh and Alex take a look back at their favorite—and least favorite—action blockbusters of 2012. Find out what they loved and what they hated! Hear them finally tear into The Dark Knight Rises in full! Hear wild speculation about the future of Hollywood's major franchises!
In this episode, #TheBondProject takes over Josh and Alex's lives. They get in depth with the latest movie in the James Bond franchise, Skyfall, and revisit some old classics to see how they hold up. Alex can't stop gushing about Daniel Craig, while Josh is concerned that rewatching GoldenEye might ruin his good memories of the eponymous N64 game.
NoirNovember has arrived, and ain't she a dame. Josh and Alex sit down in a crudely-lit corner to work their way through several neo-noirs and one old black and white classic. Can they solve the mystery of James Ellroy's melting clay dog, tell the good girl from the femme fatale (hint: one of them is Robin Tunney), and keep you from slipping into the dark underworld of Chinatown's 1990 sequel?
occultoctober continues! Josh and Alex discuss the scary stuff they've been watching, including V/H/S and the films of Ti West, Daniel Radcliffe's eyebrows, Freddy vs. Jason vs. Alien vs. Predator, and all the unexpected places a person might find Keanu Reeves. Find out which film scared us so badly we had to turn it off, which film we'll be live-tweeting on Halloween night, who won this round of movie trivia, and more of the terrifying things inside our brains!
Topics include: the Nike Fuel Band; Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword; Easy Riders, Raging Bulls; Click-Clack the Rattlebag by Neil Gaiman; Cloud Atlas; V/H/S; Cabin Fever 2; The House of the Devil; The Great World of Sound; Compliance; The Innkeepers; The Woman in Black; Nightmare on Elm Street 4; Halloween 4; Near Dark; Point Break; Roadhouse; Amityville 2: The Possession; Trick 'r Treat; Bram Stoker's Dracula; Stephen King; Kelly Link.
In our very first episode, Josh and Alex discuss the movies they've been watching for #OccultOctober, which films truly terrified them as children, and play a horror-themed round of movie trivia. Alex professes her love of Rian Johnson, Josh is terrified of asshole children, and they both get excessively meta while discussing early to mid-90s horror narratives and the political realities they reflect.
Welcome to the inaugural thefilmleague.com "announcing the podcast" podcast! It should be great!
And hopefully it will be! Look forward to the first ever "podcast" podcast episode soon! Which should be better than the inaugural "announcing the podcast" podcast, which was brief and terrific.