In the Mood for Podcast: Episode 33

EPISODE 33: Surrogates + Slaves

[1:13:04]

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It's Episode 33 of In the Mood for Podcast, a British-based film podcast hosted by Calum Reed of Ultimate Addict and Pete Sheppard of In the Mood for Blog. This week we reveal our preconceptions about Quentin Tarantino before reviewing his brand new Western "Django Unchained." We're in for the straight-talking intimacy of Ben Lewin's "The Sessions," while the minor releases of Horror anthology "V/H/S" and culinary documentary "Jiro Dreams of Sushi" attempt to whet our appetite. We talk about our favourite screenwriters and on-screen performances of disability, before rounding it all off with some swift SAG predictions. If you savour us when we're at our shortest and snappiest, here's a baby podcast for you. We can't mimic Quentin all of the time...

Discussed on the podcast: 

Listener Question: "Who are your favourite screenwriters?" [Ibbi] [2:45 - 9:30]

Opening Segment: Discussing the early work of Quentin Tarantino, and our review of "Django Unchained" [9:35 - 30:55]


*Preconception Corner*

Reviews of: 

• "V/H/S"
• "Jiro Dreams of Sushi"

[31:00 - 49:45]

Closing Segment: Our take on Ben Lewin's "The Sessions, our favourite disabled performances, and predictions for Sunday's Screen Actors' Guild awards  [49:55 - 1:05:25]

*Shag, Marry or Kill?*
*The Watson Factor*
*The Poupaud Range*

Intro Music: New theme music!
Outro Music: Spark, "Revolving" (Monsieur Adu Reworking of Allegro in C Minor)

Django Unchained (2012)

Django Unchained
Directed by Quentin Tarantino
Starring: Jamie Foxx, Christoph Waltz, Leonardo Di Caprio, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington
Grade: C

As it so often goes with Tarantino films “Django Unchained” aims for gratuity at the expense of narrative cohesion, the marked difference between this and the rest of his oeuvre being that – as it always threatened to – his rambling, episodic style of filmmaking finally curtails the entire project. There are still some excellent scenes which draw a fully-realised set of characters, but the extraneous way that many of the scenes unfold drags a modest plot through to a near three-hour length. I’d happily watch ‘Django’ again for the sporadic touches of stylistic brilliance, its canny genre hybridism, and the large, enterprising performances from the cast, but it mostly showcases its auteur’s difficulty with shaping a narrative rather than his other many attributes. Indulgence and generosity finally get the better of his scribal tendencies, and this Western gets lost in the sprawl.