Time to hunker in your bunker! In this episode, Andrea and Alex tackle the issues surrounding Nice Guys, privilege, and the conservative ideology around preservation during times of upheaval.
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REQUIRED READING
10 Cloverfield Lane. Dir Dan Trachtenberg, 2016.
EXTRA CREDIT
r/niceguys. These “nice guys” aren’t nice.
Awards for Good Boys. Add some “nice guy” satire to your Instagram feed with art by Mia Mingus.
The BATCAVE. Andrea’s YouTube episode on 10 Cloverfield Lane.
Cloverfield Clues: A whole YouTube channel devoted to Cloverfield marketing easter eggs online.
J.J. Abrams – The Mystery Box. Abrams’ Ted Talk on the central conceit to his creations.
Theatre and the Plague. Antonin Artaud’s treaty The Theatre and Its Double, which contain his plague theory.
Hollywood 9/11. Tom Pollard’s book on 9/11’s impact on the film industry.
Gaylords of Darkness, Episode 82. An amazing interview with Luca Guadagnino and David Kajganich the director and writer of Suspiria (2018).
LISTEN
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Indeed, reality bites. And its teeth are sharper and harder in a country where the person currently occupying the President’s chair (a man that makes Trump look like a sensitive and thoughtful dude) denies it on a daily basis. Yeah, I’m talking about (and from) Brazil and our (it disgusts me to the bone referencing him as bearing any sort of relation to myself …) executive chief, Jair Bolsonaro.
First of all, I need to report that the episode made me look at this bleak reality in a different way, adopting a new approach. If it presents itself as a calamitous crisis, like an impending apocalypse, at least we could interpret it, following your suggestion, as a challenge, an opportunity for change and renewal. Chico Buarque, one of our most beloved musicians and writers, once said: “People are usually scared of changes. I am afraid of things never changing.” I tend to agree with him, as of right now, there is no time for being afraid of willing and acting towards new possibilities.
Prior to watching “10 Cloverfield Lane” and listening to the podcast, I’d just seen two 50’s japanese sci-fi horror flicks that deal with similar themes: attachment and (wish to) control. “Godzilla”, the original one from 1954, besides being a big allegory to the atomic bomb, is constantly questioning our tendency (better put, our illusion) to exert control over things way above our limited capacities (the old paleontologist intention to study the monster’s resistance to radiation; Ogata’s determination to destroy it; Serizawa, an endearing and very tragic figure, in constant conflict between helping to solve the problem, deploying his new discovery, and the risk of turning the “Oxygen Destroyer” into a new menace to humanity). The creature is constantly shot inside and out of many kinds of barriers / restraints (an emblematic shot shows a small cage in front of Godzilla’s head, as if it were to imprison / limit it) to demonstrate the impossibility of controlling it. In another Ishiro Honda’s joint, “The H-man” (1958), one of the first scenes shows a fishing boat adrift, with its wheel unattended (who, after all, is in control?). The movie’s end refers to the same question posed in “I’m Legend”: isn’t it time for things to change, for the arrival of a new paradigm? Why are we so attached to the way things have always been?
At the end, regardless of the murkiness of the situation, I was rather joyful and exilared. In tackling the subject the way you usually do, seriously yet witty, besides enhancing my reading of the film, you two gave me hope and strength to face the new reality. I can only love and thank you for this. Thank you for allowing me (since I’m in a 50’s sci-fi mood) in your social blob. Thank you girls, you are beyond amazing!
Please, forgive my terrible English.
Term for showhorning? Kind of sounds like “reskinning”. The term is used a lot in videogames when you take the core elements of one creature or a puzzle and change the outward appearance to make something new.
In this case, it’s taking an original script, and putting a Hellraiser/Saw/Freddy Kruger “skin” on it.
I definitely have to rewatch this now. I remember not taking it too seriously, but enjoying it. I also need to finally read “Le théâtre et son double”. I just got back into listening to the FoH after taking a break from anything horror because life, but you help give me hope for the world! Thank you!