Shut Up And Watch This

There’s no question that THE PIANO is a very good film–everything from photography, to music, to performances, and story casts a spell. Writer/Director Jane Campion is at the full height of her formidable powers as a storyteller. She expertly revives and inhabits the emotional landscape of novels like Jane Eyre, offering us glimpses into the mind and will of our heroine. But this is a modern story, so maybe the themes of Man vs. Self and Society vs. Freedom are more interesting than the love story. And what is our responsibility when responding to this work? Can we allow ourselves to be swept away, or do we have to ask the hard questions? Why not both? Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2022 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Dave has missed out on a good number of the musical spectacular films from the mid-twentieth century. And maybe it’s not such a loss to miss out on OKLAHOMA or HELLO, DOLLY and the like, but there is something interesting about MY FAIR LADY. Maybe it is the classical subject matter by way of a George Bernard Shaw play, Audrey Hepburn’s charming performance as Eliza or Rex Harrison’s odd talk-singing. And sure, the gender politics are a little dated, but there is something delightful about a man, once again, learning that when he tries to make someone in his image, that someone is going to have a mind of their own. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2022 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

If you’re like Ashley, you have probably seen the posters for the THREE COLORS TRILOGY floating around video stores, movie theaters or dorm rooms most of your life. But maybe, also like Ashley, you have never quite gotten around to seeing what BLUE, WHITE and RED are all about. And maybe the words “Polish,” “Independent,” “Film” don’t have you rushing out to plug the holes in your film knowledge. But Ashley (and maybe you also) has been remiss in seeing these very watchable and moving films. Go watch them and then unpack them here with us. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2022 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Here it is: the ultimate podcast about the greatest martial arts film of all time. Wilson, Carr and Lee (Bruce Lee) give it to you straight. In this episode, we discuss ENTER THE DRAGON, Bruce Lee’s entrance into the American film industry and the last film completed before his untimely death. We can’t get enough of Bruce Lee as star, co-writer and fight choreographer. But this film has more to offer, most notably an intense fight scene featuring the talented Angela Mao. Along the way, we also share our love for Lee's exuberant, offbeat directorial debut, THE WAY OF THE DRAGON (1972). Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2022 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Many films tell stories of people who when put in precarious situations are miraculously able pull themselves out at the last second. Andrea Arnold’s FISH TANK doesn’t attempt this kind of cliched hero’s journey. Here the danger to 15 year-old Mia (Katie Jarvis) is real and hope takes the form of the freedom offered by a boy and his car. And yet in spite of this more subdued take on storytelling, this film is a joy to watch. We root for Mia to find her way up, out, or away, to create something different for herself. Hope comes from possibility and freedom, despite circumstances. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Just in time for Halloween we have something a little creepy, a little campy, and a whole lot disturbing. WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE? quickly became a cult favorite in large part due to Bette Davis’s unhinged performance as aging former child star Baby Jane Hudson caring for her disabled sister Blanche (Joan Crawford). Hugely influential in popular culture, Baby Jane has been imitated and parodied countless times. But there is something about this film that rises above its cult-camp reputation. There is real pain and terror and mental illness here that leaves us unsure whether to laugh or cry or cringe. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

This week we travel to gritty 80’s London via Neil Jordan’s MONA LISA. Our hero is the elegant and inscrutable Simone (Cathy Tyson), a high end call girl who has gained a degree of independence in her work. Our narrator is her driver/bodyguard George (Bob Hoskins), recently released from prison, who is looking to reconnect with his estranged daughter. George wears his heart on his sleeve, and Simone never shows her hand, but they are (maybe) able to find some degree of connection in spite of complicated circumstances. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Is it noir? Is it a woman’s picture? Why not both? On this week's episode we talk MILDRED PIERCE. Joan Crawford is the hardest working woman in the greater Los Angeles area, at least. She cooks, she cleans, she founds a successful chain of mid-range restaurants through a series of increasingly strange real estate maneuvers, all while raising two daughters and fielding advances from various contemptible men. Maybe you can have it all! Actually, maybe not. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

In the words of noted 90s philosopher, Jack Handey, “If you ever discover that what you're seeing is a play within a play, just slow down, take a deep breath, and hold on for the ride of your life.” Bertolucci’s 1970 classic THE CONFORMIST is similarly layered; a flashback within a fantasy within a frame story. Beyond the complex structure, this film is also rife with striking imagery, symbolism and camera movement. Dave and Ashley discuss how The Conformist has influenced generations of filmmakers from Coppola to Gerwig, plus how Freud ruins everything. Subscribe in Apple Podcasts, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Perhaps HELLBOY II: THE GOLDEN ARMY is an odd choice considering our general weariness with sequels and franchises and Dave’s aversion to superhero films. But this is a different kind of sequel and Hellboy is a different kind of hero, and it doesn’t hurt to have Guillermo del Toro directing, too. Del Toro is clearly having a great time bringing all kinds of interesting and creepy creatures to life. This film is a whole lot of fun, proving that there is an exception to every rule even among the seemingly endless superhero movies. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

This week’s pick is about some ruthless people and some not so ruthless people acting in some very ruthless ways, but also some not very ruthless ways. Danny DeVito, Bette Midler, Judge Reinhold and Supergirl star in RUTHLESS PEOPLE, a 1986 revenge comedy with a whole lot going on. We’ve got attempted murder, kidnapping, failed blackmail plots, a history of stereo retail sales practices, and an amazing house which is either a tribute to the Memphis style or a ruthless takedown of it. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Film and other art forms are in near constant dialogue, influencing each other. This is particularly true in genre films, where quotations of influential works are used to draw viewers in. And so this week we have a film about a female tank driver in a post-apocalyptic wasteland that is controlled by one man who has all the water, and all the power. But this is not Mad Max: Fury Road, it is TANK GIRL (1995), an adaptation of an underground, post-punk comic, which was in turn almost certainly inspired by the original Mad Max series. A financial failure at the time, this film is not perfect, but it’s a whole lot of fun, and surprisingly progressive, too. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

This week we have a little truffle of a Truffaut film, romantic comedy-drama STOLEN KISSES. Third in Truffaut’s series of films about Antoine Doinel, this film concerns the misadventures of Antoine in his early 20s as he tries to figure out work and love, largely failing at both. With a cast of delightful side characters and involving the strange goings-on at a Paris detective agency, Stolen Kisses feels like something of a mix between Peter Seller’s Pink Panther films and The Graduate. A perfect cinematic treat to go with the beautiful spring weather we’re having in Texas. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

It’s Springtime in Austin, which means bluebonnets, beautiful weather and South by Southwest Music, Film, everything Festival. SXSW 2021, like many festivals during the pandemic, was held entirely online and we were there on our couch watching it all (or some of it). Listen as we share our reviews of INBETWEEN GIRL, ISLANDS, THE FALLOUT, and INTRODUCING, SELMA BLAIR, plus a few other favorite narrative films, documentaries, and shorts from the festival. We hope to pique your interest and nudge you to seek out and support these great films and their talented filmmakers. 02:26 - Inbetween Girl 09:28 - Islands 17:09 - The Fallout 29:30 - Introducing, Selma Blair 42:10 - The End of Us 44:41 - Women is Losers 49:02 - Our Father 52:16 - Potato Dreams of America 55:35 - Kid Candidate 1:00:25 - Are You Still There? (Short) 1:01:31 - Soak (Short) 1:02:08 - Summer Animals (Short) Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com

Why don’t we have a word for a breakup comedy? Anti-romantic comedy doesn’t quite get the idea across in the right way. Maybe it's because breakups aren’t funny in the conventional sense. Maybe there just aren’t enough of them, but there should be more films like Ashley’s pick, CELESTE & JESSE FOREVER. Rashida Jones and Andy Samberg play a couple having the best breakup ever until complications come along. Like the best relationships this film is funny, sad and maybe we even learn a little something from it. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

What do you get when you mix horror, comedy, and romance with martial arts, stop motion, and a ghost story. Something that feels a little like Evil Dead, a little like Princess Bride, and a whole lot like a kung fu Ray Harryhausen film. Dave’s pick this week is A CHINESE GHOST STORY, a Hong Kong cinema gem that never saw a wide release in the U.S, but has since become a cult film. This film is jam-packed with action, plot, and imagery. It’s all a little too much in a really good way. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

WET HOT AMERICAN SUMMER (2001) was at one point in the mid to late 00’s required viewing for those interested in the comedy world, or at least it felt that way to someone who had just discovered comedy podcasts by way of Marc Maron. It certainly stars many up-and-coming actors and comedians who are now major names in television and film, including Amy Poehler, Ken Marino, Michael Showalter,  and….Bradley Cooper.. But does it continue to deserve its required viewing status or has time and comedy moved on? Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

Two guys, one dog, a remote hot spring, and some palpable tension. This week’s pick, Kelly Reichardt’s OLD JOY, couldn't be more stripped down, just two old friends going on a weekend trip. And yet, the scenes are subtle and emotionally fraught. There is a lot going on just below the surface. At the end of the weekend it’s not clear that anyone had a good time except for Lucy the dog and maybe Dave and Ashley as they unpack it. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2021 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson

If there is any movie that proves that how you feel about art can change over time, or even during the course of a single conversation, it is Ashley’s pick, Alexander Payne’s ELECTION (1999). This pitch black comedy features a usually likable Matthew Broderick playing teacher, Mr. McAllister against a difficult-to-love Tracy Flick, an against-type Reese Witherspoon. Though this seems like a simple story about what happens when a mid-life crisis mixes with a high-school election, it actually is a more subtle character study about how people use boredom and jealousy to justify some truly heinous actions. This film brings up some strong emotions from Dave and Ashley, so join us for an interesting conversation. Pick Flick! Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2020 Ashley Carr & Da

This week we are reviewing WITNESS, the 1985 film starring Harrison Ford and directed by Peter Weir. Not, The Witness, not Witness for the Prosecution, Witness for the Defense, and definitely not Silent Witness or Hostile Witness. Name confusion aside, this film has a lot more to offer than one would expect from what seemed at first to be a Harrison Ford thriller, but is actually a more subtle exploration of the role of violence in modern life. Subscribe in iTunes, Android, or Spotify. Follow us on Facebook and Instagram. Visit our site: shutupwatchthis.wordpress.com Send your feedback to shutupwatchthis@gmail.com Please consider leaving a review or a star rating on iTunes, so other folks can find us. © 2020 Ashley Carr & Dave Wilson