American Pastoral

Jackie Brown

"Is white guilt going to make me forget that I'm running a business?" Tanner finally gets a day in the sun when Elmore Leonard's novel, Rum Punch gets reimagined by the South Bay's finest filmmaker, Quentin Tarantino. Topics include Tanner's enduring affection for this movie, Robert DeNiro's (quietly) commanding performance, whether or not Jackie Brown succeeds as a hang-out film, Elmore Leonard's tips for writing, and his desire to evoke comparisons to Ernest Hemingway over Raymond Chandler. Matt also airs his grievances about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, to which Tanner offers a comprehensive rebuttal. We finish the episode by drafting our top 5 combined QT/PTA films. Riveting.

Burning

“He’s rich enough to listen to music while he makes pasta.” We got ourselves another triple adaptation, folks. Well, sort of. Burning by Lee Chang-dong is based on the short story, “Barn Burning” by Haruki Murakami, inspired by the short story, “Barn Burning" by William Faulkner. Fun!!! Topics include Murakami’s western influences and style of writing, Murakami translating Raymond Carver NOT Raymond Chandler, Yoo Ah-in’s status as a “tabloid bad boi” in South Korea, Steven Yeun’s ability to star in both English and Korean films, the nature of compulsion, screen quotas in South Korea, our favorite shots, long takes, and compositions in the film, and plenty of asides about I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson.

Brokeback Mountain

“Jack Twist? More like Jack NASTY.” Our backs were fine after this film, but our hearts? Shattered. This major motion picture directed by Ang Lee was adapted from the short story “Brokeback Mountain” by Annie Proulx as part of her collection, Close Range: Wyoming Stories. Topics include when we first came to this film, the S-Town podcast, Proulx’s Vermont roots, Larry McMurtry’s All of My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, Tanner being emotionally destroyed by The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead on a plane, rampant homophobia in Wyoming, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Health Ledger’s otherworldliness, Jack Gyllenhaal being slightly miscast but still bringing the goods, and Matt’s experience as an inept manual laborer on a golf course.

American Pastoral

“The Swede.” So, this is our season’s stinker. Ewan McGregor makes his (feature) directorial debut in this adaptation of the novel of the same name by Philip Roth. Not great! Topics include continuity errors, Tanner preordering a condemned Roth biography, feminist critiques of Roth, Tanner being intimidated to read Roth in front of an ex-girlfriend’s smart brothers, The Plot Against America, exploring your own ugliness artistically, how the most American thing is wondering what’s American, being wrong about people, Ewan McGregor fully looking 40 years old in a photo insert, Roth’s purported hatred of Woody Allen, the Swedes we know, the film’s hackneyed portrayal of counterculture/times changing, and enumerating all the other ways that this failed as an adaptation.

Gone Girl

"You don't know your own wife's blood type?" Gillian Flynn and David Fincher are in the cross-hairs when we discuss Gone Girl. Please excuse Matt's nasally baritone, he contracted the novel coronavirus for a second time before recording this episode. Topics include the original title of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, what constitutes a good date movie, criticism levied against Gillian Flynn, male characters written by women/female characters written by men, how we the people love to hate Ben Affleck, David Fincher's mythic rise to the director's chair and his Kubrickian reputation for needing 100 takes per scene, the phenomenal casting in Gone Girl, and whether or not the twist in Fight Club is fair.