Shut Up and Watch This

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Join us as we uncover each other's media and pop culture blindspots. We're a couple getting to know each other better by sharing the must-see movies from our past.

Episodes

Tuesday May 07, 2024

#104: Repo Man (1984)

Tuesday May 07, 2024

This month we explore REPO MAN, the endlessly inventive 1984 cult movie by Alex Cox. Dave remembers catching the movie on late-night cable as a teen, but it was a true blind spot for Ashley until we sat down to watch it together. Emilio Estevez stars as Otto, a bored LA punk who falls under the spell of veteran repo man Harry Dean Stanton. Along the way, we encounter rival repo gangs, government ops, junkyard philosophers, UFO conspiracy theorists, and a mysterious 1964 Chevy Malibu with something terrifying in the trunk. Join us as we dissect the Repo Code, the amazing punk sampler soundtrack, and try to figure out what this movie actually is. Absurd punk sci-fi pastiche? Or a tongue-in-cheek indictment of Reagan-era capitalism and the death of the welfare state? As Ashley often says, why not both?

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Friday Mar 15, 2024

#103: Happy-Go-Lucky (2008)

Friday Mar 15, 2024

This time, Ashley chooses HAPPY-GO-LUCKY and it's a Mike Leigh rematch!

Long ago on Ep.8, Dave chose Leigh's NAKED (1993), which featured male characters so repellent that Ashley found the entire viewing experience to be extremely unpleasant.

Now six years later, we discuss a Mike Leigh film she adores, longtime favorite HAPPY-GO-LUCKY, a seemingly lighthearted comedy simmering with tension and darkness. Sally Hawkins gives a brilliant, compulsively watchable performance as Poppy, a cheerful, free-spirited schoolteacher whose big heart and impulsive nature lead her straight into a series of unsettling encounters that her unshakeable sense of humor may not able to deliver her from.

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Wednesday Jan 31, 2024

#102: My So-Called Life (1994)

Wednesday Jan 31, 2024

Introducing our lost episode! Three years ago, we started prep work for a rewatch podcast about the groundbreaking 90s teen series, MY SO-CALLED LIFE, which ran on ABC-TV from 1994 to 1995. The plan: record and bank a few episodes before committing to the launch. Then life happened…you can guess the rest.

Just in time for the 30th anniversary of the series, here is Episode 1 of our MY SO-CALLED LIFE rewatch. Join us as we dissect the Pilot, share our connections to the show, and get reacquainted with introspective 15-year-old Angela Chase (Claire Danes) as she navigates the ups and downs of adolescence and a painful crush on Jordan Catalano (Jared Leto).

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Tuesday Jan 02, 2024

#101: Something Wild (1986)

Tuesday Jan 02, 2024

We were going to introduce Jonathan Demme’s SOMETHING WILD by saying that not a lot of movies start with the kidnapping of the main character in the first five minutes, but according to Wikipedia’s “Films about Kidnapping” list, that isn’t true. And our main character, straitlaced banker Charlie Driggs (Jeff Daniels), isn’t exactly kicking and screaming when he’s picked up by Lulu (Melanie Griffith), an attractive Soho hipster with a Louise Brooks bob. What follows is a genre-defying film that is part road movie, part off-kilter rom-com, and part suburban nightmare crime thriller, featuring a truly terrifying debut performance by Ray Liotta.

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Thursday Oct 26, 2023

#100: The Big 100! Calm Down & Share This Edition

Thursday Oct 26, 2023

Five years ago on a drive back from Lubbock, we came up with the concept for this podcast. Here we are, celebrating 100 episodes, by switching it up, with patience and love.

Dave picks a movie Ashley adores, COLUMBUS (2017). Ashley chooses RASHOMON (1950) for Dave.

Are we in for a Kogonada/Kurosawa rap battle? Or just a kinder, more generous show? No enforced viewing this time. Just the gift of time and attention during Ashley’s recent visit home from grad school.

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Thursday Sep 21, 2023

#99: Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work (2010)

Thursday Sep 21, 2023

We're back and it's Ashley's choice!

Joan Rivers was known in her later years for over the top plastic surgery and for participating in the celebrity bullying culture that was rampant in the early ‘00s.

The documentary, JOAN RIVERS: A PIECE OF WORK sought to look beyond this image to better understand River’s place as a groundbreaking comedian, and possibly the hardest working person in show business. The result is a compelling look at the effects of fame and the insecurity of trying to make a life and a living in the limelight.

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Thursday Jun 15, 2023

#98: Ikiru (1952)

Thursday Jun 15, 2023

In what is turning out to be a very existential few months for the podcast, this month we take a close look at Akira Kurosawa’s IKIRU, in which we follow a lifelong civil servant played by Kurosawa regular Takashi Shimura as he comes to terms with his impending death, and maybe, just maybe figures out what the point of all of this is. And in the third act, Kurosawa, ever the keen observer of humanity, gives us a glimpse of the man’s legacy to those left behind. And so, can the living ever really learn what the dead have to teach us?

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Friday May 19, 2023

#97: Harvey (1950)

Friday May 19, 2023

If you're like Ashley and remember from the height of the blog era a Tumblr called “Sketchy Bunnies," then you might be a little intimidated by the hero of this week’s pic, a 6 foot 3 and a half inch invisible rabbit named HARVEY. But it turns out that Harvey and his best friend Elwood P. Dowd have a lot to teach us about what is important in life: like being kind to others, finding joy in simple things, and making sure there are strong policies in place to limit the powers of private mental health institutions.

Check out John Green's moving podcast episode about the impact of Harvey on his life:

The Anthropocene Reviewed: "Velociraptors and Harvey"

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Monday Apr 17, 2023

#96: La Dolce Vita (1960)

Monday Apr 17, 2023

There are some who believe, and we’re among them, that the creative spark is what makes us human, but making art is frequently hard, emotionally taxing and the results often fall short of our ideal. So is it any wonder that some would-be creators might lose themselves in hedonistic pleasure seeking, rather than doing the work to find meaning? This is perhaps the central question of Dave's choice, Fellini’s LA DOLCE VITA. Rife with symbolism and references to Dante’s Inferno, the soul of our hero is at stake. What choice will he make: to make his own meaning or be lost?

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Wednesday Mar 08, 2023

#95: Certified Copy (2010)

Wednesday Mar 08, 2023

Intriguing, enthralling, enigmatic and ultimately moving, words that go some ways towards describing this month’s pick, CERTIFIED COPY (2010). Directed by Abbas Kiarostami and starring Juliette Binoche and William Shimmel, the film depicts two people with an undetermined relationship to one another as they spend the day in Tuscany. And so questions arise: What is the exact nature of their relationship? Does objective truth exist? And does it matter if it does?

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