TOP OF THE PILE: What I’m Watching and Reading and listening to!

2 Albums by Taureg music group TINARIWEN. Both come recommended. AMAN IMAN and TASSILLI

BIUTIFUL- by the director of BABEL, comes an intriguing and well performed, if pessimistic film. Not something to re-watch.

BLOW-UP – Highly overrated film and more than a bit boring

OPEN CITY – Italian neo-realism, not in the mood.

FRED THE CLOWN Graphic Novel -Excellent humor book, with lovely cartoony art. Worth owning

THE BEST OF THE SPIRIT- reads more than a bit dated, not as visually dynamic as I was led to believe. Plus the poor newsprint paper doesn’t help, as it muddies any details in Eisner’s art

AGONY- Surreal does not translate always into Good, as this experimental but not very engaging movie on the life of Russia’s mad monk, illustrates. Plodding.

THE WAY- excellent 2nd film by Emilio Estevez, stars his father Martin Sheen. Great film.

LIMITLESS- Visually imaginative, stylish, entertaining and addictive film

New Podcasts for 2011: THE TREATMENT and RELIC RADIO

Well after my last post about seeking a replacement podcast, I found a couple interesting ones.

One has nothing to do with film, it’s a podcast that replays Old time Radio episodes. Anyone who has followed this blog knows I’m a huge fan of Old time Radio, so digging this podcast. it’s called RELIC RADIO.

They have a variety of podcast feeds, for a bunch of different genres, but so far I’m a bit stuck on the horror feed. There’s very little better than listening to classic horror from the golden days of radio. You can either download the shows or subscribe to the podcast RSS feed (which is the easier method).

You can find the site here. Check it out, I think you’ll like.

The next is a real discovery, and for a pretty massive film fan like myself (I buy DVDs as much for the director’s commentary as the film. In some cases more for the director’s commentary, so if that doesn’t scream massive film fan, nothing does. :)) a real gem.

I’m speaking of a show called THE TREAMENT, a half hour interview radio show brilliantly hosted by Elvis Mitchell (is that a great name or what?), that posts their shows, as podcasts, for a limited time on their website. The highest praise I can give this show is… I learned about it 2 days ago, and have listened to all twelve available episodes.

THE TREATMENT is something that interview shows very seldom are, it is smart, and it is humanastic, and it is engrossing, and it’s about communicating rather than simply questioning. It’s the kind of conversation, and insite you get when the person asking the questions is really informed about the medium, and really cares about the answers.

Elvis Mitchell, quickly defining himself, for me, as the best interviewer currently working in the medium of film. It is a must listen.

And it has a couple early contenders for the most interesting interviews of 2011, his interview with Alex Gibney being at the top of that list, as in a brief 30 minutes it touches on staggering questions that sooner or later… will touch us all. And his interview with Alejandro Gonzalex Inarritu is just a great insight into one of the best directors currently working.

Download individual shows, or subscribe to the podcast here.

Well that’s all for this posting. More soon.