Are you listening to 'We're Watching Here'?
On the joys of the film criticism podcast.
Normally, I use this newsletter to highlight the work of others. A movie I love, a TV show I’m taken with, maybe a piece of writing that stuck with me. But if you’ll indulge me, this week I want to talk a bit about a project I’m involved with that I’m quite proud of, and I hope you’ll give it a listen.
Every other week, usually on Monday nights, I finish dinner, clean the dishes and then slip off into another room to record We’re Watching Here, the movie podcast I co-host with my friend and fellow Detroit-area critic, Perry Seibert.
February marked two years of us doing this show, albeit with a brief lag in early 2020 as I finished grad school and then we tried to figure out the logistics of podcasting in a pandemic. We briefly floated the idea of ending the show in January in order to start a new project, but we decided to eventually roll those ideas into this show throughout the year and keep it going.
I’m so glad we did, because I feel like in our last few episodes, we’ve really hit a great stride, not only sticking to a consistent schedule but also getting into great conversations about movies we’ve really enjoyed. Since our first episode of January, we’ve been doing a catch up of some films from 2020, and it’s a miniseries that I think we’re going to keep doing up until the Oscars because there’s so much stuff that was easy to miss over this last year, when the release schedule was so crazy.
On this week’s episode, we talk about one film from early 2020 and two films that had limited releases but that have just gone wide in the last month: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow, Isaac Lee Chung’s Minari and Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland. These are three fantastic films. Nomadland had landed atop my best-of list last year, and both Minari and First Cow deserve spots there as well. All three films are heartfelt, gorgeous experiences on their own, but watching the three of them together affords a great look at the American dream, our tenuous history with capitalism, and our relationships to people and places. Perry and I talk about it for a good hour, and I came away with even more love for these movies. I hope you’ll listen. You can find the newest episode on iTunes and Spotify.
We’re Watching Here is, of course, the first of two podcasts I currently do. This summer, Joe Yerke and I started back with Cross.Culture.Critic., which we usually do about once a month. And it’s actually one of several podcasts I’ve done over the years, stretching back to the hangout podcast It’s My Favorite (which later became Wasting Time) that I did with my friends Matt and Beth from 2015-19, and the short-lived (but much loved) Far From Hollywood podcast I originally did for a time with Perry for the Detroit Film Critics Society.
I find it a bit amusing that podcasting has become a hobby I’ve come to enjoy so much. When it comes to communicating, I’ve always gravitated toward writing. By nature, I tend to be a shy and quiet person. I don’t like to argue. And yet, there is something so much fun about getting together with friends and saying “let’s just talk about the stuff we always would, but let’s put it out there for everyone to join in with.” It’s a relatively simple and inexpensive hobby to learn. And while I wouldn’t ask anyone to trust me producing their own show, I’ve found myself able to work through some of the kinks, play with sound quality and edit all the episodes in a fairly short amount of time.
Doing film criticism through podcasts, though, is something I’m greatly enjoying, potentially more than even writing criticism. Maybe it’s just that the pandemic has taken away the experience of sitting in the lobby or at a bar after a movie and arguing about its merits. Maybe I’m just a fan of the old Siskel and Ebert way of hashing out their thoughts on movies (keeping in mind that both men were also excellent writers). But I think it has to do with the fact that movies are one of our great communal activities. Yes, we can and do watch movies alone at home. But our best experiences with them often involve other people. We see movies together. We argue fiercely for the ones we love. We share in-jokes and favorite lines. We enjoy movies alongside other people, and podcasting is a way to continue that experience of reliving and relitigating a film experience with another person.
I think this sort of communal criticism also makes me a better film lover and critic. I’m blessed to have a co-host as knowledgeable as Perry, who keeps me on my toes and often brings an insight from film history and tradition that enriches my understanding of a movie. For awhile, it was intimidating, because I’m too aware of my many blind spots in film history. But over time, I’ve come to be deeply grateful for the dynamic we have. Perry brings a perspective steeped in cinema and love for the form. I like to think I have a good knack for observing the thematic points and deeper meanings of a story. And I think that, together, we make a good team. It also helps that he’s one of the most lively and engaging conversationalists I’ve met (a trait he shares with my CCC co-host, Joe).
If I haven’t given you a hard enough sell, let me pass along the five episodes of this series that might best give you a look at our dynamic and the show we do. I hope you’ll consider subscribing, rating and telling your friends.
Our Cinematic DNA -- This was our first episode, way back in February 2019, in which we kick off this whole endeavor by talking about the movies that made us. (Feb. 1, 2019)
The Best Musicals of the 21st Century -- Every once in a while, we take a topic, each choose three films related to it, and then talk about it for an hour. This is still one of my favorites, if only because it introduced me to Hedwig and the Angry Inch and The Last Five Years, and set up an episode where we reviewed All That Jazz, which still might be the best movie I saw because of this podcast. (May 9, 2019)
Fighting Over Joker -- Despite our Siskel and Ebert love, We’re Watching Here is never a contentious show and I’m surprised how often Perry and I are in sync about the movies we see. One of the exceptions was with Joker, a movie I declared to be “garbage” and Perry was more mixed on (but not necessarily positive). We hashed the movie for nearly an hour, ended the show and then started talking about it again, and thankfully the recorder was still going. I still don’t think there’s anything to Joker that works, but at least it gave us this episode. (Oct. 11, 2019).
Best of the 2010s (Part I and II) -- We did a best-of list for 2019, which you can track down and is worth a listen. But the episode I’m more fond of was this epic two-parter, in which we discussed our favorite movies of the decade. Not much overlap and a lot of great picks. Gives you a great idea of our sensibilities. (Jan. 24 and 31, 2020).
Let’s All Go to the Movies! -- Our first episode back after a break where I finished grad school and we entered a global pandemic was focused on the joy of going to the movies. Back when it seemed odd that we had gone two months without entering a theater, Perry and I talked about our favorite experiences going to the movies. The result is one of my favorite episodes, not just because of the experiences we talk about but because we were also able to get the heads of a few local theaters to contribute. (April 24, 2020).
Again, I hope you’ll listen and subscribe. I’m quite proud of this little show we have going. And I’m enjoying this “new(ish)” method of film criticism. Don’t think it means the end of my writing (come back next week for some news there). But it’s definitely becoming a medium I’m excited to delve into more, and I have another podcast project in the works for later this year I can’t wait to talk about.
Chrisicms
The Pop Culture I’m Loving this Week
The Morning Show (Apple TV+): This might be the opposite of how a binge is supposed to work. I watched The Morning Show’s pilot in November 2019 in a hospital room while my daughter was recovering from an illness. I waited until this fall to watch episode 2. And I didn’t get around to episode 3 until this week. Maybe not the best praise for such a high-profile show. But this week, I’ve blown through the mid-section of this show and now have only three episodes left (which I hope to finish in quicker fashion). I can’t really say The Morning Show is good. It’s quite sloppy, without a sense of where its narrative is heading through the first half of the season. But I think the problem is less with what the show is than with what Apple sold it as. They presented it as their prestigious entry into the streaming wars, positioning it as a Peak TV show. In reality, it’s a fun, trashy soap about backstabbing famous people that occasionally tries to make Grand Statements about sexism and the media. I’ve heard it called ‘Diet Sorkin,’ which is apt, but I think the show quickly realizes it’s not a serious affair at all. The more it leans into its tawdrier side, the more watchable it gets. It’s beautifully filmed, and the performances are standouts all around. I like Steve Carell in a darker role than he usually plays, and I think Reese Witherspoon is reliable. But Jennifer Aniston, as a brittle TV anchor perpetually on the verge of collapse, gives potentially the best performance of her career. The show never hits that West Wing level of goodness it pretends to be aiming for, but it lands in solid mid-late seasons of ER level, which is still plenty entertaining.
How to Fight Racism: Courageous Christianity and the Journey Toward Racial Justice by Jemar Tisby: I read Tisby’s previous book The Color of Compromise last year, and it was one of my favorite reads of the year. A meticulously researched look at how the evangelical church supported and enabled racism in the United States, it was timely and convicting. Tisby’s follow up is a bit more practical and prescriptive by nature, but no less important or needed. It’s an unpacking of the long work that needs to be done to confront and dismantle racism, both personal and systemic, using the ARC model (awareness, relationship, commitment). It’s a reminder of how much has to be done and a convicting reminder that if you’re not fighting racism, you’re contributing to its spread.
Art + Faith: A Theology of Making by Makota Fujimura: A short book, clocking it at just under 200 pages and yet packing so much insight that I will be thinking about this book throughout the year and returning to it throughout my life. Fujimura, a painter and writer, builds off his also-excellent Culture Care to talk about how art can reorient our faith and why it’s so necessary to living a rich life. He delves into the extravagance of art and what that says about God, and his passage on how the Japanese art of Kintsugi can be a beautiful picture of the truth of redemption is one of the most beautiful explorations of the Gospel I’ve read. But I’m most struck by, and thankful for, the way Mako writes about the importance of art in an age when most of our doctrine and theology is so utilitarian. “God the artist communicates to us first, before God the lecturer,” he writes, and it’s a truth I’ve been mulling over since reading it.
That is it for this week! We’ll be back next week!