You've Got a Friend in These: "Toy Story 5," reviewed.
Chris Klimek
It’s the best fifth chapter of a film franchise since Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation! My Washington City Paper review is here.
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A.I., Boomer: "Here," reviewed."
Chris Klimek
Robin Wright and Tom Hanks get decades shaved off by an A.I. tool called Metaphysic Live in Here. (Sony)
On Here, the reunion of Forrest Gump principals, for the Paper of Record.
Lots here about Bob Zemeckis’s obsession with still-janky digital de-aging tech. Spike Lee’s 2020 war-vet drama Da Five Bloods achieved more stirring results by making no attempt to hide its 60-something-year-old cast members’ ages in the flashback scenes set during their combat tours in Vietnam half a century prior.
I’m rooting for Zemeckis. Flight is great. I liked Allied, his 2016 WWII espionage thriller that no one saw, too.
"Masters of the Air," recapped.
Chris Klimek
Callum Turner, Austin Butler, and a B-17. (Apple TV+)
With seven years as an editor for Air & Space / Smithsonian, may it rest in power, under my belt, I was the only man for the job of telling you which real American historical figures are played by real English and Irish actors. My Vulture recaps of Masters of the Air, showrunner John Orloff’s long-delayed Apple TV+ adaptation of Donald L. Miller’s nonfiction history book, are here.
A DEGREE ABSOLUTE! episode ten — Checkmate
Chris Klimek
We are all of us pawns, my dear, in this quintessential Prisoner episode that some observers believe should've aired third in the run but didn't surface until much later. Wherever it belongs, what is undisputed is that it combines an underdeveloped chess metaphor with another conspiracy to escape The Village and an important life lesson for Number Six about how one should treat one's fellows. You might say the real jailbreak was the friends he utterly failed to make along the way.
But on the plus side, Peter Wyngarde is this episode's Number Two, and his scarf is longer than that worn by any prior runner-up. This is a post-The Avengers, pre-Department S, pre-Jason King Wyngarde performance, and certainly worthy of further study. Which is why Glen briefs (debriefs?) us on his arrest record.
Also starring Ronald Radd as Brian Cox, Rosalie Crutchley as Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Patricia Jessel as Bea Arthur, and Basil Dignam as Luke Wilson.
Written by Gerald Kelsey
Directed by Don Chaffey
Initial airdate: November 24, 1967
PLUS: A mildly embarrassing correction! A deeply embarrassing confession! Listener mail! A discussion of Wyngarde's brief career as a recording artist, and a possibly triggering play-through of his 1970 single "Hippie & the Skinhead." Plus an unexpected detour into one of the darker corners the career of Mr. Tom Hanks, America's Reasonable Dad!
Leave us a five-star review with your hottest Prisoner take on Apple Podcasts!
Write or send a voicemail to the Citizens Advice Bureau at adegreeabsolute dot gmail!
Follow @NotaNumberPod!
Our song: "A Degree Absolute!"
Music and Lyrics by Chris Klimek
Arranged by Casey Erin Clark and Jonathan Clark
Vocals and Keyboards by Casey Erin Clark
Guitar, Percussion, Mixing by Jonathan Clark
Bass by Marcus Newstead
Pop Culture Happy Hour: "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" and What's Making Us Happy
Chris Klimek
Tom Hanks, America’s Reasonable Dad, pulls double duty as Mr. Rogers & Daniel Striped Tiger. (Lacey Terrell)
I sure hope my friends Linda Holmes, Stephen Thompson, Glen Weldon, Jess Reedy, and Emmanuel Johnson aren’t suffering today from the head cold that audibly ailed me on Monday during the recording of today’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. Our subject is A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, the Tom Hanks-IS-Fred Rogers movie directed by Marielle (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) Heller loosely fashioned after Tom Junod’s 1998 profile of Rogers for Esquire magazine. As I say in the show, this movie’s depiction of the life of a magazine journalist reflects the circa 1998 expectations on which I based career choices that I have, over the last 20 years, had more than one occasion to lament.
Thanks to all of them for allowing me once again to plug my yulemix. You can hear the show right here or via whatever podfeeder brings you your NPR.
Homeless, by Which I Mean Unpaid-for, Thoughts on Bridge of Spies
Chris Klimek
“Radical Decency” might be a fancy new name for the old-timey philosophy governing Bridge of Spies, Steven Spielberg’s earnest, burnished, thoroughly gripping account of a notable episode of Cold War diplomacy. Compressing events that unfolded between 1957 and 1962, the film is primarily about the relationship between Manhattan insurance lawyer James B. Donovan and Rudolf Abel, née Col. Vilyam Genrikhovich Fisher, the Soviet spy he was court-appointed to represent.
Though reluctant to accept Abel’s case, Donovan defends his client with more zeal than anybody, including the judge, wants, on the grounds that it’s the only way to show the world that innocent-until-proven-guilty American justice is superior to its totalitarian Soviet counterpart. Though unable to persuade a jury of Abel’s innocence, Donovan persuades the judge to spare his life—leaving the U.S. with a bargaining chip when C.I.A. pilot Francis Gary Powers’ top-secret U-2 spyplane is shot down over Soviet territory and Powers is captured three years later. Appreciating that Donovan foresaw the need for a captive to trade, the C.I.A. dispatches him to freshly walled-off East Berlin to try to negotiate Powers’ release in exchange for Abel.
Read MoreCaptain Phillips And The Terrible Excitement Of Real Action
Chris Klimek
Captain Phillips, the seemingly little-embellished new thriller based on a 2009 hijacking at sea, got me thinking about what sort of responsibilities filmmakers have -- and we as audiences have -- when approaching a compressed a dramatized account of true events. You can read that piece over at Monkey See today.
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