EPISODE 343: WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

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25 Responses

  1. bill says:

    This doesn’t seem to have loaded correctly.

  2. Craig says:

    If “Werewolves are the reason for the season” becomes a BP shirt, I will, rest assured, be the very first one to get it.

  3. Seth H. says:

    I often find that the question “Where have you been all my life?” applies less to the film itself than to my reaction after seeing it. The most prominent illustration is my reaction to the work of Terrence Malick. I saw The Thin Red Line in college and damn near hated the thing. I wasn’t ready for that film. Years later I saw Badlands and thought it was pretty okay, but still I had a negative reaction every time I heard Terrence Malick’s name in a discussion among cinephiles. The idea of cinema-as-poetry made no sense to me.

    It wasn’t until the back half of my twenties that something clicked into place and I started thinking of film in a different way. The Tree of Life was the big one that did it for me, but then I went back and watched The Thin Red Line and Days of Heaven and loved them both. I’m still catching up to the cinephile community in a lot of ways, but Malick has become probably my favorite filmmaker in the last couple of years and his sensibility has greatly influenced the way I view cinema as a whole.

    So now I look at myself in the mirror and think, “Where have you been all my life? Why did you go to the theater to see Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back when you could have seen Apocalypse Now Redux instead?” Admittedly it’s not worth beating myself up, but it is frustrating to think that I threw away my formative years on films that have offered me nothing in the long run, all the while passing up viewing experiences that I can never get back.

    Sorry for the essay, but I figure I can’t be the only late-bloomer around these parts, and I wanted to get it out there. I should add that BP has really helped shape the movie-watching part of my life in the three years since I climbed aboard, so thank you for that. Your takeaway from this can be that you, Tyler and David, are as awesome as Terrence Malick.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      I had hope to be as esoteric as Terrence Malick but I’ll take awesome instead. Thanks!

      – David

    • Scott Nye says:

      Yeah, but JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK gave us “Affleck was the bomb in PHANTOMS,” so it’s not a total loss.

      • Seth H. says:

        I had seen Phantoms, so I already knew that.

        For my money the best part of that movie is when Will Ferrell tries to slide over the hood of his car like he’s a Duke of Hazzard.

        • Scott Nye says:

          I go all over the place on the best part of that movie. Thinking back over it after replying, I landed on Gus Van Sant just sitting there counting a pile of cash while “directing” GOOD WILL HUNTING 2: HUNTING SEASON, which I hadn’t thought about in YEARS, but is so great.

  4. Craig says:

    Seth, I have had an almost identical reaction with Michael Haneke’s FUNNY GAMES (1997). I saw the 2007 version first, and wasn’t mentally ready for it, and refused to see the 1997 version. I finally watched the 1997 one a year or two ago and now love both of them.

  5. Scott Nye says:

    Dude, I just started listening to Icona Pop like two weeks ago and I’m obsessed. I assume they’re a big deal because I never discover ANYTHING until it’s already been well-worn in pop culture, but if anybody out there isn’t listening…they are the best.

  6. Hudsucker says:

    My 2 are The Dish and Dinner Rush. Both are fantastic. Also, we all know you guys were talking about Jared Leto when you said “he wants it too much”

  7. andyluvsfilms says:

    The porno scene in American Werewolf In London was the first time i remember seeing a naked women. I was 25 at the time.

  8. pinkston says:

    The next time your guest bails on you, give me a call and I can be there in 6 hours or so.

  9. Ian Brill says:

    John Ridley wrote 12 Years a Slave, not Steve McQueen. McQueen directed it.

  10. Jake says:

    I just finished re-watching Scorsese’s THE AGE OF INNOCENCE for maybe the eight or ninth time, but I think that certainly fits this bill, everything that can go right with that kind of period piece.

    The film (and its great closing moments) also inspired a topic idea that you guys may have tackled before (my memory is fuzzy): Movies that stick the landing– Basically any film with a great ending that makes the rest of the film stronger for its inclusion (I’m thinking BEFORE SUNRISE, Carpenter’s THE THING, THE CONVERSATION) or cause you to rethink the rest of the film (NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, A SERIOUS MAN, ONCE UPON A TIME IN AMERICA). Twist endings need not apply.

  11. Blabbership Pretension says:

    Hey guy (can never remember which is which), LCD Soundsystem sold out MSG for their last ever gig. Would seriously doubt their ability to sell out that size of a venue for a regular tour date unless the tickets were really cheap. So yeah, don’t worry guy, you’ve still got some grasp of popular culture and whatnot.

    Also, just watched American Werewolf in London, was pretty good. Enjoyed how it resolved everything a lot.

  12. Took me a while to think of films that fit the criteria “Where Have You Been All My Life,” but I have two of them.

    An older film that I loved when I watched it in the late 1990s was Woody Allen’s THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO. I had just started watching Woody Allen films at the time, and that one stuck with me. Such a tragic, well-acted story. Another one is the Steve Martin film PENNIES FROM HEAVEN. Worth watching for Christopher Walken’s dance scene alone! I have seen the BBC miniseries that PENNIES FROM HEAVEN was based on and also like it, but the movie holds a special place in my heart since I saw it first.

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