EPISODE 352: WE DO WHAT WE WANT

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24 Responses

  1. Very fun episode!

    On the pronunciation of the BPs: I think the right way to pronounce it would be David’s, but I prefer Tyler’s. I think it just sounds cuter.

  2. DJ says:

    Tyler and David,

    I’m sorry to be a pain in the neck, but I find myself irked at the fundamentals of your movie-watching mentality. Do you find it necessary to declare a movie as ‘bad’ or ‘good’? I’ve gone out of my way for the passed few years to not do that, but I don’t have a film degree, or a film-related website, or a profession related to movies. Do you feel it’s your responsibility to rate movies? Why not just say that you either enjoyed a movie, or didn’t? In general, I think your tendency to view movies from objective standpoints may really be getting in the way of your enjoyment of them, and I think a lot of time on your show is wasted on said objectifications. However, if you find it’s your responsibility to do these things, then I can accept that as a rational reason to make people feel stupid for enjoying a movie you’ve declared bad.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      I feel like it’s actually pretty rare for us to actually declare something good or bad, especially in our written reviews. Of course, I’m biased, but I feel as though we usually try to emphasize why something does or doesn’t work for us when discussing a movie, and we may sometimes play up the bravado when talking about a movie we don’t like, but I feel like we try to give every movie a pretty fair shake. When pressed for time, I will sometimes say something is great or bad, but I would always much rather go into detail as to what I did and didn’t respond to.
      If I had to guess from your comment, I would assume that we spoke negatively about a movie that you really seemed to like. My hope is that we’ve done a good enough job over the years establishing that even when we vehemently disagree with somebody else’s taste, we don’t think that person to be dumber than we are. If we gave that impression, I’m sorry.

      -Tyler

      • Seth H. says:

        I get what DJ is saying. I honestly think David tends to speak more definitively about his perception of a film’s objectively quality than you do, Tyler. Which is somewhat addressed in this episode (his tendency to be less forgiving and all that). Admittedly it can be frustrating when one finds oneself on the other side of the fence.

        A good example is Prisoners, which is in my top five of the year but was declared by David to be, despite some good qualities, an overall bad film. Yet it prompted such a strong reaction in me, one that hasn’t faded in the months since I saw it, and I can’t dismiss that even though I mostly get what David didn’t like about it.

        I’m not saying either of you should change the way you think or talk about movies. That’s the whole basis of the show, after all. But yeah, occasionally it’s just going to rub some of your listeners the wrong way, even loyal and (mostly) adoring ones like me. You know that, though; this ain’t your first rodeo.

        • Scott Nye says:

          You’re also welcome to, as I do constantly, just disagree with their assessment. Nearly every movie I love is disparaged in every possible manner by somebody. People call me an idiot all the time for my tastes, both directly and indirectly. I don’t agree. That’s life.

          • Battleship Pretension says:

            That’s a stupid opinion, Scott. You’re stupid.

            -Tyler

          • Scott Nye says:

            Haha, incidentally, I decided not to note that you’re maybe my most frequent assailant, but now that you’ve outed yourself, my work here is done.

          • Seth H. says:

            Oh, I do disagree quite often, and vehemently on occasion. However, I tend to be rather insecure about my own opinions, party because my response to art is at least 90% instinct. I’m not particularly analytical. Things sort of just hit me this way or that, and I have a difficult time parsing out exactly why. Therefore when it comes to discussing the positives or negatives of a film or book or whatever, I can’t often speak in great detail. This is not how the BP crew operates, and I’m glad of that because it would make for a boring show. But for me, entering into a debate when my terms and theirs are so woefully different would just render itself pointless.

            I suppose I could just say, “I disagree.” But if I’ve learned anything from listening to BP (apart from the fact that Tyler and I are alike in some rather spooky ways) it’s that an unjustified opinion doesn’t carry a lot of weight at the critics’ table.

            Anyway, changing the subject…Top 10 of 2013 (subject to change, of course):

            1. Upstream Color
            2. Gravity
            3. To the Wonder
            4. A Band Called Death
            5. Prisoners
            6. The Place Beyond the Pines
            7. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire
            8. Muscle Shoals
            9. American Hustle
            10. Stoker

          • Scott Nye says:

            Seth – I can’t speak for Tyler and David, but I know for myself, I really don’t expect anyone, unless they put themselves out there as a critic or scholar or whatever, to be able to justify their opinion on a movie. I appreciate it, but only because I like a good conversation. But it’s not like I’m going home for the holidays and berating my grandmother about how she could POSSIBLY enjoy The King’s Speech (although really Grandma); if she likes it, good for her.

            Great top 10 by the way. I think UPSTREAM and TO THE WONDER are very closely tied, about equally astounding.

    • Battleship Pretension says:

      We’ve declared ourselves to be critics and, therefore, have given ourselves the responsibility of “rating” movies in whatever way seems most appropriate to us. The other side of that responsibility is that we open ourselves up to detractors. I’m sorry if I’ve ever made you feel stupid for liking a movie but my advise in such cases would be to examine your feelings on that movie and compare them to mine. If you think I’ve made good points then perhaps I’ve changed your mind. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you think you have better insight, it would be a more productive use of time to come into the comments section and try to change my mind. I promise I’m open to that. I’m no more certain to be right than you are.

      It’s art. We all get to have our own opinions about it and discussing those opinions is part of the fun.

      – David

  3. Hudsucker says:

    David is 100% right about the pronunciation of the BPs. I didn’t see many movies from this year (maybe 10 at most, I’ve had an extremely busy year) but here’s my top 3:

    1. All is Lost
    2. The Way Way Back
    3. Gravity

  4. Jake says:

    David, I’m with you on the Beepies pronunciation. And thank you for taking the film GATSBY’s frame story to task. It’s clunky and stops the film flat. My major problem with Luhrmann’s film (which I’d call an interesting failure) was his insistence that Daisy and Gatsby’s relationship was somehow tragic. In the novel, the relationship is pretty clearly cancerous. Also, I think it sort of botches the ending with regard to Gatsby’s back-story, but I digress. My chief problem is that the film is exactly the movie Gatsby the character would want made about himself and I think that kind of misses the point of the novel.

  5. Refreshing Drink Liker says:

    I actually quite prefer the podcasts that start with David cracking open a cold one.

    As to the logo, it always reminded me of the battleship potemkin, from a very low angle, so i think it works:
    http://www.modelshipgallery.com/gallery/bb/ru/potemkin-400-rw/potemkin-01.jpg

  6. andyluvsfilms says:

    I’m kinda glad that not everyone shares the same enthusiasm for those films that we think are special, my top three for the year is The Hunt, The Crash Reel and The Great Beauty, i don’t think i’d feel the same way about them if they were universally liked.

    ps The Pretensies 😉

  7. Literal-minded Jordi says:

    I’m dying to hear David’s take on “Black Mirror”! I guess you’ll talk about the first season, which IMO is way better than the second.

    Salut!

  8. Joel Buck says:

    I had so many post-listening comments and they’ve all fled my mind upon seeing that perfect heading picture.

    Making a top ten list this year is my sophie’s choice(s)—I haven’t tallied up all the movies I’m sure will be in my list because there’s probably 17 and that’s stressful. I’m loving all the love for Upstream Color, though.

    Tyler’s pronunciation is obviously the correct one, by virtue of no other fact than David’s long history of willful mispronunciation.

    David’s take on Gatsby is spot on in regards to its problems, and the problems with some people’s problems with it.

    This is the third in a string of pretty outstanding episodes—keep it up guys!

  9. andyluvsfilms says:

    I’m giving you guys the world premiere, this is it, probably

    1) The Hunt
    2) The Crash Reel
    3) The Great Beauty
    4) The Wall
    5) Upstream Color
    6) You Will Be My Son
    7) Stories We Tell
    8) Laurence Anyways
    9) Paradise:Faith
    10) A Hijacking

    There’s a few marquee films i havent seen but i don’t think that it would make much difference as most of mine are pretty small independents and there’s a few Oscar nominated docs that aren’t out over here yet, namely First Cousin Once Removed which David mentioned four or five months ago. Speaking of which i have this site to thank for the sublime The Wall and the quite brilliant Paradise:Faith, good work.

    Oh and my Top 3 worst of the year
    1) Kick Ass 2
    2) Trance
    3) Thor 2

  10. Boothe says:

    I’m with David on the pronunciation thing.

    Also, I laughed loudly at the tally-man joke and Tyler’s response to it.

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