A defunct podcast about trading films with friends. Each month I chose a film for a friend to watch and they chose one for me. Then we discussed. There were two episodes a month, first my choice and then theirs. Subscribe via iTunes or Overcast.
My guest for this month is David Blakeslee, and he's joined me to discuss the film he chose for me, the 1994 romantic comedy-drama film Reality Bites. You can follow the show on Twitter @cinemagadfly.
Show notes:
- As I mentioned in the intro, this show is joining up with the fine folks at CriterionCast
- This film doesn't just feature Ben Stiller, he also directed it
- It was written by Helen Childress, who is supposedly working on a television version of the film
- Both David and I are nominally members of Generation X, although that can be argued for both of us as well
- This film also stars Ethan Hawke and Winona Ryder when they were painfully young
- The film bares some resemblance to my choice for the previous episode Chungking Express
- The film reminds me of the fiction of Mark Leyner
- And also of the essay E Unibus Pluram by David Foster Wallace
- It's hard for me to believe that the music of Peter Frampton changed anyones life
- It's also hard for me to believe that I ever drank a Big Gulp
- My grandparents were absolutely part of the Greatest Generation
- My mother was coincidentally in Paris for the May 1968 protests
- I still remember my mother waking me up to tell me Kurt Cobain had died
- David's phenomenal blog where he's watching the Criterion collection chronologically is at Criterion Reflections
- The film also stars the absolutely wonderful Janeane Garafalo
- Rob Lowe's character in Wayne's World) is my canonical example for a corporate jerk
- Watching Regis Philbin fail to pronounce the names of various Washington State cities was always a joy of mine
- The film features cameos by David Spade and Andy Dick
- Renée Zellweger also makes an appearance, but I don't think it was a cameo, she just wasn't well known yet
- The Mark Leyner book I was thinking of is called My Cousin, My Gastroenterologist
- Even Baby, I Love Your Way is unlikely to have changed lives
- Oh and Joe Don Baker is also in this film, really a pretty incredible cast
- If you enjoy this film you should check out Noah Baumbach's Kicking and Screaming or Whit Stillman's Metropolitan
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