The Culture Gabfest: This Is a Movie About Hope Edition
Slate's podcast about Iron Man 3, Steven Soderbergh’s State of Cinema address, and Comedy Central’s new show Inside Amy Schumer.
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On this week’s episode, our critics discuss Iron Man 3: typical summer tent-pole action fare or serious meditation on PTSD and the war on terror? They then dissect Steven Soderbergh’s State of Cinema address, today’s movie-going psyche, and the complicated relationship between art and commerce. Finally, the Gabfesters enter the world of the versatile (and pretty blue) stand-up comic Amy Schumer by way of her new Comedy Central series, Inside Amy Schumer.
Here are links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- An Iron Man 3 review and Spoiler Special from Dana Stevens for Slate.
- Previous Shane Black movies including Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Last Action Hero, and the Lethal Weapon movies.
- Chris Heath’s April 2013 profile of Robert Downey Jr. in GQ.
- The transcript and video of Steven Soderbergh’s State of Cinema keynote from the San Francisco Film Festival.
- Richard Brody for The New Yorker online on Soderbergh’s address.
- Aisha Harris for Slate on Soderbergh’s upcoming HBO movie about Liberace and his 1989 movie Sex, Lies, and Videotape.
- Dan Kois’ Slate “Completist” column about Soderbergh’s movies.
- Tim Burton’s 1989 movie Batman and the 2011 Iranian drama A Separation.
- “Steven Soderbergh on Quitting Hollywood, Getting the Best Out of J-Lo, and His Love of Girls” in New York.
- Filmmaker Shane Carruth.
- Jason Zinoman on Amy Schumer for the New York Times.
- Stand-up comic Sarah Silverman.
Endorsements:
June: Graeme Wood ‘s “Subu Must Die: How a Nation of Junkies Went Cold Turkey,” in the New Republic: The story of how the nation of Georgia miraculously cleaned up its epidemic needle-drug addiction.
Dana: BBC Radio 4’s podcast Tweet of the Day. Each episode presents the song and story of a different bird.
Stephen: Shane Black’s 2005 movie Kiss Kiss Bang Bang; delightful from beginning to end, it will make you like Val Kilmer.
Sally: The podcast Professor Blastoff. Co-hosted by comedians Tig Notaro, Kyle Dunnigan, and David Huntsberger, Professor Blastoff is an hourlong discussion, ostensibly about topics like science, religion, and philosophy, but really a weekly chance to listen to funny people who are best friends shoot the breeze and joke around.
Outro: “I Love It” by Icona Pop featuring Charli XCX
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Julia Furlan. Our intern is Sally Tamarkin.
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