Listen to Culture Gabfest No. 481 with Stephen Metcalf, Dana Stevens, and Julia Turner with the audio player below.
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On this week’s Slate Plus, Stephen, Dana, and Julia answer the question: “What’s in your bag?”
Go to Slate.com/cultureplus to learn more about Slate Plus and join today.
This week, Slate’s culture editor Forrest Wickman joins the critics to discuss The Disaster Artist, James Franco’s new film exploring the making of the cult classic The Room. They debate whether Franco’s movie, which is part buddy comedy and part behind-the-scenes featurette, can stand on its own as a piece of art. Then, Culture Gabfest producer Benjamin Frisch helps the gabbers unpack audiences’ fascination with The Room and instructs them in how to handle Tommy Wiseau’s many bizarre intellectual and artistic choices in the film. Finally, the critics turn their attention to social media sensation Fiona the hippo.
Links to some of the things we discussed this week:
- The Disaster Artist trailer
- Dana’s review of The Disaster Artist in Slate
- The Disaster Artist by Greg Sestero and Tom Bissell
- “What’s Fact and What’s Fiction in The Disaster Artist” by Marissa Martinelli
- The Room
- That Obscure Object of Desire
- Glen or Glenda
- The Flop House podcast
- “Hooray for Fiona the Hippo, Our Bundle of Social-Media Joy” by Rachel Syme in the New York Times
Endorsements
Dana: The Stabat Mater by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi performed by Elisabeth and Andreas Scholl, and the frozen chocolate croissants from Trader Joe’s
Julia: Exit West by Mohsin Hamid
Stephen: Jerry Fodor’s writing in the London Review of Books, including his essay on Aida.
Outro: “The Room – Battle With Chris R Theme”
You can email us at culturefest@slate.com.
This podcast was produced by Benjamin Frisch. Our intern is Daniel Schroeder.
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Update, Dec. 6, 2017: This page has been updated to include additional videos among the links discussed on this week’s episode.
