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Don’t Push Pause is a monthly podcast bringing you discussions on movies from the 70s, 80s and 90s. DPP consists of a main discussion on a featured film, followed up by our Picks of the Week, and closing with our signature (Bill) Murray Moment.
Episodes
Monday Aug 12, 2019
Monday Aug 12, 2019
DELIVERANCE (1972) is a straightforward story about survival. Whether it’s human vs. human or vs. nature, primal instincts are tested in this gripping John Boorman film. Just shy of fifty years since its release, DELIVERANCE continues to leaves audiences looming with foreboding sense of realism, atop the beautiful landscape of the Chattanooga River.🛶
▶️ Synopsis: Four friends go on a remote canoe adventure down a dangerous, soon-to-be-destroyed river. After being confronted by life-threatening locals and a murder in self-defense, the story becomes about emotional and physical self-preservation.
⏩⏩ Discussions include: Thematic elements, metaphors and significance of DELIVERANCE, Boorman’s unique direction style, the absence of special effects and stunt-related dangers encountered during filming. A breakdown of the memorable main characters/actors who played them, as well as James Dickey’s involvement in this film adaptation of his novel. The notorious rape scene will be hashed out, along with the overshadowing, double-standard effect it had on the film. **Starring Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, Ronny Cox. Directed by John Boorman.**🛶
▶️ **PICKS OF THE WEEK**
🎥Justin’s Pick — ZARDOZ (1974): This post-apocalyptic, science-fiction film is packed with classist social commentary, serving as a play on The Wizard of Oz. With a wildly incredible production quality, this story goes deep into an otherworldly fantasyland. **Starring Sean Connery, Charlotte Rampling, Sara Kestelman, John Alderton. Directed by John Boorman.**
🎥Lindsay’s Pick — BEST LITTLE WHOREHOUSE IN TEXAS (1982): Based on a true story, this musical comedy focuses on a beloved, small-town brothel faced with being shut down by a puritanical TV journalist. **Starring Dolly Parton, Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, Charles Durning, Jim Nabors. Directed by Colin Higgins.**🛶
▶️ MURRAYMOMENT: Billy makes a pop-in at Eric’s Canoe and Kayak Rental in Saint Croix Falls, WI., and Lindsay got a first-person recounting of the experience.🛶
▶️ FINAL THOUGHTS: A hidden secret about the infamous “Dueling Banjos” scene and John Boorman’s use of disembodied hands in his films.🛶
▶️ NEXT UP: COMING TO AMERICA (1988)!
Monday Jul 29, 2019
Monday Jul 29, 2019
MAGNOLIA (1999) is an opus character study film which exposes strange coincidences of life. While we may be through with the past, the past ain’t through with us.
▶️Synopsis: An intricately woven, relatable story of interconnected families stemming from a long-spanning quiz show. Within an intense 24 hours, multiple people experience life-altering situations, all of which move toward a cathartically-needed final release.
⏩⏩Discussions include: Breaking down MAGNOLIA’s very-involved, fast-paced plot points with a character-by-actor tree, as well as the film’s themes of coincidence, failure, loneliness, death, regret, trauma and dysfunctional family patterns. The film’s aesthetic, style and behind the scenes moments which shape this emotionally-charged story are discussed, as will the two most divisive scenes — the frogs and the cast singalong. Loose ends are also tied up by explaining a character and story which were both omitted from the theatrical release. This episode seeks to open up dialogue about MAGNOLIA’s subject matter and leave the film open to individual interpretation. **Starring Julianne Moore, Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jason Robards, Philip Baker Hall, William H. Macy, John C. Reilly, Melora Walters, Melinda Dillon, Jeremy Blackman, April Grace. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.**
▶️**PICKS OF THE WEEK**
Lindsay’s Pick — CHICAGO CAB (1997): Taking place in one day, this is the episodic story of a Chicago cabbie experiencing a range of people, emotions and eye-opening situations. **Starring Paul Dillon, featuring John C. Reilly, Julianne Moore, April Grace, Gillian Anderson, John Cusack, Harry Lennix. Directed by Mary Cybulski, John Tintori.**
Justin’s Pick — HARD EIGHT (1996): A down-on-his-luck, inexperienced gambler is helped out by seemingly very interested and kind, yet mysterious stranger. **Starring Philip Baker Hall, John C. Reilly, Gwyneth Paltrow, Samuel L. Jackson. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson.**
▶️MURRAYMOMENT: Billy’s no stranger to many themes contained in Paul Thomas Anderson films. Here, we’ll dive deep into the various levels of loneliness found within the characters of Billy Murray.
▶️FINAL THOUGHTS: A little more on Aimee Mann’s involvement in MAGNOLIA. And remember, strange and unexpected things happen all the time — including the ending of this episode.
▶️NEXT UP: DELIVERANCE (1972)!!
Monday Jul 15, 2019
Monday Jul 15, 2019
🧪RE-ANIMATOR (1985) became a cult classic as a result of creative special effects geniuses and intellectual horror hounds. This truly wild H.P. Lovecraft adaptation went on to further expand the horror horizon of the mid-1980s’.🧪
▶️ Herbert West is an extremely promising medical student who has unlocked the secret to bringing the dead back to life. However, such a thing requires experimentation, and also causes a creepy, dominating professor to want to claim West’s research as his own.
⏩⏩ Discussions include: An appreciation for RE-ANIMATOR as a whole, how this low-budget, well-researched, cross-genre film fits into horror cinema, the controversy behind the film’s musical score, how realism, absurdism, science-fiction, zombification, and the grotesque all work together as one, clinical bloodiness vs. exploitative gore, the overall evolution of the story and characters, and also how the film differs from the 1922 Lovecraft story, Herbert West — Reanimator. **Starring Jeffrey Combs, Bruce Abbott, Barbara Crampton, David Gale. Directed by Stuart Gordon.**
▶️ **PICKS OF THE WEEK**
🎥Lindsay’s Pick — HONEY, I SHRUNK THE KIDS (1989): When a scientist father’s experimental shrinking ray accidentally works, his children and two neighbors are shrunken down to size of insects and faced with traversing the dangers of the backyard. An action adventure flick for any age. **Starring Rick Moranis, Marcia Strassman, Matt Frewer, Kristine Sutherland, Amy O’Neill. Directed by Joe Johnston.**
🎥Justin’s Pick — THE STUFF (1985): This film takes a bite out of American consumerism when all of the country is obsessed with a suspiciously addictive, delicious dessert. And one investigator is on the case to figure out the sinister reason behind America’s communal craving. **Starring Michael Moriarty, Garrett Morris, Scott Bloom, Andrea Marcovicci, Paul Sorvino, Danny Aiello. Directed by Larry Cohen.**
▶️ MURRAYMOMENT: When the Marshmallow Man explodes in GHOSTBUSTERS (1984), its gooey goodness covers every outdoor surface and person, our ghostbustin’ heroes included. Except for one — Billy Murray. Find out why right here!
▶️ FINAL THOUGHTS: A few mentions of how Lovecraft’s 6-part serialized short story differs from the RE-ANIMATOR film. And Justin and Lindsay discuss Barbara Crampton’s awesomeness, as well as her most controversial scene in the film.
▶️ NEXT UP: MAGNOLIA (1999)!!