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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra have a comparatively brisk tête-à-tête. Next week, they’ll be on about the Oscars. And Dune: Part Two.
February 22, 2024 on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Bob Marley: One Love,” “Madame Web,” and the 2024 Oscar-Nominated Short Films: Animated and Live Action
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Dave Levora told Mike Schulz how he regrets not being present when MS saw Madame Webb: “I love it when you just tee off on a film,” he said. Levora’s not the only one — Darren Pitra presumably shares it. And good kids who eat their cereal get a healthy dose of irony with each spoonful!
The films in questions:
Todd McGreevy & AD in the Morning on WQUD Discuss the February Edition of River Cities’ Reader
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River Cities’ Reader publisher Todd McGreevy talks with WQUD GM Aaron Dail re recent highlights, both online and within Issue N° 1018. The first one-and-a-half minutes that you don’t get to hear concerns Dail’s admiration of Bruce Walters’s Buried Stories profile on Helen Van Dale for the latest issue:
February 15, 2024 on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Lisa Frankenstein,” “Out of Darkness,” and “The Teachers’ Lounge”
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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra can’t get enough other, and their time away was pure agony. For the next fifteen minutes and change, that pain is forestalled. Incidentally, The Last Picture House is showing Oscar-nominated short films, both live-action and animated. Ohhhhhhh, boy.
Concerning the films:
February 8, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “The Zone of Interest,” “Argylle,” “Scrambled,” and “The Greatest Night in Pop”
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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra get into the documentary The Greatest Night in Pop, streaming on Netflix, which looks back forty years to the recording of “We are the World” and everything behind the scenes to which Eighties audiences were not privy — such as Paul Simon scoping the room full of stars and dead-panning a line to the camera that one will not repeat, as it’s so murderously funny. Yes, Dave, it was a mistake to get rid of your Netflix account.
On to other matters:
February 1, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Origin,” “Nimona,” “American Symphony,” and “Flamin’ Hot”
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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra celebrate Schulz getting his car back, which cramped his style for at least a week in the preceding month. Schulz said he had been wondering why there weren’t too many movies for him to review in January, and then it hit him: The writer’s strike is still being felt by us all.
Anyway, to the movies! Continue reading February 1, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Origin,” “Nimona,” “American Symphony,” and “Flamin’ Hot”
January 25, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “ISS” and “All of Us Strangers”
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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra yearn for the return of the sun before Levora commends Schulz on the number of Oscar picks he got right. Schulz demurs, saying he beat last year’s record by one, and that averages out to about an eighty-percentile grade. They then discuss the particulars of the Oscar nominations, which you can hear at the following podcast.
Concerning the films that he managed to see this past week:
January 18, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Mean Girls,” “American Fiction,” “The Book of Clarence,” “The Beekeeper,” “Night Swim,” “Society of the Snow,” “Good Grief,” “Foe,” and “Still: A Michael J Fox Movie”
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Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra would have met up last week, 01/11, but for road conditions, which prevented Schulz from making it to the studio for his klatch with the Deez. No such distractions this week! Of course, this means lightning-round recaps of everything Schulz has seen this week and last.
Let’s get to it, why don’t we?
January 4, 2024, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Maestro,” “Migration,” “Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom,” “Anyone but You,” “The Iron Claw,” “Poor Things”, “The Color Purple,” “Ferrari,” and “Leave the World Behind”
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Since Mike Schulz, Dave Levora, and Darren Pitra last spoke, Schulz has seen a bunch of stuff. The sheer volume of viewed material, therefore, necessitates a lightning-round approach to their discussion. But not before Levora recommends to Schulz Netflix’s Blue Eye Samurai, which does sound compelling, and Schulz touches upon his Best of/Worst of list for 2023.
Moving on:
December 21, 2023, on Planet 93.9 with Dave and Darren — “Wonka,” “The Boys in the Boat,” and “Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget”
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Dave Levora tells Mike Schulz and Darren Pitra that Godzilla Minus One is his N° 1 film-pick; and the only place a person could get the full effect of the film, per Schulz, is The Last Picture House. Schulz likened the film’s ending to It’s a Wonderful Life — he couldn’t stop crying by the end— whereas Levora was able to hold it together, but still felt great for the experience. He also pointed out to Schulz that Godzilla Minus One cost approx $15 million to make, and so far, it’s made $70.7 million. That’s the acme of success, isn’t it? So what does that tell us about the films of 2023 that were made for three times as much and drew back a quarter of their budget? Other than filmmaking demands a strong story for all that technique and all those FX to have any impact?
With that in mind, Schulz discusses Wonka, directed by Paul King and starring Timothée Chalamet, Calah Lane, Keegan-Michael Key, Paterson Joseph, Matt Lucas, Mathew Baynton, Sally Hawkins, Rowan Atkinson, Jim Carter, Tom Davis, Olivia Colman, and Hugh Grant.