Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
From Adams to Addams: Sam took this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees to dark, dark places – namely boarding school.
What’s giddy, grim, and black and white and pink all over? You’ve guessed it: just when the discourse has died down, A Damn Fine Cup of Culture goes all Barbenheimer on y’all. Join Alan and Matt as they talk about their impression of the memetic phenomenon of 2023 and discuss Greta Gerwig’s ultra-meta toy ad Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s ultra-Nolany drama Oppenheimer. Just why did these two films capture audiences’ imaginations to the degree that they have? Does Oppenheimer escape the traps of conventional biopics? Does Barbie manage to find a good balance between comedy, drama and message movie? And what other films should be combined into similarly striking (or strikingly mismatched) double bills?
Continue readingJoin us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Matt may not have been won over by the film Disco Boy – but he did like its trailer a lot, which gives us the perfect starting point for this post.
Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
This week saw the first instalment in a new series – after his trip through Ingmar Bergman’s oeuvre, Matt has begun watching Criterion’s Federico Fellini box set, starting with Variety Lights. Sadly, there’s no trailer for the film on YouTube… but here’s the next best thing: the entire movie. Enjoy!
Our summer of collaborations continues with an iconic duo from Minnesota: the Coen Brothers are probably among the filmmakers of recent decades most associated with the (flawed) notion of the auteur – but at the same time, they’re among the directors who keep working with the same collaborators, whether they’re actors (Obviously Frances McDormand, but also Steve Buscemi, John Goodman, John Turturro, George Clooney, and several others), composers (Carter Burwell) or cinematographers (Roger Deakins). In this month’s podcast, we discuss three key films in the Coens’ filmography – Blood Simple (1984), Fargo (1996) and The Man Who Wasn’t There (2001) – which all star McDormand and feature soundtracks by Burwell, and we ask ourselves: to what extent are the Coens’ films defined by the brothers’ frequent collaborators? And how much are these collaborators shaped by their work on the Coen Brothers’ films?
Note: Since this podcast was recorded earlier in the summer, we talked about the supposed ‘break-up’ of Joel and Ethan Coen, both of whom have made solo films (The Tragedy of Macbeth and the upcoming Drive-Away Dolls) since their hiatus from one another after 2018’s The Ballad of Buster Scruggs – but they’ve since mentioned in interviews that they are working together on a new film.
For last year’s summer series of podcasts, check this link:
A Damn Fine Cup of Culture: Summer of Directors (2022)
Continue readingJoin us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Ridley Scott’s career has been uneven, and arguably he made most of his best films in the first decade or two of working as a director – but it still comes as a surprise that he’s only just made his first appearance in the Criterion Collection, with Thelma & Louise. Matt revisited the film and was not only bowled over by how good it looks in 4K, but also surprised by how well it holds up thirty years later. Though the original trailer definitely misrepresents this one to a large degree.
Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
This week began at A Damn Fine Cup with a guest post, courtesy of Henrik Hermans, on the filmography of the Man in Black himself: Johnny Cash. Make sure to check out Henke’s thoughts on films such as A Gunfight, Murder in Coweta County (featuring Andy “Griffith” Matlock in a rare villainous part) and the wonderfully named Ridin’ the Rails – The Great American Train Story!
Join us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
During World War II, Jean-Pierre Melville was a member of the Résistance, and his experiences left their mark on his films – not least his grim masterpiece Army of Shadows, which Matt revisited in his latest Criterion Corner.
As promised, one month after our espresso episode on the Indiana Jones series prior to the release of Dial of Destiny, we’re returning with another podcast that belongs in a museum! Join Sam, Alan and Matt as they talk about the fifth, and likely the final, film in the franchise. What did they think of Dial of Destiny? Is it another disappointment, a worthy continuation, or somewhere in between? What worked for them, what didn’t, what was surprising? And where do they stand on some of the film’s controversial elements: the nostalgia fodder, the de-aging, and that final act?
And if you enjoy our discussion of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, make sure to stay tuned for a future episode of our Summer of Collaborations, in which it’s likely that John Williams’ iconic “Raiders March” will be one topic of conversation!
Continue readingJoin us every week for a trip into the weird and wonderful world of trailers. Whether it’s the first teaser for the latest instalment in your favourite franchise, an obscure preview for a strange indie darling, whether it’s good, bad, ugly or just plain weird – your favourite pop culture baristas are there to tell you what they think.
Matt likes exploration in video games, and that’s something that Sable offers plenty of. Check out his post on the world and feel of Sable.
