TV and Streaming – Page 18 – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Adventure has an old name

21/01/2024The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

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.

Remember that time when two films about volcanos came out practically at the same time? No, not those two films – we’re talking about the two documentaries made about the volcanologist couple Katia and Maurice Krafft that came out in 2022, Sara Dosa’s Fire of Love and Werner Herzog’s The Fire Within.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: The Quick and the Undead

14/01/2024Matt1 Comment

Sam wouldn’t be Sam without his deep, abiding love for all things James Bond – so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that his first Six Damn Fine Degrees entry of 2024 would focus on the special agent with a license to kill, and Roald Dahl’s connection to Bond.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Out with the old, in with the new

07/01/2024The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Remember just a week ago when we were still in 2023? In the last couple of weeks we’ve skipped the trailer posts, but now we’re catching up on some of the films we wrote about, such as Miyazaki’s likely swan song The Boy and the Heron, Paul King’s non-Paddington confection Wonka and some of the movies Matt liked best last year.

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That was the year that was: 2023 (2)

31/12/202330/12/2023MattLeave a comment

Having written about the films I liked best in 2023 (and there were others I admired, though perhaps more ambivalently, such as Hayao Miyazaki’s possible swan song The Boy and the Heron), what other cups of culture kept me awake and well caffeinated this year?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: The Beginning is the End is the Beginning

17/12/2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Sadly, there are no trailers for animated shorts – so instead, here is the opening and closing of the Looney Tunes film “Hollywood Steps Out”, which Alan wrote about for this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #160: Hollywood Steps Out

15/12/202325/06/2026Alan Kuhl Graham5 Comments

Welcome to Six Damn Fine Degrees. These instalments will be inspired by the idea of six degrees of separation in the loosest sense. The only rule: it connects – in some way – to the previous instalment. So come join us on our weekly foray into interconnectedness

When I was a kid the cartoons of Hollywood’s Golden Age were rarely off the television. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies were staples on the schedule, convenient filler for when the channel had five minutes they had to fill up between bigger shows.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Thieves like us

10/12/2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Can a week go wrong if it starts with a slice of Fellini? Probably not – though Matt wasn’t entirely taken with Il Bidone, which is probably a better film than Fellini’s pre-I Vitelloni films, but it also lacks a certain… Fellini touch, perhaps?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Tell me about the rabbit

03/12/2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

Is it possible that it’s really taken more than 15 years for us to finally write something about Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Well, Julie definitely made up for this in this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees instalment.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: No horse would say ‘neigh’ to these!

26/11/2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

This week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees took us deep into the heart of Hollywood cringe, with Mege’s post on BoJack Horseman.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Underwater, on the road

19/11/2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

While the chronological approach that Criterion took in their Essential Fellini box set meant that the start was less than smooth, Matt’s definitely finding that the films improve a lot over time – and after I Vitelloni, La Strada is a worthy addition to any film collection, not least because of Giulietta Masina’s wonderful performance as Gelsomina.