barbie – A Damn Fine Cup of Culture

A Damn Fine Espresso: March 2024

Mar 9, 2024Mar 10, 2024The Barista Collective1 Comment

It’s the weekend before the Big Mama, the White Whale, the movie awards to end all movie awards: the Oscars. Who will win the Academy Awards 2024? Will Christopher Nolan And Cillian Murphy explode with the metaphorical force of a thousand suns? Will Barbie get what it can, in spite of the snubs for its director and star? What about Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, The Holdovers – or the European dark horses Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest? Join Sam and Matt as they discuss their own Oscar thoughts: who was snubbed? Who was nominated but shouldn’t have been? And which films should win which awards?

For more discussion of some of the 2024 Oscar favourites and underdogs, make sure to check out these posts:

A Damn Fine Espresso: August 2023 (in which Alan and Matt talk Barbenheimer)
A Damn Fine Espresso: November 2023 (in which Sam and Matt discuss Killers of the Flower Moon)
Girl, you’ll be a woman soon: Poor Things (Matt’s post on Yorgos Lanthimos’ latest film)

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Nun of the above

Aug 27, 2023The 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.

Earlier this week, Matt indulged in his enjoyment of badass nuns, writing about the goofy, strange, inventive Mrs. Davis.

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Six Damn Fine Degrees #144: Barbie

Aug 25, 2023Aug 3, 2025Mege3 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!

I was wrong about Barbie. I should have been right. First off, it was Great Gerwig directing it, also writing the screenplay together with Noah Baumbach, which should have been the first sign that things would not be all pink plastic and brainless banter. And I don’t think Margot Robbie has the heart to say yes to any even mediocre project. I am still not entirely sold on Ryan Gosling, but Robbie is so very good in I, Tonya that she cannot do much wrong anymore in my book.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Biting, isn’t it?

Aug 20, 2023Aug 20, 2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

From Adams to Addams: Sam took this week’s Six Damn Fine Degrees to dark, dark places – namely boarding school.

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A Damn Fine Espresso: August 2023

Aug 19, 2023Aug 15, 2023The Barista Collective5 Comments

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?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: What a tangled web we weave

Apr 9, 2023Apr 9, 2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

The recent news that apparently a remake of Alfred Hitchcock’s Vertigo was in the works sent ripples of outrage through some corners of the internet – but it seems that our resident Hitchcock-phile Sam is remarkably open-minded about the possibility of someone else taking a stab at the classic.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: I’m sorry, Dave, I’m afraid I can’t do that

Dec 18, 2022MattLeave a comment

Other than David Lynch himself, the person who perhaps left most of a fingerprint on Lynch’s work is the composer Angelo Badalamenti, who died a week ago. Matt shared his thoughts and memories of Badalamenti’s work, in particular on the various incarnations of Twin Peaks (which we’ve written and podcasted about, the latter more than once).