killers of the flower moon – 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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That was the year that was: 2023 (1)

Dec 30, 2023Dec 30, 2023Matt1 Comment

And once again, the year just keels over and ends. At least that’s how it feels: ever since history decided that we can’t complete a single orbit around the sun without some major upheaval or crisis, it’s continued in that vein. Or has it always been that way, and I’ve just been too Euro- or phallo- or whatevercentric to notice that that’s just what history is: one kind of crisis after another?

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A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast Christmas Special 2023

Dec 24, 2023Dec 24, 2023The Barista Collective1 Comment

As the sheer Ho-ho-honess of the season descends on us, here’s a little something for under your tree: our 2023 Christmas Special. This year we’re taking the opportunity to put a Damn Fine fingerprint on the media meme of the year: Barbenheimer. Join us – Julie, Sam, Alan and Matt, but also Damn Fine O.G. Mege and favourite frequent guest Dan Thron of Martini Giant (who took some time this autumn to talk all things Exorcist with us) – as we come up with double bills and mash-ups of wildly divergent and strangely complementary movies, taking our listeners from Paddiface and The Wizard of Chess via a very special Boris Karloff two-header and Wonkas of the Flower Moon to The Sound of Eagles and Under the Hours. (FYI, most of these are working titles that we’ll have to workshop before the final product is pushed out the door, or so Marketing tells us.) So, in the spirit of plastic dolls come to life and Cillian Murphy’s piercing eyes, of learning to start worrying and hate the bomb and of being Just Ken, we at A Damn Fine Cup of Culture wish all of our listeners happy holidays filled with good films, series, books, games and music!

P.S.: For more on Baby Face and Killers of the Flower Moon, make sure to check out these episodes:

A Damn Fine Cup of Culture Podcast #42: The Complicated Women of Pre-Code Cinema
A Damn Fine Espresso: November 2023 (in which Matt and Sam talk about Killers of the Flower Moon)

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

Nov 19, 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.

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.

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A Damn Fine Espresso: November 2023

Nov 18, 2023Nov 19, 2023The Barista Collective5 Comments

It’s the film that everyone’s had an opinion on, not least the devout Marvel fans and people who want an opportunity to go to the restroom during films of epic length: Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon. Join Sam and Matt for their discussion of Scorsese’s latest. How did the film land for a fan of the iconic American director, and what are the reactions of someone who isn’t so much into Scorsese’s world of toxic masculinity and backroom dealings? Where do they stand on the question of whether Killers of the Flower Moon needs its length (and being uninterrupted) to have the intended impact on the audience or whether it would have been improved by being shorter? What did they think of the performances of Scorsese stalwarts Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio, and of new faces Lily Gladstone and Jesse Plemonds? And what’s their take on that ending and on the director literally having the final word of the film?

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: Striking fear into our hearts, 24 frames per second

Sep 17, 2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

The French have a knack for uncanny goings-on in remote rural villages – though Matt was not entirely sold on The Five Devils, in spite of some very strong performances.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: On the road again

Jul 9, 2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

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.

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I’ll be in my trailer… watching trailers: It’s the pictures that got small

May 21, 2023The Barista CollectiveLeave a comment

For every action in nature there is an equal and opposite reaction – and for every attempt to rehabilitate Fedora, we get a counterpoint: in this case, Alan’s post expressing his issues with Billy Wilder’s late-career flop, drawing a direct line to his iconic Sunset Boulevard.