Movie Time Machine : A Retro Movie Review Podcast · chad the friend

EP119 I Know What You Watched Last Summer

September 28, 2024·1 hr 49 min·2 clips

Jack Black recorded voice work while costars suffered in desert heat—a perfect illustration of Hollywood's unequal working conditions.

The conversation starts with Hillbilly Elegy. It comes up through a fresh watch and the realization that the movie is tied to J.D. Vance's memoir. Ron Howard and Amy Adams appear right away, along with the familiar way this show lets one title open the door to a bigger memory chain. Hans Zimmer follows almost immediately. The hosts talk about him with the kind of admiration that makes it sound like he could score almost anything and make it work. They compare this soundtrack to his bigger, more familiar work and settle on an easy reaction. The score is fine for background listening, with a few catchy melodies and at least one track worth saving, but otherwise just okay. That keeps the movie part of the chat grounded without turning it into a formal review. Then the episode wanders. A French band called Les Faux Plafonds comes up for cover versions built from homemade instruments. Garbage-can drums, PVC-pipe tones, and odd little sound-making gadgets become their own mini appreciation of DIY music weirdness. The hosts sound genuinely delighted by how strange and well executed it is. Another tangent brings in a fictional-ish Kirk's Gazette story about going back in time. The mood keeps sliding forward in that familiar loose way. A$AP Rocky's Taylor Swift video gets a bigger reaction because of its three-minute run of bizarre AI visuals. The hosts treat it as the kind of thing you should just watch and let hit you. Channel Five shows up next with a Trump rally clip. That opens the door to Andrew Callahan and the broader lane of internet-adjacent video reporting. Some More News enters the mix after that. It is described as a left-leaning video essay and news outfit that usually lands in the hour-long range. Near the end, the tone softens into a Mary Tyler Moore reference and a joke about a paid influencer type. The episode closes the way this show often does, with a little scrambling, a little apology, and a loose promise to pick things back up next time.

As heard by us

A loose hangout that turns a movie chat into a wider pop culture drift.

Movie talk here keeps a loose, conversational grip on Hillbilly Elegy: why this movie, why now, and what Zimmer adds to a watch that is, honestly, pretty okay.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

Press play for a movie chat that starts with Hillbilly Elegy and snowballs into soundtrack talk and offbeat culture gems.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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