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ELEMENT

Welcome to a new year and a new director as TGTPTU’s latest 4x4 reaches its fourth of four directors: Lars Von Trier. We start with his first wide-release feature THE ELEMENT OF CRIME (1984). And so begins our wrap-up of Season 13 with water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink…

Set in a post-catastrophe Europe (as will the Dane’s next two films forming his first thematic trilogy: Europa), The Element of Crime follows the memories under hypnotism of an investigator named Fisher who employs the methodology of his now disgraced mentor, namely, the-now-clichéd-but-then-fairly-metafictionally-fresh-idea-of-following-in-a-psychopathic-criminal’s-footsteps, to enter their thinking. And so begins a degeneration and headaches and sex atop the hood of a vehicle in order to track down the Lotto Killer, a serial murderer who targets young girls who sell lotto tickets and who might be closer than Fisher realizes.

Paired with next week’s Dancer in the Dark (the final film of LVT’s second trilogy) which will utilize an entirely different cinematic language, The Element of Crime is beautifully shot as it follows Fisher throughout the flooded landscapes of Europe lit by sodium light that create a sepia tone (and, in some cases, LVT will cheat by shooting in black-and-white and colorizing). The script originally focused on three encounters Fisher has with the fascistic police chief Kramer played by Jerold Wells, a British actor perhaps best known for his work with Terry Gilliam ending with Time Bandits (Gilliam’s Brazil with its own pneumatic tube future will come out the following year), but the world was expanded as LVT and his team of two Thomas’s (cinematographer Tom Elling, and editor and possible horse murderer Tómas Gislason) found new locations such as sewers and dilapidated buildings to expand Fisher’s search as he finds himself inside the pattern to the killings.

Listen in and get the skinny on LVT’s challenge to Steven Spielberg and masturbating monkeys from Thomas; hear about Ken’s beef with a German post-punk band ruining his joke; and scream along silently with Jack in frustration about the ongoing technical issues the once-and-future provisional co-host Ryan reliably brings to being unreliable.

The host unanimously agree: a beautifully shot movie with an amazing final image. Are you there? You can wake me up now. Are you there?...

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

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Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias

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JUROR #2

It’s late-December and, foregoing our usual Christmas-adjacent movie watch, this year TGTPTU has a very special treat for the holidays. That’s right, listener, we bring to you our hot takes on what may prove to be Clint Eastwood’s final film--and even more likely his final theatrically-released film--JUROR #2 (2024) in time for its MAX streaming release so that you might celebrate with us and have yourself a very Merry Clint-mas.

Eastwood’s latest film with Warner Brothers continues what was a trend (excepting Cry Macho and The Mule) of not starring the star of the 70’s ape comedies and the Dirty Harry series, instead keeping Eastwood off camera and bringing in a murderer’s row (some pun intended) of character actors, including Nicholas Hoult from multiple Bryan Singer flicks as the titular Juror #2; Toni Collette from The Sixth Sense as Assistant DA Faith Killebrew who may put her career on the line to explore whether the person she put away for murder is guilty; J.K. Simmons from Postal (and likely some other films) as a former detective on the jury who also has suspicions of innocence; Cedric Yarbrough from Reno 911! as juror out for justice; Kiefer Sutherland from multiple Joel Schumacher flicks as Juror #2’s AA sponsor and lawyer confidant; and even one of Eastwood’s many children--Francesca Eastwood--giving the double bird in multiple, retold scenes Rashomon-style playing the once-and-future corpse.

From The Mule & Richard Jewell, cinematographer Yves Bélanger is back with Mark Mancina returning from Cry Macho for the score. And surprisingly and, as discussed, perhaps as a first for Eastwood as a director, the man who addressed an empty chair at the RNC and practices TM actually worked with the film’s writer to GASP! rewrite the script, an act host Ken who has seen and reported back on every Eastwood film takes to mean Juror #2 is the 94-year-old director’s swan song.

And the song is good! While the hosts conflict on where the movie lands politically in its cynicism and realism, all four of the folx talking in your earholes believe the moving picture a solid mid-budget thriller that harkens back to a time/era of pre-streaming moviegoing. Speaking of an era ending, Warner Brothers appears to believe the Time of Eastwood is done, releasing this latest film from the long-time collaborator in under 50 theaters seven scheduled weeks before releasing it for streaming on MAX.

So get your spoilers here, and listen to the end of the p for what starts as a rant against WB’s treatment of Eastwood and becomes men complaining about previews and ads before films that eventually ends with the four hosts recapping their 2024 movie-going experiences before awarding their best films of the year.

Also fun: Evidence is presented throughout by hosts Ken and Thomas for whether provisional cohost Ryan should be promoted to a full-time host. Congrats, newly fully-fledged host Ryan. Don’t rush to mess this up.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
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Letterboxd (follow us!):
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias

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4X4X3: WILLIAM WYLER CONCLUSION: THE COLLECTOR

TGTPTU wraps its third director of Season 13’s 4x4 with a discussion of a fourth and final William Wyler film THE COLLECTOR (1965).

Like The Big Country, its paired film from last week, The Collector began as a book, this one penned by John Fowles, author whose adapted novel The French Lieutenant’s Woman was covered by TGTPTU during our Meryl Streep season. The Collector was Fowles’ first published book, and Wyler took liberties with its epistolary structure to refocus the movie as, mentioned later below, a “love story.” And like last week’s western picture, The Collector is shot in glorious color, interestingly unlike Wyler’s preceding The Children’s Hour (problematic treatment of lesbianism? who knows? not your hosts, not in time for this ep, but maybe TGTPTU’s loquacious critic Annabel with offer their opinion on a future ep?) whose black-and-white film stock marked a departure from Wyler’s two preceding films The Big Country and Ben-Hur where in the latter someone may have died filming the chariot race and was also a book adaptation.

But as for The Collector, which was very provisional cohost Ryan’s ringer of a movie, that is, the one he pitched when he was sandboxing his 4x4 choice of directors because he was sure it would score, our final Wyler film under discussion misses the post leaving the hosts wonder whether it’s close enough to count as Wyler-essential (horseshoe puns aren’t part of The Collector, just your show note writer’s indulgence).

While a dark tale of sexual abduction and obsession, Terrence Stamp--the titular collector of butterflies but also of at least one woman in his dungeon--was told by Wyler that they were secretly shooting a love story and while Wyler utilized his old-Hollywood directing style by shutting out on set the relative novice actress Samantha Eggar in the role of abducted in this two-hander movie (a cast of seemingly four credited actors) so that she would feel the isolation her character locked away lost in the British countryside, the direction and acting can’t seem to overcome a rather flat script.

But stay tuned to the end to hear the boys rank their Willies, including from the first movie pairing how they prefer their dicks and for all four flicks hear them consider their manhood as Willy exposes it. Throughout the ep, listen for the tension in Ken’s voice as the other three hosts conspire to stretch the recording session into kickoff time with Ryan sharing stories from the streets and country clubs and Thomas striving for an episode parental advisory warning. And laugh alone as the hosts skip right past Ken’s allusion to The Sound of Music.

Next episode: A very special Clint-mas Ep for the wintertime, then back in the new year with the fourth of our four directors, the Danish Darling also known as Lars von Trier.

THEME SONG BY: WEIRD A.I.

Email: thegoodthepodandtheugly@gmail.com
Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TGTPTU
Instagram: https://instagram.com/thegoodthepodandtheugly?igshid=um92md09kjg0
Bluesky: @mrkoral.bsky.social
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6mI2plrgJu-TB95bbJCW-g
Buzzsprout: https://thegoodthepodandtheugly.buzzsprout.com/
Letterboxd (follow us!):
Ken: Ken Koral
Ryan: Ryan Tobias