POP ART: Episode 96, Bullet Train/TransSiberian

POP ART, WHERE WE FIND THE POP CULTURE IN ART AND THE ART IN POP CULTURE.

TRAINSUBSTANTIATION: Join me and screenwriter Jordan Trippeer as we discuss two movies that take place on trains, Bullet Train and TransSiberian.

“You’re a diesel.” Oh, for the days when people traveled by train. The scenery, the comfort, the luxury, the smuggling, the murders, the crashes.…Sounds like it’s time for Episode 96 of Pop Art, where we find the pop culture in art and the art in pop culture. It’s the podcast where my guest chooses a movie from popular culture, and I’ll select a film from the more art/classic/indie side of cinema with a connection to it. For this episode, I am happy to welcome back as my guest, screenwriter Jordan Trippeer, who has chosen as her film the action packed Brad Pitt led comedy Bullet Train, while I have chosen the more indie Woody Harrelson/Emily Mortimer crime drama, TransSiberian, both films about criminal goings on a train.

And in this episode we answer such questions as:  What’s so great about train movies anyway? What are the different moral universes the two movies take place in? Why was Bullet Train accused of whitewashing? Why did a sign in TransSiberian read All Abroad? What is the character of Hello Kitty? What are the McGuffin in both films? Why was Bullet Train filmed on studio sound stages? What are some differences between the book and screenplay of Bullet Train?

Check out Jordan’s IMDB page https://www.imdb.com/name/nm4930599/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0 and check out her films, as well as be on the look out for her upcoming projects.

Jordan has been a previous guest on my podcast. For episode 20, we discussed two films revolving around demons, Constantine and The Wailing. Check it out.

Check out my blog at https://howardcasner.wordpress.com/

My books, More Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, The Starving Artists and Other Stories and The Five Corporations and One True Religion can be found at https://www.amazon.com/s?k=howard+casner&ref=nb_sb_noss

Meanwhile, like, follow or comment on my podcast. I’d love to know what you think. And check out the other episodes. On ITUNES https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/pop-art/id1511098925, Anchor: https://anchor.fm/howard-casner, and Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/5jX4noVGArDJdmcFtmrQcG, Sticher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/pop-art, Google Podcasts: https://podcasts.google.com/…, Breaker: https://www.breaker.audio/pop-art, Pocketcasts: https://pca.st/vfjqj6j6, Radiopublic: https://radiopublic.com/pop-art-GExxNb and other streaming sites

Check out my Script Consultation Services at http://ow.ly/HPxKE. I offer several types of service. Testimonials can be found at the blog entry.

Finally, I have published a collection of three of my plays, 3 Plays, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08478DBXF as well as two collections of short stories, The Starving Artists and other stories, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07FS91CKJ and The Five Corporations and the One True Church and other stories, https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07KY5Z3CF.

POP ART: Episode 45, True Romance/Pierrot le Fou

THE COURSE OF TRUE LOVE NEVER DID RUN SMOOTH: “Okie, dokey, doggie daddy.” We’ve all been there, done that. We meet someone. Fall in love. Pledge our lives to each other. Then, as so often happens, we kill someone or rob someone of drugs or money and have to go on the run. Who hasn’t found themselves in that situation? Sounds like it’s time for Episode 45 of Pop Art, the podcast where my guest chooses a movie from popular culture and I’ll select a film from the more art/classic side of cinema with a connection to it. This time, I am happy to welcome fellow podcaster Jarrett Galante, aka Clark F. Gable, who has chosen the Tony Scott/Quentin Tarantino neo-noir, True Romance, and I have chosen the quite different Jean Luc Godard French film classic, Pierrot le Fou, both about lovers on the run.

And in this episode, we answer such questions as: What did Tarantino do to raise money to make Reservoir Dogs and how does Elvis fit in? Are Tarantino and Godard post-modern or post-post-modern? How does the movie Pineapple Express fit in? Who is Sam Fuller and would you want to be one? Where did the Sicilian story come from in True Romance? Where does Godard stand in the pantheon of directors? Where does Tarantino? What are the differences between the original screenplay and the final one in True Romance and what did Tarantino think about it? Where did the True Romance theme come from?

Meanwhile check out Jarrett’s podcast The REAL Short Box at https://www.facebook.com/therealshortbox/

And Jarrett’s IDMB profile at https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1445425/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0

RULES ARE MEANT TO BE BROKEN: Rules Don’t Apply and Allied

For questions: hcasner@aol.com

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay?  Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013.  Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

 

Warning: SPOILERS

Rules Don’t Apply, the latest, and from what I understand, the last film from Warren Beatty who wrote, produced and plays famous recluse Howard Hughes here, has some charming moments in the first half.

The story revolves round Frank Forbes (Alden Ehrenreich, who has the looks, charisma, but a lot more talent than B-movie actor Audie Murphy) who is one of Hughes’s many drivers who escort one of the billionaire’s many starlets around Los Angeles. The starlet assigned to Frank is Marla Mabry (Lily Collins).

Both are quite religious (Hughes chose his drivers from church goers as a guard against them trying to bed his starlets). They say grace before meals, watch The Billy Graham Crusade on television, and attend church every Sunday. And not only do they do this unapologetically when others are around and in the streets where they might scare the horses, Beatty himself presents this spiritual side of the characters just as unapologetically.

And Ehrenreich and Collins have a nice chemistry between them. They don’t exactly set the celluloid on fire, but they make a cute and attractive couple.

A BIT SHORT: The Big Short and The Hateful Eight

First, a word from our sponsors: I am now offering a new service: so much emphasis has been given lately to the importance of the opening of your screenplay, I now offer coverage for the first twenty pages at the cost of $20.00.  For those who don’t want to have full coverage on their screenplay at this time, but want to know how well their script is working with the opening pages, this is perfect for you.  I’ll help you not lose the reader on page one. 

 

Ever wonder what a reader for a contest or agency thinks when he reads your screenplay? Check out my new e-book published on Amazon: Rantings and Ravings of a Screenplay Reader, including my series of essays, What I Learned Reading for Contests This Year, and my film reviews of 2013. Only $2.99. http://ow.ly/xN31r

 

and check out my Script Consultation Services: http://ow.ly/HPxKE

Warning: SPOILERS

The Big Short, like Spotlight, is the one of those movies ripped from the headlines—of years and years ago; but this time the subject is not pedophile priests, but the downfall of the American economy. Written by Charles Randolph and the director Adam McKay, from a book by Michael Lewis, it’s also a very satisfying bit of agitprop theater with Brechtian distancing devices thrown in for good major.

It basically tells the story of four different groups of people who all realized, more or less at the same time, and years ahead of schedule, that the housing mortgage bubble was going to burst in 2007 and destroy the world’s economy.

This leads to the movie’s major irony: the people who figured this out then proceed to invest heavily against the U.S. economy, making tons of money when their Cassandra like prediction of doom came true.

So basically, we in the audience, along with the characters in the movie, find ourselves and themselves actually hoping that the U.S. financial system tanks like the Titanic.