Thursday, December 7, 2023

And so... the PodCast goes on Indefinite Hiatus




I'm not going to make a big deal out of this, but there's 2 or three of you who will want to know what is going on with the podcast, so I will answer in a single place I can link back to.

The Signal Watch PodCast is on indefinite hiatus.  It's probably done.  

I want to thank all the contributors from the past few years as we churned out hundreds of hours of conversation and talked about innumerable movies and other topics.  For me, it was a very good experience getting to watch and discuss films I likely wouldn't have gotten to or wouldn't have even known about.  It's made me a fan of new areas of film, and given me ample food for thought.  It's been a genuine growing experience.

It's also been a great way to keep up with people who I don't see that often, and during the pandemic, was a great way to stay social.  For every hour y'all heard recorded, there's at least that many that were just us shooting the breeze before and after the sessions.  I also met people I might otherwise have never met!  The internet is weird and sometimes good!

A few factors entered into my decision to put the podcast on hiatus.

Wednesday, December 6, 2023

Norman Lear Merges With The Infinite



Norman Lear, a man who changed television, has passed at 101.

There's whole areas of media study dedicated to Lear, so I won't get into it too much here.  But for those of us growing up as kids in the 1970s and 80's, there was kind of pre-Lear television and post-Lear television.  Those halcyon days of media you think of where father knew best and folks' disagreements were settled over a polite laugh or gunfire and women wore pearls and kissed husbands as they walked in the door with a smile?  Not Norman Lear.

Lear found the comedy in the reality of world and knew you could do more making people laugh than you could with a lecture, reflecting real world issues back to the audience, in the format of the sitcom.  As a kid, I remember knowing things could take a dramatic turn on One Day at a Time (something the reboot series echoed), but it wasn't off-putting even as a kid.  It was part of how television worked, as far as I was concerned.

While he moved on from TV, Lear has remained influential.  I hope in years to come, folks understand what he did to move TV on from its juvenile state and propel conversations onto the screen and into living rooms, and giving voice to characters that had been supporting characters at best.

Here's to 101 well-lived years. 


Holiday Classic Watch: Holiday Inn (1942)




Watched:  12/04/2023
Format:  Prime
Viewing:  Unknown
Director:  Mark Sadnrich


My understanding is that this movie, released in August of 1942, landed hard with Americans as we were facing the reality of what was going to be a long and deadly war on two fronts.  More specifically, this movie features the screen debut of "White Christmas" (he's sung it on the radio post-Pearl Harbor in 1941), which Bing Crosby would turn into the best selling single of all time with 50 million copies ringing up the tils as it became a sort of anthem for wishing for a return to normalcy.  

Holiday Inn (1942) is a story about a musical trio breaking up as the singer (Crosby) and the girl are breaking off to start a new life running a farm in Connecticut when the girl runs off with the dancer (Fred Astaire) to pursue dreams of stage glory.  Crosby eventually turns the farm into an inn where he can put on shows, just on holidays, trading the dream of stardom in exchange for just having a bit of fun every once in a while.  

Along comes a new girl, and a series of shows for every holiday starting with New Year (after introducing "White Christmas" during the meet-cute).  Meanwhile, Astaire is dumped and returns to the Inn, and begins pursuing the new girl whom Crosby has fallen hard for.

Anyway, the story is just a framework for Bing Crosby to dooby-doo his way through songs and Astaire to knock your socks off.  Unfortunately, I don't think it leaves you feeling particularly great about a single person on screen except for Crosby's chef, played by Louise Beavers.  

There is mention of the war during the WWII sequence as the movie pauses to reflect on what we're fighting for in song, and shows film of our militarization and FDR at the mic.  While the film exists as light entertainment, its hard to imagine what July 4, 1942 was actually like as the country leaned into what was clearly going to be a multi-year effort in which we'd lose countless servicemen and women.  But what is apparently true is that Pearl Harbor occurred during filming and they decided to really step up the July 4th sequence.

It is likely you've heard several songs from this movie over the years.  "Easter Parade" gets trotted out.  And it's worth mentioning Crosby would team with Danny Kaye for the 1954 classic White Christmas while Astaire would beat him to the punch with 1948's Easter Parade.

I was surprised to see the version on Amazon Prime retains the blackface number (Lincoln's Birthday).  Though I remember seeing it on my TV Christmas of 1994 when I first watched the movie, basic cable cut the number decades ago.  And, yes, it is that bad.  It's also a plot point, so the movie can be marginally confusing without the number, but to keep it in...   Look, I am not going to tell you what should or should not offend you or what criteria should be used to play or not play a film.  I am fine with cable cutting the sequence to keep the film out there, and from an historical perspective, the movie is a reflection of the time in which it was made.  As film fan and historian, yes, keep it in.  As a person who knows this is f'd up, and always was - you can skip the movie altogether if you like.  There are clips of not-offensive scenes on YouTube.  Or, jump over the scene whilst watching.  You do what works for you.

We chose to ffwd through the sequence once we realized it was there.  I've seen it, don't need to see it again.  

There's a whole discussion to be had about how it seems the younger generation wants to deal with older media, and that's to stuff it down the memory hole.  And I'll argue some film historians are currently trying to make it seem that very-mainstream-Hollywood was out of step with the general attitudes of the public at the time of a film's release, something I think there's more than ample evidence to suggest is not true.  We can discuss at some point, but that's a lot to hash out.*

What it does mean is that Holiday Inn is a fascinating bit of history in a single Christmas movie.  The film spun off multiple hit singles we still know, it sold people on the idea of secular Christmas songs, it does some crazy stuff where part of the illusion in the film's final minutes is *showing* the pulleys and levers of the illusion right out in the open to create a secondary illusion (and showing how films were made in 1942).  It shows some really depressing racism, sexism, etc... and it's a time capsule containing war propaganda. 

Plus, two of the biggest stars of the era.  Happy Holidays, film lovers.





*this is 78 years after *slavery*, and 6 after Gone With the Wind.  It's not just your elderly relatives that were just wildly racist.


Sunday, December 3, 2023

Straight to Streaming Christmas: Candy Cane Lane (2023), Genie (2023) and Noelle (2019)





Watched:  CCL 12/01/2023, G 11/27/2023, N 12/02/2023
Format:  Amazon Prime/ The 'Cock/ Disney+
Viewing:  First for all
Director:  Reginald Hudlin / Sam Boyd / Marc Lawrence

We have a lot going on, and so we've been seeking out comfort-food-movies.  As this is the Holiday Season, that means Christmas-related movies.  

Yes, we've watched a shit-ton of Hallmark movies, enough so that I've forgotten all that we've watched and I'm not sure I'll post on it.  Instead, I'm taking a look at three of the "well, it's free on the service" movies we watched this week.  

I don't understand what the story is/ was on Noelle (2019).  It was listed as a 2019 release, and maybe it was.  I mostly remember it as one of the first "originals" I saw listed on Disney+, but not something I'd gotten around to watching (this makes me want to rewatch Togo, which I remember really liking).  But no one ever mentioned the movie to me, and so it just kind of fell into the background.  But maybe it had a theatrical run? 

But, this being 2023, we finally got to it.  

Saturday, December 2, 2023

G Watch: Godzilla - Minus One (2023)





Watched:  11/29/2023
Format:  AMC IMAX
Viewing:  First
Director:  Takashi Yamazaki

Where to start?

Over the years, Godzilla has been many things.  Like Batman, he's been a children's character while also being a thing adults could appreciate.  But he's also been cast as a walking analogy in two very, very good films (Gojira and Shin Godzilla), a villain in others (Godzilla Returns and Raids Again), a dad (Son of Godzilla) a hero (most of the Shōwa era), a goof, a buddy, a ruffian...  

The American-produced Godzilla movies have done well financially, but, to me, struggled with an actual story until Kong vs. Godzilla.  But it would be misleading to say the Toho Studios produced films didn't struggle with same.  The Toho movies responded to the challenge by getting progressively crazier as the need to fill screen time with something other than expensive monster fights (models and custom 7' rubber suits are not cheap) became a clear necessity. 

To fill that run time*, both US and Toho films needed a story for humans - humans that Godzilla likely will not even be aware of during the course of the film  - that is compelling and meaningful.  But, man , have the results been mixed.  You get aliens, faeries, conspiracies, what-have-you.  And some of that is great!  Final Wars is like a party of a movie.  Watch it sometime.

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Happy Thanksgiving from The Signal Watch!



Happy Thanksgiving from The Signal Watch!  

Like Ann Miller and her witness, we will also warn you what will happen if you tell anyone what you saw here.

May you have a day where the food and company is to your liking!

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

Sunday, November 19, 2023

Disney Holiday Watch: Dashing Through the Snow (2023)




Watched:  11/19/2023
Format:  Disney+
Viewing:  First
Director:  Tim Story

First, the name of this movie is terrible and sounds like it was changed by Disney at some point, giving it a nonsensical, generic holiday name.  Dashing Through the Snow (2023) is not what one should name a movie filmed in a part of the American South which rarely sees snow.  And while a few flakes fall in the movie, it feels tacked on when it happens, and, of course, there is no accumulation.  Ergo: while dashing absolutely happens, no dashing occurs in or through the snow.

This is your standard family movie about a parent who does not believe in Santa, has a child who does, and, of course, Santa is real and takes them on an adventure where Dad learns to believe in Santa, Christmas, family, etc...  via shenanigans.  That this is a predictable formula feels weird, but here we are.

But that doesn't mean any movie is *bad*, it just means we have a framework, and that means it's about execution.  Written and directed by Tim Story, one of the workingest directors in Hollywood, Dashing Through the Snow brings the formula to Atlanta and casts Chris 'Ludacris' Bridges as Eddie, our skeptical dad.  He's on the outs from his wife (played by The Marvels' Teyonah Parris* and officially the tipping point for why I chose to watch this movie) who leaves his daughter with Eddie - a busy, work-aholic dad who is a mental health crisis counselor who takes the calls from the cops when someone might jump.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Pre-Christmas Cat Watch: The Nine Lives of Christmas (2014)




Watched:  11/12/2023
Format:  You know where we watched this, commercials and all
Viewing:  I swear to god, I think it was my third viewing
Director:  Mark Jean

Jamie had a medical procedure this week, and was all nerves and needed something to just coast along on.  Guess what was on?

So, yeah, it was round two or three for me of watching this particular holiday gem.

This movie features my favorite Hallmark-specific star, Kimberly Sustad, and I'll leave it at that.




Tuesday, November 14, 2023

TKD Watch: The Foot Fist Way (2006)





Watched:  11/12/2023
Format:  Max
Viewing:  Second
Director:  Jody Hill

I saw this back in the day when it was a theatrical release (apparently contributing $40 or so of the $250K take), and while I am sure it was originally hitting the festival circuit in 2006, I saw it in 2008.  

At the time, I took my pal Matt, who had just earned his Black Belt in something other than Tae Kwon Do. But strip-mall TKD was something with which I had a lot of familiarity.  I, myself, tested for a Black Belt circa 2001 after a few years of lessons.*  And, yes, everything in the movie about how these schools operate felt absolutely true.  

Your strip mall TKD dojo is a place where grown adults take instruction and direction from 13 year old kids left in charge of the class, and it's a place where people with jobs spend their time yelling mispronounced Korean words and treating everything with deadly seriousness as they kick targets and punch dummies.