107. Ferrari w/ Bilge Ebiri

Explicit content warning

02/16/24 • 131 min

Bilge Ebiri joins the pod to talk Michael Mann's Ferarri! We chat about the film's multidimensional themes, its subtle subversion of conventional sports tropes, and the powerful way its irreconcilable conflicts and philosophical tensions linger long after the initial viewing. We also discuss Bilge's Top 5 Sports Movies and the state of the genre. *A preemptive apologies for the mixed vocal quality. There was a mic issue that caused a postproduction headache.* Enjoy!

Previous Episode

106. Beckham (2023)

On this episode, Chad Lott of Scary Thoughts Podcast joins us to talk about the Netflix documentary Beckham. We chat about Brit fashion, culture's uncouth obsession with exhuming salacious details on celebrity affairs, and the remarkable resilience of Posh and Becks, both on and off the pitch.

Enjoy!

Next Episode

108. The Underdoggs

We're back to the basics this week, covering Charles Stone III's "The Underdoggs," starring Snoop Dog, Mike Epps, and George Lopez. This is a film we've been barking for: a kids' centered sports movie in the vein of The Might Ducks, Little Giants, or The Big Green, only raunchier. Filled with direct callbacks to each of movies (including a scene where a Hummer arrives on the football field just as Emilio Estevez infamously had his limo driver park on the ice, an Annexation of Puerto Rico-inspired trick play, and an asthmatic kid with an overbearing, neurotic mom a la the nose-bubble dweeb in Little Giants), The Underdoggs fills like a giant homage to his 90s predecessors.

For what this 90-minute comedy offers, we found it a success. As most know, boys are a puerile bunch. They curse, they say dirty jokes, they're rowdy. The Underdoggs leans into this reality, and it does so with winks that let us know that the kids sports movies we grew up loving still have a niche place in the culture today. Sure, the dramatic beats and attempts at poignancy feel rushed and hasty (lost in the glib pastiche of surface sentiment and elision by way of meta winks), but The Underdoggs' rehashes the tropes and archetypes we know so well at the same time, reviving this little subgenre with blunts, runts, and unfiltered glee.

Enjoy!