#853: Best Performances of 2021 / Licorice Pizza / Nightmare Alley

12/17/21 • 96 min

2 Listeners

The end-of-year conversation starts this week as Adam and Josh talk through their Chicago Film Critics Association ballots, naming their favorite 20 or so performances of the 2021 movie year. Plus reviews of LICORICE PIZZA, Paul Thomas Anderson's nostalgia trip to 70s-era San Fernando Valley, and NIGHTMARE ALLEY, a nasty new noir from Guillermo del Toro.

0:00 - Billboard

1:14 - Best Performances of 2021

Taj Mahal, "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day"

48:16 - Review: "Nightmare Alley"

1:03:20 - Next Week / Polls / Notes

1:13:06 - Review: "Licorice Pizza"

1:30:38 - Outro / Outtake

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0:00 - Billboard

1:14 - Best Performances of 2021

Taj Mahal, "Tomorrow May Not Be Your Day"

48:16 - Review: "Nightmare Alley"

1:03:20 - Next Week / Polls / Notes

1:13:06 - Review: "Licorice Pizza"

1:30:38 - Outro / Outtake

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Previous Episode

#852: The Power of the Dog / Campion Oeuvre-view Awards

Jane Campion’s filmography is one of the greatest collections of woman-led features in the history of the medium, which makes her latest - THE POWER OF THE DOG - such a startling exception. Set in 1925 against a forbidding Montana landscape, Campion’s film takes place in an utterly masculine domain, with Benedict Cumberbatch’s snarling rancher as the film’s primary focus. But armed with the just-completed Campion Oeuvre-view, Adam and Josh see what is undoubtedly a Campion movie, with its attention finely tuned to gender power dynamics and competing displays of masculinity. They also agree that Campion’s latest is a masterpiece. The Campion love continues in the second half of the show with “We Are The Campions,” the end of Oeuvre-view awards for favorite performances and scenes—and Adam and Josh’s ranked lists of the director’s eight features.

0:00 - Billboard

1:04 - Review: "The Power of the Dog"

Michael Nyman, "The Sacrifice"

36:04 - Next Week / Notes

49:41 - Massacre Theatre

55:58 - Jane Campion Oeuvre-view: Awards

1:29:58 - Outro

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Next Episode

#854: Top 10 Films of 2021 (Pt. 1)

A shock comic, a gambler, a couple of exotic dancers, and Nicolas Cage all make appearances in part one of the Top 10 Films of 2021 – not to mention a singing puppet baby. On this week's show, it's "The Outliers," the films that only Adam or Josh deemed Top 10-worthy. Next week, they'll be joined by the Chicago Tribune's Michael Phillips and Dana Stevens of Slate for part two and the 'consensus' best films of the year.

0:00 - Billboard

1:15 - Top 10 of 2021: The Outliers

Jimmy Montague, "70th Avenue Hustle"

45:09 - Golden Brick Finalists

48:50 - Top 10 of 2021: The Outliers, cont.

1:13:20 - Outro

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