Has Steven Soderbergh retired? Because his retirement looks an awful lot like making two movies a year. BFG Chief film critic Stephen Garrett, who knows more about film on Tuesday than you'll know in a lifetime, has interviewed Soderbergh several times and says that "retirement" is really more of a euphemism for DIY filmmaking. With 'Black Bag)', an admittedly $50 million studio picture, he brings the DIY mentality to a star-studded spy drama that's loaded with wit and sexiness and everything else that's missing from movies for adults these days. Stephen and Neal Pollack liked it somewhat, even though it's really a condensed version of a clever streaming show about spies.
Stephen feels like the stars, Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender, have zero sexual chemistry, but Neal feels the heat from Rege Jean Page and especially Marisa Abela, who plays a horny young surveillance analyst. It's a clever, fun, tight thriller. And modest. Enjoy.
South By Southwest (SXSW)) is in the past now, and despite what you might hear, it's not dead. But the Austin-based cultural festival has trimmed back the bloat somewhat, condensing the struggling tech and music festivals and placing the booming film and TV festival more front and center. That's certainly not a problem for veteran SXSW heads Neal Pollack and Pablo Gallaga, who between them saw more than a dozen movies and waited in more than a dozen lines.
Tune in for Neal and Pablo's comprehensive breakdown of where SXSW is going, and where it's been, and also a very detailed breakdown of the new Tim Robinson movie 'Friendship.' They liked it, maybe they wanted to like it more. If you meet Neal anywhere in public after May, when the movie comes out, you will have to have a similar conversation. That's why you need to follow BFG. You'll be able to talk about anything in the culture.
Enjoy the podcast!
