After a two-week hiatus, the BFG Podcast is back, and the culture belongs to us as usual. Host Neal Pollack has returned from his anniversary trip to the Continent, and Stephen Garrett was in Europe as well, covering the Cannes Film Festival) like he has done every year since before he can remember. This year, Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi won the Palme D'Or for his film 'It Was Just An Accident,' the sixth straight year a film distributed by Neon has taken the prize. Neal and Stephen discuss that and then Stephen does a speedy run-through of the festival, covering all the awards winners and other significant films, including the new Spike Lee movie, which he gets in just under the wire as Neal attempts to close out the segment.
Nathan Fielder) delivered a brilliant six episodes of television with Season 2 of The Rehearsal, which ostensibly is about airplane safety, and is about airplane safety, but is also about so much more. Omar Gallaga appears to talk with Neal about The Rehearsal's narrative sleight-of-hand, which they both love. But there's a curious phenomenon: It's mostly men who jibe with Nathan Fielder's comedy. Neal and Omar, or actors playing them, try to break down this curious situation. In the tradition of Nathan Fielder, they both fail and succeed at the same time.
Stephen Garrett is back, to discuss Mission: Impossible: The Final Reckoning), which he saw at Cannes and which Neal saw at his usual spot, the Alamo Drafthouse Lakeline in Austin. Either way, it's a bombastic edition of the long-running action franchise. Both Neal and Stephen loved the extended submarine action sequence in the middle, and enjoyed a taste of the biplane action scene toward the end, but found the overwrought dialogue tiring, the characters thin at best, and some of the plot laughably stupid. It's about as subtle as a hammer to the face or a nuclear bomb that must be defused in five minutes.
Did we mention that the podcast is back? Enjoy!
