New Year’s Bonus. Review Of 2018 Transcript
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Music]
SAM: 0:26 Hello, I'm Sam Clements and welcome to the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest. This is a podcast that celebrates films with a 90 minute or less runtime and is usually curated by guests on this podcast. Welcome to our end of the year show. Hooray, it's the end of 2018! Over the course of this episode, we'll be looking back at the first few months of this podcast and our 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest, we'll be revealing the top grossing films under 90 minutes at UK cinemas, and we'll catch up with some of our pals from the podcasting community. Before then, just to recap the show so far and the 90 Minutes or Less Film Festival, we now have five films in the festival and five full length podcasts out there that you can listen to, should you so wish and I'd like to introduce our producer Louise Owen, who normally sits behind the curtain pulling all the strings on the show, to run through these first five episodes. Hello, Louise.
LOUISE: 1:22 Hello, Sam.
SAM: 1:23 Welcome to the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest podcast.
LOUISE: 1:26 Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on camera.
SAM: 1:29 Well, yeah, exactly. You're on mic, mate. So yeah, so we've been making this podcast since September. Who have we had on and what films are currently in the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest lineup?
LOUISE: 1:40 Well, we've had some great guests on and some equally great films. We started off with The Producers with Simon Renshaw early on back in September. We've also had Toy Story with Dave and Cathy from the Cinemile podcast. We've spoken to Kobi Omenaka from The Wire Stripped and Flixwatcher podcasts about Black Dynamite. We've also spoken to Katie Khan about the wonderful sci-fi film Gravity. And finally, just a couple of weeks ago, last week we released our latest full length episode and that was The Muppet Christmas Carol with Ella Kemp.
SAM: 2:13 There you go. What a lineup.
LOUISE: 2:14 Some great guests, some great movies.
SAM: 2:17 What I like so far about this film festival, which we're obviously working towards under the guise of this podcast, it's already a pretty bombastic lineup. I would hope that whatever dates the real life 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest falls on is sometime over summer so The Muppet Christmas Carol feels particularly odd.
LOUISE: 2:35 Surely it makes for a more interesting festival though, the point of the festival is to watch something you may be wouldn't usually watch. If that means Christmas films in July, then Christmas in July it is.
SAM: 2:45 What's next marmalade for lunch? So Louise, you've not made a podcast before. But you've been working on this basically, for the last six months with me. How's it going?
LOUISE: 2:54 I'm enjoying it. I am enjoying it. It's been fun to rewatch all of films, but with a different head on. So you're not just watching a film to watch a film, your watching the film and you're thinking about, oh we can talk about this section, oh that bit's quite nice, why don't we talk about this? And then let's not mention that bit.
SAM: 3:13 There's a lot of power in that role. I don't know if you're allowed to say this as your part of the 90 Minutes or Less Film Fest Planning Committee. But do you have a favourite film that we've rewatched for the festivals so far?
LOUISE: 3:25 No. All films and the pods are like tiny, 40 minute long children. I cannot possibly pick a favourite.
SAM: 3:34 So you're up for rewatching The Producers?
LOUISE: 3:36 Maybe not The Producers.
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]
SAM: 3:43 All right, well, thank you, Louise. Now you need to get back behind the curtain to do more producer things. And I'll carry on with the pod.
LOUISE: 3:51 I'll just go back to pressing the buttons.
SAM: 3:53 Press those buttons! And now it feels seasonally appropriate to have some new year messages from our friends in the pod community. We asked some of our podcast pal including some past and future guests, what were their favourite 90 minutes or less watches over the past 12 months either at home, doesn't have to be a new film, or in the cinema. And they've left a message on the 90 Minutes or Less answer phone.
[Phone Ringing]
DAVE: 4:22 Hi, it's Dave and Cathy here from the Cinemile.
CATHY: 4:24 Hello!
DAVE: 4:25 Well, tough one, tough one, 90 minute movies this year. Turns out we couldn't really find any. But luckily last night, we had just watched The Muppet Christmas Carol.
CATHY: 4:36 Yes, it's the most wonderful time of the year and we wanted to watch something festive. And we picked this one not because of the duration but we did really enjoy the fact that it was short. 82 minutes. It's also just a lovely movie and hadn't seen it in a long time. And it really holds up, it's got a really nice message. It's got lovely songs. It's got Michael Caine in a nightdress for most of the movie.
DAVE: 5:00 As if that's a big draw for people is it? If you like Michael Caine in a nightdress, you're going to love this.
CATHY: 5:06 It's funny and it's sweet and it's just really, really festive and nice. So I definitely recommended end of the year watch.
DAVE: 5:12 Surprisingly faithful adaptation of A Christmas Carol. Like he plays it completely straight but it's yeah, it's lovely. It's sweet. You've all seen 1000 times just yeah, watch it again.
CATHY: 5:25 Bye!
DAVE: 5:25 Bye.
[Answerphone BEEP]
JOE: 5:27 Hey, this is Joe Cunningham, I present the Cinematic Universe podcast. On that podcast, we tend to focus on superhero movies, movies and TV that have been adapted from comic books or focus on superheroes essentially. And I was having a look back at stuff we covered this year and ironically, for a genre, you know, based on superheroes and comic books, not many of the films we cover tend to run under 70 minutes in fact, under 90 minutes sorry. So the movie I want to talk about is Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. The 2016 movie directed by Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone, starring Andy Samberg. So it's the three Lonely Island guys doing a movie which is, is kind of, I feel like at its heart it's a veiled Justin Bieber parody, but becomes so much more. It essentially becomes a modern day This Is Spinal Tap. Every time I revisit this movie, I love it more and more. So yes, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. That is my 90 minutes or less selection for this year.
[Answerphone BEEP]
MICHAEL: 6:40 Hi, Sam and Louise, it's Michael from Ghibliotheque podcast here with some 90 minutes or less recommendations from year, hopefully in 90 seconds or less. So you're very fortunate actually you two, because two of the best films of the year of both clock in under 90 minutes, that's You Were Never Really Here and Cold War. But I'd like to highlight a film that might have flown under the radar. It's an animated feature for kids called Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, which clocks in at 84 minutes. It's for kids, it has a lot of fart jokes in there, but it also is funnier, weirder, sillier and more meta than it has any right to be. It's more meta than Deadpool. And it's got the best Stan Lee cameo of the year in, for DC movie that's quite a mean feat. That's my recommendation. Happy Christmas and Happy New Year. Let's go and get katsu soon.
[Answerphone BEEP]
HELEN: 7:34 Hello, Sam. This is Helen, co-host of the Flixwatcher podcast. My film for you is Pawel Pawlikowski's, probably pronounced that wrong, Cold War. It's not a 90 minute film, it's actually 85 minutes. And those 85 minutes are just an absolute gorgeous epic romance set in the Cold War. It's presented in a 4.3 aspect ratio. It's black and white. It's got two amazing performances from Zula and Wictor. It features jazz clubs, winter in Poland and dance troupes. Definitely my film of the year, if not my film of the last 10 years. Bye!
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]
SAM: 8:31 As we're reflecting on the year gone by, let's look at what new 90 minutes or less films have actually been released in cinemas in 2018. At the time of recording 902 films have been released theatrically. So we're taking these entries that we're about to go through from that official list. We've analyzed their box office grosses and we've assembled a top 10 90 minutes or less movies. But we've also got some honorable mentions, because I was lucky enough to see some of these films and I thought they deserved a shout out.
9:03 So in at 324 on the UK Top films list, we've got Lucky, directed by John Carroll Lynch and it's Harry Dean Stanton's final movie role. It's so good. It's such a beautiful film. And in at 312 is I Got Life! and yes, it does have an exclamation point after the title, so you get to say I got life! Final honorable mention we've got Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist. That's 297 on the national list, fantastic documentary, which came out March/April of 2018. Again, available, readily available on streaming services. So if you've got 90 minutes to fill, do pop that one on.
9:43 Right down to business, the 90 minutes or less UK Top 10. In at number 10 on our list, but 275 on the UK list is Paw Patrol. This is a cinematic release based on the popular kids TV show. Number 9, Louis and The Aliens. This is quite a jump, this came in at 121 out of those 902 films on the UK list. This is just 86 minutes long. It's a beautiful animated family film, which did really well over the summer holidays. It was released just in time for schools to be off. So populated many a Saturday morning Kids Club, I think.
10:21 In at number 8, it's Lynne Ramsay's revenge thriller You Were Never Really Here which is getting a lot of love on the end of the year lists which are circulating social media and various websites. As we go into 2019 if you haven't seen this yet, highly recommend checking this one out. It's streaming on Amazon if you have that service, but it's also available on Blu-ray and DVD. It looks so good. So this made it to 119 on the UK list, and you can see why when you see the film. It's an independent movie so had quite a small release, but word of mouth was so strong. People wanted to see Joaquin Phoenix's incredible central performance. There was a lot of great reviews for Jonny Greenwood's soundtrack as well which is available separately. Yes, I do own the vinyl. But more than anything really it's just great to see a new Lynne Ramsay film in cinemas. It's been a few years now since We Need To Talk About Kevin I think that was 2011, and and I feel like cinema has been starved for Lynne. So it's good to see Lynne in our list at number 8.
11:26 Also, in sort of the same sort of wheelhouse in the festival circuit as it were, is Cold War Pawel Pawlikowski's latest film, which did very well at the Cannes Film Festival in May, and then had a summer release. It was good counterprogramming to all of the blockbusters and all of that sort of stuff out there. So this little black and white film about this sweeping epic love story, made it in to 112 on the UK list and number 7 on ours. In at number 6 reverse home invasion thriller Breaking In. Now this made it to 104 on the UK list, sort of a had a bit of a throwaway sort of release but obviously did very well. 104 out of 902 is not bad at all. It's a proper Friday night in a multiplex with your mates type of movie. It stars Gabrielle Union, and it's directed by James McTeigue, who did V for Vendetta a long time ago. Since then has done some questionable films with Pierce Brosnan but I really like V for Vendetta and that was what made me want to see Breaking In.
12:26 In at number 5, this one's been getting a lot of love from the critical community which is maybe a little surprising, it's Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. Number 89 on the UK list This is a show, a superhero TV show which plays on Cartoon Network which I have never heard of before, but this film came out and got fantastic reviews. It's got an all-star voice cast including Nicolas Cage as Superman, he finally got to do it guys, and apparent it's really funny, very self aware. But it's got really lovely 2D animation and I cannot wait to see it. Number 4 is family horror sequel Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which was released at Halloween, which is quite good when your film ties in with a with a holiday. This made it all the way to 39 in UK list, and is our number 4.
13:15 Number 3 on our list is Aardman's Early Man, another beautiful stop motion animated film from the Bristol based production company. This is directed by Nick Park, the creator of Wallace and Gromit. Number 2 on our list is A Quiet Place, which made it to 25 on the on the main UK list, which is really stunning considering it's a brand new story not based on a book or a franchise or a comic book or anything. And it's directed by first time director and star of this film John Krasinski. It got fantastic reviews and it was really one of those films which all of the critics said you have to see it in the cinema because it does really interesting stuff with sound. It's good, if you do watch this one at home just make sure you're in a in a nice, you know, sort of quiet room with no distractions. No phone's going off because sound plays such a key part in this and I think just people keep mentioning you how you watch this film, how you watch this film, and and urging people to watch it in a cinema got people to actually come out and experience it on the big screen, which is really fantastic. So number 2, A Quiet Place.
14:19 And our number 1, drumroll please. It's The Grinch. The Grinch is the highest grossing 90 minutes or less film in UK cinemas this year. It made it all the way to number 13 on the main UK list. This is a new animated version of the classic tale from the filmmakers behind Minions and Despicable Me, also 90 minutes or less movies. So yeah, there we have it The Grinch is at number 1. And I feel like as we're recording this over Christmas, it might even edge up to maybe, in the UK charts, maybe move on from 13 to 12 or 11 or 10. We will see. So there we have it, no 90 minutes or less films in the UK Top 10 this year, there have been in previous years but not bad all in all really, some of those films are some of the best reviewed films of the year. And it's nice to know that they are eligible for future editions of this show.
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle]
SAM: 15:19 And finally, back to the 90 Minutes or Less answer phone for a few more messages from our pod pals.
[Phone Ringing]
KOBI: 15:28 Hey guys, my name is Kobi from The Wire Stripped and Flixwatcher podcast. And today I'm nominating The Warriors for a film that you should see which is 90 minutes or less, for the 90 Minute or Less Film Festival podcast. Yay! The reason I'm nominating The Warriors is because it's a film, it's one of the films was I always think is longer than it is. So it just kind of shows how much they pack in there. And it starts off with such an idealistic viewpoint of all the gangs trying to get together and basically stop crime in New York City. And unfortunately, one of the gangs that arrives at the meeting in New York, they feel that they need to step up and ultimately kill the person who's trying to try to be the vector of the force of change, and lays the blame on the heroes the Warriors, and then it just turns into an escape story. The Warriors just needs to escape. How do they escape, do they escape? Well, watch the film to find out. It's only 90 minutes or less.
[Answerphone BEEP]
CHRIS: 16:29 Hello, Sam, Chris Hewitt here from the Empire podcast. The best film under 90 minutes that I saw in cinemas this year was to Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. Yes, for real. I saw it on an afternoon off in Los Angeles and film I'd heard good things from the likes of Helena O'Hara and Robbie Collin. I wasn't fully prepared for what I saw. A spinoff from a kid's cartoon, it's somehow managed to be arguably the funniest movie of the year with an array of pitch-black gags aimed squarely at adults. But also the kind of spot on piss- take of superhero films that will keep Deadpool awake at night. It has the best last line of any movie this year, which I won't spoil here. And for me it has the movie song of the year as well in Upbeat Inspirational Song About Life, featuring Michael Bolton. Oh, did I not mention that it's also a musical? My bad. Anyway. It's incredible. It moves at a real lick and ait clocks in at a mere 84 minutes including credits. That is how it's done. Oh, and Nicolas Cage plays Superman. Anyway, enough waxing lyrical. Go see it, don't worry if you haven't seen the TV show. I hadn't and I loved it. Bye!
[Answerphone BEEP]
BECKY: 17:47 Hiya! I've shamed more people for using their phones in the cinema then you've had a hot dinner.
AMY: 17:53 And I'm the person who will absolutely shush you if you talk during the preroll adverts, Amy.
BECKY: 17:58 And we are from And Then What? the podcast that's all about stories. And lovely Sam and Louise have asked us to pop on to talk about our favourite films of the year. Not necessarily this year, but just any films we've watched this year that have crucially been under 90 minutes. So my pic is Paris Is Burning, darling. So it's quite an old film. It's a documentary from the late 1980s. The reason it means a lot to me. Sorry that's Flick the cat, she's the third host of And Then What?. Yeah, if you're a fan of drag queens, drag race anything, basically Paris Is Burning is like the Rosetta Stone of that. It's quite literary in places like a glossary of terms. So, reading, shade, balls, or, not like those balls but basically the culture in black Harlem in the 1980s where all this was born from. You know, category is, and executive realness and all that kind of stuff.
AMY: 18:50 It's not just drag culture though is it. Black culture, which has then been appropriated become like Internet culture. Basically, if you want to understand why people talk the way they do, you watch Paris Is Burning.
BECKY: 18:59 Exactly. If you want to know where 'yass' came from watch Paris Is Burning. It's like this little nexus from a very specific time and place from which everything that we seem to have adopted has been born and it's just and you can watch it on Netflix for free. Well, you need to pay for Netflix. But yeah. So that's that's a film that's meant a lot to me this year, despite being quite an old one. But it's only 76 minutes long. I mean, pretty good. Perfect. And how about you, Amy?
AMY: 19:28 I really struggled to find a film under 90 minutes. Especially all the new releases this year. I couldn't find a single one under 90 minutes. What the hell. But I think a film I watched this year, that was under 90 minutes, which is awesome, and it's a classic, is Attack The Block. So I watched this because it had favourites John Boyega and Jodie Whittaker aka The Doctor in it. It's just really bloody good. Like I have a real thing for British comedy, like the sense of humour that Brits have. Very specific to us. And then if you mix that with another genre, I'm thinking of the Cornetto trilogy. And there's a film coming out called The Kid Who Would Be King which seems like a similar thing but King Arthur-y. Set in school with like a little chubby boy who becomes King Arthur. And yeah, I think Attack The Block has that sense of humour, but in a sci-fi setting, it's really tense. It's like so pacey. I really love films where like nothing is wasted, where everything makes sense.
BECKY: 20:33 So Sam and Louise I hope you enjoy that. So we recommend Paris Is Burning and Attack The Block. Thank you so much for having us. If anybody wants to listen to us in more length we are And Then What? pod on some of your favourite social media channels. Well, Merry Christmas everyone.
AMY: 20:48 And a Happy 2019. BYEEE!
[Answerphone BEEP]
[90 Mins or Less Film Fest Jingle] [90 Mins or Less Outro Bed]
SAM: 20:58 So there you have it, 2018 over and out. Thank you so much for listening. It's been great having you aboard whether you've been listening from the beginning or if you've joined to this ship as we've been navigating the 90 minutes or less waters. Thank you so much to our pod guests, all of the the pod pals who left messages on our answer phone. And a big thank you to producer Louise who I just couldn't make this show without. So thank you for for joining me on mic Louise. We're going to be off for a couple of weeks now whilst we work on our next episode, which will drop around mid January. But until then, we've got five full episodes online as Louise mentioned so do go down the feed and listen to them if you haven't. If you do have a listen, please leave us a rating or review. It's really helpful for directing new listeners to the podcast. This episode was edited and produced by Louise Owen and me Sam Clements. The music is by Martin Austwick and our artwork is by Sam Gilbey. And as always, you can follow us on Instagram and Twitter at @90minfilmfest. Just drop us a tweet, tag us in a 'gram, why not, we love hearing from you. Thank you very much for sticking with me to the very end and see you next year. Roll on 2019!
SAM: 22:37 Okay, it's on. The device is on.
LOUISE: 22:41 [sings] Let's get it on.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai